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Kitchen tools you wish you had


Gary

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I often have vivid dreams wherein I wake up Christmas morning and a brand-new Hobart is sitting under the tree. Then Jacques Pepin and Jacques Torres walk in, alongside a troupe of midgets doing cartwheels, and we all proceed to make cakes and dance.

LOL LOL LOL

That is just TOO DAMN FUNNY! I am still laughing! :laugh:

maybe in your next dream, the Candy Barons will show up and dance too! :wink:

I like to cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food.

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I want pretty much any one of the cookers featured in this thread. Just one. I'm not picky.

And I'd like to have a back yard, so I could build an outdoor brick oven. Acquiring such a yard would be very expensive, given that my apartment is on the eighth floor.

Edited by SethG (log)

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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full set of silicone baking items

GAS STOVE! (currently using a 2 burner electric coil....)

superautomatic espresso machine (because I like good espresso but am too lazy to put out the effort for GREAT espresso.... :huh: )

steam oven - a friend of mine has a Miele and I've seen it in use - very cool!

One to mark off the list -

kuhn rikon SS pressure cooker - got it for xmas! :-)

Andrea

http://tenacity.net

"You can't taste the beauty and energy of the Earth in a Twinkie." - Astrid Alauda

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Food Lovers' Guide to Santa Fe, Albuquerque & Taos: OMG I wrote a book. Woo!

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A kitchen. I'm currently fixing the bathroom, and the other day, whilst in the hardware store, I wandered over and looked at faucets and sinks. I looked at the old-fashioned neo-Victorian tall chrome faucets I've a hankering for. $700-$900. Then I looked at sinks. Even a simple crappy double stainless (like the one I have) is running about $400 or more. A stunning apron sink? $1000.

The French doors I'd like to put in between kitchen and dining room, to brighten up the place? $800 (it's a large doorway, they'd have to be custom). And let's not even discuss cupboards. Or counters.

It was a hard, bitter drive home, knowing that I will never, ever have anything like the kitchen of my dreams -- and in fact will barely be able to afford to replace my shoddy, leaking "landlord faucet" with the same again as my next project!

If I had the kitchen of my dreams (including some counter and storage space) then I could have the appliances of my dreams. A chocolate-temperer would be lovely. And A. was going to buy me a KA stand mixer one birthday. Fortunately he did slip me a hint to make sure I wanted it, so I could head him off at the pass -- I don't want it badly enough to carry it up and down from the pantry (the only storage option) every time I want to use it.

Edited by CompassRose (log)
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A double sink, also deeper than the one I have now, a new kitchen aid mixer, with mincing/sausage making attachment (mine is the brown/orange kenwood 70's one).

A new ice cream maker would be nice, one with it's own freezing unit would be superb, but prices mean it'll be another pre freeze one for now!

A dishwasher would be nice and a gas hob.

Other than that all I need is more space!

Spam in my pantry at home.

Think of expiration, better read the label now.

Spam breakfast, dinner or lunch.

Think about how it's been pre-cooked, wonder if I'll just eat it cold.

wierd al ~ spam

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I want a candy pan for my Kitchen Aid

Not sure what I would do with it, but I know that it would be fun! Whatever it was. :laugh:

I've watched a lot of the "Unwrapped"shows on the Food Network where they show the candy factories using the coating machines. This little one looks good, but sooo expensive!

And thanks for the link to PastryChef.com, where they sell bulk professional ingredients to anyone.

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Shall I start with a new oven, fridge, and dishwasher?

Just kidding.

I'll settle for the more affordable that I need:

multiple pairs of beaters for the Kitchenaid mixer: so I don't have to wash up the one pair

two more Anchor-Hocking glass pie plates: so versatile; so I can make more than two pies

more silicone baking pans

pair of Orka silicone mitts: I am waiting for the price to go down

Le Creuset red heart-shaped covered casserole: I love them and give them as wedding gifts, so why can't I give one to myself?

a second oven: would be great

more silicone spatulas: the ones I have are always in the dishwasher, I use them so much

Hammersong cookie cutters: an addiction

Nordic Ware violet Bundt pan: it's just precious, with the violets on top and leaves at the base

I could go on.

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Ditto. I need a new kitchen. Actually I have a rather large kitchen, but it looks like...well, the previous owner was a dentist, and I think he used MEDICAL cabinets for the kitchen. They are LAVENDAR. Or they are just the cheapest Ikea cabinets.

So, once I get the abhorrent color squared away, I want a marble island for rolling.

