95 replies to this topic

[Reefpimp]

There just isn't that much grape peeling, fanning with ostrich plumes and cooing apreaciatively that needs to be done.

Maybe not in your world.

On the topic at hand, my vote for sheer uselessness would have to go to those rubbery sleeve-ey garlic peeler thingies.

[feedmec00kies]

mkayahara: i haven't had a pastry cutter in my possession as of yet, but that's a great idea. i did most of my cooking in the last few years (which is when i started cooking regularly) at school in a kitchen with "common" (aka shared) utensils and things, and i was able to keep the stuff i bought for my own personal use to a minimum (aka a decent knife and some not-so-sketchy measuring spoons/cups). i also haven't done much baking, nor does my mom, so i haven't interacted enough with pastry knives to have one myself.

Fugu, Pierogi: yeah, i kinda forgot about that, as i have yet to develop arthritis.. i guess they're not useless after all. my impression though, was based on the fact that my mom bought one of those, and the only one in my family who has arthritis in his/her hands is my younger sister...

srhcb: yeah, i was trying to think of a reason to buy a grape peeler, and that kind of came to mind. but unless you're going to have like... 10 kids, who all need their grapes peeled for a year or something each...
and actually, my dad used to cut grapes in half and pick all the seeds out with a knife for me to eat when i was really young. apparently, back 20 years ago there weren't seedless grapes, or at least they were so bad that my father couldn't stand to buy them (he grew up eating a lot of grapes in what is now southern ukraine, so he's picky)

Zeemanb: all i can say to that miracle steel is "hmmmm...."

Edited by feedmec00kies, 31 July 2007 - 11:22 AM.

[Porthos]

Good quality wooden utensils don't have these problems.  (at least they don't if you keep them put of the dishwasher

I'm a die-hard for my wooden spoons. Good hard olivewood spoons are what I have. I do put them in the dishwasher and I usually run the machine on the sanitize cycle. I have plastic et al for serving but not for stirring.

I just thought about one thing. Where I do my volunteer cooking it hard to get things as clean as I like so I do own stainless steel spoons to use there.

[Porthos]

On the topic at hand, my vote for sheer uselessness would have to go to those rubbery sleeve-ey garlic peeler thingies.

Is this where I admit to buying one a few years ago and then NEVER using it. I guess that proves that at least in my kitchen it must be useless.

[feedmec00kies]

On the topic at hand, my vote for sheer uselessness would have to go to those rubbery sleeve-ey garlic peeler thingies.

Is this where I admit to buying one a few years ago and then NEVER using it. I guess that proves that at least in my kitchen it must be useless.

i bet you could cut that thing so it make a flat sheet and use it to help open jars though (not as easily as the jar openers, but just to give yourself a little more friction)

[ruthcooks]

I have a wooden spoon that my grandfather carved by hand many years ago. Nobody will ever have a plastic spoon carved by her grandfather.

Don't know which utensil is most useless, but I have boxes of them to choose from.

[Anna N]

On the topic at hand, my vote for sheer uselessness would have to go to those rubbery sleeve-ey garlic peeler thingies.

Is this where I admit to buying one a few years ago and then NEVER using it. I guess that proves that at least in my kitchen it must be useless.

i bet you could cut that thing so it make a flat sheet and use it to help open jars though (not as easily as the jar openers, but just to give yourself a little more friction)

I LIKE my garlic peeler. Sure I can smash cloves with my knife and frequently do so but when I need a pile of peeled WHOLE garlic cloves this little tube does a great job and takes up very little space.

[Porthos]

  I guess that proves that at least in my kitchen it must be useless.

I LIKE my garlic peeler. Sure I can smash cloves with my knife and frequently do so but when I need a pile of peeled WHOLE garlic cloves this little tube does a great job and takes up very little space.

It's been interesting to me to follow this thread. It truly points up how we are each a unique cook - and why for serious cooks it's hard to cook in someone elses kitchen. We know not only where things are - we also know what is there that we like and use.

I'll also confess to laziness. The only time I use whole cloves is in my volunteer cooking and since I need a lot of them when I do need them I buy the pre-peeled ones at Costco.

[onehsancare]

I feel like a rich woman when I know that there will always be a clean measuring cup in the cupboard, so I don't have to stop cooking or baking to wash the right-sized one out.

I made that cream cheese/pesto/sundried tomato torte last night and must have used eight measuring cups (yes, of different sizes!), so I didn't have the pesto contaminate the cream cheese, etc.

I think we have four sets of dry measuring cups, maybe four one-cup liquid cups, and a couple each of the bigger liquid cups.

