Kitchen gadgets that bring back memories?

I had a melon baller for a while. No idea why.

And one of those sandwich maker thingies where the melted cheese was as hot as molten metal and couldn't be eaten for an hour. That was a waste of money and cupboard space.

Grannyticktock---My mother and then I had one of those gadgets for making cream out of butter and milk. It was called the Bell cream maker and we used it a lot (This was in the 50s and 60s). The reason it was so useful was that if you wanted cream you had to order it in advance from the milkman and it wasn't always available, or, more commonly, you bought cream in a tin and it wasn't very nice at all. I can vividly remember pumping the warm mixture , hearing the hissy clunk of the pump lever and seeing the cream squirting out of the tiny nozzle. Eventually, cream was available frozen in sticks in freezer bags which were easy and convenient. I wish they were still available---there was no waste.

I have a large spoon that was issued to my great grandfather when he was in the trenches in WW1. It has his army number engraved on the handle.

Spong Mincer. Turned the remains of the Sunday roast into tasty Cottage or Shepherd's pie.

My mother had a Spong mincer, which she clamped to the dining table and I had the job of mincing leftover meat from the Sunday roast to make shepherd's pie later in the week.

She also loved her Prestige pressure cooker, but I just recall the awful smell and have no desire to use one.

She didn't have a washing machine until years after I had left home, just a gas 'copper' to boil the sheets. I remember the arrival of a Spinarinse in the mid-1960s to replace the mangle in the scullery.

My first boyfriend's mother had a Kenwood Chef, and gosh, didn't she go on about it! She was a hopeless cook, but loved to show off. She got a Keymatic washing machine, which was a big thing to boast about, but it didn't wash things well enough and she reverted to a twintub!

Sorry OP that didn't answer your question - I may yet find another mincer, but it wouldn't be my mother's one.

Oh yes, the Spong mincer - I used to have a screw-on one that had belonged to my Granny. Messy old thing, and hard work too - I much prefer using my little food processor now.

I still have my mother's spong mince...we used to have rissoles on a monday from Sunday's joint.

she also had a bean slicer for runner beans!

mincer.....

Yes, rissoles, generated by the mincer! Served with baked beans. I always preferred them to the rather dreary roast that preceded them.

I have a large pudding basin that my mother queued for in Hounslow High Street in 1946 when the news went round that a shop had them in.
I also treasure a large stoneware jar that my grandmother kept salt in. I was told it came in a block and was broken into small pieces with a special hammer. She would reach in and select just the right sized piece for whatever she was cooking. A family of 11 children must have needed big pans of vegetables!

Two bone handled knives. My daughter has one which she cherishes, and I have the other which has been used over the years for many tasks - one of which has helped me cement some crazy paved steps in our garden many years ago. It is still going strong and I use it daily. I also have my mother’s pastry cutters. A friend of mine has amassed a collection of old domestic utensils and takes them round to local retirement homes - the residents love to see and discuss these objects.

I use my mum’s teapot. It doesn’t look pretty with several dents but it’s the best pourer ever.

I have pairs of DM's scissors - one of which she used to cut my hair over 70 years ago; a big bone handled fork with a guard to use when carving meat, same age. I have a hand-sewn and monogrammed linen sheet and bolster case, made for her trousseau by a much decorated French Resistance fighter. Best of all, my DGM's teapot which Granddad bought her on a day trip to the seaside - now over 100 yrs old which I've used with some of her precious bone china floral cups and saucers {all different} for tea and home made scones, when I've done an "English tea" for friends and neighbours. Old items with a family history are fabulous to hold onto.

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Reported

tanith

I have a bread knife that was my Dads I use it all the time. Funny too that also have my Mums glass lemon squeezer ?

I also have my mom's glass lemon squeezer ?
I have absolutely no idea why!

My Nan died recently. My aunty has said that I can 'have a rummage' around Nan's house, and have whatever I want
It's going to be very difficult deciding what not to take...

kitty - at least he revived a lovely thread!

We have a sprong mincer that we found in a skip out side a sausage factory years ago. We've never used it just as decor in the kitchen.
Got an electric sausage maker we've used once.
Made nice sausages though.

My dad bought my mum one of the chip cutters in the 1970s. Thinking of it now what a waste of time and energy it chopped one potato only each time. Washing and drying it was tedious my mum had to chop for nine of us. She was like a commis chef when it came to chopping better than any gadget.
Over ten years ago I bought a meat grinder to attach to my KitchenAid and a pasta maker they are both still in their boxes never used.

I have my grandmother's darning mushroom - have used it a lot but don't do so much darning now.

I still have a wooden spoon of my mother’s - worn down on one side with so much use - and her rolling pin.

I used to have a glass dish - not even particularly beautiful - that always held orange jelly with mandarin oranges in, when we went to a granny’s house for a tea that included things my mother never bought - Penguin biscuits and Dairylea triangles!

I was very upset when dh broke that dish.

Extendible toasting fork that we used to use for making toast on the open coal fire in the lounge.

Doesn't get used now for obvious reasons, but I still keep it.