Jump to content

  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Unusual & mysterious kitchen gadgets

andiesenji

By andiesenji
in Kitchen Consumer

 Share

Recommended Posts

JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
43 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

I have seen them being used on street food stalls in northern China to spread pancake batter evenly. I'd  call it a pancake spreader, but the notable lack of forest fires in northern China proves it's efficacy as a rake. Pancake experts, being able to pour evenly, don't need to use rakes, but then government regulations make sure they never operate in forest areas.

Does Finland have pancakes? I'm sure they must.

 

I am currently reading Magnus Nilsson's The Nordic Baking Book.  Sadly there is a dearth of Finish pancakes, but there is one recipe, veriohukaiset, blood pancakes, that might appeal to you.  Onions are optional, if inauthentic -- sugared lingonberries are suggested.

 

  • Like 1

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

Link to comment
Share on other sites
liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

I am currently reading Magnus Nilsson's The Nordic Baking Book.  Sadly there is a dearth of Finish pancakes, but there is one recipe, veriohukaiset, blood pancakes, that might appeal to you.  Onions are optional, if inauthentic -- sugared lingonberries are suggested.

 

 

Blodplättar. I've eaten that, but in Norway. No forest fires there, either.  It's all beginning to make sense!

Edited by liuzhou (log)
  • Like 3

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, liuzhou said:

 

Blodplättar. I've eaten that, but in Norway. No forest firs there, either.  It's all beginning to make sense!

 

The Norwegian name is given as Blodpannekake.  Finns also have Uunipannukakku, thick oven baked pancakes, "a bit like a fried Danish pastry."

 

Nordics have a lot of firs but they bake bread from lichens and the bark.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

Link to comment
Share on other sites
heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted

Our local Farmers Market crepe vendor uses a flat metal tool that works similarly. See woman on right. The flat griddle is typical . It is lovely to watch the deft hand movement that spreads the batter on the hot surface.  crepes2.JPG

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Smithy

Smithy

Posted
Posted
57 minutes ago, DesertTinker said:

@Smithy Here’s one in use that’s the same style as @liuzhou has. 

 

That is very different than what I'd envisioned. What a lovely, delicate pancake/crepe confection she produced! Thank you very much!

  • Like 1

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

I put this on Facebook.

1047823989_ScreenShot2019-01-17at4_15_26PM.png.228ad6ca05fd81fc7a722374af4712f8.png

  • Like 2

"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

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

These were manufactured by Ekco, a company that made sets of kitchen utensils from the late 1940 to the early 1990s. 

These were invented by a woman in the early 1960s.

 

In the 1960s, a housewife was frustrated with the difficulty of handling very hot custard cups and similar vessels with NO HANDLES. Awkward to handle with thick hot pads or mitts. So she invented this "grabber" and for larger casserole or bakers, such as soufflé dishes, using two works with one in each hand.

1191609241_grabberwithdish.jpg.e1da7ee72472637c8b0b8d0db4f8fb08.jpg

I bought a set of the utensils that included a potato masher, two spatulas, one solid, one with perforations, a large solid spoon and a slotted spoon, a large fork, a ladle, and a tea strainer. The "extras" to this set sold separately were a can opener, knife sharpener, icing spatula, cake splitter, measuring spoons, measuring cups and these "grabbers."  I purchased them at Woolworth's in Burbank, CA and I still have the set of measuring spoons on their hang card.

 

  • Like 6

"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

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted

Cool. I use a Mason jar lifter for ceramic ramekins, but it's not as good with custard cups and their sloped sides.

  • Like 1

“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

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
5 hours ago, chromedome said:

Cool. I use a Mason jar lifter for ceramic ramekins, but it's not as good with custard cups and their sloped sides.

 

When I was catering, I baked a lot of things in small springform pans, as many as possible crowded onto a full size sheet pan. These were ideal for lifting them onto cooling racks.  

I used them all the time, one was always on the counter next to the ovens.

  • Like 1

"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

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rotuts

rotuts

Posted
Posted

well two are obvious :

 

1   grip a bottle cap to open     center large ' well '

 

2)  pop open a bottle w the protrusion on the top

 

the third has to to w the item on the lower R handle    have no idea until more picas are posted , like turned over , side view etc

 

nice little gadget.  maybe it glows in the dark to help you open that beer bottle in the middle of the night

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
JohnT

JohnT

Posted
Posted

The anvil shaped insert at the top of the round section is to cut the foil off the top of a sealed corked bottle (wine bottle).

  • Like 1

Cape Town - At the foot of a flat topped mountain with a tablecloth covering it.

Some time ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs. Now we have no Cash, no Hope and no Jobs. Please don't let Kevin Bacon die.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 1/24/2019 at 9:35 PM, rotuts said:

2)  pop open a bottle w the protrusion on the top 

 

Wrong

 

On 1/24/2019 at 9:44 PM, JohnT said:

The anvil shaped insert at the top of the round section is to cut the foil off the top of a sealed corked bottle (wine bottle).

 

Nope. No blade.

It doesn't glow in the dark, but the rear contains a magnet to hold to your fridge.

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted

 

On 1/24/2019 at 8:41 AM, gfweb said:

Pop top opener?

 

 

On 1/24/2019 at 7:17 PM, liuzhou said:

 

No

The Japanese in the middle says, iirc (it's been a while), "pull top opener." That's close enough to a pop top, I'd think, to award the point to gfweb. What do you think?

  • Like 1

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Alex said:

 

 

The Japanese in the middle says, iirc (it's been a while), "pull top opener." That's close enough to a pop top, I'd think, to award the point to gfweb. What do you think?

But doesn’t the post point to the wrong portion of the gadget as the pop top opener?  

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

Link to comment
Share on other sites
liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Alex said:

 

 

The Japanese in the middle says, iirc (it's been a while), "pull top opener." That's close enough to a pop top, I'd think, to award the point to gfweb. What do you think?

 

It is referring to what I call a ring pull,like on a Coke can. That is not what I think of as a pop top, but is may be a matter of different terminology in different places.

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...