Most Useless Kitchen Items and Utensils

[fresco]

I have a few candidates, but topping the list is a shrimp deveiner. I bought it. It works, sort of, but so does the tip of a knife. What's yours?

[Varmint]

I actually use a shrimp deveiner, although I usually get my shrimp peeled and deveined.

My most useless utensil is an egg separator. I've only kept it because it's an antique.

[Anna N]

A tiny, wooden, mortar and pestle - received as a gift when I wanted one of those huge, heavy monsters a la Jamie Oliver. It collects dust but I can't get rid of it as the person who gave it to me keeps a close eye on it!

[melkor]

Lets see... in the garage there are a few boxes full of useless kitchen gear:

flour sifter

bread maker

recipe book holder

those fork thingies that came with a roasting pan

apple corer

donut cutter

non-remote meat thermometer

ice spoon that came with an ice bucket (now used for wine)

some awful t-fal pans

"the chopper machine" - one of those useless push down chopping things

I don't think I can pick a most useless, and I'm sure there are other things in the boxes, but wow do I have a lot of useless kitchen junk.

[FistFullaRoux]

A garlic press. My wife bought it from one of those in-home demonstration pyramid scheme things for $15. Then I went to BB&B and got a stainless steel board scraper for $4. And we had a little contest.

If I ever have to mash a really small potato, I'll dig it out and use it, though...

Edited November 21, 2003 by FistFullaRoux (log)

[Nick]

I just looked through the drawer and found a tea ball. When I was growing up we had a tea ball that never got used. I guess I'm just upholding an old family tradition.

No one I know deveins shimp including me. Lobsters yes, shrimp no.

Edited November 21, 2003 by Nick (log)

[fifi]

Probably from the same home demonstration thingy I have this hopeless cutter thing that has a wavy patterned blade. It is supposed to make "wavy cut vegetables for an attractive crudite tray". It was so big and klutzy and I never used it. So I threw it in the yard.

I had high hopes for the Kyocera julienne slicer. I had visions of mounds of julienne jicama slaw. It doesn't work, unless you are trying to make jicama or carrot juice. At that price I should send it back.

[bloviatrix]

I would have to say it's the garlic press. I have one sitting in the drawer that has probably been used twice in 8 plus years. It's easier to chop the garlic with a knife.

I also have one of those apple slicer things - it's round and cuts through the apple making small wedges but leaves the core in tact. Again, a knife works just as well, if not better.

If I was smart I would just toss these things out as they take up precious space.

[margaret]

I just looked through the drawer and found a tea ball. When I was growing up we had a tea ball that never got used. I guess I'm just upholding an old family tradition.

No one I know deveins shimp including me. Lobsters yes, shrimp no.

I have many lonely tea balls, too.

And I use a toothpick to devein shrimp.

[ronnie_suburban]

It's my flour duster. I can throw flour down onto a board just fine using only my hands

But what difference does it make? Since I'm completely incapable of throwing anything away, it'll stay in the kitchen until one of us dies

=R=

[jo-mel]

I have so many useless things, I don't know where to start. Most have been tossed in a box in the basement. Those roasting pan fork thingies, are in that box, too.

Once I almost had a complete collection of garlic presses. One day I used a cheese grater (1/8 inch holes) and expirimented. TaDa! Iuse it exclusively for garlic and ginger. I don't even peel. (The garlic peel stay on the top side) My cleaver is a runner up for garlic. When someone called a cleaver "a Chinese food processor" he wasn't far from wrong!

[=Mark]

I've got a shrimp deveiner that actually works pretty well, and I've used it to do pounds of shrimp.

I agree with the garlic press, just as easy to whack with the bottom of the closest vinegar, soy sauce, worcester sauce or olive oil bottle and remove the skins &chop.

My other useless item is the single tine skewar that lets grilled foods do the "food spin" thing.

[tommy]

vacu vin wine saver

[Varmint]

Wine Clip.

[Mayhaw Man]

The garlic press that I recieved when I got married has been used all of one or two times. I have moved it to three different houses and two apartments in the last twenty years. I have no idea why.

I have a tea ball, and haven't made tea in years. But since it is made of non reactive metal, I have found it very useful as a garni holder in soups. It actually works great for this purpose.

I have a top o' the line ricer that I need to put in someone's garage sale. Pain in the ass to use and worse to clean up. What's the point?

[Varmint]

I'm still a big garlic press lover. Call me crazy.

[Mayhaw Man]

I'm still a big garlic press lover. Call me crazy.

Gladly,

Varmint, you must be crazy

[Varmint]

I've argued this elsewhere, but I buy my garlic that has been already peeled at a cost around the same as unpeeled garlic. It's fresh. I can mince 2 or 3 cloves of garlic in 2 seconds, and I don't have a cutting board to clean up. The press is that easy. And I defy anyone to prove to me that finely minced garlic tastes any different when pushed through a press or when minced with a knife.

[tommy]

And I defy anyone to prove to me that finely minced garlic tastes any different when pushed through a press or when minced with a knife.

i think sam will be here in a matter of minutes to disprove your theory with scientific evidence and an eGCI course.

Edited November 21, 2003 by tommy (log)

[bleachboy]

Those stupid "wine charms" - little pendants you're supposed to wrap around the stem of your wine glass so you know which one is yours. I get them every Christmas it seems, as they're cheap and lots of people know I like wine.

I have never once ever, in my entire life, experienced "wine confusion". Does anybody really use these things?

[Nick]

I have a tea ball, and haven't made tea in years. But since it is  made of non reactive metal, I have found it very useful as a garni holder in soups. It actually works great for this purpose.

Now there's an idea! Thanks!

[KarenS]

cheap

zesters

or

melon

ballers-

they

break

after

using

once

or

twice.

[tommy]

I have never once ever, in my entire life, experienced "wine confusion". Does anybody really use these things?

you've never lost track of your glass when there are 3 or 4 on a table? i have, and i use those things whenever i think of it. the problem is, i always forget which freakin charm i am.

[Varmint]

I have never once ever, in my entire life, experienced "wine confusion".  Does anybody really use these things?

you've never lost track of your glass when there are 3 or 4 on a table? i have, and i use those things whenever i think of it. the problem is, i always forget which freakin charm i am.

You're the pink clover.

Those things were invented for my mother-in-law. She easily goes through 4 different glasses at a party if she didn't have one. Hers is quite distinctive.

[Schneier]

I just looked through the drawer and found a tea ball. When I was growing up we had a tea ball that never got used. I guess I'm just upholding an old family tradition.

No one I know deveins shimp including me. Lobsters yes, shrimp no.

I use my tea ball all the time.