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What is your least used piece of kitchen equipment / what do you "regret" buying?
I've got a small collection of equipment. I've been really cautious about buying more. There are a few things I regret buying.
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A series of knives that were good enough, but actually garbage, rather than just spending £30 on a victorinox or similar.
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A garlic thing which looks cool but is hard to use. Garlic crusher by Royal VKB
And I was wondering, are there any bits of kit that you thought were going to be great but which ended up in the back of a cupboard or drawer?
I got a strainer/colander at IKEA, and it seemed like a real bargain at the time, stainless steel, good size.
Then I get it home and realize they built the lip at the top so that it curls to the inside of the colander, and then when you dump it out, some of the contents (especially the smaller bits) get caught on that lip.
I like to think I inspect things before purchase for this kind of flaw, but that one got by me. I considered it a dealbreaker of a design flaw and donated it to thrift.
I had the exact same one and ended up throwing it out, awful design.
InstantPot. We put one on our wedding registry when they were at their height of popularity and just found it so underwhelming. Ended up feeling so burned by it we were super hesitant to get any other small appliances that would just take up space and be unused. Only just got an air fryer 4 months ago, and wish we got that sooner
Sir, those are fighting words, we love our Instapot :) That being said, it thrives as a one-pot cooking device and little else. Individually it's a subpar pressure cooker, slow cooker, searer, etc. When you bring all those together, however, it saves tons of time and cleaning.
I don't mean to be the correctness police, but it's such a pet peeve of mine when people say "Instapot". I have no idea where it comes from and it's nearly impossible to find out because if you search Instapot you just get Instant Pot results!
Its because Instagram I think, people say Instapot for some reason
To be honest I thought that it was called Instapot because people tend to use that version more than the actual brand name.
No harm, no foul. My pet peeve is "could care less" vs. "couldn't care less." I pass silent judgment every time I hear "could." I can't shake it.
Same!! It drives me nuts, but it’s so common they even do it on scripted television shows.
My mom’s is when people say “mute” instead of “moot”.
Ah, that's a good one. Fairly rare to bring the word 'moot' up in conversation too, so it's like a wild gem of frustration.
Weirdly I had a whole argument with an ex partner's mother about the use of the word moot. She was contending that it only meant "irrelevant" and I was of the position that it can also mean to "bring up a point" or "discuss with no consequence (or with consequence on occasion)". Turns out these are all true via UK legalese (probably from old English). A moot or mooting competition is where you're having a discussion that is sorta practice trials for the real thing.
To ever see it brought up in online discourse is pretty fun! :)
How do you feel about "sooner than later"? It's basically a tautology at that point!
We got an Instant Pot as a gift, and found it really underwhelming too. It certainly cooks things quickly, but it never seemed to have as much flavor as doing things the long way. I much prefer to leave my beans in the slow cooker and let them stew.
I treat mine like a slow cooker that also does other stuff. Mostly I just use the slow cook function but occasionally I'll use the pressure cook, yogurt, or sous vide functions.
This was a big part of it - doesn't do much more than the slow cooker, at least for how we cook/use it
Same! We got it as a gift, I hear we have the good version so it must have cost a pretty penny, but honestly it didn't make much difference. I cook rice or pasta in there sometimes but it's not that much easier than just using the hob, and because we cook two person portions, it kinda takes longer. A regular slow cooker would have been handier.
You will pry my perfect 20 minute brown rice from my cold, dead hands!
In seriousness though, there are three primary things I use it for:
Rice - white rice cooks in 5 mins at pressure, brown rice 20. Quite some time savings for how often we eat brown rice.
Broccoli - literally "instant", in the sense that as soon as it gets up to pressure, I turn it off and the broccoli is ready.
Seitan - okay, this is a niche use, but as a vegetarian one of the cheapest proteins out there is wheat gluten - but store bought seitan is usually at an extreme premium. I don't make it very often but when I do, I always use the Instant Pot to get the perfect texture.
I almost never use it as a "one pot meal" as it is sometimes advertised.
It's also pretty dang easy to clean because it's just like, a single giant pot with no handles. To each their own but I really like mine.
I had an absolutely miserable time using my InstantPot for rice. I'd used a nice Asian rice cooker before so I had much higher expectations. The rice itself was worse and the process definitely less foolproof, but it was also SO much worse to clean because the inner pot isn't coated with the nonstick coating that even the cheapest dedicated rice cooker will have and rice STICKS. It was otherwise easy enough to clean, but I only made rice in it once and then never again because of how miserable that cleaning experience was.
I have genuinely never had that experience, but I usually add a splash of avocado or a small scoop of coconut oil when I make rice. It sounds to me like you might be using too much or too little water? A rule of thumb I follow is to use 90% of the water by volume as rice, but that's also because I do an anti-arsenic pre-boil for brown rice.
Here's how I do my brown rice:
4 cups of water in the instant pot, set to saute and wait for boil. Add 1 cup brown rice. Let it boil for 5 minutes and then pour out the water (I pour through a strainer so I don't have to be careful about the rice).
Measure 1 cup of water and remove 2 Tbsp, or weigh 7oz(~200g). Add a Tbsp(ish) of avocado or coconut oil depending on the intended use (asian/sweet - coconut, mexican/savory - avocado). I also usually add a pinch of MSG and some salt for flavor.
I've had a few different decent rice cookers and while they definitely cook good rice, I haven't noticed an appreciable difference in the cleaning effort they require. With the non-stick coating I also have to baby them with the soft side of the sponge, whereas the stainless steel instant pot can just be soaked and scrubbed, or tossed in the dishwasher if I'm feeling really lazy.
