This meme is spreading. I think it originally came from mme_hardy and oursin, inspired by a paragraph in www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/21/home-kitchen-250000-cooking-need. But lots of other people are doing it too.

Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, italicize the ones you have and don’t use, strike through the ones you have had but got rid of:

"I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese knives (We used to have one, but I seem remember it breaking. We used it when we had it, but have never bothered to replace it.), electric woks (Not electric, but I do have two proper iron woks which are used about once a week on average), miniature salad spinners, griddle pans (Mine isn't a pan and it doesn't look like the ones that Google shows. It's a real old fashioned solid cast iron griddle which I use for Welsh cakes), jam funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers (I've had a couple of crappy aluminium ones in the past, but I've just treated myself to a lovely stainless steel one with a glass lid), cake stands (a glass one I inherited and keep in the cupboard "just in case" I should ever have a cake suitable for putting on it), garlic crushers, martini glasses, tea strainers (I also use a tea cosy), bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers, piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers, pressure cookers (I used to use this regularly, but the safety valve developed a leak and I haven't got around to seeing if it can be replaced), slow cookers, spaetzle makers, cookie presses, gravy strainers, double boilers (bains marie), sukiyaki stoves, ice cream makers, food processors, and fondue sets languish dustily at the back of the nation's cupboards."

As a plain cook in a family who tend to be at the "food is fuel" end of the spectrum, I seem to have avoided impulse gadget purchases. Also I don't watch cookery programmes, read women's magazines or the lifestyle pages of middle class newspapers, so I've never felt I needed most of these things.

Gadgets that are not on the list that I own and regularly use: kitchen timers (I have 3 because sometimes I need to time more than one thing), George Foreman lean mean grilling machine, small electric hand whisk. I also have two fruit bowls, with fruit in them (also another fruit bowl that holds all my hair accessories.) NB The linked article is a spoof, but I think it does contain more than an element of truth. :)

Items that I own, use very very rarely, but when I do need it it's just right for the job and nothing else would do: pestle and mortar.

[Cross-posted from Dreamwidth by way of a backup http://heleninwales.dreamwidth.org/66049.html. If you want to leave a comment, please use whichever site you find most convenient. Comments so far: .]

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