Top three small appliance or kitchen gadget...

[chachp]

 

<span style="font-kerning: none;">Over the years I have learned many tips and tricks from the folks here as well as had more help fixing dishwashers than I can quantify.</span>

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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This morning as I was making our oatmeal in the Thermomix, I was thinking to myself that if it hadn’t been for this group I would likely never have known these existed.  So, I was thinking wouldn’t it be fun to start a thread of everyone’s top three favorite small appliance or kitchen gadgets.  I am a bit of a gadget junkie so I have many that I use often, but I purposely chose three that I thought some people may not be aware of.  </span>

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<span style="font-kerning: none;">My top three are:</span>

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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1.</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9.3px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-kerning: none;">    </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">My Thermomix - I first became aware of it by someone here on AW.  I investigated a little bit and thought it might be something I would get some use out of.  Well I was wrong, it doesn’t get occasional use, it is used almost daily at my house for all kinds of things.  I got my first one on eBay and loved it so much I upgraded to the newer version for some of the upgrades.  To be honest, had I known about this earlier I would likely have not upgraded a few of my other appliances.  If you are pressed for space this thing really does replace several small appliances and then some.  And the bowls are dishwasher safe.  Love that.</span>

<span style="font-kerning: none;">2.</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9.3px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-kerning: none;">    </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Pampered Chef Close and Cut – sounds like a gimmick but I promise you it is not.  This thing makes it easy to safely cut all kinds of things especially big fat chicken breasts.  It cuts fast, evenly, and best of all I don’t have to worry about cutting my hands which I have done from time to time.  I also use it to cut a bunch of cherry tomatoes at once or a can of olives that I want to cut in half.  And the whole thing goes in the dishwasher.  Love that after cutting raw chicken.</span>

<span style="font-kerning: none;">3.</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9.3px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-kerning: none;">    </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Insulated bowls – These things are great for just about anything you want to keep warm like soup, pasta but especially sauces like hollandaise.  They are amazing and I use them almost daily.  They are great to keep food at serving temperature without having to warm stuff up.  Never knew about these until I got the Thermomix.</span>

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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So, what are some of your favorites?</span>

 

[ea56]

I use very few small appliances. I use my Kitchen aid 5 speed hand mixer for all my cooking and baking that requires a mixer. Its the bomb using it with the dough hooks for kneading bread dough!

And I have a 4 quart SS bowl that was left behind by the previous tenants in a house that I rented in ‘79 and I use my small kitchen scale several times a week to accurately portion out things. So these three items would be my most used kitchen gadgets.

For a 4th I’d include my Dualit toaster. The very best toaster I’ve ever owned or used.

I use the 4 qt. SS bowl every single day at least once. Its just so handy and the right size to mix a cake, batch of dough for dinner rolls, a loaf of bread, cookies, pie crust, Jello, you name it. I have at least 5 other 4 qt bowls but this cast off is my fav. And its unbreakable, thats why its lasted for over 40 years.

Oh, and lest I forget, my bread slicing guide. Since I bake all of our bread I’d be lost with out this tool too. Perfectly sliced loaves of bread every time

Eddie[this post was last edited: 1/10/2023-13:30]

 

[rp2813]

This time of year when the navel orange tree in the back yard is loaded, I haul out my Breville Citrus Press.  It makes short work of juicing, and clean-up is fairly easy.  All removable parts are machine washable as well.  I love having fresh squeezed orange juice every morning.

 

I also treasure my vintage Trinco ReCAP bottle opener/resealer.  There was one of these things rattling around in the gadget drawer when I was a kid and it was never used.  I don't even know how I ended up with it, but after using it for the first time, I was hooked, so to speak.  One quick motion removes the cap without bending it.  I rarely need to reseal a bottle of beer, but I've used it to reseal other carbonated beverages.   I've nabbed a few on eBay to give to friends, but lately sellers have been asking way too much for them.  They clean up nicely with some BKF.

 

 

 

[chachp]

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Eddie, my Mom had two bowls that looked almost exactly the same.  The one she used most of the time had a flat bottom with no markings and no ridge or anything just the bottom of the bowl.  The other one was an old GE Mixer bowl (there was a large and small one) that had the bottom that would fit into the mixer stand if that makes sense and it was stamped with the GE logo from what I remember.  The mixer was long gone but she had kept the bowls. She didn't use those that much but the flat Botton one she used daily from what I remember.  Can you share the bottom of yours, I'm curious to see if it is like the one my Mom had.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Ralph, I have never seen a bottle opener like that one.  Does it really reseal the bottle enough to keep the fizz?</span>

 

[joeekaitis]

 

1.  Programmable coffee maker.  Sainthood for whoever came up with the idea.

2.  Panasonic FlashXpress toaster oven.  Best reheating machine for pizza and chilled fried chicken.

3.  Variable power turntable microwave oven (yeah, yeah, I know about the other thread).  Use it right and your leftovers (pasta, soup)  won't get dried out and/or rubbery.