I really don't think the issue is my ratio -- my rice comes out perfectly in every rice cooker I've owned other than the instant pot. I also don't own an instant pot anymore (moved to a country with different voltage lol) so it's moot anyway. I just didn't find it a particularly good rice cooker.
With the inner bowls of dedicated rice cookers, I've found I've had to do almost zero cleaning -- just a quick wipe after removing the rice is usually enough to clean it, and a short scrub with a soft sponge only occasionally necessary ime. I also didn't own a dishwasher when I had my instant pot rice crisis, though, so that probably contributed to my cleaning issues there -- it required far too much elbow grease for my taste.
I did like the instant pot for more traditional slow cooker or pressure cooker recipes, so if I got one again I'd probably use it for that and cook the rice alongside in my dedicated rice cooker to have quick meals over rice. But I do cook a lot of rice so the dedicated rice cooker was more important for me to get than something more jack-of-all-trades.
I read in the user manual that you should make rice in the Instant Pot first because it’s simple and gives you a feeling about how the thing works. Well, after trying 5 times to make acceptable rice, I have given up on the appliance and stashed it deep in a cupboard somewhere.
My sister-in-law loves hers and makes using it look so easy. I think I’m going to stick with the slow cooker tho.
This blows my mind. I’ve made perfect rice from the first time I used an instant pot until this day. It’s never failed me. I ended up getting rid of my dedicated rice cooker because it became superfluous.
I don’t know what it is. I can’t tell if/when mine has come to pressure.
Would you mind telling us how you make the seitan? I have never had luck with it.
Of course!
I use this recipe (veganosity.com) with a few changes:
Afterwards, they're ready to eat, but they're even better if you bread them with panko and your choice of vegan egg replacement (or just egg, if vegetarian as I am) or grill them on a cast iron.
Do you vent rapidly or naturally for your white rice?
Rapidly, but I've been lazy about it more than once and it doesn't affect it all that much.
Interesting, I'll have to experiment a bit.
We do 4 minutes then a natural vent after adding equal parts basmati and water.
I primarily use my instant pot as a rice cooker as well. The rice it makes is fine. I used to have a dedicated Zojirushi and it produced better quality rice more consistently. Eventually I'd like to switch back to a more premium dedicated rice cooker when I have more kitchen space.
I have a feeling it's because you got a low quality one. I got one around $200 and it's amazing. I was afraid it will end up as a space wasting appliance, but I ended up using it almost daily.
We got a VERY fancy one on sale (ninja foodi 8 in one) and we also use it daily, but it doubles as a toaster oven so that helps a lot. It's also a kind that has a hinged support so you can fold it up out of the way when not in use so it's not always hogging counter space.
Ditto, and I'd like to think I didn't buy the bottomest of the bottom-shelf options -- a Cosori Air Fryer Max XL. Can't confirm the price atm because it was recalled and the Amazon page no longer exists lmao, but I bought it for ~$80 on a big sale.
Didn't seem to offer any noticeable advantages over the oven, and its size was a huge disadvantage. I honestly don't know who these things are for.
For the amount of beans I make in a week, I have been really contemplating an Instant Pot. My aunt made the absolute best red beans in hers.
Beans freeze well. I make beans in the instapot a gallon at a time, freeze them in 32oz deli containers, and take one out of the freezer each week.
We bought the Ninja AirFryer and Instapot in one. I love that thing. We do not use the instapot feature a ton but we use the air fryer all the time with young kids.
I am almost the opposite. Love the instapot, underwhelmed by air frying in general.
I like making pot roasts in it, I always increase the spices that are in the recipe as you can't taste it as you go. I also pre warm it when I pull it out by pressure cooking some water so the whole inside is hot and primed before I put the food in. This way the cooking time is lower. I don't simmer in it or anything. My wife uses it to create bone broths for our toddler.
One useless thing we got was a soymilk maker. We used that thing maybe 5 times, pain in the ass to strain the milk and clean the thing.
I've heard a small amount of people swear up and down that they are the next coming of Christ.
Then again, the ones they talk about are very expensive - $400+ - and they claim to be able to pulverize the thing you're making so fine there's no seperation or residue, and are self-cleaning.
Yea the issue is, you have to deal with the slurry. The soy, almond, whatever comes out as a slurry and you have to put it in a bag and squish out the milk. There is no juicer where you stuff veggies or fruit and out comes juice, it's slurry that you have to wait to cool down and squish. They automate the cooking and blending.
I make oatmilk at home all the time so I know the deal. That being said it appears there are machines that do all of that for you including the filtration. The one I was last recommended was the Joyoung which does a cleaning cycle that will eject the leftovers into a separate bin for you to dispose of. That being said, it’s mixed with the water it uses to clean itself so it may cause you plumbing issues if you put it through the drain.
What kind of air fryer do you have? I bought into the hype a while ago and got a fairly mid-range looking one, but everything just comes out soggy and tasting like shit.
GowiseUSA 3.7 quart first for a "I don't want to spend tons of money for something we won't use". Then after seeing how well it worked and wanting something bigger and funnily enough got the Instant brand Vortex plus 6 quart
What does a quart here actually measure? I thought it was for liquids. Would the equivalent measurement be cm3? I'm from Europe, before you think I'm dumb haha
Quarts are a volume measurement and 1 quart is just a bit under 1 liter (946 ml)
I got myself a Medion 4L model and I've been really satisfied with it, though I wish I'd splurged on a bigger model now :D
If stuff comes out soggy you should make sure there's enough space for airflow around and under the frying items. Don't overcrowd, even if it means you need to cook multiple times (this is where having a bigger one would help)
huh, thanks!
