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Multi-Tasking Equipment


Kim Shook

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I have used a Leaf Hog to REALLY get a charcoal grill up to speed in a hurry.

Think outside the box, guys. It's amazing the culinary uses you can put common wodworking tools to. I use my low-angle Stanley block plane as a mandoline every so often.

This whole love/hate thing would be a lot easier if it was just hate.

Bring me your finest food, stuffed with your second finest!

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It's not completely outside the box, but...I use my potato ricer to squeeze moisture out of blanched spinach. Gets out way more water than my bare hands, and doesn't leave me with a drippy towel.

A little more outside the box, I have a large drywall spatula that I use in place of a bench scraper when I want lots of width. Birthday gift from my hubby a couple of years ago.

I want a lathe for my kitchen, to quickly and easily remove the skin from butternut squashes. My husband hasn't gone for it yet.

MelissaH

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MelissaH

Oswego, NY

Chemist, writer, hired gun

Say this five times fast: "A big blue bucket of blue blueberries."

foodblog1 | kitchen reno | foodblog2

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I have used a Leaf Hog to REALLY get a charcoal grill up to speed in a hurry.

Think outside the box, guys.  It's amazing the culinary uses you can put common wodworking tools to.  I use my low-angle Stanley block plane as a mandoline every so often.

Oh, puhleez! Where do think the microplane zester go its' start? :laugh: My old fashioned potato masher (the kind with the "s" curves) used to live on the pull chain of the overhead kitchen fan, which was just a leedle bit too high for me to reach easily

"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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. . .

Think outside the box, guys.  It's amazing the culinary uses you can put common wodworking tools to.  I use my low-angle Stanley block plane as a mandoline every so often.

Now that is what I call multi-tasking! Way to go!

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

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From the hardware store the plastic squares for putting on tile adhesive...they have a different pattern on each side.

Cake decorating

tracey

The great thing about barbeque is that when you get hungry 3 hours later....you can lick your fingers

Maxine

Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

"It is the government's fault, they've eaten everything."

My Webpage

garden state motorcyle association

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I have used a Leaf Hog to REALLY get a charcoal grill up to speed in a hurry.

Think outside the box, guys.  It's amazing the culinary uses you can put common wodworking tools to.  I use my low-angle Stanley block plane as a mandoline every so often.

We've been doing this at the American Royal BBQ for years. At first 'purists' scoffed but I've noticed more and more of them turning up. When it's cold and/or damp or the night-duty officer falls asleep at the switch it sure comes in handy. :wink:

Judy Jones aka "moosnsqrl"

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.

M.F.K. Fisher

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I wasn't around to see it happen but when I was in the Army, at Fort Carson, CO in the late '80s, one of the Combat Engineer units had a company picnic; and, boys being boys, used Thermit (25%Ferrous sulfate and 75% powdered aluminum) in 1-kilo bricks to get the barbecue started. Mind you, this is something that burns hot enough to cut right through a cement bridge deck; you can just imagine the results.

My brother-in-law's boss SWEARS by liquid oxygen to get the coals up to temp. He claims something like thirty seconds from lighting the match to ready for the chicken thighs. I've never seen it, but I've met him and I believe him capable of it.

I bought a 10" butcher's cleaver in an antique store last week, and am currently regrinding it into a single-bevel santoku. Carbon-steel custom knife for $5, plus my labor; not too shabby. Does that count as multi-tasking, or is that recycling?

This whole love/hate thing would be a lot easier if it was just hate.

Bring me your finest food, stuffed with your second finest!

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I'm also a kitchen scissors fan, using them to trim artichokes, snip herbs, slice string beans, open difficult packaging, etc. But maybe the strangest thing I've done is take my electric drill, attach a clean paint mixer to it, and whirl the mixer in a bucket full of fresh grapes to crush for making wine. That was before I got onto a co-op where they crush the grapes for you.

The paint mixer, I used to mix my handmade soap with, till I imported a much better squirrel-cage soap mixer. Still on this non-food tangent, I have seen photos of a soapworks where the salt scrubs were mixed in a small cement mixer.