Okay, I'm spoiled.

[Eden]

hear hear re the multitude of measuring cups

I have a contender for most useless gadget - somewhere in the house I have a speacial tool for lifting hard boiled eggs out of the pot!!! apparently a spoon, even a slotted spoon, isn't good enough Got it at a tupperware party & kept it for it's pure inanity...

[srhcb]

somewhere in the house I have a speacial tool for lifting hard boiled eggs out of the pot!!! apparently a spoon, even a slotted spoon, isn't good enough  Got it at a tupperware party & kept it for it's pure inanity...

I use some scissor-like metal tongs with ends that look like old fashioned bottle cap removers. I also use these to serve hot corn on the cob.

I don't know what they're really meant for.

SB (maybe lifting eggs )

[hazardnc]

I am so glad this thread exists, since I began wondering the same thing after seeing the Rick Bayless Avocado Scooper in the Sur La Table catalog. Add to the list the Rick Bayless Masher, the avocao masher and slicer/pitter at William Sonoma (have people never figured out how to peel and pit an avocado with a plain old knife?) the tomato knife, the Calphalon deseeder, any egg slicer, bagel cutter, and the asparagus peeler/tongs!

Remember the old hot dog cookers that are like pop up toasters? If you eat so many hot dogs you really need one of these things, I want to know your cholesterol count!

[Shalmanese]

How about the hunk o' plain stainless steel that is sold as a miracle product to get the smell of garlic and onion off of your hands?  Saw one in a kitchen store last year for ten or twelve bucks.

This was going to be my nomination.

As for wooden spoons, plastic just doesn't have the stiffness that wood does. Plastic is great for when you want to reach to the corners of the pan but you can't beat wood for stir frying or other tossing.

My wooden spoon is older than I am. Being able to take the wooden spoon with me when I moved out was the one condition I was unwilling to budge on.

[SundaySous]

After giving this much thought I would have to say my cousin Joel is the most useless utensil in my kitchen. I believe he was a gift given to me the day I was born. I have tried to return him many times to no avail. I've tried to sell him on ebay but I guess that is against some policy of theirs, can't sell him for parts either.

I live in a one bedroom apartment, my kitchen is just above easybake size. While he came with no instruction manual I am convinced his purpose is make you question/defend your every action in the kitchen.

He also has multi task functions. One of which is to take up space. Another is to randomly add ingredients to what ever you are cooking. Another would be to store kitchen utensils, equipment, food, etc... in his apartment for you , with out your knowledge.

That last function took me years to get used too. But tonight as I'm writing this I know the potato masher I was looking for earlier is safe and sound over at his place.

[Ted Fairhead]

somewhere in the house I have a speacial tool for lifting hard boiled eggs out of the pot!!! apparently a spoon, even a slotted spoon, isn't good enough  Got it at a tupperware party & kept it for it's pure inanity...

I use some scissor-like metal tongs with ends that look like old fashioned bottle cap removers. I also use these to serve hot corn on the cob.

I don't know what they're really meant for.

SB (maybe lifting eggs )

Ar these the tongs to which you referred? My wife has had these for many years and she insists that they simply predate the ubiquitous tongs found in every kitchen nowadays.

[srhcb]

Ar these the tongs to which you referred?  My wife has had these for many years and she insists that they simply predate the ubiquitous tongs found in every kitchen nowadays.

Those are indeed the exact tongs of which I speak!

I find this design lots easier to use than the ubiquitous kind. I often have to use my teeth to pull the little tab out and release these when my other hand is unavailable.

[judiu]

I dearly loved my garlic "sleeve" peeler. Pickled garlic? YES! Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic? YES! Peeled garlic for garlic bread? Yes! I loved that sucker; it came free with some cooking club, plan or whatever, but I loved it!

[Kerry Beal]

Ar these the tongs to which you referred?  My wife has had these for many years and she insists that they simply predate the ubiquitous tongs found in every kitchen nowadays.

These little babies are weiner tongs. Used to remove hot weiners from their water bath before placing them in the bun. Haven't used mine in years. Now I use the ubiquitous tongs instead.

[plk]

Hehe, I just bought a pair of those forcep-like tongs last week (I already have several pairs of "normal" tongs in various lengths, but they don't work for picking up jars). I was trying preserving for the first time and couldn't find the proper rubberized tongs anywhere and didn't want to order them online, so I gave up and just bought those. Now we're ready for anything: canning, sauteeing, barbecuing, home birthing (okay, hopefully not that one. Ow). There is a tong for everything.

