L-R Microplane flat zester, Cuisinart zester, Microplane curved zester. Photo: The Skinny Chef

I'm a zesting queen and I've tried every gadget on the market. But kitchen space is tight in my small apartment so I've donated extras to friends and kids I'm teaching to cook and have narrowed it down to three essentials.

I use Microplanes the most and maintain that the flat zester, one of the cheapest, is an absolute must for any kitchen. Both that and the rounded model work equally well for grating whole spices like nutmeg and cinnamon sticks or for making fluffy mounds of shredded Parmesan cheese as soft as eyelashes.

Get more of Jennifer's zesting secrets after the jump.

Once you start cooking multiple dishes, space always becomes an issue. Unless you're lucky enough to have a gargantuan kitchen, there never seems to be enough counter space, appropriately sized burners, or room in the oven. Now at least, the latter is getting some solid help -- and it's not in the form of toaster ovens!

The Kitchn has blogged about a new gadget available at Sur La Table -- the $22 Multi-Tier Oven Rack that you see above. Of course, this is perfect for those Thanksgiving rushes when you have a million dishes that all need to be ready at the same time. As The Kitchn points out, it's also good for a space-saving cooling rack. But I'd argue that it's also good for a lot of everyday cooking issues.

Have you ever opted not to make a side because you didn't have space in the oven beyond the main dish? Have you ever had just a few extra cookies that couldn't make the first batch? Have you ever fussed with heating a few different appetizers at the same time? As long as cooking temperatures don't stop you, this rack looks like it's ideal for making the most of your cooking time. And for a collapsable rack that's only $22? That's not bad at all.

Last summer, a reader took the opportunity to excoriate me for my perceived show-offery when a sorbet recipe I posted mentioned the use of an ice cream maker. Well, for one, a goodly percentage of ice cream, sherbet and sorbet recipes conclude with the mandate to "freeze according to ice cream maker's directions" and for another, it was a goshdarned wedding gift!

Perhaps some small accord could be struck, or perhaps even kicked with the use of the UCO Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker. Ice and rock salt are added to one chamber and edible ingredients to another. The whole unit is then hand-tightened together and the merrymaking/ice cream churning commences. The ball can be tossed, shaken, passed and generally frolicked about with, then opened and stirred, resealed and agitated again until the mixture reaches a pleasing consistency, and co-churners have worn out all "Have a ball!" related puns.

Still, should the $16.50 expenditure (via Amazon) still seem a tad schmancy, I included a coffee can agitation method in a post on Soul-Saving Sweet Tea Sherbet a while back.

UCO's Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker

Ah, memories of peeling potatoes.

Two memories come to mind: the endless hours of peeling and chopping potatoes at my job at a breakfast/lunch place. I must have cut 10 tons of potatoes over those years. The other memory is my mother peeling potatoes on holidays. She would pull the peeler towards her, instead of away like you're supposed to, but she never cut herself.

I thought of those times when looking at this: Tater Mitts (audio/video will start when you click). They're glove with a rough edge that peel potatoes easily. You just rub the potatoes with your gloves under running water and it takes the skin off. Extra bonus: your hands will look like an alien from Star Trek.

Full Belly doesn't ask the all important question regarding this kitchen gadget - WHY? Why on earth would anyone want to make hard boiled eggs square? Or at least 'edged' as results as displayed via this flickr set do not seem that successful.

It is a Chinese invention by the look of the packet but Full Belly has tracked down an online stockist. The Gadget Source has it listed for for $2.99.

Though I often post about interesting kitchen gadgets like the avocado slicer and the Grapefruiter, I am, personally, of the belief that one can get by with nothing but a cutting board, a chef's knife, and a good saute pan. However, I am still always intrigued by gadgets, especially the list of Top 10 Strangest Kitchen Gadgets as chosen by TechEBlog. For those with lazy left click mouse-fingers, I have also listed them here:

1. Salter Nutrition Scale
2. Smart Oven that cooks for you
3. GE's All-in-one Kitchen Device
4. LiteOn's SmartLabel that changes colors as the expiration date on foods near
5. HomePub beer tap in the fridge
6. ToasterKettle to toast your toast and brew your water for tea
7. Z Island Kitchen
8. Tetris Kitchen Timer
9. Interactive LED Dining table
10. Keyboard tablecloth

They also honorably mention a few additional kitchen gadgets like a Computer Table Lamp and a Programmable Drinks Mixer.