Miriam

Miriam Kresh

blog:[blog=www.israelikitchen.com][/blog]

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I have used a Leaf Hog to REALLY get a charcoal grill up to speed in a hurry.

That's what my brother does to ready the charcoal for his smoker. The neighbors are really gonna love him Thanksgiving morning when he gets up in the wee morning hours to start the process for his yearly smoked turkey. :raz:

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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You know those useless butter curl gadgets .. they are truly wonderful for reaming the seeds out of squash and pumpkins and getting all the flesh off watermelon rind if you need to carve one for a fruit salad.

Since I'm a little vertically challenged, tongs work to retrieve all sorts of things from high and low places.

Silicone hot pads can be used to snuff out chafer fuel, and other assorted kitchen or BBQ emergencies.

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A planer works nicely when you want shaved parm.  It's easier than the veg peeler, and feels better in the hand.

OK.  So the router and random orbital sander.  Any kitchen ideas?

I could see using a laminate trimmer (small router) to carve designs in slab chocolate. It'd be a lot faster than carving, especially if you had a plunge or offset fitting for the trimmer and templates to follow.

And I've taken the random-orbit sander to a badly scuffed flattop griddle at a restaurant i used to work at. But a disc grinder fitted with a wire wheel is the bees knees for cleaning old, caked-on grease off old pans. I also went after the bolster on my big Wusthofs with my Makita belt sander to break over the edges so I didn't end up with a big callus on the side of my right index finger. By Crom, it's all coming back to me!! I brought my welding rig and hoses in when we had a catering event with 650 Creme brulees to torch. Used my Lie-Nielsen scraper plane to get a fresh surface on the HDPE cutting boards. Have used a big pepper mill as a mallet before. Cut up deer with the bandsaw but that's pretty comon. Used plastique to cook food. Used my car engine to cook food. Opened a can with a pointy rock a couple times.

And I confess I once used a butter knife as a screwdriver, but felt really bad about it.

Do I win? :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

This whole love/hate thing would be a lot easier if it was just hate.

Bring me your finest food, stuffed with your second finest!

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I never feel bad about using a butter knife for a screwdriver. Meat Mallet for a hammer yes, then I feel bad. I have also used a Ginsu Knife to strip bark off of a Cedar tree we were using in construction....

tracey

The great thing about barbeque is that when you get hungry 3 hours later....you can lick your fingers

Maxine

Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

"It is the government's fault, they've eaten everything."

My Webpage

garden state motorcyle association

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My dad once used a tray as a mouse-catcher. He was carrying the tray full of implements out to the barbecue when he spotted the mouse scurrying away in the kitchen. Quick thinker that he was, he slammed the tray down and pinned the mouse to the floor.

He then used the meat mallet as a mouse-skull smasher.

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

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"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

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Reefpimp et al - I am LOL and ying with laughter with all of these posts. I would confess using my kitchen scissors to death too. When my mom came over to visit me from the Philippines, she was appalled at the way I would use my scissors to cut:

noodles

chicken

pieces of seaweed wrapper

meat into bite-size pieces for my 5 year old

etc. etc...

Then when she left Korea, she brought home 2 exact replicas of my kitchen scissors so she could do the same things that I have done.

I hate to waste anything and I have found that the broader tipped hemostats are great for picking the "eyes" from a pineapple without wasting any of the pineapple flesh. It's quick too.

I have also used my electric wand salamander to loosen the stick-on shelf liner that some idiot stuck inside an antique Hoosier cabinet I bought a few years ago. I didn't want to damage the original paint and was afraid anything else would do major damage.

