Kitchen Gadgets!

Soldato
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I've ordered that Kenwood food processor now. Will be delivered together with some other household goods I was in need of as well.

Nice one neviditelny. I hope you like it. It's only basic but it should serve you well. Careful not to do what I did though and stick your hand inside it the bowl to remove any food before removing the blade. I did that and cut my finger.
 
Associate
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Nice one neviditelny. I hope you like it. It's only basic but it should serve you well. Careful not to do what I did though and stick your hand inside it the bowl to remove any food before removing the blade. I did that and cut my finger.

I've been looking for a very basic and cheapish food processor as all I'm planning to do is to shred/cut vegetables as I'm planning to over towards a keto diet so would be doing lots of coleslaws, salads, cauliflower and/or broccoli mash etc. And yeah, I can imagine that did hurt a bit but I gonna do my best to avoid it.
 
Soldato
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I bought a tuna can strainer which is really handy.
seems like a 3rd world problem ...can't you use the lid or a sieve

should be ideal for grinding sugar down.
granulated might be half the price of caster, but, although I've seen this method on USA sites, can't believe either, that blender would uniformly grind it, or that trying to do icing wouldn't create a cloud. ...humidity would have a lot to say too, need to see proof of execution - pictures ..


great gadget we bought last year https://www.lakeland.co.uk/50522/Small-Pop-up-Food-Cover so for cooling bread/cakes/meat can keep the flies off.
 
Caporegime
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Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
I have...

A flat bed, non rotating microwave. Strange at first but you can fit much bigger plates and items inside.

A waffle iron - not used in a while but it’s one on the hob so easier to clean than electric versions.

A egg waffle iron - same as above but for egg waffles.

A takoyaki griddle - to make takoyaki of course

A Gaggia Gelato machine - only used in the summer to make ice cream, Sorbet in any flavours that I want.

Also have a juicer, Anova sous vide, coffee grinder, espresso machine, hand held blender, Nutri Ninja the usual stuff.

I don’t have any weird chopping gadgets, I prefer a simple knife and pestle and mortar, old school tools for chopping and crushing. No fancy expensive knifes either.
 
Last edited:
Associate
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I don’t have any weird chopping gadgets, I prefer a simple knife and pestle and mortar, old school tools for chopping and crushing. No fancy expensive knifes either.

A mortar is definitely something I should look into getting. Would make it easier to make various sauces etc when needing to crush and add spices and so
 
Soldato
Joined
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Location
Finchley, London
I've ordered my mixer, a dough scraper, a Paul Hollywood 20 x 20 square cake tin so I can make fudge brownies, an analogue oven thermometer and an Etekcity 1080 lasergrip infrared non contact gun thermometer.

The analogue thermometer just arrived and I'm pleased to say that on testing it by setting my oven to 200c, the thermometer (though a little hard to read through the window) was reading 195/200 when the oven light went out. Precise enough I think. It was one of the recommended ones with good accuracy. I've read of many people where temps were off by more than 50c and they obviously needed to calibrate their oven.

20190206-103416.jpg






granulated might be half the price of caster, but, although I've seen this method on USA sites, can't believe either, that blender would uniformly grind it, or that trying to do icing wouldn't create a cloud. ...humidity would have a lot to say too, need to see proof of execution - pictures ..

I'm going to put this to the test today by making caster and icing sugar using some granulated, as my shiny new mixer just arrived. :)

20190206-103858.jpg
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Apr 2007
Posts
13,529
I have...

A flat bed, non rotating microwave. Strange at first but you can fit much bigger plates and items inside.

A waffle iron - not used in a while but it’s one on the hob so easier to clean than electric versions.

A egg waffle iron - same as above but for egg waffles.

A takoyaki griddle - to make takoyaki of course

A Gaggia Gelato machine - only used in the summer to make ice cream, Sorbet in any flavours that I want.

Also have a juicer, Anova sous vide, coffee grinder, espresso machine, hand held blender, Nutri Ninja the usual stuff.

