18
votes
How OXO conquered the American kitchen
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- Title
- The Brand That Conquered America's Kitchens Won a Legion of Obsessive Fans. Can They All Be Wrong?
- Authors
- Dan Kois
- Published
- Jun 20 2022
- Word count
- 3225 words
OXO angled measuring cups are just simply out of this world better than everything else.
I recently bought some OXO silicone tongs on the recommendation of @AugustusFerdinand and @vord, and they’re so much better than the trash ones I had before that they have changed my mind on tongs. I still prefer using my kitchen chopsticks for most tasks, but for flipping things too heavy/awkward for the chopsticks I’m now mostly using the new tongs instead.
P.s. The Cuisinart Nylon slotted and fish turners I also bought at the same time are by far the best I have ever owned too. They’re just the right amount of rigidity while also still being thin enough to flip everything I need them to (including fried eggs, which my last ones couldn’t handle). So thanks for that recommendation too, @vivarium.
You don't find the nylon turners to get too slippery when cooking with fat? All the nylon turners I've had become useless once there's butter or oil in the pan so I gave up and just went with silicone turners. With the nylon turners I can slip it under something like a fried egg, but unless I lift perfectly parallel to the pan it just slides right back off.
Nope. I cook my fried eggs in olive oil, and they still flip them just fine. The slots in both are probably a big factor in that though, so I dunno how effective an unslotted nylon one would be.
Good article. It's no surprise that OXO became so big: they invest a lot in good industrial design and materials. Especially in a saturated market filled with cheap, flimsy, clumsy kitchen accoutrements whose designs seem like afterthoughts.
They're a little pricey but not outrageously so; similar with Apple products, people are willing to pony up a little extra for something that works well and feels good to use.
Huh, I had always assumed that OXO was something to do with OXO but apparently not.
I feel like I'm marginally less inclined to buy their things now, for some reason.
I had a similar revelation from the article. I’ve been wrong about pronouncing the American company’s name my whole life (“ox-oh” not “oh-ex-oh”).
There was actually a period of time when I was younger that I thought the brand was “Hugs and Kisses” as in “XOXO”. 😆
Also not to do with the OXXO convenience stores.
The very best kitchen tools tend to have some sort of 'shortcut' built into them, and Oxo is pretty good at them. Their salad spinner tops, for instance, only need one hand, and their measuring cups can be read from above instead of below.
Since we’re all loving on our OXO products here, I’ll add their pourover coffee maker to the list. There’s a water tank on top that you pour into that slowly lets the water through the grinds below in the same way a drip coffee maker would. Perfect for individual cups.
Also the lid doubles as a base for when you set it down on the counter, which catches those last few drops from it.
…is ….is that a good thing?
The drip drops are one of the complaints about coffee makers. Tends to drill a hole in the coffee bed which leads to uneventful extraction.
The holes to let the water through are in a circle so they drip on different parts of the grinds. Plus the pacing is right for letting the water through so that the grounds are semi-submerged during the process. I’ve never had a problem with it burrowing holes in the grinds.
Video of it in action (@stu2b50):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLvQxc2fIak
That was my thought... at first I was thinking how nice it would be to never overflow anymore, but then realized that as I'm pouring I'm constantly aiming for the edge to constantly push the lesser used grounds back into the center and ensure more thorough extraction.