Kitchen Gadgets! | Experience Portugal
While Christmas shopping, I saw a device for removing hard-boiled eggs. “I have to have this because it might be useful,” I thought, despite the fact that I probably eat two hard-boiled eggs a year!
How did I survive taking off my egg without this gadget? What’s so tricky about gently tapping my teaspoon around the top of the egg and lifting it up, which I did on a regular basis when I was growing up? Do I really need a gadget for this? Clearly I plan on doing as I bought it and in the drawer it lives, along with other little ‘useful’ kitchen gadgets that I rarely or never use.
The Garlic Press – I don’t eat or cook with garlic. The juicer – my fingers work just as well. The marble chopping board with the wire cutter – I use a knife. The honey stick – I use a spoon! There are even gadgets that I don’t know what they’re for.
A can opener was an absolutely essential item until cans became ring cans — thank goodness, because the sharp, jagged sides created by the can opener have always scared me.
I like the potato peeler, but I don’t use it to peel potatoes because I’m guilty of always using a knife and peeling off the too thick peel. No, I rely on my peeler to peel carrots quickly, moving it up and down instead of scraping them, and I’d feel lost without it.
I use the wooden cleaver to crush chocolate and make chocolate chips, but the best gadget we can’t do without is the lid opener for removing hard lids from bottles and jars.
The silliest gadget we have is the banana slicer, but is that really necessary when a knife does the job so well? In fact, I now realize that the humble knife can replace many of my kitchen gadgets!
I found that there were over 3,000 kitchen gadgets for sale on Amazon. The craziest included a large carrot sharpener and I loved the molds to make fried eggs in the shape of a star, square or heart, because sometimes all you need is a little exciting variety!
There were weed shears and a pot spreader. What’s wrong with using a knife? Price €17, must be for pot fanatics… I love pots but, at this price, I will continue to use a knife!
So what exactly is a gadget?
A gadget can be described as a nifty thing that makes a job easier, i.e. a specialized little tool used to perform a particular function that differentiates it from another kitchen utensil that can be used for multiple tasks, for example the knife! Basically anything that performs a function can be classified as a gadget and there are gadgets for every area of our lives.
Did you know that the word gadget was coined around 1886 when it was used to describe a specialized little gizmo? However, it wasn’t until 1951 that the word first appeared in the Oxford English dictionary when it was also noted that gadgets often get thrown away due to the time it takes to clean them which I totally identify with as I definitely don’t want to add to dishes using a gadget.
In the past, kitchen utensils were very few and rudimentary, consisting of cutlery and pans for boiling, roasting or cooking food on the fire. A rotisserie spit mounted in a fireplace was one of the earliest kitchen gadgets and a jack was used to turn the spit with animals such as dogs or geese walking around to turn it!
A great innovation in the historic kitchen, which increased the efficiency of cooking, was the pewter roaster which reflected the heat onto the food and allowed it to be greased with the juices collected. Presto toasters, colanders, potato masher, whisks, graters, etc. they were invented. In fact, most of the equipment we use today has evolved from its previous counterparts.
With the advent of electricity, home appliances took off, and starting in the 1930s, items like electric stoves, irons, toasters, refrigerators, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners freed up cleaning time.
Over the years, thousands of kitchen gadgets and equipment have been invented and continuously improved. For example, a toaster oven now has versions for hot dogs and bagels or for many slices of toast. Simple whisks transformed into electric whisks with multiple functions, gadgets and accessories.
However, it’s not just in the kitchen that gadgets exist. It happens to facilitate almost everything in sports, technology, office, hobbies, pets, health, etc., and it seems that one gadget begets other gadget accessories to go along with them, making gadgets an essential part of our daily routine.
One could say that everything from the invention of the wheel to the computer is a gimmick, and an innovative gimmick can easily become a necessity.
We are bombarded with marketing promotions to encourage us to buy more for ourselves or as gifts for others and yes, gadgets can certainly make our lives easier and more enjoyable.
Thinking about this article, I looked in my kitchen cabinets and was horrified to find machines I never use. The ice cream maker, the steamer, the waffle maker, among others, and I was ashamed of them but, in my defense, they have been acquired over the years and not just by me.
There’s no doubt that we all need gadgets of one kind or another, and even the craziest ones, like the banana slicer, bring some humor into our lives, albeit temporarily.
Many gadgets improve our mood such as those that allow us to listen to music or keep in touch with others as well as those that allow us to do our household chores more efficiently and faster so that we can spend more time doing things. that we love.
However, I certainly don’t need a lot of those little kitchen utensils that live in the drawer or those food processors. So, as part of my New Year’s resolution to clean up my kitchen and my life, many of these gadgets will need to be donated and someone else can have them and hopefully actually use them!
Also now I have a new passion that forces me to buy DIY tools instead, in addition to their many accessory gadgets… but that story is for another article!
So now you know!
By Isabel Costa
|| features@algarveresident.com
Isobel Costa works full time and lives on a farm with a variety of pets! In her spare time she devotes herself to photography, research and writing.
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