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What do we NOT have in the kitchen these days??

(177 Posts)
Franbern Fri 15-Jan-21 15:04:01

Just watching the Hairy Bikers make a steamed pudding (the old fashioned way), - and they used a saucer to make a trivet for in their pot for steaming..

Now I do have a small trivet in the cupboard, and to make steamed pudding these days, I use the microwave rather than that hours in a saucepan.

However, when I thought about it, realised that nowhere in my kitchen is there such a thing as a saucer. As I only use mugs for drinks, long since got rid of cups and saucers to charity shops.

Felt rather silly not having such a basic item as a saucer any more

Alishka Fri 15-Jan-21 16:55:32

I regularly use my pickle fork. Fishes out cornichons from an Opie jar beautifully.

Redhead56 Fri 15-Jan-21 17:02:13

I gave a fondue set to a charity and regretted it straight away. I went to a kitchen shop in Chester with the intention of getting another. I walked out with expensive balance scales with weights instead. It reminded me of my childhood I use them all the time. Still need to get a fondue set though.

sodapop Fri 15-Jan-21 17:06:08

I have a chef Charleygirl available for hire for a small fee

Cornishpatsy my husband uses the potato ricer occasionally, I hate washing it up and keep hiding it.

PamelaJ1 Fri 15-Jan-21 17:07:53

Jaxjacky

Young water! Hot.

What on earth is that?
Do I need it? If I drink it will my wrinkles disappear?

merlotgran Fri 15-Jan-21 17:10:38

I still have my Spong mincer. We use it for making the Christmas pork terrine.

I remember Keith Floyd using one on TV singing, 'With a Spong in My Heart,' grin

Jaxjacky Fri 15-Jan-21 17:15:50

PamelaJl if so, it doesn’t work very well ?

Laughterlines Fri 15-Jan-21 17:27:26

A mangle, dollymaid, wooden clothes horse, reckitts. bluebag, starch powder, kitchen maid ceiling clothes dryer, tongs for pulling hot washing out of the copper boiler, big cauldron for boiling up “boiling fowl” (tough tasty old laying hens), chilblains, reddish brown burn marks on the front of women’s legs where they had been too close to the two bar electric fire. Hooray

kittylester Fri 15-Jan-21 17:33:33

I have modern electronic scales that go back to zero at the press of a button and which weigh 1 gram (I still have my balance scales)

I have 2 butter dishes in daily use kept on the bread bin.

I have a tea strainer and a tea caddy.

I also have saucers, grapefruit knife and cake forks.

Am I really odd?

I got rid of my potato rice as the potato was too smooth!!!

JackyB Fri 15-Jan-21 17:38:33

I have à butter dish but I don't have a butter knife.

In fact I recently bought 2 butter dishes. I use them for 1/4 pound of butter which I leave out to keep soft for spreading.

I used the tea strainer only recently to strain the cloves and bits out of Glühwein.

I used to have a coffee grinder which I used for all sorts of things but DS2 "borrowed" it. He does grind his coffee in it every day (to the amusement of his wife)

JackyB Fri 15-Jan-21 17:40:11

I also have saucers, grapefruit knife and cake forks.

Me too! And fish cutlery!

LadyGracie Fri 15-Jan-21 17:48:07

I have my mother's grapefruit knife, apple corer and pickle spoon.

I also have an army meat fork and large army mixing bowl.

I have my MIL's coronation spoons, dishes and mugs.

Franbern Fri 15-Jan-21 18:08:01

So Interesting.

When I downsized and moved 15 months ago, I did de-clutter a lot of kitchen stuff.

My clamp on mincer - cannot remember last time I had ever used it.
Bread Maker - refer to use dough hook on my Kenwood for this
ice cream maker - I had one that needed to have the unit kept in a freezer, easy in my very large freezer in the house - impossible in the small one in the flat - AND, after the first craze, rarely used it
Pickle forks
My old pyrex pastry roller - the type you put water inside to keep cold - prefer the wooden ones.
On-hob egg poacher -prefer to poach eggs in microwave
Special small saucepan kept just for boiling eggs, - use an electric egg boiler.
My large, and very nice, canteen of cutlery (an engagement pressie from MiLaw) gave this to my eldest daughter
Tablecloths -several of them
My very old pressure cooker.
Can remember having Fondue Set - got rid of that years ago. Anyone still have one?
Also had a smart electric coffee percolator -the height of good living back in the 60's and 70's to end dinner parties. Long since gone.
Hand whisk
Tupperware (how many remember that? ),cheese container for fridge.
I do have a butter dish - for those who do not now, where do you keep your butter? Had actually to buy a new one a few years back, when I realised that one of my daughters had 'borrowed' my one.
I even have a small teapot now - with an infuser as I prefer to use loose tea than bags. No cosies though, and no strainers required.
Apple peeler, (the type you turn handle and apple peels and goes into slices - if you're lucky!!) - find a sharp knive so much better.
Wind up kitchen timer - Alexa will do that for me now

Sure there were many other things over the years.

