The best kitchen gadgets and other stuff ...
 

Kitchen Gadgets and other stuff I actually now still use and value and wouldn't do without .....

Zojirushi neuro fuzzy rice maker
Meat temperature probe
Temperature laser
Kitchen scales
Pizza oven (1000f)
Mini Ovens
Britannia Oven
Airfryers
Lava BBQ Grill
Big extractor
Spit roaster
Large wok hob
Pie maker
Toastie maker
Noily Prat
Bouillon powder
Ice maker
Ancient Kenwood
Panasonic breadmaker
spreadsheets so I can record and repeat
Chinese cleaver
Ocado
Nisbets pans
Hawker food in Singapore
A really large utility room with racking




Kitchen gadgets and other things and other stuff that seemed like a good idea at the time ....

Sous vide
Waffle Maker
Meat slicer
Double deep fryer
Single deep fryer
Pressure cooker
Waffle maker
Expensive knives
Waitrose
Tesco
Really cheap wine because it is on offer and/or gets me miles
Celebrity chef products and in particular pans and knives
Going to Paris for decent food

~~~~~The rules are you can come back and argue or indeed add or even subtract.~~~~~~

I'm generally opposed to buying single-purpose gadgets.

I like/want:

KitchenAid professional series mixer
1 good steel chef's knife
1 good ceramic chef's knife
All clad pans
Pizza stone!
Bread peel
Cuisinart food processor
Stick blender

That's about it.

Can opener, and a good knife..

Cannot believe that a pressure cooker made your second list. I own two. One large and one 2.5 L (really hard to find) and they are great for all types of meats, stews and veg.

My favorites are my KitchenAid mixer and Le Creuset dutch oven. I gave up using a bread machine a while ago. Part of the fun of making bread is doing it by hand.

For me it's a hand blender, a good knife and a molcajete.

I kind of miss my cheap rice cooker though.

I couldn't be without my kitchen aid.

And I love my potato ricer. Amazingly fluffy lump free mash and I use it for mashing bananas for banana cake too.

Not sure it qualifies as a gadget but I love my banneton for proving softer bread dough.

Ocado are swiftly going from my necessary to unnecessary list. Someone today thought that packing eggs under several tins and a 5kg bag of potatoes was a good idea. It wasn't. :mad:

To muse on some replies.

Never understood why one needs a pressure cooker for veg ... and I use meats that cook reasonably quickly.

I love the breadmaker for overnight french bread. Make smallish loaves and use the crusts for breakfasts with strawberry jam. I do like the french bread tins with holes and I'm pleased that I was able to "make" a bread oven with steam. Never mastered the banneton.... the sour dough always sticks.

Ocado, Always throwing heavy stuff on the bread. But I always get it free ...

I was thinking about a ricer on my list but I don't use it enough.

I'd also add having three fridges ... that is so helpful because we don't have enough room for one big one.

As a pizza fanatic I am interested in starting to make my own pies. Where can one find a good pizza stone? Is it possible to make a pizza dough without owning a mixer?

If you have any hints please tell!

Thanks

uk1 is the go-to on this. I bought my stone from Amazon.

Also see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/dinin...ade-pizza.html

Hi,

I suggest you read the thread linked above.

If you wish to make Neapolitan style I'm afraid you won't be able to as you need a pizza oven that reaches 1000f or more. I've posted stuff about my ovens on the other thread, one a Fimar pizza oven, the other an outside pizza oven. If you want thick American style then an oven stone will be fine. You might also look at the Ferrari G3 table top ovens. I have an early one that they are no longer able to sell because of the temperatures it reaches.

eg

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...d/P1020653.jpg

http://www.teconova.it/public/gestio...ar/Micro1V.jpg

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...64A4050DEB.jpg


You'll make better dough by hand than with a machine and it is a true art.

This is the forum you should explore

Pizza making forum

This is the old Ferrari G3 Divina I use to use and it reaches very high temperatures and will produce a Neapolitan but it is fiddly and an acquired art.

http://www.moltogusto.nl/userfiles/i...20G3%20RVS.JPG

http://www.italiewinkel.nl/component...57f774b160.jpg

Good luck

Crock pots/slow cookers - I have 3 in different sizes, use them frequently including a Nesco 4 in 1 pot that slow cooks, browns and pressure cooks. We were without a kitchen for about 4 months during a remodel and I did all my cooking in them. I even cooked eggs in the Nesco.

Good knives, Le Creuset griddle pan, deLonghi coffee maker and, for our vacation home, deLonghi ice cream maker.

Funny, I no longer believe in expensive knives or pans. Some of the cheap Nisbets pans are always on TV in all the best kitchens and last forever. I also use to buy expensive knives but I'm not so sure. You need to spend "enough" but ...

You reminded me ... I should have added to my list the Gaggia Ice Cream maker .... some finished stuff with ingredients. I take piccies to remind me what I did!

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...923B6B4930.jpg
http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...4EFEE47E56.jpg
http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...1A81ADF0CA.jpg

My most critical kitchen gadgets:

• Good Japanese high carbon steel knives. Much more care required but so much sharper and better cutting than even the priciest stainless steel knives. My general-purpose kitchen knife (a gyutou vs. a santoku) cost only a bit more than my stainless steel santoku and is 1000x better at cutting. Granted, the sharpening stones cost double what the knife did, but I could have gone cheaper on those stones had I wished.
  
• Pressure cooker. Easy risotto, quick beans, grains, etc.
  
• Sous vide. Perfect meats, parcooked starches, and more. I don't get the hostility toward them... Properly used, they're invaluable in the kitchen. Yes, you can turn your meat to mush... but you can also cook a steak to medium-rare all the way through, straight out of the freezer, and you can end up with fork-tender roasts. As with any kitchen tool, you have to know how to use it!
  
• Vitamix or equivalent. Regular blenders cannot replace them. I use mine daily, sometimes multiple times a day. Smoothies, soups, salad dressings, etc.
  
• Immersion blender. Great for soups, and almost foolproof for making aioli and mayo and other emulsions that can be a pain otherwise.
  
• Specialty pans for tamago-yaki, crepes, and paella. You can improvise, but the results aren't the same.
  
• Good mixer. I have a KitchenAid Pro 6 from 15+ years ago, and other than having to effect a repair on my own (correcting a design flaw), it's been a workhorse of the kitchen.
  
• Microplanes.
  
• Half-sheet pan silicone sheets.

My least-used kitchen gadgets:

• Ricer. I typically mash potatoes with a masher. If I really want them done right, I sous-vide them to the gelatinization temp for the starches (I'd have to look it up), then put them on ice for a couple of hours, then cook them. No need for a ricer IME if you do them that way.
• Jaccard. Yes, I know some people swear by them, but I just haven't found the need. Maybe I cook better cuts of meat, or prepare them differently. I'm also concerned about introducing surface bacteria into the inside of a cut of meat that I want to cook to rare or medium-rare (yes, you can cook longer in the sous vide to achieve effective pasteurization, I suppose).
• Crock pot. The problem is that my wife doesn't eat meat, so I lose most of the benefits since I'd have to cook the meat separately and add it at the end for my portion. Otherwise, this would be a much more-used device.