What is your favorite kitchen implement?

My George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine !
It cooks chicken, steak, lamb, sausages, burgers and crispy bacon, and the best part is all the fat runs off into little dish, for easy disposal, I'm on my 3rd in 10 years.

a reply to: Metropolis1927

What a waste lol

Thank you a reply to: stormcell

originally posted by: Mousygretchen
Non-stick frying pans...

You should toss those. Horrible for you.

a reply to: kosmicjack
Why are they bad for me?

My electric hand whisk and the multi chopper - couldn't face the kitchen without them for so many different recipes.

But in truth we are a gadget family so once you others things like the slow cooker, grill, sandwich maker, Kenwood mixer for the biggy stuff, electric knife, tongs, where does we stop, we just love cooking.

On the want list though is a smoker.

a reply to: Mousygretchen

Teflon. Google it.

Because I'm super nice and wanted to know if ceramic was actually better than teflon.

Love my ceramic pans. Not expensive, super easy to clean. It was my entry in this thread. I've seen teflon pans start flaking and it weirded me out. The ceramic ones I have are basically clean no matter what or how long they've been sitting, with a little tap water and a lazy swipe with the finger. I'm a super lazy guy, and these are just incredibly easy to clean, you can leave grease in them for a week (shudup, vacation) and still clean them without any actual scrubbing.

originally posted by: Moresby

Makes life in the kitchen so much easier.

I ditto that. I had a hard time finding one here, but was thrilled to death when I finally did.

Second is my steam cooker.

Then my knives. I spend a lot of good knives and keep them in their cases between uses. Nothing makes cooking more pleasurable than a good quality knife!

My 2nd ex wife.

3 pages and no said wife or hubby? lol.

a reply to: kosmicjack

The new non-stick are supposed to be safe.
We love this one:
Stone Earth Pan



One of my favorite gadget/implements is this jar opener....great design, and it works very well.
Jar Key Opener

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
a reply to: kosmicjack

The new non-stick are supposed to be safe.
We love this one:
Stone Earth Pan

I just bought one of those yesterday, haven't used it yet.

I love my German Woll pots/pans. I have a full stainless set made by All-Clad, but I'm lazy a lot of the time and enjoy nonstick. I won't be dead using teflon or any kind of teflon-like nonstick pan, so I went with Wool. They use a diamond coating, and it's free of all the nasty chemicals. Its tough enough you can use metal in it.





I have other specialty pots/pans too...like my French De Buyer iron pan. It looks like stainless steel but is iron, the more you use it the more patina it picks up and the more non-stick it gets. It's oven safe, great for searing meats on an induction cooktop.



Actually, that is probably the coolest kitchen gizmo I have...induction cook top. This is the one I have, it's not super fancy but it's pretty cool:



You can boil water in half the time as gas or electric. You can set the specific temp for things too. If I want to cook something at 265F, I can. It uses magnetic fields to instantly heat the metal evenly. The only catch is you need magnetic cookware. The pots/pans don't stick to it like a magnet though. Very, very cool piece of kit. Since it's portable I can set it up as an additional cooking surface when I have a lot of stuff to cook. It works well with enameled cast iron dutch ovens. I'm partial to my blue Staubs:



But Lodge (American brand) also makes a surprisingly good one for really, really cheap. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an enameled dutch oven due to the cost/quality. If you think you might like cooking in one, get the Lodge first, try it out and then if you like it, invest in a Le Cruset or Staub. I like Staub better...Le Cruset makes some of their stuff in China now

My favourite kitchen implement is NonSpecific.

He slices, dices, bakes, boils, roasts.

This all comes in a tidy package. He self cleans, and even does delivery to the settee or table.

The only thing he isn't keen on doing is peeling, I have a Lancashire peeler for that job.

a reply to: boymonkey74

Ahem... Just put my comment in on the 3rd page.

Ruined the streak!! I am so sorry.

a reply to: Moresby

All Hail the Mighty Tong!

I think the only things I'd struggle without are a kettle and a knife.

I know I could boil water in a saucepan but - ugh. Not nice for tea or coffee.

My kitchen needs are very basic - gas ring, electric kettle and toaster. Plus knife. And I could do without the gas ring and the toaster if I had to.

I've learned it's far better to invest in ONE high-quality chef knife or good santoku knife rather than buy a cheap set of a bunch of kitchen knives.

A good knife is a multi-tool when cooking. Chop, slice, dice, mince, crush....You'll do everything easier with a well balanced, sharp blade that is comfortable to hold safely.

Sure, you can get a "set" that has a bunch of sized knives for a good price, but I think it's better to just buy one all purpose knife with that money instead. You can always save up for a specialty knife later (like a paring knife or boning knife).

The German brands are good ... they're heavy though. I like Japanese steel, and I highly recommend Global...I'd suggest just get their santoku and see how that goes:



The ceramic knives are pretty cool too. I know that now you can get them for fairly cheap...Just be aware they chip/crack/shatter if you use them improperly!

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I agree on the knife issue but watch out for fake Global and other high end knives, to a non pro you could splash out a lot of cash on a fake if you do not know what your looking for.

I once got carried away sharpening a global chefs blade(I was chatting up a waitress at the time) when I finally stopped I wiped it on my apron and sliced clean through both the apron and my chefs trousers in one swipe. Serious bit of kit but dangerous even in the right hands!

a reply to: nonspecific

Yep, the fakes are out there! Beware!

They can be wicked sharp. I take mine to a local knife specialty store now and then and have them do a once over on mine. They do a lot of the other knives for the restaurants around here. A good steel in between keeps them dangerously sharp.

I do admit that I fall back on my Kyocera ceramic knife a LOT for simple stuff like dicing veggies. It cleans up really easy and is always sharp.

Good cutting boards are also something you should spend the money on. I hear the debate still rages over wood/synthetic. I have both...

I never put a kitchen scale high on my list of must-haves in the kitchen.
Turns out they are something I can no longer do without.

Mandatory for some recipes that measure ingredients in grams, it is also a wonderful tool to measure meats for single meals and portioning to freeze.

I got this one....
Epica TM Accupro Digital Kitchen Scale