Dishwasher. I hate washing dishes by hand.
Maybe not the most glamorous thing—I mean, there are people out there who take their specific kitchen knife or stand mixer really seriously—but in terms of the actual improvement to my life, I have a hard time saying that anything else competes.
They’re also a lot more efficient in water and (depending on how you heat your water) energy usage.
I am with you! Lets add the fridge to the list too haha I would say that one is even more important and also a lot more used.
But otherwise would I also pick dishwasher
I like my bench scraper so much that when I moved house recently to a temporary place with minimal kitchen space, it was one of the things in my “kitchen bare essentials”.
I mostly use it for scooping up stuff from a chopping board to transfer into bowls or a pan. It’s also really good for baking, especially if you’re working with a high hydration dough.
Mostly though, it just makes me feel good. I feel powerful when using it, even if the efficiency gains from it are probably quite minor.
My hand made for me chef’s knife.
Same. It was absolutely worth the money.
Food processor. I have issues with my hands and the ability to slice, chop, and blend items with minimal hand use is just fantastic.
Sink with running water, not having to go pump water.
electric kettle
Kettle with a keep warm setting
$25 breadmaker I got at a thrift store. I buy local fresh wheat flour in bulk and make two delicious loaves a week for my family. Total cost is like 15 minutes of labor and less than 50 cents in ingredients. I’ve made well over 200 loaves in this thing by this point and have saved at least a thousand dollars in crappy storebought bread.
Actually, as much as I love my breadmaker, I think the best answer here might be my Instant Pot. I use it almost every single day for basically every hot meal under the sun, and its magical ability to fully cook dry beans in less than a half hour is such a huge money and time saver on top of everything else it can already do.
(NOTE, however, that kidney beans are still mildly poisonous when cooked this way in an Instant Pot - they need the full, extended cooking session to become fully safe to eat. We usually just use the Instant Pot for pinto and black beans.)
Most loved? My knife. It’s a good knife. It can dice strawberries, it can peel potatoes, it can cut tomatoes.
I am personaly not a fan of kitchen gadgets. Many of them are less versatile reinventions of knifes. Nothing wrong with using them, but I am not the target audience, me thinks. :)
Fuck… I just realized my potato peeler is likely one of these less versatile reinventions of a knive. sigh I got got.
A potato peeler is an excellent invention, because it reduces the time I spend doing something I hate.
However, I have an even better method: don’t peel your potatoes. You can eat the peel, it’s even very tasty in pretty much all non-mashes uses.
Can you do that with all potatoes? My parents gave me the impression that some kinds of potatoes need to be peeled before consumption
All I can say is that I can do it with every type of potato I’ve tried it with.
Oh my, this might become my new fave timesaver since laughing out loud became lol. :D
Gotta be my cast iron pans.
But for the unexpected item I can no longer function without: it’s the boiled egg slicer.
I have to agree with cast iron pans, especially old ones. They’re versatile, durable, and I don’t have to worry about Teflon flaking off.
I’ve heard carbon steel is great too, but I love the properties of cast iron so I don’t feel the need to get anything else.
Carbon steel is great, but honestly the main advantage over cast iron is weight and that most modern cast irons (I’m looking at you lodge) have a surface that is a lot rougher. Neither is better than the other, but those differences can make some difference in what you’re trying to accomplish.
Also, and this is very personal experience and could very well be that my seasoning on the lodge I have is not great, but I find that I can stir cook some tomatoes on carbon steel and the seasoning remains great, but I get a metallic taste when doing the same on my cast iron.
They’re just good pans. They’re not that hard to take care of, though I screwed one up by blitzing it to 600F on the BBQ by accident, but I’ve pretty much cleaned it up and it’s back to normal rotation.
Even my expensive non-stick flakes. It’s inherently disposable.
I love my “As Seen on TV” egg cooker. Up to 14 perfectly boiled eggs every single time with minimal effort.
boiled egg slicer
So what do you use this for? I mean, what do you use the egg slices for?
I put them on salads and toast
Dishwasher. I hate washing dishes.
Fridge. I’m always using it.
but the differences between fridges can be spectacular. i had a fridge where carrots go brown and become rubberlike within 2 days, and now they are kept fresh for a week and longer.
don’t be cheap on your fridge!
On the flip side some of the cheapest refrigerators have the most reliable compressors. LG freezer on top iirc where their more expensive french door models and what not are absolute trash.
Zojirushi rice cooker Cuisinart mini food processor/chopper Nice carbon steel Japanese knives
The best gadget are bowl scrapers. I use them more often than knifes.
yes! i think mine was < 1€ and it’s super useful.
i really hate it to throw away food and this device (not even silicon, just boring white plastic) makes it super easy to empty all kind of bowls and pots.
Hard to pick the top one, so I’ll list three in no particular order:
- My victoryknox kitchen knife
- My cast iron skillet
- My dishwasher