Esspee Fri 15-Jan-21 18:22:33

Franbern few people buy butter these days. They buy spreads and think it is butter. Lurpak, Anchor or store’s own brand spreadable for example.
If it spreads straight from the fridge it is not butter.

Calendargirl Fri 15-Jan-21 18:24:12

I still use a Tupperware cheese dish and butter dish. The butter one was my mum’s.
DH prefers to keep the cheese in their sealable wrappers though.

Mamissimo Fri 15-Jan-21 18:25:36

You all make me blush....if any of you need to borrow a piece of kitchen equipment, ancient, modern, useful or useless I can probably let you borrow one. Out of the items you've all listed so far the only one I have ditched is the Spong mincer - because I have a mincing attachment on my Kenwood Chef.

When I counted up I have three separate machines I can use to blend....and three that chop. My excuse is that they all do it differently and in different quantities.

We also have 7 different means of cooking things apart from the cooker......and lots of storage! I don't think I am suitable candidate for downsizing. ?

WOODMOUSE49 Fri 15-Jan-21 18:27:32

Still have and still use:
Saucer - christmas pud and the odd syrup sponge
Teapot with strainer
Pickle fork
Grapefruit knife - DH uses it
Hand whisk - 3 sizes and use them all. Love my silicone one for sauces in non stick pan
Butter dish but only in summer time. Soft spread butter rest of the year
KitchenCraft Stainless Steel Rotary Grater.
Cake forks - love them.

When I moved in with OH, found he'd got loads of cutlery with bone handles. Still got them. He's a hoarder. Found a lovely pie funnel in the cupboard. Never used it.

Callistemon Fri 15-Jan-21 18:36:54

I have three butter dishes
(only use one for every day)

cornishpatsy Fri 15-Jan-21 18:56:17

I received a hamper at Christmas which contained some loose teas, I have had to buy a teapot not realising that I do not have a tea strainer. So far none of the supermarkets I have visited stock them.

Oopsadaisy1 Fri 15-Jan-21 18:59:54

I use a Tupperware container with a lid for my butter , I found the glass and China ones too slippy, original Tupperware too.
I still have everything that the others have, I use the bone handled fish knives as butter knives, why not? We don’t use them for fish.
My Auntys wooden Rolling pin is in constant use
Old scales with weights, I have to translate recipe books into lbs and ounces.
Fondue set, although it is at the back of the cupboard.
A microwaveable rice cooker, not used very often, but my DD wants it after lockdown when she can visit.
Grapefruit knife bought in 1971, when I got home from work DH was trying to flatten it with a hammer as he said he found a bent knife in the drawer!

TBH I try not to jettison kitchen stuff if I can help it.

Tabbycat Fri 15-Jan-21 19:02:59

We still use a butter dish, because we like real butter made from cow's milk/cream (and a bit of salt if you have salted butter). Spreadable 'butter' is a mixture of butter and up to 30% oil! hmm

My traditional cast iron kitchen scales - with imperial and metric weights - have outlasted all the various spring balances, digital and electronic scales. I just keep going back to using them, because they work and look good!

I recently bought myself a white, bone china cup and saucer as I like fruit teas and like to have somewhere to put the teaspoon and the tea bag.

I did get rid of my Spong clamp-on mincer, as I'd stopped using it and the metal discs had rusted.

My husband has taken up cooking since he retired and keeps buying all sorts of gadgets - very few remain in use - some of them have worked their way to the back of the kitchen cupboard; some have gone to the charity shop...

Tabbycat Fri 15-Jan-21 19:11:55

My rolling pin is wooden too Oopsadaisy it belonged to my Grandma, so we reckon its about 100 years old!

And now that there's just the two of us, we use her little baking tray with six cups for making Yorkshire puddings. My daughters both made jam tarts and mince pies in it when they were little.

Millie22 Fri 15-Jan-21 19:12:43

cornishpatsy
I've just bought a tea strainer from Wilkos. It said £1 but it was only 40p. I actually bought it to use for icing sugar to top cakes as I couldn't think what else to buy.

Oopsadaisy1 Fri 15-Jan-21 20:19:55

millie I have a sugar sifter that I use for icing sugar

tabbycat I’m still using my Grandmothers cake tins, I have to use cake cases now as they are a bit the worse for wear ( she died in 1951)

I have the odd ornament in the house that I’m attached too, plus my photograph albums, but my favourite stuff is in the kitchen cupboards, as most of the kitchen things I use belonged to long gone GPS and aunties, plus my Mum and MIL

Hellogirl1 Fri 15-Jan-21 21:33:05

I have something that my grandma gave me when we got married in 1963, she`d already had it a few years herself, but she used it, I never have. It`s a sort of double spoon with holes in, you fill it with loose tea, close it up and stick it in a cup of boiling water.

Llamedos13 Sat 16-Jan-21 04:01:21

Woodmouse49 if you aren’t using the pastry funnel I’ll take it off your hands! I’ve been searching everywhere for one and cannot find them anywhere.