Kitchen Tools

[worth1]

Follow up on the Harbor Freight freight scale.
It's still going strong.

[karstopography]

A Microplane Zester is a nice addition to the kitchen.

[worth1]

A Microplane Zester is a nice addition to the kitchen.

I have and use one and can't find the other skinny one.
No idea where it's at been lost for years.
I use it to grate nutmeg and hard cheese plus zest citrus.

[pepperhead212]

I got my first Microplane from a woodworking catalog, before they were even being sold for kitchen use, though that first type hasn't changed. About 6 months after I got that, I saw it in a kitchen catalog for almost double the price! After a while, that price came down, and they also came up with a bunch of different MPs, for both shop and kitchen work. One I have that is very convenient is that nutmeg grater, with a storage lid, that pops off, and the grater part is a very small MP, with a container for the grated nutmeg to fall into.
Microplane nutmeg grater by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Microplane nutmeg grater, showing the storage lid, and the lower container, for the grated nutmeg. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I have 2 others hanging on the wall - the original kind, and a shorter, wider kind.
A couple more Microplanes by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[GoDawgs]

A few years back I got a garlic plane to thinly slice garlic cloves for dehydrating. I whiz up the dehydrated slices to make my garlic powder, storing excess slices in the freezer.

The little hopper mounts on the top and you put some cloves in it, put the finger saver on top and just slide it back and forth. Slices fall into the compartment below.

It's made by Zyliss and I got it on Amazon but don't know if they still have it. Periodically you have to rinse it off as it gets sticky and starts to clog up but that's when doing a bunch of garlic. I love this little gadget!

[worth1]

I'm gonna have to make a mandolin.
I can't seem to find a good one anywhere.
Maybe it'll be a winter project.

[MissTee]

I haven’t seen this thread before today. I don’t know why cause I love to cook as much as I do garden and have tons of kitchen gadgets.

Going back a few years, but @worth1 if you’re still looking for a battery-less, non-plug-in kitchen scale, I have the perfect option for you. It is dynamo powered. (I think it’s made by the Wizards at Hogwarts, LOL).

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/ki ... gLcmfD_BwE

I have had one for a couple years and have bought them as gifts. Excellent product, as is most everything from Lee Valley, a Canadian company from the Ottawa Valley. Great kitchen and gardening products.

My Micro-Planer is also from there. I think it originally was sold as a wood rasp. Still as sharp as when I bought it 25 years ago. It puréed fresh ginger to a very fine pulp this week.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/ki ... em=27W0212

And last one, a plug for the stainless steel Compost Pail. I have 2 that I rotate, going in and out to the compost. Mind you mine were half that price when I bought them 30 years ago.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/ki ... post-pails

[Sue_CT]

I love Lee Valley. They do also have a US site although the company is based in Canada.

These are the top two mandolines recommended by Cooks Illustrated:

1. Benriner Super Slicer, with 4 Japanese Stainless Steel Blades, Beige
"a cult favorite among restaurant cooks and home cooks alike, and for good reason: Its razor-sharp blades can handle even the toughest produce, and it can be set in a seemingly infinite range of thicknesses, effortlessly churning out paper-thin or chunky slices and julienne. (There are no fixed thickness settings, but most testers saw this as a positive trait, since it allowed them to customize the thickness so broadly.)"

2. OXO Good Grips Chef's Mandoline Slicer 2.0

I usually like Oxo Good grips but in this case the one they say is slightly better is sigficantly cheaper. I have wanted one for some time but it is not something I really need so I never ended up buying one.

[Sue_CT]

Ha! Amazon had the Benriner off white one for 31.00 with free prime shipping so I ordered one! Thanks, Worth you enlabler, you.

[svalli]

This time of the year I make a lot of canned salsa. My old cheap chopper from Walmart had flimsy plastic hinges, which broke when chopping big onions, so I started looking replacement here in Finland. I found then a Swedish brand Alligator Chopper, which makes more durable choppers. These things are quite expensive for such simple manual tools, but durability is amazing. I have had my first plastic one with 6x6 mm and 12x12 mm blades for over 10 years now and it still works fine. Two years ago, I purchased a stainless steel one for myself as Christmas present.
https://www.alligators.se/

Collection box on these is on the top, which works fine for onions and peppers, but with juicier stuff like tomatoes it gets messy. For tomatoes I use the thing upside down and when doing a lot like yesterday evening, I put it over a bigger container, so that I can just keep chopping without all the time emptying the small box.

Alligator chopper.jpg

[worth1]

Some of the mandolins are too narrow and some of the cabbage slicers are wide enough but not thin enough for potato chips.
Was really interesting a good wood one but not feeling the love.
The stainless ones can get expensive.
I do have a small one but was looking for something better.
The search continues.

[worth1]

Ha! Amazon had the Benriner off white one for 31.00 with free prime shipping so I ordered one! Thanks, Worth you enlabler, you.

I stopped off at Target on the way home and bought an OXO mandolin.
The white one with 4 thickness settings and several other attachments.
I'll give a review later.
But one thing I wanted to do was make waffle fries.
The crinkle cut blade doesn't have big enough waves in it for fries but it will make waffle potato chips or maybe ruffles potato chips.
Seems to be okay for the price.

