It's That Meme Again

[sollers]

From everyone, though I think oursin started it.

Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, italicize the ones you have and don't use, strike through the ones you have had but got rid of. And (my suggestion) add any items that you have that aren't on the list:

I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese knives, electric woks, miniature salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic crushers (nowadays I use the side of a broad bladed knife), martini glasses (not quite sure what is meant by this, but cocktail glasses), tea strainers, bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers , piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers, spaetzle maker (what on earth are they?) s, cookie presses (ditto), gravy strainers, double boilers (bains marie), sukiyaki stoves, ice cream makers, fondue sets, healthy-grills, home smokers (don't get on well with smoked food apart from kippers and mackerel), tempura sets, tortilla presses, electric whisks (actually the same gadget as the blender; over 20 years old and still going strong), potato ricers, pea servers languish dustily at the back of the nation's cupboards.

Comments

[lexin]

I have a thing which was advertised as a spaetzle maker, and which came with recipes for that, but which my mother and I called a potato ricer. It's a gadget which squishes potato through a disc with a presser to make potato that looks like rice. I do have one.

[legionseagle]

I was going to say, spaetzle are, I believe, a sort of South German gnocchi (the only person I knew who made them and, indeed, owned a spaetzle maker (which looks like either a gigantic garlic press or a mooli-grater with big holes) came from Augsburg. You mash potato probably with something like butter and nutmeg and then force them through the maker and then cook the results with onion and , this being Germany after all, doubtless cubes of smoked ham.

[mme_hardy]

You now know (at least on the Internets) two people. The spaetzle my husband makes are also potato-based, but you drop them into a pot of boiling water, a la pasta.

It turns out I've been talking about a different sort of spaetzle maker than everybody else: we have this kind, which is the most single-purpose gadget ever.

[mildred_of_midgard]

Thank you for explaining this. All I know about spaetzle is that the waiter in Vienna spent several minutes unsuccessfully trying to talk me out of substituting regular potatoes for spaetzle. The menu described them as noodles, but he insisted they were not noodles and that I needed to eat them. Thanks for being more clear than the waiter.

[kotturinn]

Ah, good. I was beginning to think I was the only person with a fondness for the pressure cooker! I wonder if it's generational - the only other person I know with one is also 50+.

[sollers]

For camping, and especially sailing, holidays they are invaluable. Cook up a casserole the night before; leave it sealed; bring it up to the appropriate heat when you've finished setting up/stowing/whatever and you have a hot meal. And for the rest of the stay you can cook with minimal fuel.

I made a casserole when on the Broads once, and part way through had to put in the final chicken quarter that had been overlooked after cooking had been going on for some time. We left it cooking for rather longer than we would normally done, and when we served it up there was only one set of bones: the rest had cooked to pieces. Delicious but very rich.

The thing is, I only ever use one kind of pressure cooker: the kind made by Tefal with a sort of bow on top so that if pressure got too great it would bend and the surplus steam emerge. You can also stop cooking part way to add more ingredients.

[kotturinn]

I don't camp or sail :-) but mine gets extensive use in the marmalade season, also for doing both the initial cooking and reheating of Christmas Puddings and for pulses - all so much quicker and more fuel-efficient! It gets 'oiked out at other times too, but those are the main uses now; Mum used to cook nearly all veg for family meals in hers. I use Prestige 'HiDome' (as did Mum, in fact one of my 2 was hers) and with those you can also depressurise to add ingredients part way through.

[legionseagle]

I used to use mine all the time on the boat (as sollers will attest, something with the sterilising qualities of an autoclave is definitely advisable in the unsanitary conditions at sea) because the time saved to turn out really good food was so well worth it.

I would have used it at home but my family, not having been brought up with pressure cookers, found it terribly alarming, which was a shame. And then I discovered cheap tinned pulses.

[mme_hardy]

I need to know what a pea server is.

[legionseagle]

Do you think it's one of those little wire mesh basket things on a long handle?