Kitchen gadgets that changed your life?

[Peoppy]

Love my rotary cheese grater - always hated grating cheese but this is a game changer.

Meat thermometer.

What kitchen gadgets do you actually rate?

Changed your life may be slightly ott*

My quopener! It's a jar opener that works if you can't use one hand. You just need to be able to steady it and then apply a tiny bit of force and it will open any jar! You don't need to be able to grip with either hand.

There are alternatives they require you to be able to grip with one hand and then twist with the other so don't work as well.

I don't like having lots of gadgets, so having just the one saves on space and cleaning. I use it for bread, cakes, biscuits, soups, casseroles, pureeing veg or apple sauce, chopping stuff (nuts), making grains into flour, risotto, steaming fish, sticky ribs - so much stuff. I do also have an air fryer and it doesn't do stir fry well. When we had the kitchen done, I cooked full family meals for six weeks on the thermomix in the garage. It's partly about what you're used to but I do think it's great.

Yes, I think there is loads online that is more freestyle, so once you figure out the settings it would be perfect for this too. E.g you can say to it to chop at speed 3 for 5 seconds, or for it to heat to 65 degrees and stir for ten minutes etc. I’ve been sticking to recipes for now, but have occasionally used it just to saute onions for example to put on hot dogs.

Avocado prep gadget:

My electric egg boiler - perfect eggs every time (whichever consistency you prefer). They're also mega easy to peel compared to those cooked in water.

I forgot to mention my sous vide machine.

Life changing, perfectly cooked food every time with so little mess. I dont even bother with a proper vacuum sealer, just use food bags.

I did asparagus in it the other day and they were perfectly cooked, apple slices to put in apple pies, steak (or course) but also potatoes for mashing. Im thinking of getting a second one so I can have two different things going at the same time.

I just attach it to the side of one of my big saucepans, weight the food bags down with a water filled bowl on top, and off it goes.

Those with butter bells, do you find the butter falls in the water when you've used half of it?

I bought a cheap ish one recently and the butter doesn't stay put. Am I doing something wrong?

Instant Pot Duo Crisp. Utterly brilliant. It's probably not as good at being an air fryer as a dedicated one but it's good enough and it saves having to find space for another gadget. As a pressure cooker and slow cooker it does sterling work.

I also have a whetstone knife sharpener. It took a bit of practise to get the knack but now I always have fantastically sharp knives. And that makes me unreasonably happy.

Cheap coffee bean grinder, but I use it for making spice mixes.

Instapot - great for rice, also use the slow cooker function, and steam function, bizarrely though don't use the pressure cooker function!

Very large stainless steel stock pot - don't make stock but use it to make a giant coca cola ham each christmas!

oh and my meat thermometer, just a cheap one I bought the first year I cooked a turkey and use it regularly now.

Ninja airfryer

oh and my stand mixer - I wanted a kitchenaid but couldn't afford it so got a kenwood and it is brilliant - comes into its own at birthdays and great for kneading pizza dough.

A garlic crusher from temu that cost me about £2 . Game changer!

The only electric kitchen gadget I wouldn’t be without is a hand held mixer. The current one has a mini chopper bowl, tall measuring jug, balloon whisk and metal foot so it earns its keep.

On the cheaper end.
The IKEA square-ended spoon is great for scraping out pans, I have several swivel peelers (side blade, not Y shaped) from Lidl on rotation.
Every day I use silicone bowl covers as cling film has been banished and so many bag klippits.

Careful about putting the scissors in the dishwasher. We had a very big dishwasher repair bill because the tiny plastic cap over the hinge came off in the dishwasher and blocked it somewhere. It took about 3 repair people to find it.

Throwing out the less than excellent can openers. Keeping only one, the good one.

Lurking

My ceramic frying pan. It's amazing! By far the best frying pan I've ever used. Wipes clean with no scrubbing, and no nasty non-stick coating.

SH soap dispensers
Zwilling knives with sharpening block. Wish we bought these years ago. Will last us years.
Sensor bins Eko - although a pain to clean.

My kenwood major stand mixer. Old and reliable like me.
A cheese slicer courtesy of late MIL, a sucker for kitchen gadgets, and a pair of good quality kitchen scissors after years of hacking away with blunt and broken ones.

Wet'n'Dry grinder. Great for whole spices, then add e.g. ginger, garlic, chillies etc to make a paste.

I’ve applied that principle to a few other things as well.

Ninja Foodie 11 in 1, use it most days, rarely use the oven now.

Kitchen Aid mixer, mixes the bread dough, to put in my new Pullman bread tin, to steam bake in the Ninja. Comes out perfectly every time in 22 minutes.

Kitchen Aid toaster, best toaster we have ever had, and it matches the mixer!

My Qettle. I'll never get over the novelty of making a cup of tea in approx 7 secs. Expensive but worth every single penny.

my instant pot! absolutely love it. use it for slow cooking, pressure cooking beans/chickpeas etc from dry, and yoghurt making.

magimix food processor. just made hummus in it earlier 😊