Kitchen gadgets you use…..or don’t

Rice cooker is high on the list. I had no idea until I started, I truly could not be without it now. Plain rice, or vegetable rice of any description and no faffing.

Wouldn’t be without my slow cooker and again I use it all year round.

The one I use most is my food processor for so many things. To discover that I could make amazing pastry with it was a revelation after decades of "passable" pastry.
The stick blender/whisk also gets used very frequently. The Kenwood mixer and Panasonic breadmaker have earned worktop space.

In the cupboard are such things as a juicer, a pasta machine, a pie maker, a toastie maker and an ice cream maker. I have an electric steamer that only comes out when I make Christmas puddings.

I don’t have acres of worktop or cupboard space, so apart from kettle and toaster I only have my trusty old Kenwood Chef, which lives in a cupboard, and a slow cooker which TBH I hardly ever use, since it’s so heavy to get out of a high cupboard.

I don’t use the Chef all that much either, but it’s invariably used for any cakes, pastry and crumble mix, not to mention meringue (the annual lemon meringue pie for dh’s birthday) and e.g. brandy butter at Christmas. Plus the 4 dozen chocolate fairy cakes (with Smarties on top) I’ll be making soon for a little Gdd’s birthday party. 🎂

I use my slow cooker often, my air fryer occasionally, my KitchenAid often, my liquidiser fairly often, my small grill occasionally and my food processor almost never. I have a creme brulé caramelised I've never used but can't bring myself to throw out. I use my Nespresso machine every day. The food processor is going to my daughter when she has room.

A tiny gadget which loosens the tops of plastic milk containers - cost pennies and used every day

My grandother's Huskvarna meat mincer! Clamp on, cast iron with wooden handle. Minces perfectly for Sheperd's pie and the like.

And the Kenwood whisk with 2 beaters and bowl- which I got free from Greenshield stamps in Putney in 1971

I am lucky enough to have a number of very nice pieces of kitchen equipment acquired over a number of years. Probably the most useful, most frequently used and cheapest is my stainless steel speed peeler.

Most used are the coffee machine, the soup maker, the bread maker and the slow cooker. Least used are the clothes steamer, which I can’t get on with at all, and the electric knife which I never use and should get rid of.

My Ninja multicooker is very well used - I love being able to whip up things like stews, risotto, paella and so on in a fraction of the time they would take to cook using conventional methods.

I forgot the stick blender, and the small flask blender, but they don’t take up much cupboard space.

Definitely my air fryer. Followed swiftly by a Bamix stick mixer which is invaluable for quick jobs, and attaches to a small container to make breadcrumbs, chop herbs etc. Strangely, two pairs of kitchen scissors, one kept for food. My mother never used scissors on food, she was a dangerously sharp knife aficionado!

Regularly used: breadmaker, slowcooker, stick blender, pressure cooker and electric mixer.

I don’t keep things that aren’t in regular use.

I forgot my slow cooker which gets used a couple of times a week on average.

Regular-pressure cooker, airfryers, soup maker, electric mixer.
Passed on toastie maker, (it’s on its third home now), electric knife, slow cooker (DD now loves it). We loved the bread maker that my Sis passed on to us for quite a while, but then passed it on to younger Sis.

Siope, I am so glad I have kept this cast iron, clip on mincer. It is an heirloom - and it's great that some are still around as witnesses of the past- especially when so useful and do a job no other modern gadget can do. Also go my grand-parents jelly press- like a wine press but on small scale for making fruit jelly, pressed meats, etc. Again a real heirloom. But I am lucky to have a huge utility room and plenty of storage space.

FP it’s not a space issue, it’s a functionality one. Because I don’t keep something that would sit unused in a cupboard in my home means it’s probably somewhere being used and possibly even loved by someone else, which seems to me a good thing.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202401/medium-396726-onion-comb.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202401/medium-283698-zyliss-pull.jpg

I treated myself to a dual drawer air fryer last month to replace my ancient failing Remoska which I used most days, cooking for one. I make just the same meals as before but in half the time and results are tastier.
Small items I use a lot are an onion comb, Zyliss manual food processor, ring pull tool and wooden toast tongs.
Still in the back of a cupboard is the spiralizer! I used it at first then tired of it.

I use my blender/juicer at least 3 times a week, I have a Ninja 7 in 1 pressure cooker which is used almost daily.

I am like Siope I do not keep anything I do not use.

I regularly use my microwave, air fryer, slow cooker Kenwood Chef, Kenwood handheld beater, liquidizer,rice cooker (one that goes inthe microwave).

^ Followed swiftly by a Bamix stick mixer which is invaluable for quick jobs, and attaches to a small container to make breadcrumbs, chop herbs etc.^

I have Braun version of that and it's invaluable. I also regularly use my ancient hand held Kenwood Chefette for whisking anything that needs whisking.
I have a now rather old food processor (30+ years) that my OH won and couldn't understand why I wanted to keep it! It grates, slices and chops. Very useful.
Pressure cooker makes a good stew in half an hour...
Recently acquired rice ball cooks perfect rice.

Big sharp knives. So much safer and far more efficient than little blunt ones.

I regularly use my Moulinex flask blender. A wedding present 51 years ago next month. I was given a soup maker 5 years ago but passed it on...however am how having a rethink. I have an old Tower slow cooker in a cupboard. Rarely used now.
I wish I had kept my clamp on mincer. Ditched for no reason 20 or more years ago.

Sadly I went through a phase of sending to the charity shop all sorts of things I thought I would never use again.

I have a mandolin bought at an Ideal Home exhibition demonstration. Which I love using...but rarely. I must make a Dauphinoise soon. Such thin potato slices.

The microwave is used constantly together with some fab microwave dishes from Lakeland and a very old Pyrex casserole dish which I use for reheating mashed potato.
I was interested in aSage minicooker and grill but am still thinking.
Finally I want to see a friends air fryer in action before I decide. I no longer have a pressure cooker....that was always a tad scary in use.

I also still use my Prestige copper bottomed pan set which is almost 40 years old. Supposed to be lifetime guaranteed but I had no luck trying to get a new set of wooden pan knobs as 2 had fallen off and slightly rotted. Prestige no longer a company? Taken over by someone else?

Toaster, air fryer, boiling water tap, (no kettle), electric egg boiler - these all used most days. Then slow cooker and soup maker (mainly used in winter months), My large (not Kenwood -but same type of thing), not used so much now I live by myself and trying not to eat cakes and biscuits, but when I need it it is invaluable, kitchen scales. Stick mixer lives in low cupboard, lovely for scrambled eggs etc. Recently added a small gadget for frothing up and heating hot choc drinks ( mmm...really lovely), in the summer months this will go away and be replaced with ninja thingie for making fruit drinks, smoothies, etc. also have a small electric chopper
I have always loved kitchen gadgets, still to live down the sausage maker I purchased at an Ideal Home exhibition some 25 years ago and used once!!! Quite alarming when I add up how many of these I have bought, tried, then either given away or sold on or, even worse, just thrown away.

I use our mixer daily, kneads bread, mixes biscuits and cakes.

I use a small chopper often chopping nuts, making bread crumbs.

I use a juicer quite often. My knives are in constant use as well.

We make coffee throughout the day, fantastic machine.

My husband has an electric pasta machine, used 3-4x weekly.

I've a slow cooker, rarely used as I prefer large pans. Must donate.

I've a microwave, never think to use it, must work out if anyone wants it. A microwave is often used in my husband's buildings.