What do you use, a 500-stroke protocol?
Surely DW has made upgrade purchases for some items, yes?
You might try making the case for needing different sizes of fillet knife. Tomorrowâs salmon versus yesterdayâs whitebaitâŚ
At least. 
DW? Upgrading me maybe. She always introduces me: âThis is my first husbandâŚâ which is a worry.
Iâm not making a case for anything, just fretting a bit about a weakness.
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How about your grab your new Global G-30 and introduce âThis is my other wife!â
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IMO,
Weâve morphed from âupgradingâ to âbuying most anything to feed a cooking hobbyâ seamlesslyâwhich is OKâbut a whole lot less interesting.
To me, upgrading implies growth: technically in the tool; culturally in how and what one cooks. It suggests changes in cooking that should be exciting.
Supporting a hobby purchases are more to show friends and neighbors.
Iâve done both, with more than a few ECI to support my hobbyâeven years back:
but upgrades get to the heart of home cook art, and my knife batterie upgrades have helped me to grow the most.
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Threads run their course and free to morph but some of your assumptions could use a little more thought.
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Agreed. I removed my like, but to clarify I initially gave it because I agreed with the sentence about morphing from upgrading to supporting a hobby. To me upgrading and supporting a hobby can certainly blur. As for friends gawking at my stuff, if it piques their interest in cooking, that is a good thing.
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I agree with Ray on the morphing. Itâs part of the normal threadâs lifecycle.
Like @Chemicalkinetics mentions, some people just like to have the latest and greatest tech be it the iPhone or Android. Some people like to be out on the bleeding edge of things. Some may indeed do it for attention while others donât. Iâm politely disagreeing with Rayâs assumption hereâŚand I am not often accused of being all that polite of a person. Lolol.
I agree in general, but isnât there a point where a bit of âcollectingâ enters in naturally? Iâm speaking strictly as a home cook without any formal training.
Iâm a big fan of Le Creuset ECI and I absolutely buy it to use it. But there are a few pieces that spoke to me that I bought without a real purpose for them.
Pie birds? Theyâre more for kitchen decoration than anything else. ECI terrine? Well Julia Child had one very much like it and itâs so flipping beautiful and IT WAS ON CLEARANCE!
I may not be in the market for Chemâs $1600 knife example, but I can sure understand why someone would be.
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Hi Jen,
I started my ECI purchases with specific cooking goals, and expanded them with purpose, but begin to blur in design, color, and presentationâas I got very good at finding value on the internet. I always make sure I cook with every piece I acquireâand Iâve got very good at one pot meals. Iâve also done some âgifting.â
As my hobby matures, Iâm getting more and more focusedâand âupgradingâ is a bigger and bigger deal.
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I âcollectâ oddments, mostly French. Hand carved butter rollers, pyramidal confiture jars, purposeful plates and flatware. I âaccumulateâ ECI and friends, and store it as discreetly as possible, in no way using it as kitchen decor. I buy them because I love them, love Staub 's glazes that are so deep you feel you could dive into them. Each piece, shape, size has a different use, but, get serious, each need could be satisfied with a simpler pot or pan. I buy them in my time and at my price because they make my heart sing. No apologies.
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Yes , Pilgrim,
Loud and clear.
Why O why did you put more ideas in my head? Butter rollers? Confiture jars? Here I thought I was ok keeping European style butter in a butter bell and putting up preserves in Mason jars.
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To repeat, in order to infect, these conceits need to touch your heart, inner need, smile button. We each have our own. Husband has several 'groups of stuff" that I appreciate while not understanding at all!
Yes to butter bells. Yes to cultured butter and yes to keeping butter out of the fridge (note: in the winter I deliberately keep my place not toasty. Iâd run the A/C in the summer like a fridge if my conscience would let me, so butter on the counter for me). Right before the pandemic I got it into my noggin to make cultured butter. eBay provided me with a jar churner and Amazon followed up with butter paddles, but then I retreated into my cave and making butter was the last thing on my mind. Now I shall sally forth and attempt it. Thanks, I think. Confiture jars? I realize I actually have some of those, but I donât know why or when I got them. I have plastic snap-on lids for them; obviously not meant for canning. I do have a jar of fig preserves from my Grandmotherâs âfruit closetâ where she stashed her preserves and jellies and chow chow and pickled peppers (She disdained Certo or Sure -Jell; thought it was cheating). The fig preserves are In a Mason Jar. They are also probably at least 50 years old. Iâm not opening themâŚ
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This is the type of confiture jar I mentioned. You fill it, float a layer of eau de vie over the top to sterilize, then cover with waxed or oiled paper, tying the paper in place with twine and securing under the ridge.
I have never used them in their intended way, usually for desserts like this rice pudding with caramel.
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I used to like butter bellsâuntil I had an indescribably disgusting experience with one involving anerobic bacteria. Conjure the worst possible smell, and it would be better than this smell. Never again.
I like the concept, but there are also other issue. Butter bells sometime have unglazed rims, which are are an invitation for butterfat to enter into the ceramic. This may be the reason for my horrible experience. But IME, you can see discoloration under the glaze, and this is a bad sign.
The other issue I had with bells was they actually didnât hold much butter.
Iâve shifted back to just using a 1-cube-sized covered butter dish outside the fridge.
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I have this:
However, my first one just randomly exploded while sitting on the counter. I see some reviewers have experienced the same thing. Mine was not a thermal shock, but it was a shock!
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Yuck. So sorry. Mine is marble, holds a stick and a half, and so far just provides tasty, spreadable butter. I have shifted to salted. My stick for cooking is unsalted.