An English barrister has invented a gadget that kills lobsters within 5 seconds. The CrustaStun is a more humane method of killing lobsters rather than being boiled alive.

The gadget is to go into commercial production in several versions including one small enough to be the 'must-have' kitchen accessory. The industrial sized version is already in use by the Blue Seafood Company, in Paignton, Devon, and Cromer Crab, of Norfolk.  A smaller version suitable for restaurant chains, catering organisations and large hotels will be available soon at a cost of about £1,500 to £2,000. 

Hopefully the home version will look a little more trendy - perhaps a KitchenAid-type makeover - than the industrial looking model pictured.

Imported from America apparently but available in the UK through bay6kitchen, this trendy breadknife is the only product you can buy through this website at the moment.

It is £14.99 and looks slightly peculiar; but allows you to cut a loaf to the width between the blade and the handle. I can't see it being much use with an ordinary loaf. It works alright, as pictured for the French baguette, but would you want your sandwich slices that thick? No, didn't think so.

One good thing though is that the knife can be adjusted for left-handed users.

The blade is made from 'surgical quality stainless steel' held in a ‘bow saw’ configuration. The frame is made from American elder, from renewable sources.

When you're baking for love, you need to have lots of heart(s). Why not add your measuring cups into the mix? I can't possibly think of anything but romance and sugar when I bake with these. I found them in the dollar section at Target - yes, $1! It's a delicious sweet silliness that's entirely worth the space on your gadget hooks.

I have just discovered this amazing looking bread box cum slicer thingy.

Made by Poilâne - more famous for their bread products - made from wood, industrial quality glass, unbleached linen (that's the top) and stainless steel. The only probelm I can see is that it is designed specifically for a half loaf of their soda bread. It doesnt look like it can take any of differing sizes. It does come with a bread knife and the glass has a gap to guide the bread knife blade and ensure even slicing, while keeping all the crumbs inside the box. The embroidered cover is easy to remove for machine washing.

The only other problem is that it costs Euro250 (about £100) for shipping to the UK or Euro280 (about $340) for the USA.

When I visited Michelle's kitchen for my Real Kitchens series, there was a lot she didn't really love about her gorgeous-in-the-sunlight space. But one thing wowed me (and I'm planning on copying it shamelessly, if you must know): her spice racks.

I have two small spice racks that hold my most-used spices, but the rest are shoved into a shelf in my 1912 home's small "pantry." Every time I need asafoetida, or ground ginger, or tarragon, I have to dig. It's highly inefficient.

Michelle's insight: she bought a bunch of spice racks after a spendy trip to Penzey's, and put them all up on the back of the door leading to her basement (me thinking: hey! I have a basement door in my kitchen, too!). She has a whopping six spice racks, full of all kinds of good things. They're neatly organized, and accessible, yet they aren't taking up precious drawer or shelf space. They even look pretty cool despite the basic, inexpensive nature of the wire racks. Most importantly, it works. And that's the best thing you can say about any kitchen feature.

The Chicago Sun-Times has a cool article on the increasingly strange gadgets that some of today's most innovative chefs are using. Forget mixers and mini blowtorches, think printers, tanks of carbon dioxide, centrifuges and something called the Brymill Cry-Ac, a device dermatologists use to freeze off skin lesions on patients that Homaro Cantu uses to weld foods together. Grant Achatz of Chicago's palace of strange food, Alinea uses a "anti-griddle" to make his sour cream balls with salmon and frozen fruit foam rolled in cheese (sort of reminds me of an haute version of that Dippin Dots ice cream I've seen in the mall). The "anti-griddle" which was custom-made for Achatz by Polyscience is now being marketed to other chefs. Other strange tools in the Achatz kitchen arsenal include a heat gun for stripping paint, a homogenizer used in the cosmetics industry to make lipstick and an aromatherapy vaporizer to create his unique meals. And as Nick mentioned sous vide is also becoming more and more popular. The Paco Jet, shown here, makes sorbets and mousses at turbo speed and is another hot item in professional kitchens.  Do more strange gadgets make better food? I've always considered myself relatively immune to the kitchen gadget virus but the idea of having a Paco Jet to make fresh sorbets at the drop of a hat is deeply tempting.