After a while, if you spend enough time reading food blogs, your computer is going to become a sort of virtual cookbook as you add more and more recipes to your list of favorites. Unless you keep your computer in the kitchen, though, you're still going to have to rely on good, old-fashioned cookbooks (or printed pages) as references. This reliance on the printed recipe probably won't always be the case, as designer Philipp Gilgen, a student at the University of Applied Sciences in Northwestern Switzerland, has just invented a digital cookbook that perfectly suits the kitchen environment. The coo.boo. is shaped like a spatula and synchs with a personal computer via a wireless docking station to download recipes, how-tos and other content. The digital "cookbook" is sturdy, washable and can be stored with regular kitchen appliances so that it is always on hand. It is still in a prototype stage, but it may not be too long before we see a real release, as there is sure to be a demand for such a handy tool/reference.

[via cool hunting]

OXO is well-known in the US for their sleek designs and both the functionality and reliability of their products, but when they decided to go global with their much-loved kitchen products, the company discovered that what one market is looking for, isn't exactly right for another. And that people don't look at kitchen gadgets the same way in Japan as they do in the US.

In Japan, the tools were less-than-popular, to put it mildly. The large and user-friendly sizes of the tools, which are widely considered to be easier than their smaller counterparts with the company's target demographic - baby boomers - in the US, were too unwieldy for Japanese women who held their cooking spatulas "like a pen." A few design tweaks (and the opening of a Tokyo office) later, the company had Japan-only spatulas and a salad spinner that was 35% smaller than the original, which appealed to space-conscious consumers. They have commissioned Japanese designers to come up with new Japanese-friendly designs from graters, storage boxes and kettles to appeal directly to the Japanese aesthetic and functionality. For example, the graters specifically work best with daikons, rather than cheeses, which are used with most US graters.

The company hopes to introduce some of their Japanese designs here in the US next year.

It may not be available just yet, but you can put our names on the list for the ROLLERtoaster when it hits the market. It is definitely the toaster of the future. Sleek and compact, the toaster was designed by Jaren Goh of Singapore and won a 2006 Red Dot Design Award for innovation. Goh was inspired by the change of televisions from large and bulky boxes to streamlined flat-panels which retained all the functionality of the larger unit in a much more compact product. He applied that to a common appliance,the toaster, and the ROLLERtoaster was born. Slices of bread are "fed" into one side of the machine and are rolled through, fully toasted, to the other side where your plate awaits. The only potential problem is that it doesn't look like it will be able to handle bagels easily. Then again, neither do a lot of other toasters, so perhaps it's not as big a problem as one might think.

I must confess that I don't think too much about aerating wines before I drink them other than giving a red a couple of swirls around an oversized glass and letting it set for a few minutes before drinking. Of course, I'm not generally drinking wines that really need to be decanted either. If I was given one of these neat Pewter Octopus Wine Aerators for the holidays, possibly along with a nice bottle of red, I would rethink my position since the cool looking gadget makes aeration a snap. The octopus is set into the mouth of a decanter and the wine is poured over it, aerating as it flows. The way the stream of wine is interrupted by the twisting of the octopus is far more efficient than simply pouring the wine into a glass or straight into the decanter. If an octopus doesn't float your boat, the aerators are available in sea horse and puffer fish designs as well and all are visually intriguing, although there is some irony to the fact that only ocean-dwelling creatures were chosen to help wines breathe. Each is about $30.

By and large, commercial coffee pods do not produce the best brews, not by a long shot. At their best they taste flat and one-dimensional, while at their worst they taste, sour, stale, bitter and just generally bad. The pods seem like a good idea because they are so convenient, but it really just isn't worth it if you actually want something drinkable. Your best bet for a quality brew is to stick with freshly ground coffee, but even pre-ground and packed coffee (e.g. Folgers) will turn out a better end result in most cases.

If you are set on using a pod for the convenience factor, however, there are some options besides the pre-made, pre-packed disasters. For example, you can attempt to make some by hand, but why expend all that effort when you could get a Perfect Pod to do it for you. The gadget uses pre-cut pod papers and heat-seals them once you have filled them up with just the right amount of your favorite (fresh!) coffee to brew the perfect cup. The pods work with most pod-using machines and paper refills are sold separately. The Perfect Pod retails for about $40.

[via popgadget]

Measuring out spices isn't always easy. Some jars only have little perforations in the lid, allowing you to sprinkle, not pour, and if they are removable, the perforated caps are often so difficult to take off that you end up spilling the spice anyway. Other jars simply have unusually shaped openings that don't allow anything other than the very smallest measuring spoons to get inside to scoop up the desired spice. This neat Auto-measure spice rack fits 8 different spices (they must be transferred into the included bottles) and it automatically dispenses them 1/4 tsp at a time, so you can simply add your spices directly to your mixing bowl without bothering to get out measuring spoons at all. The bottles still do have "pop tops for shaking and pouring," if you feel the need to sprinkle your spices, however. The unit can be easily mounted underneath a cabinet or simply set on the countertop, depending on how your kitchen is set up.

I have heard many, many trick for keeping fresh bread fresh. By fresh bread, I mean the baguette or boule or sourdough loaf that you can buy at a good bakery. These loaves should have a crisp crust, a moist and soft interior and a flavor that is unrivaled by anything that comes packed in plastic at the supermarket. The fresh breads tend to go stale in a day if not properly stored. One bakery recommended to me that I store the bread in a paper bag and reheat it in the oven for a few minutes to refresh the crispness of the crust. This has been a fairly reliable method, but if you eat a lot of bread, you'll go through a lot of paper bags.

