Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Eating and Drinking => Kitchen Natter => Topic started by: Madame Cholet on October 27, 2014, 21:33

Title: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Madame Cholet on October 27, 2014, 21:33
Juicer used about 3 times.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: gypsy on October 27, 2014, 21:35
A juicer here too.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Comfreypatch on October 27, 2014, 21:55
Same here a juicer coming second was an icecream maker
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Kevin67 on October 27, 2014, 22:41
Yep - Juicer and ice cream maker here as well!

Also one of those ear and nose hair clippers....

a dance mat for the kids that is tied to only one (boring) game

Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Annen on October 27, 2014, 23:00
An onion chopper thing, bought for a scandalous sum at a Pampered chef do, used three times in 2 years, hurts my hands to use it and is a pain in the neck to wash out.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Springlands on October 27, 2014, 23:01
I love my juicer but as it is a pain in the proverbial to clean it does not get used as much as it should.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: mumofstig on October 27, 2014, 23:02
Electric carving knife  ::)
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Springlands on October 27, 2014, 23:03
Electric carving knife  ::)

They scare me - will not use one.  :D
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: mumofstig on October 27, 2014, 23:05
I can't do thin slices with it - it's ok for carving of thick steak-sized pieces, though  :lol:
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: robinahood on October 28, 2014, 06:18
A cheap mandolin years ago, it was lethal!
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Lardman on October 28, 2014, 08:43
A cheese slicer - you know those triangle things, utterly pants.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: compostqueen on October 28, 2014, 09:12
A juicer which was absolute pants!   :D
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: jaydig on October 28, 2014, 09:38
Juicer for me too. What a load of rubbish! Which reminds me, I'll take it to the charity shop, it's only been used twice, and perhaps someone else will have more patience that me and be able to make use of it.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Mrs Bee on October 28, 2014, 17:40
Cheese wire to use on the cheese wedding cake at son's wedding.

Broke after 5 goes.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Yorkie on October 28, 2014, 19:53
Juicer too for me. Nightmare to clean pulp off metal mesh.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: compostqueen on October 29, 2014, 12:41
Mine didn't produce any pulp!  :D  It just sort of squashed the fruit (thinking orange), flattened it and that was it  :nowink:  This was Kenwood  >:(  I returned it and got a refund. Bah
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: LotuSeed on October 29, 2014, 23:35
One of those hand crank apple peeler/corer thing-a-majiggs. It's was terrible. Peeled off way too much fruit and sliced them way too thin. The other was a victorio food mill. Sure it got the skins off and the seeds out, but I can do that myself without all the annoyance and extra pieces to clean up afterwards!!
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Annen on October 29, 2014, 23:54
One of those hand crank apple peeler/corer thing-a-majiggs. It's was terrible. Peeled off way too much fruit and sliced them way too thin. The other was a victorio food mill. Sure it got the skins off and the seeds out, but I can do that myself without all the annoyance and extra pieces to clean up afterwards!!
I've got one of those apple peelers and they work if you have a perfectly round apple with the core going straight through the centre.  But sadly none of mine have been like that and it is more trouble than it is worth.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Madame Cholet on October 30, 2014, 06:03
I use my peeler loads, but I do bag fulls at once for the dehydrator I just cut the extra bits out at the end.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: LotuSeed on October 30, 2014, 09:33
Yeah I got both gadgets because I usually have large amount of produce at one time to process for canning. I still found it easier to peel, core and slice 30+ lbs of apples by hand, rather than try to do them with that darned gadget. There was way too much fight to get the apples to stay perfectly centered on the three prongs and to get the peeler to actually work, but then having to go back after all that work to cut off/out the bad pieces or missed peel was just ridiculously tedious.  :ohmy:
It was the same with the passata machine/ food mill. I found that I was spending more time and energy, creating more dirty dishes to clean and experiencing loads more frustration/aggravation trying to get the thing to work properly. That machine was an utter nightmare!  :mad:

In the end both items were returned. And I've decided that if a gadget can't save me time, energy, dishes and frustration, over doing things by hand, then I can't be bothered with it.  :tongue2:
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Kristen on October 30, 2014, 10:39
It was the same with the ... food mill. I found that I was spending more time and energy, creating more dirty dishes to clean and experiencing loads more frustration/aggravation trying to get the thing to work properly

I have a stainless steel food mill (new, but just like the old fashion Mouli that my mother had had for millennia ...) which I find invaluable for getting the stringy bits and skin out of, for example, home made soup.  Seems easy to wash - a rinse under the tap is normally enough, but it will happily go in the dishwasher if needs be

I wonder if your food mill is different in some way?

(http://imsev.actioncom.fr/dbIMAGE/delices/image/I_30072010_095754.JPG)
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: LotuSeed on October 30, 2014, 14:48
The one I tried out looked like this...
I've actually considered getting one like the one in your picture as it would be handy for getting seeds out of soft fruit and it looks fairly easy to clean.
Title: Re: What was the worst gadget you bought?
Post by: Kristen on October 30, 2014, 16:28
I've actually considered getting one like the one in your picture as it would be handy for getting seeds out of soft fruit and it looks fairly easy to clean.

I haven't tried it for that, but I cannot use the finest sieve for soup (takes ALL the goodness out!!) and my Mother used to make a coulis with hers, so I reckon it should do what you want.

I tried to buy one with three sieve sizes, but could only find decent stainless steel ones with two.  I have a relatively small diameter one, ideal for my soups (1L or so), but Mother had a bigger one and for any volume of processing I think that would be better - dearer though :(