[jumanggy]

These little babies are weiner tongs.  Used to remove hot weiners from their water bath before placing them in the bun.  Haven't used mine in years.  Now I use the ubiquitous tongs instead.

Steve, Kerry, is the joint rigid (holds its place) or loose? I'm sure this is a false memory, but those tongs look like something we may have used in the chemistry laboratory in college. I would use it to tong over (yuck... is that even a verb?) hot, dirty things, like pieces of coal or the entire grill. (Now that I think about it, that sounds less like a Chem lab and more like a barbecue)

I certainly wouldn't say any wooden spoon is useless! (Or maybe we just don't have fancy plastic spoons in my neck of the woods..) I don't even have a well-made one and I still think it's unbeatable for choux pastry and working with caramel.

[Kerry Beal]

These little babies are weiner tongs.  Used to remove hot weiners from their water bath before placing them in the bun.  Haven't used mine in years.  Now I use the ubiquitous tongs instead.

Steve, Kerry, is the joint rigid (holds its place) or loose? I'm sure this is a false memory, but those tongs look like something we may have used in the chemistry laboratory in college. I would use it to tong over (yuck... is that even a verb?) hot, dirty things, like pieces of coal or the entire grill. (Now that I think about it, that sounds less like a Chem lab and more like a barbecue)

I certainly wouldn't say any wooden spoon is useless! (Or maybe we just don't have fancy plastic spoons in my neck of the woods..) I don't even have a well-made one and I still think it's unbeatable for choux pastry and working with caramel.

Fixed in place. The tongs in the chem lab were a bit different.

[Eden]

My problem with the hot dog tongs is that they are 1) flimsy and 2) the shape of the end doesn't give you as much fine control as a good pair of "ubuiquitous" tongs for picking up small items. I think Cooks Illustrated did a tong comparison and came to a similar conclusion.
but yes they would probably be fine for pulling out eggs. I just use a skimmer - that way I can get more than one egg at a time...

[Jay Francis]

I have bought the "As Seen on TV" Ove-Glove twice now. Each time, I returned it as it does a miserable job of protecting one against high temperatures, removing pans from the oven. The best glove that I have found to date is the Williams Sonoma glove that has the cloth exterior and the woven terry-cloth like interior.

[srhcb]

I have bought the "As Seen on TV" Ove-Glove twice now.  Each time, I returned it as it does a miserable job of protecting one against high temperatures, removing pans from the oven. 

I've been very happy with my Ove-Glove.

Just be careful not to get it wet!

SB (also likes the fact that it's bi-handed )

[NimaCooks]

Bagel slicer is a really good one. But I feel like my garlic press is pretty useless. In the time it takes me to get it from the drawer, use it, clean it and put it back, I can always mince as many cloves as I need, put my knife blade on there sideways and give it a couple whacks. It's easier and much more fun this way.

Also, my mom has these "tongs" that supposedly multitask as tongs, a whisk, and a strainer, but doesn't do any of them particularly well.

[lunatuna]

Re. silly spring-like whisks: utterly unnecessary for whisking, but excellent for the spontaneous fun of WhiskDrop Tournaments! A group of people gathers in a circle, one person drops the whisk onto the counter so that it bounces up, and the next person tries to catch it before it hits the counter a second time. And so on. First person to have allowed the whisk to hit the counter (beyond the one bounce necessary between persons) gets a letter, like in "horse"; first person to have enough letters to spell "whisk" is out. If you want to up the ante, you can play Non-Dominant Hand WhiskDrop.

Perhaps other useless kitchen items could be similarly repurposed for frivolity.

[tafkap4d]

God Bless!! I had no idea they still made those types of tongs!

Garlic peeler, garlic crusher, garlic whatever - waste!

[Susie Q]

Those rubber garlic skinning tubes. Just use the back of your knife. If you don't want it smashed use lighter pressure.

Slicing Guides. They make one for everything I think.

Edited by Susie Q, 15 August 2007 - 10:02 AM.

[cakewalk]

I'm amused by the juicers I keep seeing: an orange one to juice oranges (presumably), a yellow one for lemons, and a lime green one for, well, guess. The orange is the largest, the yellow a bit smaller, the green is the smallest. Very cute and all, but are three different sized (never mind colored) juicers really necessary? What would happen if I juiced an orange on the yellow juicer?

[Anna N]

. . .
What would happen if I juiced an orange on the yellow juicer?     

Your kitchen god would be highly offended and for a whole week you wouldn't be able to make even a decent sandwich! Don't do it!