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A Marijuana grinder. I like foraging for foods, so I tend to use the grinder on things like Staghorn Sumac, or Spice Bush to make a course grind. It allows a lot of control on how much you want to use and how fine, unlike a blender.
Before it's asked, I actually have never smoked weed. It was listed as a "spice grinder" and I never thought it was for weed when I got it.
My mother in law gave me a spice grinder as she had a spare. This raises some questions.
Your mother in law is a real one. Hopefully this answers some questions!
A safety can opener that doesn't create any sharp edges, like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_mLxyIXpSY (a LONG video, but quite an interesting one IMHO).
It's nor even funny how much this thing is better than any other opener I've ever used, it's just so bloody amazing!
Knew what video it was before I clicked the link. We bought one because of that video!
It's amazing how someone can just tell when it's going to be a Technology Connections video. Such great videos on so many different topics!
Seconded. I never thought the subjects he chooses would make for good viewing but TC is consistantly surprisingly interesting.
Ordinary wheel-cutting can openers get used wrong - they should be cutting the side of the can and not the lid, with the knurled wheel flat and pressed against the rim of the can.
No sharp lip, and you don’t need to fish a lid out of the can. Downside is you can’t use a lid cover to “save” the contents if you don’t use them all.
I sometimes find these two in a box in my kitchen, does that make them utensils?
The top one is obviously tech support for your appliances. Why else would they be wearing a headset?
True, but she doesn't always give the best advice..
Yep, that's why she has to live here with Tech Support Kitty and me in stead of the mansion she used to have 😁
A coffee grinder. Freshly grinded beans taste so different from normal preground coffee.
A garlic press - saves so much time and effort over mincing garlic with a knife because I'm not a pro chef, and can be used in about 95% of situations where you need garlic. I don't use it when I want the garlic texture, but otherwise I just adjust the amount or the cooking time versus minced garlic. There's some hate floating around from professional chefs, but I bought one a few years ago to try it and haven't looked back.
I bought one and hated it. How do you even clean it? The garlic gets everywhere except the dish I want it in. Maybe I'm using it wrong.
Do you peel the garlic first? I peel by squashing the garlic with the side of the knife to crack the skin and let it peel off, so I'm half done by that point.
I use a toothbrush to clean it
Do you use it on your teeth later? ;)
Haven't been sick in ages! No friends though.
Mine goes in the dishwasher after you reverse-press the fibers into the trash. I do peel the garlic first.
Now to be fair, I hate chunks of garlic, I just want some garlic flavor in the food if it's supposed to be there. So I'm never going to just smash or coarsely chop it. I'm also a garlic-sweater so I don't use garlic at all if it isn't necessary for the dish. But some delicious foods require it, and I just have to try to plan them so I don't have something important the next day.
Does yours have some function to bend it the other way and push the bits out? I always ended up having to scoop out the stuck bits and it is so much more work than squishing the garlic with the side of a knife. But I admit it may have small lumps. I normally squish, peel off the skin, slice against the grain, and squish again.
Takes about 10 or 20 seconds, nothing extra to clean, and the biggest bits are still pretty small.
The taste you get is radically different though. A press vs chopping is not a convenience issue as much as a recipe one.
Unconventional in what sense? For westerners? A wok probably
I used to hate wok because it is so big to wash, but then I started understanding its versatility. I still hate washing it tho.
Weirdly, a dough scraper. It's not because of the measurement conversions, I don't think I'd ever noticed them up until now actually. It's just a really solid dough scraper. I use it for dough, but I've also used it for so many other things, like assembling/disassembling furniture, patching holes in the wall, wrapping furniture in a vinyl sheet. Loads of various tasks.
Every so often you find that you need a solid, flat, steel thing, and this comes in handy every single time.
I use a mandoline. It used to take me easily 5+ minutes per onion to dice. Now I can get 2 onions diced in about 2 minutes. Less dramatic time savings are available for other veggies too, depending on how finely I want them chopped up.
I unironically love cooking with my steel chopsticks.
I use the longer steel ones that are used for deep frying foods. They are about 12-14" long.
Osthyvel (a cheese slicer). I kinda miss it every time I'm on vacation and I have no means to get the expected thickness of a cheese slice.