Recently, I came across these reusable bread bags that are designed to do the same job and keep bread fresh. The bags are made of cotton and can be used in one of three ways, making them more versatile than a plain paper bag. They can be unfolded to support tall loaves, folded down to form a basket for rolls or muffins and the can also be sealed with the magnets hidden inside the lip of the bag, which keeps in heat if you are serving and generally keeps the bread fresher. The bags come in black, white/sand and red.

The one thing I hate about making candy is having to bend down to try to get a good reading from my candy thermometer. It's not the bending that bothers me, but the fact that I sometimes have to get my face rather close to an extremely hot, bubbling mass of sugar. It's hard enough to get a good reading on a traditional thermometer, trying to angle it in just such a way that you can approximate the temperature, and when you consider the fact that there is usually steam coming out of the pan and fogging the tube, it can be impossible. Unfortunately, more than one batch of fudge has been ruined by inaccurate temperature reading.

The Baker's Catalogue now stocks a digital candy thermometer that takes a precise reading in seconds. You don't have to get close to the sugar and you don't have to squint through fog, either. You can even program it to "beep" when the mixture reaches the desired temperature, or you can have the alarm sound at seven pre-programmed candy stages! It sounds perfect for anyone who wants to try their hand at making candy at home - especially beginners who aren't as confident about hitting their target temperature.

Pizza cutters are greatly underappreciated kitchen tools because they don't appear to be all that useful. After all, couldn't you just use a knife to cut through the pizza? With a knife, you run the risk of dragging half the toppings along with each cut, not to mention that you might have to saw through the tougher crust, further disturbing the pie as you struggle with it. The beauty of a good pizza cutter is that it is incredibly quick and efficient. It should cut through thin and deep-dish pizzas with ease, producing perfectly clean slices. To see which brands are the best of the best, let's take a look at a testing of pizza cutters.

The best cutters were deemed to be the OXO Good Grips 4-inch Pizza Wheel for Non-Stick Pans, the KitchenAid Large Pizza Cutter and the Cuisipro Pizza Wheel. All have large wheels that will not get gummed up by extra cheese even in the deepest pizzas and have handles that are comfortable and safe. The cutters are also good for dividing up bread dough (I frequently use my OXO when baking rolls or breadsticks), cutting up sheets of pasta and sectioning those giant chocolate chip cookies that kids sometimes get instead of birthday cakes.

The butter slicer we saw a couple of days ago might be helpful when you're baking and are trying to cut off just the right amount for your recipe, but its not the most practical tool to have around when you just want to butter your toast. The One Click Butter Cutter is somewhat unnecessary if you own a knife, but is a useful gadget in its own way, not to mention that it's fun to use. With the push of a button, it dispenses one standard "pat" of butter - slightly less than 2/3 tsp, so you get 5 pats per tablespoon of butter. You can store a stick of butter in the butter cutter in the refrigerator, so it is always ready to go.

The gadget could come in handy at breakfast or when you're cooking and need to grease the pan, just for sheer convenience. In addition, it is a great way to consistently use portion control with butter, since you know exactly how much you're going to get from each slice without having to measure it out yourself.

[via book of joe]

Add another product to the list of things that have going pink in support of breast cancer awareness. This special edition set of Mundial knives is a ten piece set and includes seven knives, a carving fork, kitchen shears and the wood block holder to keep everything organized. One of the included knives is a granton edge santoku knife, one of the most popular models available, and this is the first Mundial set to include it.

Even though the set was created in honor of the company's partnership with the National Breast Cancer Foundation, the charmingly feminine pink color of the set should make it appealing to many for purely aesthetic reasons. In other words, whether you intend to support the cause or not, a girly set of kitchen knives is a nice change from the basic black of most manufacturers.

Legos are an icon of childhood for most of us, whether you were the one building elaborated fantasy worlds or your children are/were. Like just about every other product you can think of, Lego seizes just about any opportunity for merchandising that it sees and has moved out of the playroom and into the kitchen. Earlier this year, we saw some Lego Eggos, but now the company is offering us real kitchen gear, like ice cube trays shaped like Legos and salt and pepper shakers shaped - somewhat disturbingly - as Lego-men heads. They also have a Lego Apron, which is not made of Legos, but features the classic body of a Lego person on it, a set of Lego coasters and Lego corkscrews for opening wine (probably not something you want your kids to see in case they mistake them for toys).

All this Lego gear is a lot of fun to have around and definitely gives a new twist to playing with your food. The only way that this stuff could be more fun is if the ice cubes were stackable, though it should only take a little water to get them to stick together long enough to build a small tower. You'll need more than one tray for a fort.

Salad-On-Ice is not a failed icecapades routine. It is a well-designed bowl that might just be the perfect salad server.

There is nothing worse than a bowl full of lettuce that sits out at room temperature too long and looses its crunch. Salads should be crisp and refreshing (although some might be a little worried about eating lettuce at the moment), but you can't keep running back and forth to the refrigerator for seconds and third helpings, especially not when you are entertaining. Salad-On-Ice is a bowl that has a hollow stand designed to be filled with crushed or cubed ice to keep salads cold and fresh throughout an entire meal, even during a hot summer barbecue. It is made of shatter-resistant acrylic and comes with a lid and a pair of serving utensils.

The bowl would also work well for fruit salads, pasta salads or even chilled desserts, like trifle.

[via cribcandy]