 

[ea56]

Ralph,

I bet your Mom’s and my bowl are the same. Mine is flat on the bottom too with no markings. I use mine everyday too. It’s just as handy as hell. The people that lived in the rental before me used it as their dog bowl, and there is a cross like make on the bottom that looks like someone once used it on top of a gas stove at one time.

Eddie

 

[chachp]

Thanks Eddie

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">That is almost exactly how I remember hers and like you, she used it so often from what I remember.</span>

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

My new Kitchen Aid food processor:

— Dave

 

[petek]

Like Joe I'd put our Panasonic Flash Express toaster oven in my top 3 because we both use it. It's what a "toaster oven" should be, a toaster that toasts bread well but can do small amounts of other things. Not at all like some countertop oven that can hold a small pizza claiming to be a toaster oven but makes crappy toast and takes forever.

I guess I have to include the coffee maker as well since that gets daily use. Currently using a Hamilton Beach drip machine that can also do K Cups. We usually only make one pot of coffee in the morning so the K cups ability is occasionally handy for later in the day if either of us wants a quick coffee. Doesn't make the greatest coffee but it's acceptable.

The microwave would have to be the third. It gets used multiple times a day.

My favorite, though it doesn't get used everyday, is my Bosch Universal mixer and it's smaller companion the Bosch Compact mixer. Both kick ass when it comes to kneading dough . His favorite would likely be his air fryer, he uses it everyday. I've never seen him in 40 years liking an appliance but he likes it a lot. In fact when the first one broke he was at the store buying a replacement the next day.

 

[cam2s]

I use my Oster Kitchen Center almost every day. It’s nice to have one motor and then use the various attachments as necessary.

 

[jamiel]

My gadget of choice is a simple egg cooker---I have never been able to hard boil an egg, and the $12 egg cooker allows me to make 6 perfect HB eggs at a time.

 

[parunner58]

I have 4 on top of my list,

1. Kyrcea ceramic peeler
2. My knives. Good ones are Lamson Sharp.
3. Kitchen Aid Hand Blender
4. Ice Tea maker

 

[bradfordwhite]

#9

I had one of those when it was brand new. I think it was $299. I also got the dove gray model that came after it. When I got the gray one, which I think I got at Gimbel's when they were still open, I got the ice cream maker attachment.

Unlike you though, I didn't use it every day. I just thought they were cool looking. I was 15.

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toaster oven is used every day

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What's kind of surprising is the appliances that you CAN'T buy instore at places like Walmart, Kohls, Target, and others.

It seems like anything under $30, and there is a lot, are no longer carried.
The $7 toaster, a hand mixer, electric can opener, single or double unit cook top, even a cheap blender.

It used to be one could buy the cheaper electrics at the grocery store but, at least around here, they don't.

I guess online sales has won over.

 

[cam2s]

I forgot about the ice cream maker. My grandma actually had one, not this one but a similar unit . I think she said it was a wedding gift. Hers had a broken gear in the arm. These seem to come pretty often in thrift stores and garage sales, I got the electronic motor unit and have pieced together many of the attachments over the years.

 

[sudsmaster]

Ramcon

Ralph,

 

Here's what I've been using to juice oranges for years now. I think it's at least 30 years old, still works great. I remember seeing these in use on the Cal Berkeley campus, at the intersection of Telegraph and Bancroft, when I was a student there in the 1970's.

 

The brand is called Ramcon, and when I saw them for sale at Costco around in the 1980's or 1990's I picked up the one I still have.

 

 

Vintage Ramcon Juicer | EBTH

Bid on Vintage Ramcon Juicer online at Everything But The House. Bidding on most items starts at $1.

www.ebth.com

 

[petek]

I had one of these plasti-chrome Osters a few years ago and sold it on ebay.. This ones for sale near Toronto.

 

[chachp]

Oster Kitchen Center

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">I have this one that belonged to my Mom.  I also have a bag full of attachments for it.  When my youngest sister started high school, my Mom got her first part time job and this is what she bought with that first paycheck.  She had a KA mixer that she flip flopped back and forth between.</span> 

 

[rp2813]

Rich, I had one of those Ramcon type juicers for a while.  The first time I saw one was at a juice bar on my first trip to Mexico in 1972. 

 

The Breville offers a much faster assembly line type of system for processing larger quantities, like a quart at a time when I'm filling two large tumblers in the morning for me and my buddy during the peak harvesting period.  That's what it takes to keep up with the amount of sweet, dead-ripe Navel oranges when there's a bumper crop.  Juicing time is nigh, and I'll be pulling the Breville out of storage within the next week or so, I'm estimating.  This year the oranges are smaller and less plentiful than last, probably due using water more sparingly during increasingly serious drought conditions.

 

My Ramcon clone from Tuesday Mornings still sits in the basement, but I can't imagine ever using it again.

 

By the way, my sister lived in and later managed the 1904 El Grenada Apartments at the corner of Telegraph and Bancroft from around 1970-75.  They had a great rooftop garden, but the constant daily din coming from Sproul Plaza on the UC campus across the street, particularly from the Krishnas, was inescapable.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

Kitchen Gagdet

Here's my Foley Easy Twist jar opener.  It opens any stuck jar lid with ease.