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Unusual & mysterious kitchen gadgets

andiesenji

By andiesenji
in Kitchen Consumer

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Dr. Teeth

Dr. Teeth

Posted
Posted (edited)

Wood handle makes me think it doesn't go into deep fat.    The fact that it has a lid that seals makes me think it does get submerged when used.  Maybe a tea fob? or an infuser, like instead of a cheese cloth bundle.

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

Any ideas?

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Edited by Dr. Teeth (log)
andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Herb infuser basket for herbs that have to be simmered for longer than just steeping like tea.

The handle floats.

  • 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

 

  • 3 weeks later...
Eatmywords

Eatmywords

Posted
Posted

Croque monsieur pan w a sea shell cast (passed down from mom). Not that unusual but prob not too common either (at least here in the US).  Guessing it's about 60yrs old. One of my earliest and fondest memories of hangin w mom in the kitchen.   Clearly remember getting it hot, buttering the top slice then the bottom pan before careful insertion, locking and trimming the sides : )  

 

It's well made. Even the wood handles show very little deterioration.  Never tried the waffle side or understood how it would hold batter given the small area. 

 

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  • Like 9

That wasn't chicken

  • 8 months later...
chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted

We haven't had a post in this thread for a while, so I thought I'd revive it. Saw this on Twitter this morning, OP has no clue (nor does her 95-yo German mom).

 

Es2YzqwVoAEPYSf.thumb.jpeg.4ae36b6eed209541eeaf5a696edc2958.jpeg

“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

 

Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted

Interesting! The mechanism itself looks like some diabolical piece of Harmonica. It looks like it would be good to squeeze juice out of a piece of celery. Do you have any idea how big it is?

Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, IowaDee said:

Something to do with making kraut?  I have no clue.

I used to watch my German grandmother make kraut And all she ever used was A great big huge butcher knife . She would make 20 heads of cabbage at a time and it seems to me that a gadget like this would take forever.

chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted
48 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Interesting! The mechanism itself looks like some diabolical piece of Harmonica. It looks like it would be good to squeeze juice out of a piece of celery. Do you have any idea how big it is?

No context, you know what I know. Most of the guesses on that thread parallel the ones here, but none of them are especially persuasive. I think it's one of those "you know it or you don't" kind of deals.

“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

 

chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted

A bit of clicking-through turned up other threads on other sites, and some better photos:

https://imgur.com/gallery/d2tAiA8

 

Apparently this one has been circulating through forums and discussion groups for a decade or so, and has spawned numerous threads on Reddit (one of them extending to over 1000 comments) and there is as yet no really persuasive explanation (nor, indeed, is it 100% certain to be a kitchen gizmo though that's still the leading hypothesis).

 

At least a couple of families that have one use it for gripping the tail of a fish for skinning/scaling purposes, but - again - there's no consensus that this is actually its intended use.

  • Like 3

“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

 

Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted (edited)
26 minutes ago, chromedome said:

I think it's one of those "you know it or you don't" kind of deals.

I think it's also probably generational. It looks very old. My mother was one that collected every gadget came around and she never had anything like this. I guess we will have to wait until @andiesenji weighs in, she's usually right on the money .

As for using it for skinning or scaling fish, scaling maybe but that's where you start the skinning process and I can't see it working for that. I've worked around a lot of fishmongers and chefs while they are skinning fish and I've done a fair amount myself. I can't see using this thing when a good towel will hold it just as well. But then, what do I know. Whatever its original purpose was, it apparently didn't get much use because it Is still in almost perfect condition. Maybe it didn't work very well.

Edited by Tropicalsenior (log)
  • Like 1
Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted

Has anyone provided a definitive answer to the manufacturer's name? It looks like "Gizen" to me, but I strongly suspect that's not correct.

 

The gadget looks to me like an adjustable grater. 

"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

AlaMoi

AlaMoi

Posted
Posted

looks to squeeze or hold something that - that is already tapered in width and thickness

or to squeeze&taper&elongate in thickness like a dough.

 

the mechanism appears to "lock" at specific 'thickness' - so squeeze&taper&elongate would be tedious.

 

'holding' a cheese wedge comes to mind - but I doubt it.... 

MokaPot

MokaPot

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, chromedome said:

We haven't had a post in this thread for a while, so I thought I'd revive it. Saw this on Twitter this morning, OP has no clue (nor does her 95-yo German mom).

 

Es2YzqwVoAEPYSf.thumb.jpeg.4ae36b6eed209541eeaf5a696edc2958.jpeg

 

Could you post photos from alternate angles?

 

Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, AlaMoi said:

the mechanism appears to "lock" at specific 'thickness' - so squeeze&taper&elongate would be tedious.

My thoughts exactly. The way the parts move do not suggest grating. Also the bottom plate does not look like an old-style grater. More like a Microplane , which is a lot later origin.

chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted

All of the photos I have access to are on the imgur link.

 

Consensus on the earlier posts is that the brand name is Pavian, which is baboon in German but apparently also a surname.

  • 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

 

MokaPot

MokaPot

Posted
Posted

It does look like it has locking points, like @AlaMoi said. I don't think it's a grater. I think it's a squeezer that you can adjust gradually on the locking points (to extract water, oil, etc.).

 

474398429_ScreenShot2021-01-30at10_13_10AM.thumb.png.5d2ffc0e41bf0048628da01c7f3bb39f.png

 

Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, weinoo said:

french fry cutter.

I don't see any cutting blades. And cutting would require a continuous motion where this seems to lock in place at various locations. The locking mechanism also rules out its use as a squeezer or juice press. I'm inclined to think that it has nothing to do with food prep.

  • Like 3
liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I'm inclined to think that it has nothing to do with food prep.

 

What I thought all along.

  • Like 1
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted

It has 3 different locking settings as opposed to a ratchet kind of lock which would accommodate more varied diameters (eg carrots).  It may be designed for a proprietary machine of some sort.  I lean away from a cooking use, although the red handles don't look industrial at all.

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