Capacity/volume, yup. Looks like the advertise the Instant model I got as 5.7 Liter
The lid and stainless steel bowl both survive the dishwasher just fine.
I actually use mine constantly for making rice and pasta sauce. I also use it sometimes for soups, and it works well for that too.
If you still have it, try cooking Chicken Tortilla Soup.
I keep mine around just to cook that soup once a month or so.
Underwhelming is correct. My 10 yr old rice cooker took a poop so I replaced it with one if these. It's a multitasker, right? Not really. I don't use a slow cooker, I don't use a pressure cooker, and the function to make rice? Awful. So it got sold to a co worker. I got another rice cooker and now I am extremely happy once again.
Same here, I won one at a work party years ago and I have maybe used it 10 times. It's good at what it does, i just have to go out of my way to use it and never do.
You just have to find the right recipes in my opinion.
That was exactly what I was thinking when I saw this question. What an underwhelming turd, I haven't found anything yet that couldn't be done better and easier without the stupid instant pot.
Now it just sits on my counter and collects dust because I can't even give it away, No one wants it.
This thread is why I only buy specialty gadgets if they're dishwasher safe.
I definitely have a rule against single use kitchen gadgets unless I'll use them more than once per month.
100% my sous vide. A very pricy purchase that I've used all of about twice. Any recommendations on how to get into making the best use of it would be appreciated, because at the moment it sits collecting dust.
In other cases, there have been tools that seemed really useful, but getting to use them at other people's houses quickly changed my mind. Case in point, a rotating, crank-powered cheese grater. You put some cheese into the feed tube and spin the crank, which efficiently grates the cheese without risking your fingers. The catch is that anything softer than a parmesan or an asiago instantly gums up the machine (cheddar and mozzarella in particular made a mess), making it work poorly and a bitch to clean.
Is there a particular reason you don't like to use it? I have one and I use it ocassionally. It just makes meat preparation easier, as it's easy to overcook or undercook meat. With sous vide, you just stick it in there and it'll never be undercooked, and if you set it at the right temperature it won't be overcooked.
The only other thing I have to say is that it can be quite nice for some vegetables. I think carrots do well sous vided - they have the perfect hardness afterwards and they are very... carot-y. Since they cook in their own juices, the carrot flavors are much stronger than with other cooking methods.
It's also a neat way to make mashed potatoes. The main advantage being that there's no cleanup. Chop up the potatoes, stick them in the bag, throw in some butter, sous vide them, then mash them in the bag, throw in whatever other seasoning, mash them again to mix the seasoning around, done.
You can use it to make the world's easiest creme brulee that will make you seem like a super fancy host.
You make the custard (which does require tempering egg yolks, but it's really not that hard), pour it into small mason jars, seal them, sous vide. Once they're done, chill them. When it's time to serve, pass around a torch to melt a spoonful of sugar on top.
I also used it for this apple pie recipe, which is the best I've ever had.
I use mine to temper chocolate, it's super easy due to how accurate the sous vides are and lets you get a perfect tempering every time
...why have I never thought of that, I've been thinking about wanting to try tempering chocolate forever. What's your procedure?
I originally saw this video on YouTube which got me curious https://youtu.be/--KcoWb8ZD4, and it convinced me to go purchase a Anova sous vide, but I generally:
Also make sure to agitate the chocolate every few minutes throughout the entire process. It can take a lot of trial and error though, but the results have been fairly good considering I'm in no way a chocolatier.
Omg, same. I got one some years ago, used it a grand total of 3 times in a whole year, then donated it when the next year's spring cleanup/decluttering came about.
The most obvious use is any meat you want cooked perfectly. Get steak, pork loin, chicken, whatever up to desired cooking temp by sous vide, take it out and let it cool slightly, then sear on the stove or broil in the oven. Perfect results every time.
I use it a lot for meal prep. I can just throw 10 pounds or more of chicken or pork into the bath. Then I roast some veggies in the oven and divide it all into containers. I don't have enough room in my oven to do both at the same time. Also, sous vide ensures that the meat is not overcooked, which is nice since freezing and reheating will dry out the meat.
I'm currently using it as a double boiler to make ice cream, since the base is a kind of egg custard that should be brought up to a specific temp before cooling and churning. It's easier to just stick the pot into the sous vide bath rather than try to monitor the temp on the stove.
I remember buying my circulator and the food I made was fantastic
The problem is that shortly after I bought it the price of meat had skyrocketed, and it’s not really great for much else. Now I don’t eat meat at all. Go figure.
Non-meat things I use my sous vide for: ice cream base, corn for elote, controlled temperature during the bulk rise on bread, softening frozen butter because I forgot to pull some out earlier.
The butter idea is genius.
How do you use it to make your bread and corn?
Corn is 1 ear per vacuum bag with a tablespoon of butter. Cook at 185 F for 30 min.
Bread is set the water bath to 74 F and then submerge my bread tub about 2/3 of the way into the sous vide bucket. I have to use string to tie down the bread tub so it doesn't float. I let my sourdough rise like that over night. The exact timing and temperature will depend on what you're doing for bread.
Oh, and a bonus idea (meat but not cooking. I think it still counts for the spirit of the idea list). Quick thawing meat that is vacuumed by setting the temp to 35 F works well. You need to be careful to catch it before the temp goes too high and you end up in the danger zone, but if you check it regularly, it'll go even faster than if you just stick it in a bowl of water.
