Kitchen Gadgets -- What Are Your Top Picks?

We all love our gadgets, and the kitchen is not excepted from an excess of gadgetry these days.

What newfangled (or oldfangled) gadgets do you love to use most in your kitchen?

For myself, I love my pizza stone. I can't believe I went over 40 years of my life without having one. Even frozen microwave mini-pizzas, cooked on a pizza stone, come out yummy and delicious. Best of all, it never needs washing -- washing it can ruin it. Just scrape it off if cheese sticks, and that's all she wrote.

I also adore my bread machine. Fresh baked bread is the best, but it's a pain to make. I just measure the ingredients into my machine, set the proper cycle and it does the work all by itself. It makes pizza dough, cakes and jams as well.

I have to say my KitchenAid standing mixer. It's so wonderful for mixing batters, kneading dough, whipping cream, and pretty much everything else. So much better than a handheld.

My Cuisinart food processor would be a close second.

[edit on 6/3/2007 by djohnsto77]

I would have to say, my wife.

she cooks, cleans, bakes, mixes, strains, kneads, whisks, slices and dices.

Best kitchen gadget ever: A damm good cook!

Originally posted by djohnsto77
I have to say my KitchenAid standing mixer.

I will second the Kitchen Aid. I got a Professional 600 last fall and I LUV it!

Some other top picks

Kitchen Scale - When your baking bread measuring by weight just works the best.

Digital thermometers that alarm when the set temperature is reached

SilPat sheets - are just freaking awesome

Baking stone & Peel - Breads and pizzas oh my

[edit on 6/4/2007 by Cug]

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
For myself, I love my pizza stone.

Me too! I use it all the time. Make homemade pizzas, frozen pizzas, any kinds! And they always taste great.

None off them fancy kitchen gadgets here though. :shk:

I always see them at 2 in the morning on the infomercials and think "Hey! I have to get me one of them!"

But then forget

[edit on 4/6/2007 by enjoies05]

I'm not sure if you want to call these gadgets, but here's a few things I have in my kitchen that no one should be without.



You need almost everything here just to get the job done, and you don't have to plug any of them in.

The best gadget in my kitchen is simply my coffee maker. Because without me getting coffee, everything else in the house does not function.Seriously though I do have a plug in Potato peeler called a Rotato. Best damn thing ever made.I have arthritis in my hands and peeling taters is the worst.Especially when you have to feed 10 people.

I like my dicer (You know the thing you quarter veggies in and it chops them as you hit it as hard as you can). Gets out a lot of aggression, and chops your veggies too.

I love my bread machine, no kitchen should be with out it. Same with my Crockpot.

Ah!
I finally thought of one.

We have one of those FoodSaver Vacuum sealers.

Great for leftovers, and when buying in bulk..It really works well, and the food does keep nicely.

I've even started a semi-tradition..Where I seal some of the Thanksgiving Turkey.
Then open it the following year. To eat, while the new bird is cooking.

All about the Gerorge Forman grill

I'm a nut for gadgets and have been collecting them for over fifty years. My favorite simple one is a one piece nylon spatula. I bought two about thirty-five years ago and damaged one later. I've never seen anything like its amazingly simple, useful design.

Another favorite is my pressure cooker - quite versatile. Food processor is also great. And finally, my set of Japanese kitchen knives I bought in 1969 at a small Japanese department store in Honolulu. They aren't stainless, but they take and hold an edge that's so sharp it's almost scary.

Occam

I'm actually frightened of pressure cookers. Ours blew the disk off the top once and it hit the ceiling.

I like my Ultimate Chopper. Though it tends to make everything uniformly torn up very small. Instead of shredded cheese you get granulated cheese from it.

I've heard of people having problems with them, but after scrapping the first cheap one I bought, I took the Consumers Union recommendations and it's worked like a dream for forty years.

Great for cooking corned beef, Indian green lentils, cans of condensed milk, rutabagas for Thanksgiving, etc.

Occam

I'd have to say my latest favorite toy is the microplaner. Great for zesting citrus, grating whole spices, cheese, etc. It has made my life so much easier and I feel like a real live chef!

Another one of my favs is my silicone "spoonula" - LOVE it!

Gotta be the microwave! Yep! Cooks everythin' up nice and toasty right in the dish you're eatin' out of! Nothin' to cleanup. Plus it's like really quick and stuff!

Oh and I'd be lost without my fancy melon baller and those really cool little handles that go into the ends of corn on the cob.............

[edit on 15-6-2007 by lombozo]

Originally posted by lombozo
those really cool little handles that go into the ends of corn on the cob.............

yeah those are cool!

Bread machine is great, also the crock pot. Now the microwave is a must.

I cook as many meals in the Crock-pot as I can. Tomorrow beef stew with fluffy dumplings. AND, if you'll bring some single malt scotch I might share.

Roper

I love my Foreman Grill....that thing is tops...

Have to be a toss-up between my turnip twaddler or my turducken pitter.

Actually, my favorite kitchen item is a very old iron skillet. You can have all those "non-stick" jobs. My well seasoned iron skillet is the most versatile thing in the kitchen.

This is my all time favorite kitchen gadget! If you don't own one of these, get one. I don't have to cry anymore when I'm cutting onions. My sister inlaw bought it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I love it, and will promptly replace it if it ever goes bad.