More or less useful than expected?

[spinbaby]

I was rinsing lettuce this morning in preparation for salads later, and I got to thinking about the salad spinner. I owned one once for about a year before I got fed up with it and evicted it from my kitchen. That line of thought got me to thinking about kitchen appliances and gadgets that turned out to be either more or less useful than expected. My contenders:

Not useful: salad spinner, which takes up a lot of room, but doesn’t really get the greens dry. I now rinse my lettuce, give a shake over the colander, wrap in a couple of dish towels, and rest in the fridge a bit.

Useful: Oskar food processor. Now over 30 years old and apparently indestructible, this simple little food processor is just the right size for small jobs I don’t want to drag the big Cuisinart out for.

Not useful: Immersion blender. By the time you finish mucking around in the pot with this thing, you could put the soup through an actual blender and get a smoother result. I never used it and it’s gone on to a new home.

Semi useful: big, fancy mandolin from Williams Sonoma. It does come in handy for those occasions when you need, say, a big pile of matchstick carrots, but it’s clunky, fussy, and difficult to clean, so it rarely sees the light of day.

Useful: cheap little slicer with a ceramic blade. Easy to use, easy to clean, gets used regularly.

Not useful: pasta insert for pot. You need to boil more water to make room for the insert, then find a way to pull out the pasta-filled insert without making a mess. I’ll just drain the pasta in a colander in the sink.

Useful: InstantPot. Yes, trendy, but also a gadget I’ve pulled out three or four times a week for the last five years.

[lapfog_1]

1. been thinking about an air fryer

useful or not useful? Don't really need more gadgets cluttering up my limited shelf space.

[spinbaby]

2. I've been looking at those, too

But they seem to be just little convection ovens.

[Squinch]

3. I love mine. I think it is not very good for the things it is supposed to be great at. For

example, I don't think it makes good french fries.

BUT it cooks fish perfectly which I could never do well before and now I am eating a lot of fish. It air roasts vegetables that are addictively tasty. It makes a good steak and an amazing burger.

I find I use it about 3 times a week. And to clean it, I just soak it with dishwasher soap while I'm eating the meal, swipe out any particles with a dish brush and then put it into the dishwasher.

[lapfog_1]

5. put it in the dishwasher? Really?

do you mind sharing the model that you have?

[Squinch]

7. Nuwave. A small-ish one. The drawer and the basket go right into the dishwasher.

It's an egg shaped one.

I don't remember the quart size and it's not written on it.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. I use my air fryer lots more than I do my multi cooker.

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. we use our salad spinner and immersion blender a lot.

slow cooker as well. small and large food processors too.

we moved last year, so reduced our kitchen ware to the essentials.

really all depends on what and how one prefers to cook.

most essential piece is a Le Creuset Dutch Oven pot.

[csziggy]

11. I never used my salad spinner much but I love my immersion blender

Mostly I use it to make mayonnaise - no drizzling oil, just put all the ingredients into a wide mouth container, start at the bottom and work your way up. You can even use whole eggs, eliminating the whole question of what to do with the rest of the egg.

My food processor died a month or so ago and I am not sure I'll replace it. I never used it much since it took so much time to clean. I bought it to see if I could make pie crusts with it and never got around to trying it.

The small appliance I use the most is the KitchenAid mixer I found on Craigslist for $40. About once a week I make bread in it. Best money I ever spent for kitchen stuff - other than the disposable cookie sheets I bought in college that I still use over forty years later. They are stained and beat up but cookies bake just right on them and they have just enough lip to bake chicken without spilling the juices.

[NRaleighLiberal]

12. Best thing about the immersion blender - no mess to clean up with a blender or food processor!

I use it regularly for Gazpacho or Tomato Bisque, primarily. Also just used it for slow cooker apple butter - worked great!

Only thing we use the food processor for is shredding carrots, slivering nuts, and making pesto.

[csziggy]

13. Yep, I just stick it into a container of soapy water and let it stir that up.

Comes nice and clean. The one I have also has a mini chopper which is great for nuts or for small amount of chopping. It also has a which so it pretty much takes the place of my hand held mixer.

[Retrograde]

14. Same here!

The salad spinner is good for reviving limp greens (let sit in acidulated water for about 30 minutes, drain and spin dry). It gets the leaves drier than shaking them and letting them drain.

The immersion blender is easier to clean than the regular blender - and it has a whisk attachment for making Caesar salad dressing. I'm using the Instant Pot more than I expected to.

And of course - a collection of good, sharp knives. And my cast-iron skillets and Dutch Oven!

[Freddie]

8. I love my Oskar!

Got it as a gift about 30 years ago and still works great! I don’t even have a big food processor, just that. Coleslaw, ham or chicken salad, crushed crackers for a pie crust, it works great. I read the secret is the powerful motor which they don’t put in food processors anymore - planned obsolescence.
Also useful: air fryer, stand mixer.
Useless: immersion blender, Fry Daddy - used once and took up too much room. On the rare occasions I deep fry I just use a heavy skillet on the stovetop.

[Major Nikon]

9. I use the pasta insert often

Works great for steaming.

I use my immersion blender quite often and I have a commercial grade countertop blender.

[Staph]

10. I love my immersion blender!

I haven't used the full-sized blender since I got it, years ago. I love to use it for soups, to make them completely smooth or somewhat smooth or kinda chunky. Many of my soup recipes would fill the blender, which is a really bad idea for blending!

[Throckmorton]

15. Electric Countertop Deep Fryer

Useful or Boat Anchor?

[happybird]

16. Rice Cooker

My ex’s grandmother gave us one for Christmas several years ago and I thought, “Meh, how is that better than a good ol’ saucepan, it’s just another appliance to junk up my cabinets.”

Boy, was I wrong!

I use it 2-3 times a week, love that it’s “set it and forget it,” and how I can put the half full pot right in the fridge after dinner.