Kitchen Gadgets You Love

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Re: Kitchen Gadgets You Love

In keeping with the forum title, although just a bit over $20, I have to recommend the Aeropress for coffee. OK, it may look sorta like a french press with a twist, but the coffee is FAR superior. It makes a concentrate in just a minute or so, and self-cleans during use for quick storage. Just add hot water for regular strength coffee tot aste. I also use the concentrate to make yummy coffee-based alcoholic beverages. It makes really smooth coffee, even from so-so beans/grinds.

One tip is to use water at the right temperature, about 190 F. An easy way to do this is to boil some water, then after it boils and is removed from heat, add fresh tap water in the amount of about 1/4 of the volume of the boiled water. Easy and works every time.
 
Re: Kitchen Gadgets You Love

Twenty dollars was a suggestion to keep it simple. I’m sure everyone has some expensive & fun kitchen gear but I didn’t want it to become a race-to-the-top. Every once in a while, like the $4 knife sharpener, people have gadgets that just make the kitchen and cooking more fun.
 
Re: Kitchen Gadgets You Love

JoyfulNoise said:
Yeah, I’ve had good and bad cheap knife sharpeners. Weirdly enough, anytime I’ve used high price “fancy” sharpeners, they always dull my knives :scratch:
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Literally yesterday I just got a definitely not under $20 knife sharpener and in a matter of 2 minutes, no skill and no work I was shaving hair off my arm with my pairing knife. Also does scissors, serrated knives, single side knives, gut hooks, garden tools, lawnmower blades, etc.

Not a gadget but my favorite kitchen item under $20 is my 10" Lodge cast iron skillet ($14 with prime shipping right now from Amazon). Absolutely love cast iron. There's an initial learning curve and afterwards you get a mostly non-stick surface (depends on the food, but my scrambled (or fried) eggs do not stick) that you can not only use metal utensils on but are highly encouraged to do so! It gets used almost exclusively with this also under $20 metal spatula. Sorry the combo isn't under $20!

One of my favorite kitchen gadgets is my can opener, because it has a built-in bottle opener. :D
 
Re: Kitchen Gadgets You Love

I cook almost exclusively on Lodge cast iron and ceramic coated cast iron (for tomato sauces and acidic foods) and own several different size pans and pots. Once you season (carburize) the metal surface, it’s bullet proof....actually, the pans are so heavy, I really think it could be used as DIY body armor. But I agree, cast iron is the best.
 
Re: Kitchen Gadgets You Love

These are more than $20 but I love my Thermapen thermometer and Thermoworks EXTRA BIG & LOUD TIMER :cheers:
 
Re: Kitchen Gadgets You Love

.......still waiting on a solar powered automatic beer can and bottle opener.

An Echo Alexa.........so wifey can drop in on me to say that dinner is ready!
 

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Re: Kitchen Gadgets You Love

I don't have a knife sharpener and all our kitchen knives were getting very dull. I finally went ahead and bought a Work Sharp knife sharpener from Amazon for $70 (PM me for details if interested). I broke it open and in minutes I had a pairing knife so sharp I could shave hair off my arm. Takes zero skill or effort to sharpen a knife.

Work Sharp claims you can sharpen regular knives, single-sided knives, serrated knives, gut hooks, scissors, pruners/axes/shovels and other hand tools, lawn mower blades, etc. It's simply a mini belt sander with a spring loaded tensioner and no backing plate so the belt can flex under load. There's a couple guides to ensure you have the proper angle for your knife. Comes with a kitchen guide which sharpens knives to 40° (20° per side), and a second guide for outdoor knives (25°), scissors, and serrated knives. With no guide it can be used freehand for various sharpening tasks like garden tools and the like.

It comes with 80, 220, and 6000 grit belts, though various in-between grits can be purchased separately. The instructions say to use the 220 grit to sharpen the knives and 6000 grit to hone them. Says the 6000 grit is optional, but the 220 grit always leaves a burr which the 6000 grit will remove.

To give an example of what it can do, we somehow picked up at some point a very cheap serrated knife that didn't even have proper serrations. Honestly I don't know why I never threw it out, I hated it and never used it.

