the price for the most useless household item goes to...

[greenelephantscarf]

... the gravy boat

• always drips
• never big enough
• alwas at the wrong end of the table
• a pain in the drawer as it's not stackable

I'm moving house. gravy boat will stay behind.

ForalltheSaints If only The Failing One was confined to household duties ...

All these people using gravy boats and jugs, do you not make proper gravy?

Yes I do. Always homemade... stock, meat juices etc etc. Poured into a gravy boat when made. My gravy is famous

Meat juice poured into pyrex jug, leave to stand, add cornflour to roasting tin and scrape/mix. Pour off fat using jug, put meat juice back into the pan, add a bit of extra liquid (wine/stock) if needed, heat roasting tin on hob until cornflour has done its thickening magic, pour back into pyrex jug and serve. Works for me!

I use my soup maker all the time. It's fast (it blends part way through so everything cooks quicker) , can't burn or boil over and the texture is much smoother than I can get using a stick blender. Shove everything in, switch it on, go away and forget about it, then 21 minutes later pour out perfectly velvety soup. It's the only gadget I use all the time.

I got the impression that the gravy is being served at table in them.

Well yeah I get that, I just don't get why you wouldn't just use a ladle from the pan.

I love my gadgets, and use my stick blender, garlic press, etc regularly. I have 3 different gravy jugs depending on occasion (casual/ fancy and extra for Xmas), but unfortunately only make gravy once every few mths. I'm tempted to go out tomorrow to get an egg slicer though - I definitely need one of those.
Useless ones - coffeemaker which took an age to make lukewarm coffee, and a popcorn maker

I'm feeling thoroughly left out here! I've never made gravy. Never had it at home either, only once at a friend's house (and that watery stuff they call gravy with school Christmas dinner). Not sure I can call myself British now.

I can't think of any useless household items that I actually own. I love my (I think V7?) Dyson stick vacuum!

I'm scratching my head over rice cookers a bit. They take just as long as boiling in a pan would so I don't see the point?

Gravy boats are fine things. I inherited my three. They don’t get used that often but they do what they should, and they bring a certain ‘proper meal’ quality to the table.

Garlic presses are indispensable, though tiresome to clean.

And how does a PP do without a potato peeler? I’d refuse to do spuds without one.

But...bread makers, fondue sets, steam cleaners, Dysons and spiralizers, they’re all shite.

Inspired by this thread I might see about buying some crystal (table) knife rests tomorrow. A friend said knife rests were a bit Abigail’s Party, but I still want a set.

Well yeah I get that, I just don't get why you wouldn't just use a ladle from the pan

Because we sit up at a table and pour out the gravy from a gravy boat as opposed to running up and down and ladling out gravy from a saucepan? Or do you put the saucepan on the table? confused

Fill Pyrex jug with boiled water to keep jug hot. Once veg and pots are boiled/steamed, empty jug, refill with veg water and make gravy in that. Extra tasty!

rousette. No of course I don't put the pan on the table lol. And no running up and down either. I tend to make a little well in my mash to store a bit of extra gravy, yorkshires are also excellent gravy boats

Yes to Vax carpet washer. The new one being advertised on tv now. It is way too vigorous on my carpets. In fact, it’s ruined ta patch of pile on my (expensive, wool) loop/Berber carpet because it’s so aggressive with the agitation. It’s probably fine on traditional cut pile type carpets but no good for anything low pile, textured or looped.

All these people hating on toast racks: do you just put your freshly toasted toast straight into a plate? Don’t you get soggy toast?

Even if I make only one slice of toast, it goes straight from the toaster into the toast rack, onto the table. Butter kept a room temperature. By the time I’ve got my tea and marmalade and pills and whatnot, toast is at the perfect temperature for buttering and eating without soggy crumbs everywhere.

Not everyone serves themselves from dishes on the table, Roussette. Some people have ‘plated lunches’ where the meal is plated and then served/brought to the table. Ladling from pans to plate would be much easier and commonsensical if you were going for the plated method of serving. Not so much with the ‘serving yourself from the table’ method.

I use a jug.

FWIW, we do the dishes on the table thing (but I grew up in a plated lunches house), we use a big ceramic ikea jug for gravy.

We do have a sauce boat but we tend to use it for other sauces, like peppercorn sauce with steak (dishes where you’d have less sauce so a boat would go further portions-wise).

ToeDust thing is, we're mega greedy and just have about 3 helpings of gravy and that's when the gravy boat comes into it's own!

Absolute star! LOL! The pyrex measuring jug; we use that too

maybe I need to reconsider on the gravy boat and get a small one for each of us :o

Entirely it depends if it's just me and DH or the whole lot of us... if all of us, we put it all in dishes and are just keep helping ourselves including gravy! If just me and DH, I plate it up but still out comes the gravy boat because I keep wanting more on my meal

Someone asked how people dry salad without a salad spinner? Easy, it's never wet in the first place

@notsurewhatshappening "To clean venetian blinds, use a pair of tongs with a damp microfibre cloth dipped in all purpose cleaner wrapped around the grabby bits. Works in minutes."

Not read the whole thread but this sounds fabulous - I shall try & report back

Useless here and have binned - X5 steam mop ( the green one ) - just spread the dirt around with really hot water , Pasta maker - ( to be fair I have a small house with not much storage ) Salad spinner - just shake in a colander . Pizzas - unless a really sharp cutter better to use a mezzaluna or just cut up with scissors.

That said I would pay absolute folding money for an insulted gravy boat. I would cherish it and nurse it back to happiness.

@huggybear

Don't you wash lettuce etc to remove bacteria and pesticide residue?

I give yo the best gravy jug ever ! because the spout is at the bottom of the jug you dont get any grease / fat in your gravy.
( it does not have to be James Martin one there are loads out there )

www.philipmorrisdirect.co.uk/stellar-james-martin-gravy-separator/product/?utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=search&gclid=Cj0KCQiAzePjBRCRARIsAGkrSm5wV-NHs68jKJECPthIasYc-Kw8UFbscPVRVD

My least used piece of equipment is a electric veg steamer, it is quite good its just to bloody big , I could feed a family of 6 a full sunday dinners worth of veg if i filled it .
Garlic press naff and a bugger to clean .
pizza wheel naff and blunt / cheep
I dont have any other gadgets due to having a kitchen the size of a stamp.

I like my egg cups and my silicon egg poachers and love my slow cooker .