Yes, using it to defrost is a great idea — I can't believe I never thought of it. And using the sous vide to temp control a rise is brilliant.
How does the sous vide corn compared to microwaved? I assume you're husking it first?
Yep. Husk it, throw it in a bag with some butter, and put it in the bath.
It might be similar to the microwave if you've gotten the timing down really well? I've never had much luck with microwaves generally. Also, cooking it in butter the whole time is delightful and you can't do that with the microwave.
Microwave works really well for us, but like you said, you can't do it in butter. Can't wait to try it, thanks!
I hope things turn out well for you
Harder cheese (like that parmesan wedge you left outside a little bit too long) are also rather difficult to grate.
Sausages: 65C for 45min if raw, 2hrs if frozen. A quick grill for the exterior and they're perfect and juicy every time. Amazing if you have a large group over.
Eggs: 63C, add eggs directly to the water from the fridge. Pull the eggs around 80-85 minutes, depending on how runny you want your yolks.
Eggs: Pasteurize your eggs for safer, longer lasting Caesar dressing, mayo, etc. 75 minutes at 57C.
I had one, and then it died. I didn't use it enough to replace it. Turn out that my instant pot has a sous vide setting which I've found to be adequate.
The trick to grating soft cheeses is popping them in the freezer for a short bit! It makes the cheese just hard enough to grate by hand or machine. You can use the same trick to get extra thin slices of meat for dishes like pho or shabu-shabu.
What one do you have, and what have you tried to make with it? I just posted on the "what is your most used" thread about using mine so much I got a second one. I've used it to make the obvious, steak, but also carrots, mashed potatoes, chicken breasts, creme brulee, 72 hour short ribs... I get a LOT of use out of it. But it's not the be all, end all some people make it out to be. I can make some recommendations if you give me a starting point, but it may just not be your thing.
Buy meat in bulk, season meat, vac seal, and toss in freezer...then when you want dinner or something, grab out what you want, sous vide it and prep everything else, then sear meat and you have dinner/lunch/food.
sous vide is great for pork shoulder, chuck roast, etc - any of the inexpensive cuts of meat that are cooked low-and-slow (via slow cooker / smoker / pressure cooker / etc) to tenderize them and break down the connective tissue.
I will buy an entire shoulder or roast from my local The Grocery Formerly Known As Cash-n-Carry, cut it up into smaller portions (not necessarily down to individual meal size, but small enough to fit into a 20 or 30 cm (8 or 12 inches) wide sous vide bag), then season / marinade it, seal it off, label it with the date & contents, and freeze it.
then, I can pull it out of the freezer, toss it in the sous vide container (which I use often enough that it's sitting on a shelf in my kitchen, already filled with water and waiting for me to turn it on and set the temp) and 24-48 hours later I have a pot roast. or, medium rare roast beef I can slice for sandwiches. or carnitas. or BBQ pork. and so on.
I think this "from the freezer, directly into the sous vide" step is a killer feature that you don't really get with any of the other low-and-slow cooking options. it lets me do a batch of meal prep in bulk, then spread out its consumption over several weeks or months. sous vide bags in the freezer have the very useful property of never getting freezer-burned (assuming they're properly vacuum-sealed), so they keep extremely well.
I can also make multiple recipes at once, by varying the seasoning / marinade in each bag. if I get pork shoulder for example, I'll usually divide it half and half between BBQ pulled pork and carnitas.
I bought a mortar and pestle for a single recipe and I kind of regret it. I feel like it's a level of cooking that I just really haven't gotten into.
You can use it as a weed grinder in a pinch.
As hilarious as this image is, I really wouldn't recommend using it for weed (unless it is a modern variety with smooth surfaces all around). You'll find yourself in one of two scenarios. A properly oiled mortar and pestle will leave oil residue on your weed you don't really want to be igniting and breathing in. An unoiled mortar and pestle will leave fine rock dust in your weed you don't really want to be igniting and breathing in.
Stick to scissors or your fingers if you gotta grind and don't have the proper tools! Or oil your mortar with cannabis oil, but that might be expensive.
If you have a mortar that is not made out of wood or a porous kind of material, why would you oil it?
Likme - we have one made of ceramics....?
Ah, I've never used a ceramic one. I suppose my mind defaults to the natural materials - if you have a glazed ceramic mortar and pestle that would be fine, barring any chipping. I still thinking scissors or fingers would be easier for most people though! I'll edit my post to indicate I meant the classic, granite kind. Thanks for bringing my attention to totally legitimate ways to get high and feel like a fancy connoisseur at the same time!
I actually never used the pestle in this way. Was just thinking ... waaaiiiiitaminute...
My favorite use for it is guacamole. It’s more traditionally made in a molcajete, but I don’t know if that really affects the end product - I just use a mortar and pestle.
It’s very different than making guacamole via any other method. Kenji explains it well on his YouTube channel, there’s no other way to break down the onions properly and that greatly affects the entire dish.
I got mine for crushing linseed (linseed oil loses nutrition rapidly after it is removed from the seed, and uncrushed linseed seem to go right through the digestive system untouched, so crushing linseed is probably the best option for adding linseed oil to your diet) and sometimes for crushing garlic. However, by far and away its biggest purpose is serving as a bookend for cookbooks.
I use an electric coffee grinder for spices, and either a knife or a microplane for garlic.
A pestle and mortar gives fine control over the texture of spices. Useful if you want a bit of crunch for a dry rub. It doesn't affect flavor that much so I personally wouldn't bother.
This technique?
https://youtu.be/7KjWFcIi4_8
Wet ingredients probably do taste different when crushed in a pestle and mortar. Garlic only releases the spicy compound when the cells are bruised, so crushed garlic tastes much stronger than diced.