IMG_20180210_135710712 by jseyfert3, on Flickr

I took the guard off the sharpener, put the 80 grit belt on, and freehand ground off all the serrations, along with some grinding on the opposite side to match what I had to grind off on the first side. I then replaced the 220 grit belt and guide, and sharpened it like I have sharpened my kitchen knives, finishing with the 6000 grit belt and guide.

IMG_20180210_140819450 by jseyfert3, on Flickr

Like the other knives I had sharpened, it now could shave hair off my arm very easily. I took a worthless knife and in about ten minutes I turned it into something actually useful. I feel like going to Goodwill and seeing if I can find dirt cheap knives there, no matter the condition I can sharpen it up in no time. We've never really had a good kitchen knife collection.

Anyhow, with this I'll never have another dull knife again. I won't have any arm hair left either, I've already shaved half of it off because I keep marveling how sharp the knives are as I test them after sharpening and shave off way more hair than I need to test the knife. :D

IMG_20180210_143853316 by jseyfert3, on Flickr

Anyhow, I got this the day someone posted the "Handy Kitchen Gadgets Under $20" thread but this isn't under $20. Figured I'd make a separate post about it and say how much I love it. Later on I'll sharpen my hatchet as well and see how well that goes.
 
Two items I use weekly, one disposable, one indispensable - cheese cloth & my separating measuring cup.

971BD181-0CD0-4E89-91BA-820260A2B3CD.jpg

Whether it’s roast beef or roast chickens, I gotta have those pan juices strained and fat separated to make a delicious gravy!!
 
We recently picked up a Cuisinart 1-1/2 Quart Ice Cream Maker. It's amazing how simple it is to make decadent ice cream! So far Butter Pecan & Mint Chocolate Chip are the big favorites, and now we have a Ben & Jerry's recipe book.

I've also noticed that most of my pants have shrunk a bit in the wash ........ :roll:
 
Vacuum sealers for food, especially works great and adds much more freezer time to meat products, slightly freeze the meat and vacuum seal , that way the juices don't get drawn out of meat into machine.
They also just seal anything that has been originally sealed without vacuum like chip, candy.
 
domct203 said:
We recently picked up a Cuisinart 1-1/2 Quart Ice Cream Maker. It's amazing how simple it is to make decadent ice cream! So far Butter Pecan & Mint Chocolate Chip are the big favorites, and now we have a Ben & Jerry's recipe book.

I've also noticed that most of my pants have shrunk a bit in the wash ........ :roll:
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Just keep telling yourself you’ll do lots of laps in the pool come summertime....in the meantime, enjoy the flavors :D

rajung said:
Vacuum sealers for food, especially works great and adds much more freezer time to meat products, slightly freeze the meat and vacuum seal , that way the juices don't get drawn out of meat into machine.
They also just seal anything that has been originally sealed without vacuum like chip, candy.
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+1 to vacuum sealers!!!

I got one this past summer and I love buying meat in bulk and sealing & freezing it. No freezer burn and it lasts longer. I also dry my own jerky and seal it up in small batches.
 
Just an update on the original post - I have been using the Dash Egg Cooker for a while now and I can honestly say that I really like it. Our consumption of hard boiled eggs has definitely gone up and it does make them really well. I’ve used the poached egg tray a few times to make eggs Benedict for the wife on the weekends (that gets me some good brownie points...). As for the scrambled egg /omelette tray, I can do without it. I don’t like the texture of the omelette/eggs from it and I can honestly make an omelette a lot faster in a pan.

So 2 out of 3 ain’t bad...
 
ny2nc said:
This is one of our kitchen "one trick wonders" If you have a breakfast food fanatic or an Egg McMuffin lover in your house...this is for you! Now my hubby can make his Egg McMuffin at home! :eek: Kiddos love it, too!

https://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Bea...6188&sr=1-2&keywords=breakfast+sandwich+maker
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I bought my brother one of those for his birthday. He and my sister in law fight over who gets to use it first in the morning. I should have bought them the 2 sandwich model
 
I’m not sure if this counts as a gadget or gimmick. My wife has wanted this thing since she saw it in the Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville store.

Oh- if anyone wants the above mentioned sandwich maker, please PM your address. [emoji4] That thing was used 2x and has not seen the light of day since.
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