Funny piece over at Cracked, where they take 10 TV infomercials and see if the products really work. Most of them aren't food related (it's mostly exercise equipment, listening devices, and magnetic pens), but they do investigate two products I've seen advertised non-stop for the past fives years, the Pasta Pro and the Handy Peel. After the jump, the two infomercials.
Cracked calls the ads "laughably misleading." What do you think? I always wanted to get that pasta thing.
1-02-2008 @4:16PM Into the Abyss said... I can't say if they work but you can buy the same thing much, much cheaper**http://www.faucetdepot.com/faucetdepot/ProductDetail.asp?Product=18707&AffiliateID=ChannelAdvisor
PVC chip gloves.
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1-02-2008 @4:17PM Nicki said... "What do you think? I always wanted to get that pasta thing."
Don't waste your money. My husband bought me one of those and it lasted all of two cookings. It rusted horribly after the first wash and came apart just a couple weeks later. I was disappointed, but glad that he didn't spend ~too~ much on it. :P
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1-02-2008 @4:32PM texasannie said... I got a set of two Pasta Pro pots as a wedding gift. I never could use the larger pot as intended because the lid [b]didn't fit the pot[/b], so there was no way to lock on the lid and strain the pot's contents. Useless! The smaller pot was okay, not great. The pots are light and cheap, and I found I always chose a different pot to cook in, so I got rid of them.
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1-02-2008 @4:33PM rckymtnski said... Okay, so I fell for the "Handy Peel" except they were called "Tater Mitts" pretty sure I saw them on a favorite food blog...ahem....but they 1. don't work that well and 2. are nearly impossible to clean after making a huge mess, it is really tough to get the peel out of the "mitts". The Tater Mitts are blue and make you look like a Star Trek character too.
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1-02-2008 @5:46PM Andi said... Other companies make pots with draining lids now that are a lot higher quality, my mother has a taller one that she's used a bunch but unfortunately I have no idea what brand it is.
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1-02-2008 @6:48PM Raine said... http://youtube.com/watch?v=anZBo2FmaL8
Only way to peel your potato easily.
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1-02-2008 @7:06PM rockphiler said... I bought a pair of the potato peeler gloves for my elderly, arthritic mother-- I thought they looked like Playtex Living Gloves with aquairium rocks glued onto them. My mom says that would work better. Since you use the gloves AFTER boiling, you have to wait until the potatoes cool down before attempting to peel them. What you end up with is a crumbly mess.
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1-02-2008 @7:32PM Berkana said... I was about to post Raine's video clip. The fastest and most complete way to peel a potato is to blanch it and dunk it in ice water after having scored the skin. Even the handy peel can't beat that for ease and speed.
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1-02-2008 @7:34PM Berkana said... The one thing I hate more than anything else about infomercials is that they always show a bumbling idiot when trying to demonstrate how something else is inferior. Honestly, if they didn't pay someone to purposely mis-demonstrate how difficult something is, and if people would stop falling for that kind of blatant dishonesty, there would be a lot fewer crap products out there.
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1-02-2008 @8:35PM dragonet2 said... #8, I agree.
I've developed a anti-kitchen-crap virus, things that don't get used are getting gradually let out to Goodwill. There are some things, like my griddle, my stand mixer,our ancient waffle iron (streamline design...) and my little Oscar grinder processor, that I wouldn't do without, but there's a lot of stuff we have and don't use ever.
And either the blanching method or my Oxo Good Grips peeler are the only way to go, after watching the commercial I figured the glove thing was crap, boiled potatoes are farking HOT.
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1-03-2008 @8:02AM Jessica said... Ikea sells pots with draining lids- much cheaper, and of surprisingly good quality
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1-13-2008 @10:26PM b said... That whole article had me laughing. I particularily loved the past pot- I just threw the whole thing out.
Sadly I did end up in urgent care when I cut my self with a Miracle Balde III at my mother's house--course it was all my fault, I tried to catch a falling knife. Ended up with 5 stitches on my index finger. (Yes I suck around knives)
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1-04-2008 @7:39PM stephanie said... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5efK3Qas8QU
this works get on potatoes too!!
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