I no longer used it, since getting a torch, however I am holding on to it because they apparently no longer make them. It has Weissen on the top of the plate and below that a "3" stamped into the metal.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"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 never feel bad about using a butter knife for a screwdriver. Meat Mallet for a hammer yes, then I feel bad. I have also used a Ginsu Knife to strip bark off of a Cedar tree we were using in construction....

tracey

I remember in high school (either fresman or sophmore year- I'd been dumped in a boarding school on Long Island, and sprung by my Mom for the weekend) going to visit a friend of her's not far from the school, who was a clueless "batchelor" who lived with a "friend" , and using a claw hammer to tenderize a top round steak so it could be quickly cooked! :rolleyes:

"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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I bought thispastry blender from King Arthur Flour and got rid of my potato masher altogether. It's strong enough to do just about anything that needs mashing...potatoes, bananas, etc as well as doing a good job with pastry.

I used to use my egg slicer for mushrooms and strawberries but after breaking 2 or 3 on strawberries I noticed this at a kitchen store although I think I only paid $11 CAD for it. It's way heavier than an egg slicer and although you might not use it for eggs it's plenty strong enough to use for slicing a number of other food items.

Someone mentioned the melon baller for scooping out the center of an apple but I also use it everyday for coring apples to send in lunches. Just cut in half and scoop out the core. Way faster than a knife especially when making apple pie. And of course it would work for pears as well.

Edited by CanadianBakin' (log)

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Orison Swett Marden

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I bought thispastry blender from King Arthur Flour and got rid of my potato masher altogether. It's strong enough to do just about anything that needs mashing...potatoes, bananas, etc as well as doing a good job with pastry.

I used to use my egg slicer for mushrooms and strawberries but after breaking 2 or 3 on strawberries I noticed this at a kitchen store although I think I only paid $11 CAD for it. It's way heavier than an egg slicer and although you might not use it for eggs it's plenty strong enough to use for slicing a number of other food items.

Someone mentioned the melon baller for scooping out the center of an apple but I also use it everyday for coring apples to send in lunches. Just cut in half and scoop out the core. Way faster than a knife especially when making apple pie. And of course it would work for pears as well.

Those are two really neat tools. Thank you for sharing!

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

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Amazon has that pastry blender for 19.95.

pastry blender

I have one from Denmark that I like very much, different type handle - I posted a photo of a bunch of whisks that included it. Works better than anything else I have ever tried.

I bought it in Solvang, CA .

gallery_17399_60_1102052577.jpg

Its the one with the white tape on the handle.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"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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Marcia's (purplewiz's) recent dinner post (click here)) reminds me that during these dark times, a flashlight can be essential for grilling. So, for the single flashlight that resides at our house -- the rest are at the cabin -- I bought batteries and a new bulb today. Any other uses for the flashlight?

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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Yes: It can be used two ways to start a fire:

1) Short out the battery contacts with steel wool soaked in motor oil or liberally covered in cedar shavings or the ilk.

2) (Much more impressive and efficient) Remove the reflector bowl from the flashlight; put a bunch of flammable material at the bowl's focal point; aim it at the sun. Works like a bloody CHAMP!! I've actuaslly done this twice while backpacking in South America.

Reading this thread, I am beginning to believe that I might be able to put almost anything to some culinary or at least cooking-related purpose as long ass we're not talking about actual toxic waste or medical HAZMATs.

This whole love/hate thing would be a lot easier if it was just hate.

Bring me your finest food, stuffed with your second finest!

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Marcia's (purplewiz's) recent dinner post (click here)) reminds me that during these dark times, a flashlight can be essential for grilling.  So, for the single flashlight that resides at our house -- the rest are at the cabin -- I bought batteries and a new bulb today.  Any other uses for the flashlight?

If it's a good one, like a MagLite, or some such, it probably would make a pretty good meat tenderizer, but I usually prefer a claw hammer (see up-thread) for that. :laugh:

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"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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Sheesh - where are all our innovative and imaginative cooks? There must be loads of things we use to do things other than intended.

How's this for multi tasking

A stir crazy popcorn maker with a ring form pan topped with a turbo convection oven. The unit with the mesh basket is a fan used in blue prints

This is my home coffee roaster and cooling station.

gallery_6878_3833_92516.jpg

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