Kitchen Jury-rigs and Equipment Improvs

[nakji]

I was having a beer with some friends the other night when our waitress left the bottles on the table without leaving us a bottle opener. (Bottle caps still need those where I live)

No worries; in five minutes, we all revealed our emergency de-capping methods. One of us did it with the edge of her lighter; I confessed in a pinch I could get it off with chopsticks. Before our other friend could show us how to use the table edge, the waitress came back with the opener.

I don't know how many times I've moved and bought a bottle of wine for the first night in the flat without knowing where the bottle opener is, and used a screwdriver set instead.

And then there was the time I couldn't get my Christmas turkey to fully fit into my small oven, and tented the door with tin foil...

Care to share any emergency cooking methods?

[David A. Goldfarb]

Two cast iron reversible grill-griddles make quite a fine pannini press, if you happen to have two cast iron reversible griddles handy.

[Rico]

My vacuum sealer: Get a straw, a ziploc and insert the straw, sealing the whole top except where the straw is poked through. Suck the air out and move your fingers fast.

[janeer]

I suppose using a wine bottle for a rolling pin is one of the most common things I have done. Hammers come in handy, too. It's surprising, when you are at other people's houses, what they don't have in the kitchen.

[Dianabanana]

A bunch of canning jar bands tied together with kitchen string as a canning jar rack.

Inverted collapsible steamer as a spatter screen.

Hotel window sill, the part hidden behind the curtain, as a bottle opener. (It's invariably already pock-marked from our bottle-openerless predecessors.)

[Kim Shook]

My vacuum sealer: Get a straw, a ziploc and insert the straw, sealing the whole top except where the straw is poked through. Suck the air out and move your fingers fast.

YES!! Before I got my vacuum sealer, I used this all the time!

And I just sent my meat hammer thing (I can't think of the real word, but you know what I mean) to Goodwill because my improv - a very small iron skillet - works so much better.

[David A. Goldfarb]

A heavy skillet and a couple pieces of plastic wrap are what I use in place of a tortilla press.

[heidih]

A brick and a plastic bag instead of the food processor to "grind" the nuts for the Christmas baking. The FP was in storage and not accessible. The brick remains on my porch and has been pressed into service quite often.

[abooja]

As a kid, I would hand knead and cut pasta noodles, and dry them on a couple of three-foot long lengths of string tied between two back-to-back dining room chairs. The only problem with this method, besides flour all over the floor, was unsticking the noodles from the narrow strings. My mother eventually got me a wooden pasta drying rack.

[runwestierun]

Using a large oval Crockpot for sous vide cooking before the Sous Vide Supreme came out. I did a couple days of callibration exercises to figure out how I had to cock the lid to get it to maintain the temperatures I needed for cooking specific proteins. It worked but the kitchen was damp and there was significant water loss if I cooked something over a couple hours.

[faith]

A staple remover works as a bottle opener, too...

[Beebs]

My vacuum sealer: Get a straw, a ziploc and insert the straw, sealing the whole top except where the straw is poked through. Suck the air out and move your fingers fast.

Me too!! Although last time I did this with a bag of fresh baked cookies, I ended up nearly choking on a couple crumbs that went up the straw....

I use chopsticks to stir and strain cocktails. I don't have barspoons or strainers.

I also use my finger or a handy pen to stir milk into my coffee.

[Rover]

I use a plastic bag with the corner snipped off to pipe fillings for deviled eggs, Gougères, melted chocolate, etc., - works like a charm.

[feedmec00kies]

I use chopsticks to stir and strain cocktails. I don't have barspoons or strainers.

Growing up, we didn't really have mixing spoons or whisks around in the house. Chopsticks were the all-purpose mixing/stirring/tossing utensil. We used them to toss freshly dressed salads, beat eggs for omelets (frittata actually), mix the batter for pancakes and matzoh brei, etc.

[andiesenji]

I make regular forays to office supply stores to look for things I can use in the kitchen.

In other threads I have written about the handy mesh containers intended for various things from pencils to file folders that are handy in the kitchen.

I keep all the little jars and bottles in my fridge in these as it makes it much easier to find them and much easier and far faster to clean the fridge shelves as I only have to pull out these instead of all those individual little jars and bottles.

The round ones intended for pencils and etc., come in different sizes. The small ones are good for those little items that tend to get lost in drawers. Little cheese spreaders, canape forks, and demitasse spoons.

I use the big ones for larger utensils. They need to be weighted so I go to pet stores to buy the glass marbles that are used in fish tanks.

To clean the marbles, I put them in a mesh bag and it goes into the dishwasher on the top rack.

I use binder clips from the tiny to the largest for many tasks in the kitchen.

From the garden shop I buy the long, double ended hooks made for hanging pots but they are also handy for hanging kitchen stuff within reach when you have a high ceiling. They are available in various lengths and in various colors: black, white, bronze and green. If you have a wire-bending gig you can make your own but they are inexpensive so I don't bother.

Look at this page and see how many things might have a use in your kitchen.