Speaking of
the cost effectiveness of
kitchen gadgets, what do you think that your most and least used appliances/tools are? I know that I use my ice
cream maker quite often, though it was voted as the least cost-effective appliance. On a near-daily basis, I use my espresso machine and my oven, and I use my
toaster and blender less frequently. My stand mixer gets a good amount of use, too. I'm not going to work out the exact
cost per use, but I think that these have all paid for themselves.
In terms of least used items, my waffle iron only makes occasional appearances in my kitchen, but I got such a good deal on it that it could be considered "cost effective" even if I only used it twice. My slow cooker is an appliance that I want to use more often than I actually do, as well. Fortunately, I don't think I have anything that I have never used. I'm sure that that is more indicative of the fact that I cook a lot than the potential usefulness of the gadget.
I'm willing to bet that sometimes the least used things in the kitchen are some of the least expensive, like my waffle iron. Things that were expensive tend to motivate people, myself included, to use them in an attempt to justify the cost. If it seemed like too good a deal to pass up at the time, you probably didn't buy it because you actually needed it, like that 6th unusually shaped whisk or yet another cheese grater that is now collecting dust at the back of the pantry.
Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
Fruit juice: An invitation to diabetes?
Morbid thoughts? Have a cookie
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-03-2006 @ 10:31AM
J.Ho said...
For me, I must say that my rice cooker gets used probably more than anything (not more than the stove, of course). I have a bread maker that I used a lot for about two weeks after I got it. Never used it since. I also used to use mt Ronco Showtime Rotisserie quite a bit. I haven't touched it in at least a year. When i firts got it I thought it was the best thing since bottled beer. Now it's such a pain to bring it out of it's hiding place, set it up, cook with it, clean it and put it away again.
I also want to use my slow cooker a lot more than I do. I've never even opened the salad shooter or panini press I've received as gifts.
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5-03-2006 @ 2:53PM
Huffy said...
Well, now, I certainly draw a distinction between small appliance and kitchen gadget. The former category includes toasters, blenders, coffee grinders, and waffle irons; the latter runs the gamut from apple peelers to zucchini corers. Oh, and one can't forget the cherry pitters, garlic presses, nutmeg graters, shrimp deveiners, tomato sharks . . .
Based on this criteria, I use my coffee grinder and my toaster daily; and while I adore my ice cream maker, I tend to use it on a more seasonal basis. When I bake, which is frequently, my workhorse of a KitchenAid K5A never lets me down. The most-used tools in my gadget drawer are probably my Microplane zesters/graters and, in season, the ever-reliable, aforementioned tomato shark and its companion, the French tomato knife.
Huffy
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5-04-2006 @ 9:19AM
mella said...
I'm going with J.Ho on the rice cooker. It sits right out on my counter next to the stove and gets used almost every day. It's a really cheap one, but it makes a perfect pot of rice every time, so I think it has more than earned its keep.
On the other hand, I never use my food processor. I have a miniature one and a really nice large Cuisinart I got for Christmas, but I always chop by hand. Maybe it's because I enjoy using a good knife, or maybe it's because I'm too lazy to drag the processor out and then clean it afterwards.
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