Low-cost gadgets: your winners and losers!

[CommanderJameson]

Winner: potato ricer. What a marvellous thing this is. Perfect mash, every time. Bought mine for a tenner off Amazon.

Loser: egg rings. I had visions of beautiful circular fried eggs. They don't work. The eggs stick to them, no matter how much you try to heat the rings and make sure they're greased.

Winner/loser: rice cooker. When it gets it right, it's amazing. Unfortunately, mine has a habit of turning basmati rice to mush.

[missdiane]

Loser:
Ceramic potato peeler- never goes blunt. May be true but it broke pretty quickly after a few goes.

Winner:
Coffee grinder, nothing like the smell of coffee being ground for a morning wake up call (noise wakes everyone else up too)

[rsv gone!]

CommanderJameson said:

Winner: potato ricer. What a marvellous thing this is. Perfect mash, every time. Bought mine for a tenner off Amazon.

When I saw the thread title, I was going to chip in with the ricer.

[jardinec]

Winner(s):

Electronic Timer (not burt anything since)
Good 8 or 9" knife
Decent Silicone tipped Tongs
Good heavy based skillet

Loooooosers:
Egg poaching pan (waste of time and more effort)
Fancy wine bottle openers (take too long to get out the box, just use the old waiters friend)

Edited by jardinec on Sunday 24th May 10:23

[Jer_1974]

Winner: £2 plastic rice cooker that goes in the microwave. Perfect rice for two everytime.

Winner: Self cleaning oven.

Winner: built in coffee maker 3500 cups of coffee in three years.

Loser: JML veg and finger slicer.

Woops just saw low cost.

Edited by Jer_1974 on Sunday 24th May 10:25

[Dupont666]

winner... Blowtorch, not only used for doing creme brulee but makes creating toast a lot more fun as well as finishing off the stuburn parts of pork crackling.

Loser... JO flavour shaker... it leaks and oil goes everywhere, if it didnt alway bloody leak from the crap seal it would be good

[condor]

Dupont666 said:

Loser... JO flavour shaker... it leaks and oil goes everywhere, if it didnt alway bloody leak from the crap seal it would be good

I've never used one...but guessed that would be a loser as soon as I saw it.

winner....microwave steamer

loser....porcelain ginger shredder ( a lot easier to just finely dice it by hand)

[bint]

Winner; silicon muffin tray.....perfect for mini muffins (but depending on what low cost is, I would say Kenwood's mini chopper - a Delia cheat for approx £20 is my most used cheap gadget)

Loser; Plastic Herb grinder, looks like a slight weaker version of the windy parmesan cheese grater - could be because it's plastic, but has been superceded by the Kenwood device above.

Another vote against the JO flavour shaker - it was a present so not bothered too much.

[missdiane]

Not so much a gadget, but those little creme brulee dishes you can get in the supermarket with creme brulee in make a fabulous all rounder for anything you want, dips, olives, more creme brulee etc.

[CommanderJameson]

missdiane said:

Not so much a gadget, but those little creme brulee dishes you can get in the supermarket with creme brulee in make a fabulous all rounder for anything you want, dips, olives, more creme brulee etc.

Apparently, "we need more ramekins" means "I may now buy GU puds with a clear conscience".

[missdiane]

Well what other reason would you pay well over odds for

As long as they all match and I can have even numbers

Edited by missdiane on Sunday 24th May 18:42

[Pferdestarke]

Winner: Has to be the little Victorinox Equinox serrated tomato knives we have. Razor sharp and very handy for eating steaks and trimming bits of carpet.

Loser:Garlic crusher. A pain to clean and far easier to just chop. I never seem to use mine these days.

[kiteless]

Winner: our little (tiny) grater for garlic and ginger

Loser: (a gift!) small brushes for brushing mushrooms and potatoes Beyond useless.

[Coq au Vin]

Pferdestarke said:

Winner: Has to be the little Victorinox Equinox serrated tomato knives we have. Razor sharp and very handy for eating steaks and trimming bits of carpet.

+1 on these - brilliant little knives.

Another winner is a fine Microplane grater. And one of those big heavy stone mortar and pestles.

[Mobile Chicane]

Winner:

Lime squeezer



Loser:

Cast-iron wok. Doesn't get hot enough on a halogen hob, and is too heavy to be useful as a frying pan or saucepan.

[AndyAudi]

CommanderJameson said:

Winner: potato ricer. What a marvellous thing this is. Perfect mash, every time. Bought mine for a tenner off Amazon..

missdiane said:

Loser:
Ceramic potato peeler- never goes blunt. May be true but it broke pretty quickly after a few goes.

Another thumbs up for the Potato ricer
And as a solution to missdiane's problematic peeler - After having a ricer for years, I only recently discovered that if you boil little whole potatoes in their skins, then put a few in the ricer and squeeze gently, only the flesh comes throught the ricer as it squeezes the tatties out of their skins. you just open and remove the skins before doing the next batch.

[Shaw Tarse]

I've got the blow torch
Decent pestle & mortar.
Need a potato ricer

[grumbledoak]

Winners:
Potato ricer.
Microplane graters (x2, one for cheese, one for garlic).
Ridiculously over-sized (mis-ordered) 27cm Japanese knife.
'Speed peeler'.
ETA- (stainless steel handled) silicone spatulas.

Losers:
Most of the attachments that came with the Kenwood food processor. In fact, pretty much all of it.
Electric juicer.
'Egg poacher' thingy (plastic, holed, holder for eggs while you poach them. 'Non-stick' my arse. Impossible to clean).

Edited by grumbledoak on Monday 25th May 18:02

[Dupont666]

Shaw Tarse said:

I've got the blow torch
Decent pestle & mortar.
Need a potato ricer

snap same here... tho i keep burning myself with the blow torch and have set the chopping board on fire too.... Oops

Spud ricer looks good.

For pestal and mortar I went olive wood rather than stone

[Shaw Tarse]

Dupont666 said:

Shaw Tarse said:

I've got the blow torch
Decent pestle & mortar.
Need a potato ricer

snap same here... tho i keep burning myself with the blow torch and have set the chopping board on fire too.... Oops

Shaw Tarse said:

Proper blow torch or "ghey chef's" blow torch?

For pestal and mortar I went olive wood rather than stone

Shaw Tarse said:

I went for stone