useless kitchen gadgets?

[marzipan]

With the holidays (and my birthday!) approaching, I'm starting to cringe. Every year, well meaning friends and relatives, rather than sneaking a peek in my cupboards and asking my partner for suggestions, go off to various kitchen stores and purchase all kinds of random gadgets, thinking, "Oh, she'll love this!".

I was reorganizing my kitchen today and ran across some of the more useless ones. At the moment, I'm trying to decide which is more useless:

-measuring spoons in "pinch", "dash" and "smidgeon" sizes.

-OR-

-magnetic measuring spoons. you're supposed to keep them on your fridge so that they'll always be easy to grab.


I've also received more garlic presses, apple corers, miniature zesters, and cheese knives than I can count.

[chouxbacca]

I got this garlic peeler from a friend down south, it works and all, but...WHY!!!
all ya have to do is smash the dang clove and the skin practically falls off, I know it can be a bit overpowering that way, but to make a 5" green rubber cylinder just for removing the skin of garlic seems more than absurd to me

[Jim]

They really will make something for anybody willing to pay...

Lemon sqeezer (little metal folding thing)
Spoon rest (like a plate wouldn't work.... I guess a plate isn't pretty enough)
'Poker' for testing the doneness of a cake... I guess a toothpick or piece on linguine is inadequate
Miniscule whips for whipping.... a 'smidgen' of egg whites, measured from your 'smidgen' measuring spoon.

[Isa]

What is one person junk is another one treasure...

[shroomgirl]

Yep like a plastic onion blossom dodad
or a set of Ginso knives
or a jello mold that has a lobster in the middle
or a painted paella pan
*I think the all time gem is the thermater fork

[Isa]

Originally posted by shroomgirl
A jello mold that has a lobster in the middle

Shroom what is that??

[Suzanne]

The mold with a lobster I can picture -- kind of like my scallop-shell and fish-shaped cake pans -- but what are Ginso knives???

Personally, I just LOVE the "adjustable" measuring cup and spoon, with the part you push in or out to change the measure. Just try it with liquids!

[Kimmie]

They are sold thru TV Infomercials...the kind you may want to keep away...

Here's a funny story:

Someone I know bought a set of Ginzu knives for only three easy payments of $29.95 and they came with a lifetime guarantee. When the handles fell off, the knives were returned with the lifetime guarantee asking for a refund.

They wrote back saying, "The guarantee was for the lifetime of the knives. Obviously, the knives are dead, so the guarantee is no longer valid."

[Peachcreek]

My vote for Most Useless Kitchen Utensil (electrical) would have to the electric carving knife. A close runner-up maybe the electric ice-tea maker. Coming in third, the salad shooter.
For Most Useless Kitchen Utensil(non-electrical)is no doubt, the Bagel Cutter. The one I saw could have been called The Bagel Guillotine.
I once worked at a restaurant that had a "the Amazing Ginzu", and we made a point of using it. Worked great for cutting cardboard. Never hurts to have one. And you never know. Some day you might be in a situation where you are sawing tin cans in half and then, all of a sudden realizing you really DO need to cut tomatoes, paper-thin...

[Isa]

Originally posted by Kimmie
They are sold thru TV Infomercials...the kind you may want to keep away...

Here's a funny story:

Someone I know bought a set of Ginzu knives for only three easy payments of $29.95 and they came with a lifetime guarantee. When the handles fell off, the knives were returned with the lifetime guarantee asking for a refund.

They wrote back saying, "The guarantee was for the lifetime of the knives. Obviously, the knives are dead, so the guarantee is no longer valid."

This is funny but illegal.

[DaveB]

I went through the inaccessible kitchen cabinet (over the fridge) last night and found:

1 salad shooter
1 Ginsu knife
4 plastic things for microwaving Vidalia onions
1 electic breadmaker (lost the little mixer blade & couldn't find a replacement)
1 electric vegetable peeler

[Isa]

Electric vegetable peeler?? This I've got to see.

[nancya]

I love my salad shooter. Okay, the only thing I use it for is grating cheese for pizza, but it does a terrific job at that. Oh, and I recently used it to "shred" frozen butter to use for pie crust and made an incredibly flaky crust because I did not have to overwork the fat to combine it with the flour. Creative uses.

I also love my pinch/dash/smidgeon spoons...but only because they're cute.

I hate my ice cream maker, deep fat fryer, espresso machine, George Foreman grill, uh, and several other small appliances I just had to have. I'm going to box them up and take them to the second hand store.

Oh, and Ginzu knives...I got a couple free and I have had sharper butter knives in my life...

[Kimmie]

Hey Peachcreek,

Don't get rid of your electric carving knife; use it to cut really hard squashes, like the blue hubbard...

I use mine to carve loaves of bread into neat sandwich breadboxes.

[DaveB]

Electric carving knives are also great for trimming foam rubber padding into odd shapes. I last used mine to cut new bunk cusions for my boat.