Kitchen gadgets new or old that you use

[retro-man]

Wanted to start a thread on kitchen gadgets/devices that you have that you still use new or old that you like.
One that I use all the time and don't know if they still make them is a salad shooter. This thing slices radishes, cucumbers, carrots, along with mushrooms. It has a couple of different round barrel blades that can also shred cheese. It has to be close to 20 years old now and still works like new.

Jon

 

[justjunque]

Hey, Jon

Fun question!
I remember the commercials for the Salad Shooter. Glad to know it actually does what it's supposed to do!
I wish I could contribute more. But, despite both the wife and myself being fans of "gadgets", we actually don't own much.
We have a chopper called the Vidalia Chop Wizard, which my wife LOVES for chopping onions when making tasty Polish dishes.
And we have a 1970s vintage Hamilton Beach Scovill "Switchblade" electric knife, which makes me seem much better at slicing pot roast than I really am.
Unfortunately, neither one gets used more than once or twice a year.
I wish we had time to cook real meals more often.
Then, maybe we'd buy more gadgets!

Barry

 

[dermacie]

I only use it once or twice a year but its called a Squeezo. It is a hand crank strainer that I use to crush tomatoes like a food mill that removes skin and seeds. I like it so much I own two of them.

 

[henene4]

Bought an air dryer because I got a great NIB deal on an entry level Phillips one.

Haven't used it myself yet (arrived a day before I left on holiday) but my flatmates love it apparently.

Though not a gadget I learned to love to have a kitchen with as many ovens as possible.

Used a friends kitchen once that had the main oven, a toaster oven and a convection microwave.

Oven was doing a potato gratin while the meat was in the convection microwaepve and the caramalised carrots were kept warm in the toaster oven.

My grandma has a decades old Tupperware thing for powdered sugar.

It's a plastic container with a narrow grate at the top.
Special thing: it has a rotating wing under that grate that you turn via a crank at the bottom.

You turn it over and turn the crank and get a verry fine hazzel free sprinkle of as much or as little powdered sugar as you like.

Also fun things:

When we got our new flat share dishwasher we kept the old ones cutlery basket.
By accident I found out it perfectly fits the small second basin in our sink and perfectly doubles as a holder for brushes and sponges and clothes.

And found a colander that perfectly spans the sink while not being wobbly at all.

Not gadgets, but gadegtised neat things IMO.

 

[twintubdexter]

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">I don't even want to get involved in talking about all stuff I've bought, especially small appliances. I have cupboards and walk-in closets full of stuff. There's items sitting on my counters (about 100 sq ft) because there's no room to store them. The "guest room", the garage and everywhere else is full, and I have a lot of cupboard space in my kitchen. There's even a complete Ronson Foodmatic with all the accessories in a trunk in my bedroom! A psychiatrist would say I have a sickness, and he or she'd be correct. Maybe they have a cure at the Betty Ford Clinic...it's right around the corner.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Just a sample...</span>

 

[cuffs054]

Twin, I feel your pain! I've looked at plans to expand pantry to hold more stuff!

 

[arbilab]

A genuine American Swing-A-Way handheld.  Age and origin unknown, other than I bought it new.  Their ad catchphrase at the time was "like the astronauts use".

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

AMKrayoGuy’s Kitchen Junk Gallery:

Of which the only things worth even a nickel are one of the can openers, the pizza cutters, the bottle opener and the ‘tater ‘n fruit/vegetable peeler:

The ice cream scoop with the built-in antifreeze only works when the ice cream it scoops isn’t submissively frozen, while the mechanical one barely works (the way I expect it to) at all, and the multimeasurer with the writing worn away needs to be THROWN AWAY!

Lastly, pardon the pie server, dirty from doing its job... (of which I didn’t make a very serveable pie!)

— Dave