Do one thing well, twice: Kitchen Edition
April 10, 2018 1:53 AM Subscribe
Yep, I'm looking for unitasker recommendations. What is the latest and greatest in:
A paring knife and a cutting board can handle both needs, but specific use cases (user stories, perhaps) demand quality, portable gadgets. Willing to pay more to never have to buy or think about these things again.
Citrus peeler: Easy to use, reliable, opens an orange with minimal fuss or mess for someone with habitually short fingernails.
Hand held, manual mincer/dicer: Cuts medium hardness foods into teeny-tiny pieces, quickly. Ideally food is held in a container during dicing operations. I recall a pampered chef chopper from way back when, but I'm hoping for something with a smaller dice.
Prefer to avoid Amazon if possible.
- Citrus peelers
- Hand powered mincers/dicers
A paring knife and a cutting board can handle both needs, but specific use cases (user stories, perhaps) demand quality, portable gadgets. Willing to pay more to never have to buy or think about these things again.
Citrus peeler: Easy to use, reliable, opens an orange with minimal fuss or mess for someone with habitually short fingernails.
Hand held, manual mincer/dicer: Cuts medium hardness foods into teeny-tiny pieces, quickly. Ideally food is held in a container during dicing operations. I recall a pampered chef chopper from way back when, but I'm hoping for something with a smaller dice.
Prefer to avoid Amazon if possible.
cilantro is right. Those Tupperware peelers are magic. You might as well get at least three, plus more for giving as gifts.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 5:09 AM on April 10, 2018
posted by I claim sanctuary at 5:09 AM on April 10, 2018
1. I always just use a spoon. Or I bite the first bit off and then peel with my fingers, but a spoon works really well.
2. It seems odd, but look at the Slap-Chop. My friend had one, possibly not the exact same brand but very similar in build and mechanism, and it worked amazingly well. I also have some elderly slightly arthritic relatives, and it changed their life. Holding a knife to shop feed to cook with was a bit hard, but putting things under that and hitting the button a few times was easy. That way they can cut bits into bigish pieces and then get a fine dice (say onions for a chili means quartering them and then putting each quarter under the chopper and getting good onion chops ready to go.).
posted by koolkat at 6:01 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
2. It seems odd, but look at the Slap-Chop. My friend had one, possibly not the exact same brand but very similar in build and mechanism, and it worked amazingly well. I also have some elderly slightly arthritic relatives, and it changed their life. Holding a knife to shop feed to cook with was a bit hard, but putting things under that and hitting the button a few times was easy. That way they can cut bits into bigish pieces and then get a fine dice (say onions for a chili means quartering them and then putting each quarter under the chopper and getting good onion chops ready to go.).
posted by koolkat at 6:01 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
A wooden chopping bowl, about 12", and a vintage curved chopper are very useful. The trick was to find the right one which has resulted in a decorative collection of which I regularly use only one. They were all inexpensive, $5-$15, and the best are carbon steel with a wood handle. One is even hand forged. I don't like the double-bladed one because softer foods clump up between the blades. A larger wooden bowl is occasionally useful but not necessary.
posted by Botanizer at 7:09 AM on April 10, 2018
posted by Botanizer at 7:09 AM on April 10, 2018
These little citrus spoons are sold at many of the rest stops, gift shops, etc. on the way in and out of Florida. After you use one for about a minute, it will make sense why. They are awesome. The link is to a bag of them for $3.99.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:10 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:10 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
Our bartender friend said all peelers get dull and she just buys the cheap one from IKEA, gets a few of them at once, and throws them out when they wear out. Then our other bartender friend who was working with her that night said, "oh, that's the one I always buy." The big thing with a peeler seems to be to get a Y-peeler (so named because the handle is shaped like a letter Y with the blade going between the points) and not a straight peeler, because the Y-peeler is easier to handle.
BTW if what you want for a citrus peeler is just the thing to start peeling it so you can finish by hand, you may in fact want a channel knife and not a peeler.
posted by fedward at 7:28 AM on April 10, 2018
BTW if what you want for a citrus peeler is just the thing to start peeling it so you can finish by hand, you may in fact want a channel knife and not a peeler.
posted by fedward at 7:28 AM on April 10, 2018
I had never heard of a citrus peeler before! I just use the tine of a fork to "start" peeling in the case that my nails aren't long enough or I don't wanna get peel underneath my nails.
posted by theRussian at 8:48 AM on April 12, 2018
posted by theRussian at 8:48 AM on April 12, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
As for chopping things, a good mezzaluna should do fine though doesn't have the container you asked for.
posted by cilantro at 4:34 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]