I would do that.
I had a teacher that had us grind corn and cinnamon in a mortar and pestle to make traditional tortillas from scratch.
I use my mortar and pestle to grind up cookies to mix into ice cream. Easy to use, easy to clean.
Juicer when I had a juice phase; GOD what a bloody pig to wash that thing up….each time
I was going to say the same thing, an electric orange juicer. It works slightly better than a manual one, and is maybe worth it if you want juice for 4 people, otherwise the clean up time takes away any advantage. And the noise! The one we have you can't use it in the morning or you'd wake half the building up.
I moved onto canned hot dogs and tuna instead :P
Waffle iron. We got it as a wedding present after registering for it, and I bet we've used it a half dozen times in 8 years. We have several delicious pancake recipes we like to make anyway, so it's hard to find the motivation to get the waffle iron out from the cabinet.
They're so terrible to clean! Fresh pancakes and toaster waffles is the way to go.
Oh man that's something I use too often! Several years back, my wife and made a new years resolution to make homemade waffles every Saturday. That was the best new years resolution ever! Just not the healthiest.. We still use it several times a year.
Waffles aren’t the worst thing you can eat. At least before you add a ton of butter and syrup. But that’s the thing about them; you can customize it to match your dietary requirements.
Try making a savory whole wheat one next time. You might be surprised how good it turns out.
It cooks pancake mix just as well as waffle mix! I like the novelty of it and how it holds all the syrup I want (which can be more than others would ever want)
My parents got us a single waffle mini one as a stocking stuffer last Christmas, and it's actually the perfect size for making a couple fresh waffles quickly in the morning, and is small enough that cleanup isn't a pain in the ass. It's frustrating when cooking for more than one person though, that's when I wish it had at least two waffles worth of space.
I can't think of the last time I pulled out the immersion blender stick. It's messy, has an awkward cord, and it's too slow for all but the smallest batches of soup or sauce. It's not great for pots with sharp corners. It can't handle anything that's not cooked to near-liquid consistency anyway.
Dumping everything into a blender is ultimately
easier and the blender produces a more uniform product. If you want a more chopped consistency, like for gazpacho, a food processor is the way to go.
I'd disagree - if I had to give up one out of the food processor, immersion, and traditional blender would give up the regular blender. Mainly just use that for making salsa, whereas the immersion is good for salad dressing, and soups. Part of that might be because mine came with attachments too though, for a whisk and a mini-chop when I can't justify getting the full size food processor dirty.
It's also just way easier to handle soups with an immersion blender, since you don't have to worry about pouring hot soup OR how it behaves once it's in the blender -- hot liquids can explode in a blender, making a mess at best. You CAN blend hot soup in a blender if you take safety precautions, but the immersion blender is much more foolproof imo.
I think they just have a really bad one. I've used them to blend approx 20-30L of soup without issue. If I used a blender, it would have been a logistical nightmare. If the soup needed to be less chunky you'd need to use a cheesecloth no matter what you use. My boss would buy the cheap ones that would burn out every 2 weeks but the industrial one we bought for 200x the price burned out in a year.
At home I've had my black and decker that is strong and has lasted for years. I can't count the amount of stuff I've made with it. We were even given a blender and have yet to open the package.
I love my immersion blender :D I do have a proper full-size blender, but I rarely use it, because it's so freaking big that when cooking for just myself, even if I make several portions, using the small immersion blender is the better choice.
I love it for making tomato sauce things, or for turning the mushy veggies from a roast into a gravy... I don't really do smoothies or soups, I'm sure it'd work great for a smoothie
My immersion blender gets used to make mayonnaise more often than is healthy. Home made garlic mayo is just wonderful.
Gonna agree here. I also purchased an immersion blender, because it was heavily on sale and there were a few items I thought it would simplify, but it didn't. As you implied, it's pretty rare that I want something less smooth than my actual blender while simultaneously being less chunky than the food processor.
I suppose if you don't have either, it could be a useful hand tool for someone without a lot of cabinet or cupboard space.
I would say the argument for an immersion blender is people with small kitchens. I don't have space for a full size blender, but the immersion blender can fit in a corner, no problem. It's not perfect, but it'll get something like tomato sauce done, even if it takes longer than a blender would have.
I'm not saying the immersion blender is useless, just that it's a tool which doesn't work very well for my purposes, and I have alternatives which function better for those purposes.
At the time I got it (at least 10 years ago), lithium battery cordless versions weren't available. These new devices are probably much more effective and usable, but I can't quite justify replacing the one I've got when I'm used to the blender.
I regret buying a potato mill. I love making really smooth mashed potatoes, and a potato mill is really the only way to do it properly. But it's such a pain to use and clean that it ends up just gathering dust in my cabinet.
I also regret buying a julienne. Again, serves an important specific purpose, but is such a pain in the ass to use and clean. I feel like I should've just improved my knife skills so I can cut thin pieces of things without using special equipment.
On the flipside, there are a lot of special kitchen tools that are 100% worth it for me - immersion blender, miniature vacuum for crumbs, and a battery powered pepper grinder. That pepper grinder has changed my life, I swear.
Have you tried a potato ricer? We use that for potatoes. It’s like a giant garlic press, just put the boiled chunks in and squeeze. Easy peasy.
I boil mine with skins on, can it handle that? Been wanting to get one but worried it'll just clog up
Yeah it can, but it’ll get clogged faster. Does your final dish leave the skins on?
When it gets clogged then it squirts potato out the sides lol. But it’s usually smooth milled at that point.