I don’t have any weird chopping gadgets, I prefer a simple knife and pestle and mortar, old school tools for chopping and crushing. No fancy expensive knifes either.

I'll see your flat bed microwave and raise you a flat bed with shelves, 3 infact.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
17,816
Location
Finchley, London
Update on oven temperature testing. I tested again, from cold, with oven set to 160c. This time, the light went off early when my thermometer only read 140c. However, by about a minute later, the thermometer reached 160c. From then on, it went up to 170c but no further and would then fluctuate back and forth between 160 and 170, with the thermostat light coming back on as it dropped slightly past 160.
I reduced oven setting to 150 and same thing, fluctuating between 150 and 160.

Having read up on this, this tolerance is apparently quite normal even for a well calibrated oven. So if my recipe calls for 200c, should I set my oven to 190c knowing that it will fluctuate up to 200, or put it at 200c?

I found this from an appliance manufacturers page

Gas and electric ovens will cycle on and off throughout the cycle to maintain the set temperature. When the oven temperature has dropped below the set temperature, the oven cycles on again to heat and will then cycle off again once it is higher than the set temperature. The goal is to maintain an average set temperature, but you will see a normal swing in temperatures throughout the cycle. This is typical of ovens, and is factored into how recipes are created and used.
 
Soldato
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Having read up on this, this tolerance is apparently quite normal even for a well calibrated oven. So if my recipe calls for 200c, should I set my oven to 190c knowing that it will fluctuate up to 200, or put it at 200c?
maybe put a piece of metal with a high heat capacity in the oven - le-creuset ? and measure what that averages out at with your imminent infra-red gun
 
Soldato
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maybe put a piece of metal with a high heat capacity in the oven - le-creuset ? and measure what that averages out at with your imminent infra-red gun

Yeah, I read something similar by using a pizza stone or slab of marble. I usually keep my metal baking sheet/tray and large roasting tray in the oven. I'm looking forward to getting the gun and comparing temps. Although it can't be fired at the oven door glass so I'll have to open it. I guess it won't lose too much heat when I do that.
 
Soldato
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Finchley, London
jpaul, I did a video for you. I must admit I didn't blitz the caster or icing sugar for quite long enough. The caster sugar granules I made in the video aren't quite as small as the caster I show in the bag, I think another minute would have done it. Gotta be careful though because then it goes quickly into icing sugar territory. And the icing sugar I made came out powdery but a bit gritty. I only did it for about a minute or two. It seems, from seeing it done on youtube, I need to zap it for about 4 or 5 minutes giving it a stir in between. So yeah, not perfect first time but it works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Qyw3amM68
 
Soldato
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Good results .. looks like a good economization strategy - blender earning its keep ..

I use more castor than granulated too (although its seville orange season), so I'll put that 5kg deal bag of granulated I'd seen in JS in my trolley ...
 
Soldato
OP
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Surrey
I eat a lot of tuna and the best strainer is an almost completely open tin lid.

My impulse buy waffle maker from years ago is out and being used daily. I whip up a batch of Waffles using Myprotein Pancake mix (in a thicker consistency).
 
Associate
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Bournemouth
1. How much tuna do you eat??
2. What's wrong with the lid?

1. There are 3 of us who eat is regularly
2. The lid doesn't strain the tuna aswell as the strainer.

It was only a few quid and it just makes life a little bit easier, the same can be said for the majority of kitchen utensils. Most are a waste, but we buy them to make our lives easier / simpler.
 
Soldato
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*divert*

... so as connoiseur's of tuna which is the good brand ?
as a fan of tinned fish, which I think is usually fresher/tastier than the supermarket frsh fish counter (but maybe brexit will improve that if they can't flog it abroad)
lidl sardines and rollmops are top of my list, although lidl ramped the price on roll-mops.

[
Waffles using Myprotein Pancake mix
waffles are sacrosant with butter+eggs/maple syrup ... does a protein version conserve taste
]
 
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