Many tools that promise to revolutionize our cooking experience often end up gathering dust in the back of a cupboard. Whether they’re hard to clean, overly complicated, or just plain pointless, here are 18 kitchen tools you really don’t need.
Apple Corer
Sure, coring an apple can be a bit of a chore, especially if your recipe calls for a lot of apples (like apple pie, for instance). However, a good chef’s knife can core an apple quickly and easily, with minimal waste. In addition, The Kitchn asserts that most apple corers on the market are useless and often break, particularly plastic ones.
Avocado Slicer
How many times have you considered slicing a soft avocado challenging? This pointless device is marketed as a necessity for making avocado toast, yet most examples manhandle the fruit, making it overly mushed and creating more mess than it saves. A sharp knife is all you really need to slice avocado, even if you’re making buckets of guacamole.
Spiralizer
Vegetable noodles, nicknamed “zoodles,” were all the rage for a while, mainly for low-carb or paleo diets. But the novelty wore off quickly for many home cooks, mainly because spiralized vegetables lose their texture when cooked, frequently becoming watery and unpleasant. Besides, a julienne peeler gives similar results and is more compact and easier to clean.
Melon Baller
Unless you desire perfect balls of fruit daily, a melon baller is a pointless kitchen tool that most people forget they even have. The HuffPost says they’re among the top three most useless kitchen gadgets and normally represent a waste of space and money. Melons are soft, watery, and easy to cut, so simply peel off the skin and use a sharp knife to cut them into cubes.
Egg Slicer
Like avocados, eggs are soft and easy to cut into, so a specialized slicer isn’t a necessity. Egg slicers may make your slices perfectly equal in thickness, but a simple knife can do the job almost as well. If you really must have this gadget, at least invest in a multi-purpose tool that can also cut eggs into wedges or chop them finely—it’s slightly more versatile!
Salad Spinner
A salad spinner removes excess water from lettuce leaves, leaving them crisp and ready for dressing. However, Vital Communities writes, “You could shake the greens dry in between paper towels or clean kitchen cloths” and achieve the same goal. Spinners tend to be large, with various components, and can become dirty if not meticulously cleaned after each use.
Garlic Press
Mincing garlic with a press is only required when a recipe demands minced garlic. And, even then, fine-chopped garlic is often more than adequate. A sharp knife and wooden or plastic chopping board can be used with a quick, rocking motion to release the garlic’s strong flavor. The flat blade can also be used to partially crush each clove beforehand to make removing the papery husks easier.
Banana Slicer
Another pointless slicer for cutting a soft, easy-to-slice food item! This niche tool is not only unnecessary, but it’s also of limited use because you can only create slices of a certain thickness. A knife is quicker, easier, and more versatile—capable of slicing bananas at any size you desire. So, next time you’re making banana pancakes or fruit salad, ditch the slicer and keep it simple.
Burger Press
Forming perfect burger patties can be done by hand. In fact, many chefs recommend gently shaping patties yourself to avoid compressing the meat too tightly, which can lead to dry and overly dense burgers. A burger press is tempting for those craving uniformity, but a light touch and practice with your hands will yield tastier results without the extra cleaning and loss of space.
Corn Cob Stripper
Cutting corn kernels off the cob with a sharp knife is a quick and easy task, especially if you employ a technique like running the knife down the cob vertically. Specially designed strippers are bulky gadgets that add an unnecessary step to the process, not to mention more washing up! Plus, scraping the cob with the back of the knife releases more of the corn’s flavorful milk.
Pancake Pen
The marketing for these makes it look easy to create artistically shaped pancake designs, but the reality is much more challenging and messy! The batter consistency must be perfect for the pen to function correctly, and intricate designs often look like blobs on the griddle. A squeeze bottle or simply pouring from the jug offers more control and less frustration.
Single-Serve Coffee Maker
These machines offer convenience but take up excessive counter space and aren’t suitable for small kitchens. They’re also very wasteful in the long run, using pre-packaged coffee pods that create a lot of single-use plastic waste. A reusable filter for a drip coffee maker or a French press is a more eco-friendly and cost-effective option in the long run.
Microwave Pasta Cooker
A study on spaghetti published in Research Gate found that “microwave cooking resulted in more gelatinized and softer products than traditional cooking.” If you want your pasta to hold its shape and have an al dente bite, boiling it on the stovetop is ideal. Microwaves are also notorious for uneven cooking, meaning you might also find raw pasta amongst the mush!
Egg Timer
Most modern kitchens have incorporated oven timers, or you could simply use the timer function on your smartphone. A dedicated egg timer is a redundant gadget that takes up valuable space in your kitchen. The perfect hard-boiled egg takes around 12 minutes to cook, but this can vary depending on size, making personal experimentation the best way to decide on the optimal boiling time.
Vegetable Chopper
A sharp chef’s knife is all you need to chop vegetables. Food processors can achieve the same results for larger quantities, but a dedicated chopper adds clutter without any significant benefits. Chopping vegetables by hand also allows you to control the size and consistency of the pieces, which can be necessary for certain recipes while also improving your chopping skills.
Apple Peeler
Peeling apples by hand takes minutes with a sharp knife, making apple peelers an unnecessary space-taker. Also, consider that most recipes (like applesauce or pies) don’t require apples to be peeled, and leaving the skin on retains better shape and nutritional value, as they’re packed with vitamins and fiber. Ditch the designated peeler and use a knife, or simply leave the skin on.
Cherry Pitter
This tool is very specialized and is really not needed unless you are pitting vast amounts of cherries every day! Baking Bites recommends using a sturdy plastic straw instead—not only are you recycling plastic for additional use, but it’s easy to pit several cherries at once before removing them all, and it minimizes the amount of cherry flesh wasted.
Rotisserie Chicken Holder
You may think you need this gadget to crisp up leftover rotisserie chicken skin, but most ovens have a broil setting that achieves the same result without the need for an extra gadget. You could also think of alternative ways to use up leftover rotisserie chicken, like shredding the meat for other recipes, like sandwiches, tacos, casseroles, soups, or salads.
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