I want an oven from Asia, the kind that you have TWO temperature dials for upper and lower. It does not even make sense, but I have all these recipes calling for the temperature differences. It's actually a small oven, but hauling it back from Taiwan...I wasn't about to do it.

This dream can be completed by having a fridge of my own, so my mother-in-law does not mess with my stuff and keep asking questions.

"Mom, why can't you cook like the iron chef?"
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A Steam Injection Oven

Complete set of copper cookware ( okay I am getting close on this one )

Complete set of Shun Knives

Woodburning Pizza oven -- One of these day :rolleyes:

10 Quart Mixer

Larger Prep Table - Working on this one

Walk in Cooler (and the space for it )

Never trust a skinny chef

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to tell you the truth, i'd be happy if everything i do have currently would stop falling apart. I grow tired of fixing things, let alone having things fail during critical preperation.

Dean Anthony Anderson

"If all you have to eat is an egg, you had better know how to cook it properly" ~ Herve This

Pastry Chef: One If By Land Two If By Sea

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Let's see

bigger kitchen aid with more than one bowl

a cake stand that turns

marble area for kneading dough and rolling pie crusts

waaaaaay more counter space

waaaaaay more counters to put all my gadgets in

double ovens(mine is really small)

gas stove

okay, I'll stop dreaming now

Sandra

Oh and that mis en place guy and the one who will clean up(guy who plays the gardener on desperate housewives would do in a pinch LOL) :biggrin:

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[pair of Orka silicone mitts: I am waiting for the price to go down]

I have the orka mitts, and I have to tell you they are highly overrated. It IS true that you can dip your hand in boiling water with the mitt on and never feel it - but how often does that really come up? (For me, almost never.) Also, you must be very, very sure you don't have any cracks or holes in your gloves before you try that stunt. What bothers me most about the orka mitts is they're so inflexible - trying to grab hot handles is difficult because they just don't want to bend much. I used them the other day to take baked potatoes out of the oven and grabbing individual baked potatoes was not easy, especially the runts of the batch. Trying to flip a hot waffle iron was almost impossible. The best thing about the mitts is that they can go in the dishwasher and clean up nice. I've only had the mitts for a couple weeks and I'm already thinking about retiring them.

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I was given one for my birthday last year and have never used it, too stiff and uncomfortable for my hands (arthritis).

I have been using the English made Coolskins gloves, have all three lengths, for several years.

They are much better made (and longer) than the "Ove gloves" and are sold as a pair instead of individually.

If I am going to handle something that is wet or steamy, I simply put on a rubber household glove first then the Coolskins and have had no problems.

They are flexible and make it easy to grasp knobs, loop handles and narrow handles, something that is impossible with the Orka.

They make little fingerip Orkas, but I don't trust those either, my fingers do not have a lot of gripping power.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I totally agree with the above reviews of the Orka Mitts. I have one.....it's more of a pain to use that than a regular potholder. Sure, you can touch hot objects with them on, but can you grab anything? Heck no. You put it on, try to grab a sheet pan or cookie sheet and you feel like a total retard! :wacko:

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LOL @ "mise flunky."

Annie, you fracture me sometimes. Having said that, I want one in the worst way.

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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I was looking around the Demarle website a couple of months ago, and came across a silicon sheet pan product. "Cool," I thought, "those suckers'll NEVER warp." Then, a moment later, I realized the catch. They're silicon. Whatcha gonna put 'em on, when you put 'em in the oven?

Doh. :angry:

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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i don't want flat sheet pans, i want sheets pans that NEVER warp.

Back in the 50s, when I worked in my mom's bakery, we had steel sheet pans (dark, almost black) that had corner to corner ribs welded onto the bottoms, which kept the pans absolutely flat and also held them off the oven shelves by about 1/2 inch, maybe less. (We had a Peterson revolving 16 shelf oven (like a Ferris wheel) and the shelves were solid, not grids.

Those things got banged around were washed and put in the (cooling) oven to dry and were greased and stacked ready for the next round of baking.

When and why did they stop making those great sheet pans?

was it because aluminum is so much cheaper or lighter (those steel pans were heavy) but also deformed easily and often become unusable after only a short time of use.

In the bakery, me in foreground, mom back by the oven.

gallery_17399_60_1932.jpg

This was taken in midwinter, in Wisconsin, so you can guess how warm it was in that room.

I was in the middle of banging out the first batch of bread and was interrupted by mom needing to take something else from the oven.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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