I have a Lodge and I love it. Price is much better, too!
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Hands down the most useless kitchen item i ever owned was an electric salad spinner/chopper. The chopper chopped veggies too small so they shot through the spinner basket holes so both functions could not even work simultaneously. A total space waster donated after one use.
Hi NotJr,
The food processor makes excellent peanut butter, and acceptable hummus. It is also useful for small batches of dough. It makes good pasta dough. I always knead by hand for a few more minutes, in abject obedience to Marcella Hazan, but the result is worth it.
I use my mini-prep for nuts, bread crumbs, pesto, falafel, and shredding cheese for mac & cheese (because 1.5 lbs is a lot to grate by hand). Itās small and a cinch to clean - the blade, the bowl and the lid all go into the dishwasher. And it makes much-better-than-acceptable hummus, but Iām one of those freaks that takes the skin off each chickpea. If anyone knows of a chickpea-skinning machine, let me know, 'cause Iād be all over it.
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Peanut butter could be interesting, I do my pasta by hand then have a hand crank pasta maker I feed it thru for desired thickness and type.
Rice cooker. We were given one for a Christmas present by people who didnāt cook. They thought a rice cooker would be greatāit wasnāt. Used it once, decided that my heavy sauce pan did a better job, and the rice cooker became a donation to a thrift shop (still had the original box, instructions, and the thing looked brand new!).
For some reason my husband gave me a dough whisk used by some monks to make their artisan breads. I can understand why they are monksāno one else would use this thing unless they had hardy monk-like biceps. It sits with my other whisks which are used often. The dough whisk was used once, and if anyone other than my beloved husband had given it to me, the thing would be in the trash!
That is nice. You probably can just rinse it with strong water flow.
Every time I hear about a monk made this or a monk used thisā¦ I always chuckle
Aeropress was depressingly bad to me, but some folks love all the acids removed or something. For me, it made dead coffee. I donated it. I love French press, vacuum pot, pour over and Technivorm drip.
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I better read up the Aeropress because a lot of things are still not clear.
You donāt use any spices, as opposed to herbs?
When you do, pay attention to what fans describe the difference as, and see if that squares with your own preferences. Itās someone elseās tastebuds, Your mileage will always vary.
I, too, use one of the hand-crank pasta makers. But I like the food processor so that I donāt have to scrape everything off my hands.
For peanut butter, I buy a bag of roasted and salted peanuts. It sure beats Skippy!
I have pieces of Lodge, LeCreuset (a gift) and Staub. I use them interchangeably based on size.
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Former CH and cook extraordinaire Alan Barnes turned me onto the rice cooker. Wouldnāt consider not having and using it. I figure if damn near Asian household has oneā¦
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I have pepper corns that I grind, black and white, and I also have nutmeg that I grate with an eentsy teeny grater (it came with the nutmeg nuts, inside) the jar. I have some cinnamon sticks. I buy saffron when I need it. Canāt think of anything else. But even the prepared food I buy from gastronomie in Italy or eat in restaurants rarely has spices in it, at least not in the places I travel most frequently in Italy. Maybe the āspiciestā food I ever ate in Italy was in Friuli-Venezia-Giulia or the parts of the Trento-Alto Adige that eat goulash or use juniper berries. But if you look at typical classic recipes from most of Italy ā like a ragu from Bologna, or a pesto, or even something officially āspicyā like an arrabbiata, there arenāt any spices in it. I donāt cook anything but Italian food when I am in Italy. For one thing, itās too hard to find the non-Italian-type ingredients. I also just like eating local!
That is true. When I was living in Italy it was pretty much the same, though I took some Maghrebi spices - from France, upon request from Italian friends. Now those would be available in Rome, in Sicily, probably even in Perugia due to the number of āforeign studentsā and former ones who have stayed on. I forgot you were living in Italy.
I have been living in rather small nyc apartments for the past 15 yrs or so which means if I donāt need ot and use it often I donāt own itā¦ When i moved last winter the apple core-er (?) that never properly got out all of the core was tossed out, and the beautiful martini shaker I received as a gift years ago yet used once (i never make mixed drinks at home) met its maker along with the two martini glasses-donated to Housing Works.
I have three different wine openers that are all three temperamental, I threaten them regularly yet canāt seem to predict when which one will work properly for meā¦
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I gave mine away about ten years ago.
Whoa, thatās honestly the first report Iāve heard of anyone disliking it. Lots of coffeeshops around me have started adopting it as their go-to method for single cup brewing rather than pour-overs. Quite honestly, it makes the best coffee Iāve had at home ā far richer than a French Press. Definitely doesnāt āremove the acidsā, never heard that before.