No skin left in the mash normally as my kids wouldn't eat it haha. My go to at the minute is pushing it through a sieve, which takes ages and honestly aches when I'm doing it for like 5 people so I'm hoping a ricer will give me a similar consistency with much less effort
I think that's actually what I meant, a potato mill is similar but slightly different. I have the same tool you're describing! I must be lazier than you in the kitchen, washing oddly shaped things is my downfall.
My potatoes are delicious when I use it, though.
I got one of those hand-press veggie chopper things - where you place your onion or tomato or whatever on the metal grid, and use the lid to push the thing through.
The thing broke at the joint on one side after not much use when trying to do onions. It handled tomatoes and mushrooms just great, but even after I cut the onion into slices smaller than what was used in the ads and on the box... it just broke.
I actually like the idea of it, but the price tag for one that has metal parts where all the force goes is... high. Though I guess it's something I could repair... hmm
Slap Chop?
I skimmed that video... Nothing that looks like a slap chop
Whelp, that's what I get for copying and pasting multiple YouTube links from my clipboard. Should be fixed now.
I think I've seen similar things... never really felt like they actually work as advertised :D
The one I had was more like this one
I got a cast iron waffle maker for my birthday. I haven't used it all because I have an electric stovetop. It's incredibly difficult to use because any excess batter falls directly on the heat source. A gas burner would allow the batter to fall through. Seasoning is also incredibly difficult.
Would rather just use my belgian waffle maker.
A device to make «pasta» out of vegetables, like carrots or squash.
First of all, real pasta is better, but it’s also so crappy to use so after a couple of minutes of grinding you start considering if you can live without fingertips and to try with the other half by putting the veggie in the other way. So you do that, when was the last time your fingertips did you any good, right?
Only now you realize, after a few cuts, as you’re trying to get the veggie out that it’s completely stuck and you have to try to mash the center of it to a pulp to be able to even remove it to properly recycle the useless fucking thing.
Hands down, a ravioli pressing/forming aid. Totally useless as in it doesn't work. If you place the dough inside, and start folding, either the filling falls out of the back, or the dough sheets stick together everywhere except in the intended places. A simple knife or stainless steel ring for cutting combined with your hands and a fork is way more efficient, yields nicer results and you will have the opportunity to learn handling pasta dough.
I'm talking of a set like this, in case you have been considering buying anything along these lines.
(Another thing is buying a cheap bread knife. Looks okay at first glance, but it always bends away from your bread leaving you with nothing but breadcrumbs.)
Didn't buy it myself, but it's the kitchen appliance that I most regret my godmother buying (and then giving me for free). An apple peeler device, something like this. Not only is it hard to get it to work without getting stuck and trashing the apple (or potato or whatnot). It's also slower than peeling it with an potato peeler, and most importantly, it's not like I ever peel apples.
I love my one of these! But I have young kids that enjoy curly apples so it gets used fairly often. I don’t think it’s meant to be used with potatoes (you’d lose half of it from the middle). It’s really handy when making apple pie or crumble, super fast prep
My mom and grandma had one of these they'd use when making big batches of applesauce after we'd go apple picking! Can't speak to how useful it proved for them but I loved eating the curly peel.
I love this thing. It makes perfectly spiral-cut apple slices with very little effort!
You do need to have a flat counter to mount on it, though.
We use this for potatoes. Not perfect but it gets most of the skin off... most of the time.
I bought a load of "non stick" pans that absolutely stick no matter what I do. My cast iron works way better and I've just put them in the bin.
I always end ruining non stick pans because I'm stupid and set the heat too high, you can't sear in a non stick lol. And yeah they stick. All of the disadvantages of non-stick with none of the advantages.
I recently got some kind of "non-stick" cast iron pan thing from Mesquite Ridge.
It's really nice and is meant for high heats (you can bake it in the oven), not sure how the non stick part factors in but it does indeed not stick, cleaning it is a breeze.
Reminds me of my old Rock pan, or whatever it was called.
I feel like coffee enthusiasts will have a few items that come to mind.
I followed the path of owning some sort of typical automatic brewer, then moved on to an Aeropress, then a V60, and finally a proper espresso machine. Spanning those various pieces of coffee-making equipment are three grinders of increasing quality (and cost), as well as other distractions like a Chemex, a very nice imported moka pot, two electric kettles, two scales also of increasing quality (and cost), various filters and screens, and likely some other things I've forgotten.
The regret is partly having purchased and replaced so many items, but also the fact that I still have many of them in my home. There was a time not that long ago that I refused to even own a microwave because I prided myself on keeping things minimal, and my coffee hobby has run rampant over that. Worst of all, I've found that it's difficult to even give some of this stuff away. I'm really not a packrat, but I hate the idea of throwing away perfectly usable things.
Yup! I’m in the exact same boat here. I bought a ceramic v60 and liked it, but then I needed a carafe for it to sit on so I got a glass one. Then I saw that plastic was easier to preheat so I got the v60 with the built in carafe with the plastic v60 on top, leaving me with a redundant ceramic v60 and glass carafe.
But then I side-graded to a glass Hario Switch, so I’m using the small glass carafe again, but now have a redundant ceramic v60, and the combo carafe/v60.
If you have fb, try your local buy nothing group. Or see if there's any kind of charity accepting donations for household items. Someone will reuse them I'm sure!
Oh, for sure. We donate everything we can. Though for the sake of our wallets, we do try to sell some of the more valuable stuff before it gets donated. I live around a lot of folks who are just getting started - young kids, first house, newlyweds, that sort of thing. I have no problem offloading practical stuff, but for whatever reason I seem to live in the middle of a Folger's company town.