[worth1]

They're on the brown side the way I like them.
The mandolin performed flawlessly.
The way the contraption is put together and how you get different attachments out could be considered an IQ test.
But everything is compartmentalized into one neat package.
The cutting action was very nice and the critter can do cabbage if quarterd.

IMG_20230913_171651756_HDR.jpg

IMG_20230913_174544440_HDR.jpg

[bower]

My kitchen rasp is the same Lee Valley one, but it came without the bottom part that catches the runoff in the picture. It looks like a good innovation probably making it easier to hold, whereas I have to balance the thin rasp over a cup or bowl.
No joke it reduces garlic to near liquid.
I love it for that reason, it's the quick way to make a really flavorful dressing because the garlic is basically liquid. A coarser cut takes longer to infuse the flavor.
It remains pretty sharp after many years of use, but a couple of times I've tried using the upper end instead of lower, and it is sharper on that unused end. The rasp is so sharp you have to grab the garlic carefully not to grate bits of your fingernails. Then again with bigger graters it's sometimes my knuckles, so YMMV Dexter.

[Sue_CT]

I can't make fried potatoe chips or french fries right now, still working on the diet. I might try baked potatoe chips and see how they come out. I will try a few different veggies and let you know what I think of the one I ordered. I wanted the Oxo for quite a while but the model I wanted was about 75.00 and I would never use it enough to justify spending that. The ability to go from thicker to very thin would increase how much I would use it so that was what I was holding out for and why I never bought one. At 31.00 with unlimited adjustability of the thickness I think it is worth trying.

[worth1]

Looks like the one I bought did better than the more expensive one.
And came out as the overall winner.
The only drawback was complaints about how complicated it was with everything stored on board.
Like I said it was somewhat of an IQ test or a test on mechanical thinking.

I purposely didn't look at the instructions to see if I could figure it out.
And I did very quickly.
The people said the instructions were worthless and had to look at a video to see how it worked and put or went together.
But I'm an exception because I've been taking things apart and putting them back together since I was a wee child.
Still yet it wasn't that hard to do.
Here's what showed up this morning on my news feed.
Obviously I'm being tracked.
What's baffling is they have pics of two different mandolins, one with what seems to be wheels and one like mine without.

https://www.seriouseats.com/best-mandolines-7098514

[worth1]

My kitchen rasp is the same Lee Valley one, but it came without the bottom part that catches the runoff in the picture. It looks like a good innovation probably making it easier to hold, whereas I have to balance the thin rasp over a cup or bowl.
No joke it reduces garlic to near liquid.
I love it for that reason, it's the quick way to make a really flavorful dressing because the garlic is basically liquid. A coarser cut takes longer to infuse the flavor.
It remains pretty sharp after many years of use, but a couple of times I've tried using the upper end instead of lower, and it is sharper on that unused end. The rasp is so sharp you have to grab the garlic carefully not to grate bits of your fingernails. Then again with bigger graters it's sometimes my knuckles, so YMMV Dexter.

I have an older version of The Pampered Chef garlic press.
It's so good you don't even have to peel the garlic and practically turns the garlic into juice or at least a paste.
Comes with a nifty hole cleaning tool too that stays attached to the press.
They run about 30 dollars or so nowadays.
Best garlic press I've ever had but I haven't had all of them.
It's about 20 years old or so.
Never been in the dishwasher or even in soapy water that I know of.
I just rinse it off with hot water.
It's garlic for crying out loud.
Still looks like brand new and everyone here knows how much garlic I use.

Pampered Chef Garlic Press 2575 - Easy Squeeze, Rust Proof, Ergonomic Handle - Professional Garlic Mincer & Ginger Press with Handy Cleaning Brush https://a.co/d/2HIcfng

[MissTee]

I have the same garlic press Worth. Also very old. I would love to know where the teeny tiny cleaner tool disappeared to though. It was perfect at cleaning the sticky bits.

[MissTee]

My kitchen rasp is the same Lee Valley one, but it came without the bottom part that catches the runoff in the picture. It looks like a good innovation probably making it easier to hold, whereas I have to balance the thin rasp over a cup or bowl.
No joke it reduces garlic to near liquid.
I love it for that reason, it's the quick way to make a really flavorful dressing because the garlic is basically liquid. A coarser cut takes longer to infuse the flavor.
It remains pretty sharp after many years of use, but a couple of times I've tried using the upper end instead of lower, and it is sharper on that unused end. The rasp is so sharp you have to grab the garlic carefully not to grate bits of your fingernails. Then again with bigger graters it's sometimes my knuckles, so YMMV Dexter.

The holder does make it a bit more stable and is good for catching liquified stuff. It’s great if you want garlic or ginger pulp and fruit zest. It does give a different texture versus a garlic press and puréed garlic and ginger is that much more subtle. The fingernails—yes been there done that. They add a little fibre to the dish.

For a larger Micro-planer with handle, I have a Cuisipro. It is a good size for big blocks of hard cheese and gives a bit bigger grate than the Lee Valley one which is super fine.

[worth1]

The OXO mandolin with the 1/4 inch French fry attachment made fast work with two russet potatoes.
Much pleased.
I didn't even bother trimming them and used the safety holder too.
I personally didn't find it difficult to push the potato through.

IMG_20230914_175059741.jpg