Kitchen Gadgets

I like that!!!

I just became The Butt Hero!

 

Just bought a replacement scale:



I've had a nice Salter for years. I use it all the time. Not only do some recipes call out the ingredients by weight, but I portion out ground meats into 1/2# and 1/3# patties before freezing them so it's easier to grab a specific quantity for a given recipe (I hate messing with a 1.32# frozen brick of burger.) A scale also makes using Amish butter easier, since Amish butter comes by the kilo in plain butcher paper without TB or Cup markings.

The other day I noticed that when I put an empty container on it, the displayed weight would gradually decrease, and continued to decline until the unit timed out and shut off. It wasn't a whole lot...I put the two scales side by side and stacked 15 quarters on each and let them sit. The Taylor went from 86 grams to 85 grams and stayed there. (Since there's no decimal point for the Grams scale, I can only guess the decline was a rounding issue that settled.) The Salter started at 85 grams and declined to 80 grams before it timed out and shut off.

Perhaps the spring is getting weak. I never put heavy stuff on it (the scales are rated at 10#-11# capacity) and almost always just use a paper plate or wax paper to put the food on...not a heavy bowl. It probably just wore out over time (although 5 grams is only about 1/6 of an ounce.)

The upside to the Taylor is its large LED display. The Salter had a very small LCD display so was tough to read...not only was it small, but you had to get it in direct light since it's LCD.

This is one purchase I did not over-research or angst over. Bought it off-the-shelf at Walmart so I could return it if I didn't like it. This one's a keeper.

 

My 6" cast iron pan is ideal for frying 2 eggs in. It's just the right size so the whites don't spread out too thin. The problem has been that my large turners are too big to really work in that pan. So the next time I was in town, I went to the Asian grocery store. Those places always have an aisle or two of the most random (and interesting) stuff.

So I walked to that corner of the store and saw it on the first shelf I looked, sitting right next to the back scratcher I bought when I was last in there:

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Not only is this small enough to get under the eggs in those tight quarters, it has a beveled edge so I can actually get under the eggs rather than push them around. And it's great for scraping off those stuck bits in all my cast iron pans.

 

I have a set of spatulas just like that, in varying sizes, and we also use cast iron pretty much exclusively.

 

@Beth Gallagher I'm still getting lots of use out of my Breville oven.

There are things I've made that I would not have bothered firing up my full-sized oven for, like that Baked Fried Rice I just had for dinner. I also made those lemon bars and burger buns in it. The oven is large enough to accommodate a small standard baking sheet, muffin tins, a large casserole dish, etc. (As I type this, it occurs to me that I just might make a lasagna soon.)

I find that I reheat in it a lot, too, since the Reheat cycle is designed to not dry out foods. I've redone a Thanksgiving meal several times by putting stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole on a foil-lined baking sheet and then covering it with foil. (The turkey gets reheated in gravy on the stove top.) The only thing I can't bake in it is my Italian bread...it's just not large enough to accommodate the large loaves.

Why not upgrade yours and donate the other one to a friend or to Goodwill? I will say that the only feature I've only used once is the air fryer. Because the baskets are in the open oven cavity, you cannot do stuff that drips grease (like chicken wings, or fries & onion rings that have oil sprayed on them.) I don't very often cook the kind of stuff you would air fry, so it's not big deal to me. I enjoyed the Loaded Potato Bites that I air-fried, but that's the only thing I've used that feature for.

Here's the Amazon link in case you want to, uh, look at the pictures

 

I had 2 burger bun pans I wanted to try out. One of them would not fit due to the flanges on the end. I've thought of air circulation, too, but I think a 1" space is the minimum.

So what model would you be wanting?

 

Yeh, there's all sorts of debate over dimensions because descriptions often show the size of the carton and not the footprint of the device (lots of Q&A asking "How big it it really?") It's actually 21 1/2" wide x 12" tall x 14 1/2" deep (I just measured.) Mine does not sit on my countertop. Some time ago I built a stand to put my tall trash can on, then a shelf above that for the microwave, then a shelf about that for my old tiny toaster over, and my wok & steamer baskets sat on a top/cap shelf. It's really nice having the microwave and toaster oven stacked in cubbies at near eye-level like that, although I had to remove the very top/cap shelf of the stand so that the Breville would fit where the tiny toaster oven used to be...it now sits a little high.

I agree about having a light. Mine comes on when the door is open, then times out after you close it. There's also a manual ON button I use all the time for the obvious reasons...just like a standard oven. Now that you mention this, the light in my microwave only comes on when you open the door. I'm used to them being on when the it cooks so you can keep an eye on things. It's a pain having to open the door to check progress, but at least there's no heat escaping as with an oven.

 

I bought this 3 pak of stainless steel cake testers, and have been using them to test potatoes (baked/boiled/nuked) and steamed veggies.

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I really like them. It's a great way to test foods without mangling them with a fork. And there's a higher degree of sensitivity you get with these things.

 

*****I am not affiliated with this company except as a long-term customer*****​

For those who may be looking for quality kitchen thermometers, Thermoworks is having a site-wide sale.

Spend $50/Save 10%
Spend $100/Save 15%
Spend $200/Save 20%​

If you've watched episodes of America's Test Kitchen, this is the company that makes the Insta-Read thermometers that are used (and promoted) on the show.

I've purchased a bunch of stuff from them over the years:
-Remote BBQ/smoker thermometer set w/wireless receiver
-Cooking alarms w/wired probes
-Insta-Read (ThermaPen) thermometer
-3 Second Read (ThermoPop) thermometer
-Silicone heat-resistant spatulas
-Infrared thermometer

They also sell fridge/freezer alarms & monitors, as well as commercial kitchen items.

I use the remote BBQ thermometer when I bake inside. The transmitter displays the temp, and the receiver goes with me (has a belt clip and easel stand) so I can monitor progress wherever I am inside the house or within a reasonable range out in the yard. I set the alarm to go off when the temp gets "shy of done" so I can go get the sides started. There's an entire line of wireless stuff designed specifically for this application.

These guys only sell direct. Stuff you see on Amazon or EBay are knock-offs.

It's all high-quality stuff.

Link to site

 

Got another email from Thermoworks.

They are discontinuing their purple Thermapen (the instant thermometer you see on America's Test Kitchen.)
Marked down from $99 to $69.

Link