"Gadgets" news and stories

People who love to eat and cook often have a kitchen stocked with the essentials and possess an array of specialty gadgets or food-themed décor. So looking for a dinner party hostess gift or an on-point present for the passionate foodie in your life is often quite the challenge. This year, we've rounded up some of the coolest new tools and goodies we could find – items that are brand-new or unique – to make your holiday shopping just a little easier. What's even better? They're all under $50. Click through the gallery to see our top gift picks.

Hungry for more? Check out all of our Christmas menus, recipes and entertaining tips. If you're all about cookies (who isn't?), we've got 25 days of Christmas cookies. If you want other sorts of sweets, check out Gail Simmons' Christmas desserts.

Additional reporting by Lindsay Damast.

Hot dogs became an unlikely focus of controversy last winter when the American Academy of Pediatrics called for their redesign. The convenient, iconic size and shape of the average hot dog is also, unfortunately, perfectly sized to stop a child's airway; 17 percent of all food-related asphyxiations involve hot dogs, according to the AAP analysis.

Well, at least one person has answered the call for a kinder, gentler dog, patenting a device that he claims will render a hot dog safer to eat. Veteran food inventor Gene Gagliardi, head of Creativators and the mind behind Steak-umm and KFC's Popcorn Chicken, is now pitching the Kinder Cut Hot Dog cutting machines.

Shun's santoku knife on caramelized onion tart. Photo: Alex Van Buren

Knives. Outside of the full-time food dork world, people -- even foodies -- don't tend to talk about them much.

They have a bad association as, um, dull conversational topics: There's the unwelcome knife salesman banging on the door, or that eternal infomercial ("Only $39.95 in three easy installments!"). I owned a sub-par knife for years, until a friend trained at a local culinary institute basically took it away from me.

I've been shopping ever since with an eagle eye for sales. The santoku style caught my attention for its multiuse blade (note the indentations, which purportedly help keep food from sticking) and stylish look. And when I grabbed a Shun in hand at a local shop -- its base has a slight teardrop shape, perfectly suited to that soft nub between thumb and index finger -- I fell in love.

Want your roasts and baked goods to be perfect every time? Get an oven thermometer!

• Artificial sweeteners aren't for diet products anymore. The Times outlines the ins and outs of sweeteners, and how they're not only entering our cooking but are also ripe for mixing with regular sugar.
• Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson talks about his vegan lifestyle and how sometimes he slips (but only to be polite).
• Delicious and buttery biscuits: How the Southern tradition moved out of the home and into our freezers.
• We try to keep our kitchens clean, but sometimes bacteria are so very welcome -- especially when you're making homemade yogurt.
• A sad love letter to Charles, a restaurant that disappointed, from Frannie Von Furstinshow.
• The Times investigates New York's burger scene, from wagyu, to a tasty side of french fries -- Flip, Black Iron Burger, and City Burger.
• Empanadas are pretty much the national food in Chile and can be made at home with a quick dough and tasty filling.
• A comforting recipe for Roasted Pepper Tacos with Cream -- "soulful, easy and deeply flavorful."
• Bouley Market is on its way to getting a cheese room, and gears up to sell restaurant-quality vegetables.
• In case you don't have enough gadgets, King Arthur Flour and Crate and Barrel offer shiny new products.