"tool" news and stories

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]

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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