Put a table or some chairs outside and they're gone before I can close the garage door. Coffee stuff? Might as well be a cucumber with a weird looking hair stuck to it.
Coffee is definitely a packrat hobby imo lol, I like keeping around all my different brewing methods even though I vastly prefer one. But I am surprised you can't even give some of it away, seems like other coffee enthusiasts looking for a deal would jump on that.
For me, it’s my pasta machine. I love to cook and to bake, I have a stand mixer, a food processor, all manners of odds and ends. But for some reason I’ve never used my pasta maker. I bake bread every two weeks, make ice cream monthly, cook most of my lunches and all dinners, I even pickle. But for some reason I’ve never taken out that pasta machine. I even make gnocchi (with forks!) a couple times a year!
for me, it's kinda the opposite (if this makes sense), but i keep buying pasta machines that break, and it's really annoying. I make ramen noodles from scratch and I really want to just have one that works, but can't find anything worthwhile
Try looking for an ancient one that's all metal. Though I don't know what exists as far as powered/unpowered variations go. We used to have one that was all metal and unpowered in my childhood and while it didn't get used that often, when it did it was a full day of noodles to dry and have for months... it held up great
Yeah, it just seems that a (lazy) search at least just comes up with stuff that is designed to break basically, it would be nice to be able to buy it for life.
One of those hand-powered food processor. Either I do a better (and faster) job with my regular knife, or I need the power of an actual motor to do the job.
Those are handy for making certain dips or chopping nuts, if it's the type I'm thinking of. For onions or carrots, stuff like that, they aren't very good because they chop too randomly, huge pieces and almost puree.
Yes, precisely: I hardly make any of these.
I got an electric food processor I only use occasionally, but it has a holey basket to allow rough cutting things into chunks, like nuts or chocolate.
It was like $30 and I only ever use it for the basket.
But still it is a godsend because the occasions when I use it used to take forever, but now take 30 seconds or less.
Egg cups. I bought them for runny eggs with soldiers but then I turned vegan before ever using them.
Although I do regret buying something that I never ended up needing I'm also happy that they didn't get used.
You could use them for single serves of hummus or other dips to have with veggie soldiers! It would be quite a fun way to serve it
Same here. I started using them as shot glasses instead.
Rice cooker and juice blender.
Anyone wants a 2 year old unused either of them?
I hardly ever used a rice cooker until I came across a Zojirushi for $10 at the thrift store. I was skeptical that it would make me any more likely to cook rice, but that thing changed the game and probably increased my total rice intake 10x over.
It got me into trying different types of rice to find my favorite. Right now I'd say sprouted brown rice is probably king for me even though it takes about twice as long as white rice to cook. It's a little hard to come by and sort of expensive, but worth it in my opinion. Different flavors of rice is quite the YouTube rabbit hole.
I bought myself a rather expensive Zojirushi induction model a few years ago, and couldn't be happier with it. I cook/eat A LOT of rice, and have always used rice cookers though, so I totally understand why buying such an expensive model might not be for everyone. I genuinely do not understand how people can stand cooking rice on the stovetop though. It's always so wet and gross. So even for people that don't eat much rice, a cheap $20 rice cooker would probably be worth it IMO, since it will still get much much better results than stovetop. And if people can find a secondhand Zojirushi, like you did, the difference between it and stovetop is gonna be like night and day. So I'm not surprised you're cooking a lot more rice now. :P
p.s. I recently made some Forbidden/Black/Purple Rice in mine, and it was absolutely amazing. All the nuttiness of a good brown rice, but with some extra earthy notes, and even more of a chew to it. It was heavenly.
The right rice cooker really does make a difference.
I was gifted a highly reviewed rice cooker (and it does make very nice rice), but it makes a minimum of two cups, which comes out to four cups after cooking (which, for me, is something like 6-8 meals' worth). I almost never used it because it took so long to cook that much rice, and then there was always so much left over that I would have to make rice-based dishes for the next few days. I ended up using it maybe once every couple months, when I did bulk meal prepping.
Then I got a small rice cooker that makes a minimum of half a cup of rice. Now I make rice several times a week and, because it's always fresh, I find that I like rice a lot more than I thought I did. I also love the rice cooker's small footprint and how much less there is to clean.
My problem is I’m surrounded by good food, great takeout and people who want to have restaurants with me. And I don’t have a budget…
Also I’m incredibly lazy
Rice cooker might actually be my most used countertop appliance.
All of these were gifts which I’m thankful for, but I never used the juicer (too big, too hard to clean), the Nespresso coffee maker or the espresso machine (made shit coffee, the moka pot works a lot better) or the kitchen aid stand mixer. All but the stand mixer have been given away - it’s too nice of a gift to get rid of but it’s too big to keep out in my small kitchen and it’s too heavy for me to get down to use often. I hope to have a bigger kitchen one day where it can sit out to hand and be used more!
a yonanas. a friend of mine had one and it was awesome, but as soon as I got one for myself I lost all interest, lol. never ever used it. womp womp.
to counter this, the kitchen gadget I least regret is definitely my air fryer. I got the ninja foodie sp100 on a whim last year (woot was selling cheap refurbs), so it's a toaster oven air fryer combo, and my husband and I use it just about every single day. it's more or less replaced our regular oven. zero regrets, it rules
Yessss. I used mine once, and then donated it like 2 years later.
I don't have any deep regrets about buying it, but my vote is for my bacon press. I always thought it would change my bacon cooking game forever, but it turns out it's just a pain to clean, and doesn't substantially improve the crispness or evenness of our bacon.
