Favorite kitchen Doo-dads & gadgets.

Certificate of Excellence

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What are they? This can be as simple as a single-use gadget or as complex as a multi purpose item like an oven, mixer etc.

I'll go first. A minced beef/meat wand/chopper. I find this single-use gadget to be incredibly useful. There is no other piece of gadgetry that I know of that pulls minced meats apart quite as well as these do (aside from water and a whisk but this is for a very specific application and does not translate well to pan frying for example), especially when a fine, browned texture is needed.

minced beef wand.jpg
 
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Trash80toG4

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Mezallunas are great for chopping in a wooden bowl.
Cool, hadn't seen those before. Looks like I should get one for pastry prep. Once in a while when I get home from work I'm in the mood for a sweet treat, so I whip up some vanilla shortbread cookie dough for an immediate snack. If I have milk in the fridge I sometimes remember mom times past, making the butter/brown sugar delicacies we made with excess pie dough in remembrance. :D

Tinkerers Kitchen Gadget:

I just did the release/catch phase of what my girlfriend describes as my (abhorrent) Science Experiments.** This is a zero cost, (now humane) fruit fly eliminator:

Humane-Fruit-Fly-Eliminator.JPG


The last time summer waxed Planet of the Fruit Flies, I decided to make use of my workmate's banana remnant discards. Age to browned perfection and pop into freezer bait bucket for instant availability.

Recycle soda bottle by re-use in Cricket Trap (fish bait collector) format and invite the gang in for a snack. 8-O

< TLDR >

It's Planet of the Fruit Flies in NC again a few years later and great fun considering. Back then I started depositing coffee grounds in a zip-lock flour tortilla bag. That drove the GRLF to distraction last year so I moved the bag-o-grounds into a coffee can. That doubles the effectiveness of the trap as they seem to be able to detect the canned grounds, so now the FFeliminator sits atop that to remind me to cut the critters loose outside when I make coffee.


** Not telling the GRLF that I decided to go full-on science experiment. Left my uninvited guests in the Eliminator to do their thing through a full life cycle for entertainment. Very cool, if you have kids you gotta give it a go, watching the babies worm around the container is interesting, but releasing the burgeoning next-gen population is great fun. Considering a two generation run, but that seems a bit outside the capabilities of even a 3 Liter containment.

In its first incarnation, I was so PO'd at the things in the Eliminator that at times I enjoyed watching/waiting for the little R*T B******S to climb to the apex and smoosh 'em, but that got old after a while and cleanup lost its appeal, so I've gone PETI.*****



*****As a farmboy my notions of the ethical treatment of animals predates the more fringe silliness of Park Avenue PETA type owners of working dogs inhumanely caged in NYC apartments. That dog breeds are "stylish" is the worst reason ever for choosing a pet. Some folks have no clue whatsoever. A single Australian Shepherd, Border Collie or the like on the island of Manhattan is one too many.

"Eating Fresh" included chickens along with my pre-schooler's quarter acre truck garden's goodies. :)

< /TLDR >

Should have waited until tomorrow for photo session, the one little guy caught in the fifteen minutes it took me to think of this was camera shy. Update pic may be posted, but if some of you tinkerers wants to give it a go, lets see who can snag a photogenic gang for a followup posting first?
 
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retr01

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Why not add a zap zap zap grid? Or maybe Tesla style coil to have multiple electrical waves that will zap zap zap randomly? :D

That is a good idea even without the zap zap zap. Cut off a soda bottle, plop a banana peel and let it rot. Here come the flies!
 

Certificate of Excellence

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I just fixed my Dualit four slice toaster which is a favorite appliance of mine. I've had it for about 15 years at this point with continuous use through that time. I replaced its Mi7 switch which finally burnt out. $40 bucks from GB and it's back together and toasting great. In a world of throw away toasters, it's great to have a quality, repairable toaster which I expect to last me a lifetime. I know these things new are $300+ but I run into them often stateside for around $80-100 used which I think is a very good deal and worth the money (the 4 slice version).

F98438BD-C3C2-4449-A9B3-FE7D653B8282.jpeg
 

Trash80toG4

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Very, very cool! It's a work of art. Glad to see you bring this thread back to life.

I took a picture of the 14" Delta Bandsaw when I pulled it out of the pantry recently. I was gonna ask if it qualified as a kitchen gadget as it's not of the meat cutting variety, but I do cook stuff up with it in the kitchen on a regular basis.
 

Certificate of Excellence

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Very, very cool! It's a work of art. Glad to see you bring this thread back to life.

I took a picture of the 14" Delta Bandsaw when I pulled it out of the pantry recently. I was gonna ask if it qualified as a kitchen gadget as it's not of the meat cutting variety, but I do cook stuff up with it in the kitchen on a regular basis.
I am not a topic nazi, so by all means, please share. Mods could think otherwise of course, but I say do it and ask for permission later.
 

Certificate of Excellence

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Hey @Certificate of Excellence, are you going to toast some serious pastry that you stuff with cheese, garlic, butter, olive oil, and all the yummies? Have you tried that? :D

I rarely toast anything other than various breads I make ie: sandwich, brioche, Challah etc. in my Dualit. If you're referring to something like a Pillsbury Toaster struedel , no I dont often make sweets anymore as I try to limit highly refined sugars (lol refined AP white flour for breads ... I know I know) in my diet. With that being said, if I have a rich or delicate pastry of some type (puff, laminate dough, phyllo etc.) that's softened and Im looking to crisp it up, I typically toast it up horizontally on the convection setting of my Wolf table top oven. Frankly, that works better than dropping into a toaster like the Dualit which is going to be messy and the direct heat of the elements most likely will burn.

Would make a neat YT video none the less. "Hey Lets make Pillsbury Toaster struedel clones in our kitchen without all the crap ingredients". Better yet, that could be a fun thread right here as YT fame is about as attractive to me as a swift kick to the groin (which subsequently happened to me while horsing around with my oldest son last night - the pain is fresh in my mind lol).
 
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Trash80toG4

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That's down home, gritty stuff from a sawmill that's at home on a country music dance floor. It takes a very large, thick, hook tooth blade for a bandsaw mill to make that stuff. Heck that gets filtered out by nose hair! Even with a resaw blade of that type I still need to wear a dust mask. :p

Fruit flies decided to try to make a comeback. GRRRR!