What kitchen gadgets do you recommend as gifts

[yellowflowers]

I like to get dh kitchen gadgets - not electrical ones but things that help with cooking. Good ones in recent years have been:

Heavy ice cream scoop
Meat tenderiser
Recipe book holder
Sugar thermometer
Posh garlic crusher

Any ideas for others I could get him? What gadgets do you think are good?

YY to potato ricer and microplane graters. I would choose a one piece metal ricer though, our Lakeland plastic one is good, but a bit fiddly to take apart and get clean and I always worry the arms are going to snap.

Silicone spatulas and tongs are brilliant.

A few suggestions:

A mandoline
A good heavy wooden chopping board
Pasta maker

I want a new really good set of electronic scales and a new kitchen timer as I cant do without one and dd has just put it in the washing machine and it has gone through a hot wash grr.

I would also like a lovely big jam pan as I always borrow my friends - I realise this is not a gadget though

LordOfTheFlies: Giving someone a knife is considered "severing the friendship". However, if you give a coin with the knife it counteracts the superstition.

Posh oil bottle - you can get some nice stainless steel ones
Salad dressing shaker
Coffee maker (i.e. italian stove-top expresso maker)

Pasta making is a good pastime for a kitchen-savvy man and there are a wealth of gadgets associated with it (spaghetti dryers, extruders, ravioli trays....) which will keep you going for many Christmasses to come.

Rice cooker
electric meat thermometer
new tea towels and oven mitts (not a 'gadget', but I'd wager most households would welcome fresh ones)
hand held 'wand' mixer (no idea what the proper name is)
panini press

Fwiw - most of my friends and family would find it hysterical that I am offering advice about anything in the kitchen!

Last Christmas I got my OH a proper pan and a huge, super-thin spatula designed for making crepes.

Ooh yes I would like one of those jugs that separates the oil and pan juices for gravy making.

DH is getting a massive pepper mill, if I ever find one. It will make him feel manly while he's cooking.

one of those apple cutter/corer things,
good icecream scoop - surprised at how much we use ours, as it was only bought to tackle digging out a pumpkin.
hand blender

Great thread! Wish youhad posted before i finished my xmas shopping though!

Oh & an electric Pepper Mill - I was bemused to find DH & a group of his hairy arsed mates discussing how much they covet those things - one heavily hinting for it as a wedding present

If you don't have silicon oven gloves already GET SOME! They make me so happy [loser emoticon]

If you often eat pistachios or anything else with shells/stones this double dish is good.

Oi! Sancerre HERE !

i second the potato masher- i am always on a quest to find the perfect one..[ disappointed face]

Love the mental image of a dh hovering over you in the manner of an Italian waiter with his oversized pepper mill.

But kitchen utensils are not really proper Christmas presents, though, are they? Are they?
I would not appreciate anything kitchen related for a present. I remember when my dad bought my mum a micorwave for Xmas in the 80s. She loved it. I would never dream of giving DH a kitchen-related gift and he would not dare buy anything like that for me.

Gah, I looked at this thread for ideas for my present, and I already own it all.
I love kitchen stuff.

I would love some expensive pan[s] for christmas honeypablo - I really cant justify buying them for myself.

Am also slightly coveting a new style deep fat fryer, saying to all and sundry that I would be doing tempura of all sorts when really I would be cooking chips morning noon and night...

I want this

And this

And this

Clarabumps- the perfect potato masher is a potato ricer. End of.

Honey - reminds me of my Dad. One year he bought my Mum a peg bag and some pegs to go with. She didn't speak to him for a week.

One of the best kitchen thingys I was given was a pizza pan- it has a holey plate that sits on top of a pan and does the same job as cooking the pizza on the oven shelf but without the drippy cheesy mess you get on the oven floor.

Electric carving knife is also very useful.

I bought myself a fab hand whisk a few weeks back. You push up and down on the handle and it makes anything into foam pretty much.

Id have been delighted with it as a present too.

Taffeta - DS2 and I made the victoria sponge from that book today and it is the lightest, fluffiest, most delicious "victorian" (ds2) sponge any of us have ever eaten!

We've gone mad for cooking today - chocolate fudge, choc eclairs (ds1's cooking choice), vic. sponge, whiskey fudge and a chorizio and chickpea stew for dinner.

Phew... fun though :)

This thread is making me drool, by the way!

Are there any cooking books your DH likes? The little river cottage bread book is also excellent.... does he have a pizza stone?

I think our most used gadget, although tiny, are the Lakeland wooden tongs for extricating stuff from the toaster, toast from loaves that are a bit smaller than the usual size, (or breaks up in the toaster,) or for toasted teacakes, muffins, crumpets etc. We used to use a knife to fish it out beforehand, and I m sure I almost ended up with curly hair on a few occasions. These tongs are brill.