This is the epitome of first world problems.
Yesss! I grew up with one of these and didn’t realize it was unconventional until I lived on my own and tried to find one in a store. Had to buy it online. I use it nearly every day.
It blows my mind that the ostehøvvel is not a common utensil in most countries. How else would you enjoy brødskive with brunost?
Small set of whetstones so I can keep my kitchen knives absurdly sharp. Sharp vs "meh" vs dull knives make a huge difference in speed, comfort and safety. I've scuffed my knives a bit getting into things, but at least they're sharp as hell and touching them up only takes a few minutes.
Also it's hardly unconventional, but a quick read thermometer (fold-out type) is almost a must.
I have a shameful ikea sharpener (you know, one with a sort of a wheel you roll the blade against) but it is amazing.
Roll roll slice & dice!
I have a tiny whisk instead of a regular-size one, and I have convinced myself it is objectively superior in every way
If you hold your pinky finger out when you use it, then it definitely is
Did I miss it or did no one say Rice Cooker yet? A good rice cooker makes rice texture so much better while simplifying the whole process.
Someone gifted me a Le Creuset rice cooker. I use it at least once but often twice a week. At $200+ it's truly something I never would have bought myself.
Bamboo pot scraper. Not a brush, but an actual small wedge of wood that you can use to scrape cast iron, stainless, etc pots & pans.
Great for heavy duty scraping, but usually just use it lightly to get crispy residue off of stuff (well cooked rice, beans, etc).
I like how much easier it is to rinse off, compared to a brush or sponge, that you really have to clean after using
A danish dough whisk. Somehow it’s easier to mix dough and it won’t have so much gunk sticking between the wires like in the balloon shaped whisks. It can be cleaned easy by hand. It’s pretty large though.
Probably unconventional now, but one of those old can openers. Not the turning ones, the manual single-piece ones. Every can opener I have had dies after a year or two, but this one has been going strong for like.. 50+ years.
A measuring jug (from oxo) that allows you to see the marks when looking at it from above.
Also I have two timers, and I need and use both.
A microplane grater - it's been really great for dealing with ginger, and even garlic (although for garlic I mostly prefer to just squish it with the flat side of my knife). I've also used the slicer end to make chips out of baby potatoes and turnips.
Another go-to for me is a conventional pressure cooker - I use it when I'm feeling lazy, I just chuck everything in it - lentils/beans + rice + veggies + condiments, and it's all done in one go, only takes 15-20 minutes and there's no need to soak stuff beforehand. The best part is that I put all my ingredients in just a single ceramic bowl, so cleaning the cooker is super easy (just rinse it with water), and I can eat directly off the bowl, which saves me from having to use a separate dish.
My tiny 1" silicone spatula is one of the handiest utensils I own.
Steel tea pot - I drink a pot every day but last couple pots were both glass and only last a couple months before breaking (both my fault) so upgraded to steel and so far my clumsiness hasn't yet managed to break it
A standalone egg steamer / boiler / poacher (like https://www.sunbeam.com.au/kitchen-and-home/cooking/pie-waffle-snack-makers/poach-and-boil-egg-cooker )
Yes I can boil or poach eggs on a stove or in the microwave, but the sheer ease of use and that it's always perfect is a life changer.
Strawberry cutter. That stupid looking plastic strawberry with the little blades in it? Turns out it can do basically evening I don't like cutting, mushrooms, berries, olives, all in tiny perfectly uniform cuts.
Egg slicer.
Can't get medium eggs in nice slices on sandwiches so well with a single point of pressure on the egg. That is even with a really sharp knife cutting soft-ish eggs is annoying and just not as good.
Everything else, knife.
I've got two - a potato ricer, basically a big garlic press you put a boiled potato in, instant perfect mash.
And one of those spiral apple peeler/corer/slicers, makes cooking anything with apple in so much faster (it's a fiddle to clean though unfortunately)
Souper Cubes, which are basically silicone containers with a lid for freezing food. I’m trying to do more batch meal prepping, and 1 cup sized blocks are waaay easier to store in the freezer than a bunch of freezer bags whose contents may or may not have frozen completely flat. It makes portioning easier too. I haven’t tried baking in it but I do like that they’re oven safe too if I ever want to do that.
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