Unused kitchen gadgets

lilian1977

I have/had:

Panny 255 - LOVE this. The bread is gorgeous!
Stick blender - great for soups
Freestanding/hand whisk - haven't used it yet but only had it a week and we have enough cakes - hoping it will make my cakes lighter as they're like patties at the moment!

I have just got rid of:

Juicer - too much hassle to clean
Breville sandwich toaster - never used and covered in grease so I couldn't be bothered cleaning it!

I still have a free standing blender that I'm not sure what to do with so it's in the loft at the moment!

I want a food processor but not really sure if it's worth the money...

NJW69

I have and use, health grill, bread maker, liquidiser, stick blender and slow cooker.

I have and don't use a filter coffee machine in my office.

zippychick

Ah Triker, you and your gadgets !

Hmmmm. For those wanting a food processor - why? Personally, I only use mine for grating carrots when making carrot cake (very weak wrists), or mixing pastry. Otherwise it never comes out of the cupboard!

My hand blender was the best £15 I ever spent. It works on hot soups, whips cream in much less time than my old fashioned double bladed whisk (which is like 30 years old:p) and is great for chopping veg and making curry pastes and hoummous.

I do have breville toasty maker which shall stay as it makes the best toasties ever - even though it isn't used that often!

I gave my BM away to a friends Dad, with all the ingredients to make bread, plus a simple how to, and i don't think he has ever used it :mad:

i do have a juicer which is great to use but SUCH A MESS TO CLEAN! I would feel bad getting rid as Mum gave it to me?:p

Mum tends to be addicted to buying gadgets and never using them, so i recently rehomed a massive chopper thingy, a steamer, and errr another juicer :rotfl:

I have a 6L Sc, and recently purchased a reaaaaaaly old one portion size SC which I have yet to use.

All in all, not too bad!

I'll add this to the unused kitchen gadgets thread later:j

Zip

lostinrates

zippychick wrote: »

Hmmmm. For those wanting a food processor - why? Personally, I only use mine for grating carrots when making carrot cake (very weak wrists), or mixing pastry. Otherwise it never comes out of the cupboard!

I use my mum's a lot! I find it great for lots of things, like veg for sauces, for pates, and even for pastry/biscuits. Its especially great when you are doing ''big things'' for large groups of people, or juggling a lot of cooking for parties etc IMO. Its also great to get veg unidentifyable for kids (used to do that a lot when I was a nanny). I'm trying to think what the last thing I used it for was and I think it was a few weeks ago when I used it to combine stuff for shortbread and on the same day to chop nuts for baklava. The other thing it does without equal is combine lemon peel with sugar for baking, e.g. cheesecake. better than the fine grater, and probably the only thing I can't do as well by hand with time.

Funnily enough I have never grated using it.

maman

I really only use my slow cooker for batch cooking but at £20 it's about the same price as a decent large saucepan. So by my reckoning it's saving me money on power and I don't need to keep watching it/topping up.

I have an electric steamer (gift) that I should use more (for nutrition reasons) but I found it a home in the cupboard and it's so much easier to put a a saucepan in the dishwasher. I'm thinking of buying a traditional hob one.

confession, I have a brand new, stiil in box, pressure cooker and I'm scared to use it.

zippychick

lostinrates wrote: »

I use my mum's a lot! I find it great for lots of things, like veg for sauces, for pates, and even for pastry/biscuits. Its especially great when you are doing ''big things'' for large groups of people, or juggling a lot of cooking for parties etc IMO. Its also great to get veg unidentifyable for kids (used to do that a lot when I was a nanny). I'm trying to think what the last thing I used it for was and I think it was a few weeks ago when I used it to combine stuff for shortbread and on the same day to chop nuts for baklava. The other thing it does without equal is combine lemon peel with sugar for baking, e.g. cheesecake. better than the fine grater, and probably the only thing I can't do as well by hand with time.

Funnily enough I have never grated using it.

Ahhh, i live alone, so generally am cooking not so large portions I would use my hand chopper for smooshing veg , chopping nuts.

I use it to grate when i make stew as well - as i grate my onions and carrots etc. I guess if i had a family or cooked for more people, I would have more use for it

lostinrates

zippychick wrote: »

Ahhh, i live alone, so generally am cooking not so large portions I would use my hand chopper for smooshing veg , chopping nuts.

I use it to grate when i make stew as well - as i grate my onions and carrots etc. I guess if i had a family or cooked for more people, I would have more use for it

Yes, I think how useful a gadget is is more to do with us than it is to do with the gadget in many cases. I am alone weekdays, and most of them use one frying pan and/or saucean and one or two rings of hob at most on Mon-Thurs for me (sometimes cook for my parents). Fri-Sun I cook for up to four people. Apart from baking for ''events'' or entertaining I'd use very, very little!

eta: its interesting to read everyone elses. DH (Italian) would love a pasta maker, but when I make it at home, I make it my hand...tortuous maybe, but being unfamilar with a pasta maker I worry about the cleaning/getting it out/putting away. I have an over saucepan steamer: the most common way we eat vegis steamed, but not sure n electric steamer would make life easier/cheaper for us than the over saucepan style. Deep fat fryer...i never make chips, but once a year I make doughnuts....I don't think once a year justifies the expense of a fryer, but I think the fryer might justify more doughnuts, so will not be getting one!

seafarers_wife

The only gadget i have that i think was a waste of money was my deep fat fryer - i really wanted proper chips and its been used maybe 3 times in as many years.

The gadgets I have

Stick blender - used a few times a week for sauces and soups made on the stove
toastie machine - used once every few weeks - probably surplus to requirements if im honest
george forman with removable plates - used on a daily baisis
blender - used a few times a week for smoothies/batter mixes
steamer - used pretty much daily
bread maker - used a couple of times a week
deep fat fryer - hardly used
pasta maker - cant use it in current house cause of the work top & table depth but in last house it was used regularly
microwave - only used for popcorn and used as a bread bin

Dream list

Popcorn maker - i love popcorn but hate using the microwave for it
kenwood chef - i like baking but since i moved out of parents house dont do as much as i prefer the kenwood to do the mixing for me
ice cream maker - just because!

snoozer

I use my food processr for making pastry and scone mix, it makes a much finer crumb than I have the patience for by hand in seconds. I thought it was cheating until I saw Raymond Blanc use his for pastry on his prog.

I think the only things I have that are unused are an electric carving knife, which was already well used when it came to us and a fondue maker, bought in France that I can't be bothered to faff with. I think long and hard nowadays before adding to the collection, having had my fingers burnt before. I would love a kitchenaid machine but can't justify the cost.

celyn90

pollyskettle wrote: »

OK - don't shoot me, but I wish I'd never bought my kenwood. It's a very expensive ornament on my kitchen work surface as I just can't get used to using it no matter how hard I try. OH insists we keep it as a) it cost so bloomin' much and b) he thinks our daughters may learn to use one in Home Ec and they should have one at home.

Oh thank heaven's it's not just me. I think it was a drastic waste of cash. It overbeats everything even on the lowest setting, cakes comes out powdery! The attachments are an absolute PITA to clean. I use it for meringue and not much else; and the hand beater would do that. It's a useless waste of space.

I also don't like the slow cooker or the yoghurt maker - although OH uses it.

I do use the steamer every day though