It's much easier to make good, crispy bacon in the oven. Put a wire cooling rack on a sheet pan, lay out the bacon pieces on the rack, then bake at 350° F until they're at your desired level of crispness. The bacon fat drippings also stay cleaner without the burned bits you get from pan-frying, you don't risk getting burned from spattering grease. You can make tons at a time to freeze and microwave later - that was a regular part of kitchen prep when I worked in a bakery café.
I'll give that a go next time we cook more than a few slices. I've tried the oven method on a standard cookie sheet, but the bacon ended up with a waxy lingering mouth feel; pretty sure it's because the grease permeated the strip since it couldn't drip.
Save your bacon grease and use it for stovetop popcorn, as well as other cooking. I personally use a broiler pan, which works like a rack and sheet pan, but is deeper and better for catching the drippings.
The bacon always ends up chewy and tasteless when I do this. If it’s not fried what’s the point lol?
I'm seeing recipes that mention using a rack gives crispier results, not certain why. I learned to use a 350 °F oven temperature, in part because other baking could be done at the same temp. But mostly, 400 °F is suggested for faster cooking, 15 - 20 minutes. The time and crispness also depend on how thick the slices are.
Cooking the bacon on a rack means the fat is drained off as it cooks which can be really convenient. I've also found I always need to flip the bacon at least once in the oven.
Gifted a vegetable noodle maker and haven’t used it once. Can’t think of a time that I will.
Flat bottom wok. Without a proper asian style billion BTU burner, wok cooking just isn't viable without huge concessions.
I don't know, I think I've managed to get it working with my carbon steel wok. Certainly not traditional wok hei, but it's been viable.
The main problem for me is that high heat cooking isn't possible without a strong hood vent, which I lack. So my wok hasn't been touched much either...
Yea I chose the wrong words : it's viable for me as well I just don't think the effort required to use a flat bottom wok on a western range, the maintenance involved e.g. constant seasoning, and the overall result is better than what I can do with a traditional western pan.
I've actually gone as far as removing my defuser on my range, lighting the gas stream with a grill lighter and having this crazy sounding jet of fire coming from the range. Even maintaining proper heat is tricky and even if I can manage to get the heat, I too have to worry about setting of smoke alarms. Honestly, if I had a garage, I'd do what my parents generation would do : get a gas turkey fryer, set up outside and run it full bore, and cook in plastic sandals and a tank top.
I've got a carbon steel flat bottom wok and I use it on a small plug in hot plate to make pad thai, still comes out great.
It takes some practice to get right, maybe give it another try?
For me, it's not a practice issue but more of finding that the changes in work flow and effort in maintenance that come with using a flat bottom wok on a western range don't yield a meaningful results over a traditional western style pan on a western style range. I think one can definitely get good results, as you have using a lower BTU induction hot plate, but I do feel I'm not getting the unique characteristics of cooking on a wok (e.g. wok hei) on my current set up. Ideally, I'd be able to cook outside on something like a turkey fryer to get ridiculous amounts of heat and ridiculous amounts of wok flavor. Just not possible right now in an apartment.
fair enough.
I regret buying an egg ring. I was so excited to have nice round over easy eggs. But it is a huge pain to clean, and takes prep to use. I suppose there are better designs out there, but I’ve just learned to accept whatever shape comes out when I crack my eggs.
I had to google those, but can't you just use a slice of bell pepper? Or a big onion ring? Though that only works if you're having the rest of whatever it is. But shouldn't it just be a small item you can chuck in the dishwasher? Or it's a small circle that you can easily hand-wash? Unless there's fancy models with all sorts of edges or crannies
What I do when I want the eggs to fit in a bun is use a big slice of bell pepper... heat the pan so the egg will harden right away and has no chance to go under, then either crack the egg directly in the ring, or crack it in a cup, use a spatula to press the ring to the pan and pour the egg in (this is great if you're doing it with bread slices)
I'm not sure if it will make eggs exactly the way you want them, but if you have access to a wok, maybe try cooking an egg in that?
Apparently I never make toast! We got a double toaster and I think I’ve used it twice in 4 years!
Maybe you just need a premium $400 Mitsubishi toaster to really start appreciating toast!
My girlfriend is the same way, though. I could probably count on my fingers the number of times she's used the toaster in the past decade, whereas I use it most days. I just love egg over easy on toast (from a regular, cheap toaster) with some salt, pepper, and cayenne as a fast breakfast.
I always love some unexpected Red Dwarf
I LOVE bread, especially toast. I haven’t owned a toaster in years though because the broiler in my oven does a better job…although probably not as good as that Mitsubishi. 😂
When I moved into my first flat I bought a quite expensive cutlery set besides some "everyday" cutlery to use when I have guests over. Well, it turned out that I'm too lazy cooking for more than two people so the only thing I ever used was the included cake server and even that only once.
I like cooking. I'm not great at it, but I've learned not to tell people I like cooking because then you get cooking appliances as gifts, and 90% of cooking things are trash.
Any niche thing is at best, pointless
-the microwavable omelette maker...and bacon maker
For the most part, all you need is one good knife, a cutting board, a skillet, and a pot. If your product can be done with these items, I don't need your product.
I did like the immersion blender tho.
A toasted sandwich maker, it has a diagonal divider for each piece.
It would be awesome if not for that.
each sandwich gets a hard burnt diagonal line down the middle because of it.
We have at least 10 small electric appliances but there are only two things that get used regularly, the blender and a mini George Forman grille.