Age-old gadgets

[jeral Profile]

A programme about Victorians said they were gadget mad and showed various kitchen things, e.g. cool insulated boxes (you had to buy ice from an ice house), a dishwasher (being a rack on a shelf that water was poured over), note still no electricity then. Also a balloon whisk (as it had become easy following the industrial revolution to make prongs and bend them into loops), also a rotary whisk.

One that surprised me though was a ricer, identical to ones now. I'd have thought ricers would be a 50s invention when they made gadgets and aggressive marketing persuaded consumers that they couldn't possibly live without whichever new gadget was unveiled that day.

Can anyone think of anything new (non-electric) that's arrived in a century since that is now a mainstay?

I can't. A spring hand chopper is marginal. Table pepper grinders maybe. I think outdoor rotary clothes dryers, but not really kitchen.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

A spiraliser? And no, I don’t have one.

And I guess Tupperware and the like.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

My granny had a pre-war potato ricer, I suspect they were quite common in houses where servants did the cooking (granny couldn’t cook, but did work in the family business)

Definitely Tupperware Wiki says invented in 1942 and put on sale in 1948

Salad spinners? We had a French wire salad basket that you took outside and swung round like a maniac in the 60s but I don’t remember seeing a self contained spinner until Lakeland introduced them in the 80s

Off to interrogate the Lakeland catalogue

[Joanbunting Profile]

I think I am correct in saying pasta machines. Before they were invented the Italians had rolled their pasta.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Microplane graters too.

[DEB Profile]

Apple Master Peeler and Corer
whch can be found at lakeland.
I can remember going round the Amercan Musum at Bath and seeing on from 18th C. The guide commenting that she had been told that it was apple processor but could not beleive it was. My OH was able to say yes it was and that he had processed some 50 pound of apple this year using one.

[jeral Profile]

Hand suction pump dispensers? Although the same principle as a bicycle pump (once tyres were invented), kitchen gadgets surely came later.

I remember a Teamatic dispenser that worked using a spring push and gravity for the tea to drop down. I suppose that idea has endured in the form of liquid soap dispensers.

[Wic Profile]

A citrus zester. I’m not sure whether or not that’s the proper name for it, it has a short metal blade like a squared off knife with a row of holes which you scrape along the peel of an orange or lemon and get strings of zest.

[Alexandria Profile]

Acciording to Wikipedia, the pasta machine was invented in 1789 and the late President, Thomas Jefferson brought one back to North America !

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I think the spring loaded hoppers like Teamatic were probably made on à larger scale for industrial use before being scaled down to kitchen size, same with the soap dispensers which look to me like smaller versions of dispensers used for industrial lubricants.

[jeral Profile]

Something that's a new version is the pan-top expanding steamer basket (inverse umbrella type).

How about the sectioned dough tray for proving baguettes.

I wonder when tin foil was invented. Might look that up...

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Foil made me think - cling film

Original accidental discovery in 1933 by a work experience college student but didn’t take off until after WW2

Similarly silicone “rubber” was developed, intentionally, in the 1940s but not clear when it was first used for kitchen stuff.

Is there actually any new item made of silicone that can’t be made of other materials? It’s the heat & chemical tolerance that makes it more versatile than natural latex

[Pampy Profile]

Jeral - do you mean this https://www.lakeland.co.uk/1139/Foldaway-Steamer-Basket - and are you saying that it's new? My Mum had a version of this in the 1950s.

[Renee Profile]

I have had two of those Pampy and they fell apart.

[Pampy Profile]

I currently have 2 that I bought on Amazon at £1.99 each! And they're still going strong after several years of use.

[jeral Profile]

Yes, that thing Pampy. I know the Victorians had collapsible parasols and brollies so not a new idea in principle, but I can't think of any collapsibles in kitchenware.

Did they Renée? I notice a lot of simple gadgets even those made of stainless steel seem to have nickel(?) screws or rivets that rust away, doh.

I have a strainer from 20+ years that's clever. It's halfmoon stainless steel that spring-clips to the rim of a saucepan so you can tip the liquid out. I think these also existed in plastic at one time (minus the spring clip).

Stokey Sue's new silicon gadget question is thought-worthy. Another attribute is that silicon doesn't perish as rubber does. There must be something...

[Renee Profile]

I paid more than that for mine, Pampy, from a supermarket.
There wasn't any rust on the rivets, Sue, but I vowed I wouldn't get another one. I should have gone to Amazon Pampy!

[Suffs Profile]

OH works for Pro Cook ... when I mentioned this thread he said ‘egg separators that look like short fat turkey basters’ ...
and that made me think of ... turkey basters

[scullion Profile]

one that i bought back from the netherlands nearly forty years ago, but i rarely see here, is a simple jar and bottle scraper - a semicircle of rubber at the end of a stick. really useful.

[Pommes Profile]

I'm thinking of 2 'gadgets' that my Mum had during the 50's & continued to use until my parents went into their retirement home in the 90's.

One was a mincer which was fixed, when required, to the table. In use most Mondays for making the last of the joint into Shepherds' pie. The second is a similar gadget & similarly fixed, but for slicing runner beans. Only used when they were in-season, of course!!