Kitchen gadgets that never get used

[Southwest12]

I was tidying out my kitchen cupboards on Sunday and found this (hope the picture is attached!) for making coconut pyramids. My mum bought it years ago, god knows how many given that Lakeland dropped the plastics part of their name 22 years ago! She never opened it. I then took it and I’ve never opened it! It sits in the cupboard waiting for the day that I need to make coconut pyramids...

Has anyone else got any “must have” kitchen gadgets that have never been used but are still sat waiting for that just in case moment?

We had a garlic twist about ten years ago, I didn't like it at all, all the garlic used to get stuck in the teeth. The Ikea garlic press is much better.

The garlic crusher, it's crap. I use a parmesan grater now.

Me too.

Popcorn maker has gone along with ice cream maker and spiralizer.

I'm amazed at all the people who say a garlic press - I find my Ikea one is much quicker than peeling a clove and chopping it. You do know that you don't need to peel the cloves?

You don't need to peel if you grate it either.

Spiralizer. Not used since I tried to run the day after courgetti and found that my legs need proper pasta.

I have the oxo garlic press and it’s great BTW.

I have Every Single KichenAid attachment that’s available. I only use the cheese grater for Parmesan. That’s all it ever gets used for. Most attachments still in their boxes

The potato ricer on the other hand is fab. Don't use it that often as we don't eat mash that often but it's great for ricing baked potatoes into mash without peeling, chopping and boiling. just microwave or over bake , halve and rice. I do believe there was a thread about this.

oven not over

I have to put in a word for cherry stoners! A BiL has a huge place in France where there are often 18+ to cook for - and cherry trees in the garden.

Last year when it was my turn to cook for the mob I made 2 huge clafoutis - after dh and I had scoured local shops for a stoner. A BiL and a nephew adored this new gadget and did all the messy stoning for me.
Mind you in a previous year, when I'd also made clafoutis for the hordes and couldn't be arsed to stone all the cherries, it was nice to be able to teach non-Brit nieces 'Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,' as we always did as kids with fruit stones. Despite being of the screen-glued generation, they really enjoyed it.

I guess if you have cherry trees it would make sense.

You can get the fondue fuel on Amazon.

We have many things that get used rarely or never.

Pasta machine, nutri-bullet, popcorn machine, potato ricer, stick blender.

The most used items in our kitchen are the bread maker, kitchen aid, blender (jug) and food processor. We also use our pannini maker a lot.

My stick blender is my soup hero.

Various cocktail-related implements: muddlers, shakers, strainers, measures. All given in various gift sets. Never used because cocktails all seem to require a couple of obscure, expensive ingredients that I never quite get around to buying but, more importantly, cocktails should be sipped in a glamorous location whilst dressed to the nines. I’m not going to be throwing together a Singapore Sling to drink from a mug whilst flopped on the sofa watching The One Show am I?

@IndianaMoleWoman we run a full cocktail menu through December! DH is awesome at it. It's being put away today

I use my stick blender, ninja and slow cooker a lot. Never used the pasta maker.

DH was given a gadget last year that simultaneously warms a hot dog and toasts a hot dog bun. We don't understand it. It's in the cupboard looking sort of embarrassed.

I’ve just been googling soup makers. Please don’t shatter my soupy dreams by saying they are rubbish

I bought a small roasting tin with sliding lid (which sometimes slides off inadvertently) and a little rack inside so the juices can run off. It's been sitting unused in my kitchen cupboard for years so I'm giving it to my sister's DIL as she may find it more useful.

My Dad was an enthusiastic kitchen gadget collector. He once gave me a gadget for making square hard boiled eggs, so that at cocktail parties your devilled eggs didn't roll around on your plate!

It seemed to be based on the thumb screw, and squeezed the warm boiled eggs into neat, well behaved cubes.

It was infrequently used, as you can imagine.

I only use my garlic press occasionally, say for garlic in a cheese sauce, for most jobs I chop garlic with a knife. My cherry/olive stoner gets quite a bit of use though.

But some things are nice to own, even though rarely used. I've got a dimpled copper bowl especially for beating egg whites, which gives me a lot of pleasure when ever I use it.

We had one of those square egg makers back in the 70s. You had to do it very slowly to stop them splitting. Made them a better shape for sandwiches.

Soup maker. Was heartily recommended by a family member to use up any leftover vegetables and she swore by it. We love soup so bought one immediately.

Used it twice. First time it made luminous green piss. Second time frothing orange sludge. It’s in the basement looking sad now. GOOD.

The skin in the garlic crusher stays in the upper compartment whilst the flesh is squeezed out of the holes as normal. Still a bugger to clean, though.

Gave my slow cooker away. Hated it

You see, I would love an Instant Pot and a Thermomix. But this thread is the exact reason why I have resisted.

My unused stuff includes:
Sushi making stuff (went on an ace class ages ago and bought it all afterwards, but just can't get fresh enough fish because we're not close enough to a decent fishmonger)

Rice cooker (bought because of the same sushi class where the teacher raved about hers, but it's never been out of the box)

Pasta maker (mine is the kitchen aid attachment, but I'm too scared of it to try and frankly, I don't have the time)

Ice cream maker (which I used to use loads before I met DH, but he is allergic to raw eggs and doesn't trust my custard is cooked enough, so I never bother now)

Spice grinder (because I used it once and can't be arsed to clean it)

And a wide variety of small stuff like a melon baller, an avocado scooper/slicer, and a special lettuce knife. I do occasionally use my cherry stoner, though.

To clean the spice grinder I just use a dry pastry brush (we have a 80's coffee grinder type). It is one of my most used gadgets.

Just a thought...

All of us who have barely used gadgets and have seen that others have barely used gadgets that we really want.

What about setting up a swap? I would happily swap my twice used soup maker for a rice cooker.