Age-old gadgets

[jeral Profile]

Domestic cheese-wire boards might not count if miniaturising is not allowed, but the hand held ones ought to be. Mine is plastic, the same size and method as a veg peeler except having a wire either side, one for thick slices, t'other for thin slices. Ditto handheld cheese planes.

Bread-slicing knife guides must be new? My dad could keep a loaf level when it was upended and sliced horizontally (to avoid trying to cut through the crust first I suppose). A clever old stick as none of us could cut a slice and leave the loaf level, much to his chagrin.

[Rainbow Profile]

And what about tin openers? Do you remember those spike things you were supposed to jab into the top of a tin then lever the lid up all the way round, leaving a jagged edge? I never did, because I could never pierce the tin in the first place.

I remember them - dangerous things!! I couldn't pierce the can either and thought I'd be more likely to open my hand than the tin

[Renee Profile]

Agreed Rainbow! Horrible things!

[Alexandria Profile]

My two grandmothers still have quite a number of vintage gadgets ..

1) A 1950s Cookie Press: Used to pump out pretty cookies.

2) Egg Beater: All blending was done by hand before the electric mixer was invented.

3) Strainer Sieve: Still used to make home made tomato sauce.

4) Cake Breaker: A metal fine tooth comb, which is used to slice cakes and tarts.

5) Copper Egg Poacher: A decorative French copper pan for poaching eggs ..


Have a lovely day.
Best regards from Sardinia.

[jeral Profile]

I started this thread as vintage items that have been improved upon and that have become mainstays.

What about totally new gadgets? This foldable electric travel kettle might qualify.

Who'da thunk it? Foldable beakers for picnics have been around for decades and still are, but foldable electric kettles haven't. There are several models which get quite good reviews:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Foldable-Elect ... s9dHJ1ZQ==

My dad had one of those heater prongs that you put in a cup of water to heat it, which I never thought was safe so I'm surprised they're still on sale.

[Joanbunting Profile]

It's not a new gadget or idea but something I have wanted for ages and it arrived today in an order from Lakeland. It is a really pld fashioned enamel pie dish like the one in which Granny made all her delicious pies. Pure nostalgia and nothing wrong with that.

[jeral Profile]

Well done. I've seen enamel pie dishes, the sort with the royal blue rim, but they seemed very thin on inspection. Online ones (not Lakeland) had reviews that were terrible saying the enamel chipped easily, so not the indestructible sort I remember. Hopefully yours will be proper ones.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Mum used to pack me up with a meat pie for lunch at work when I stayed overnight once a week. Always cooked in one of the little oval blue-rimmed enamel tins. Always too much garlic, at least for the factory workers, which of course encouraged her further.

I also inherited one of those oval enamel roasters. When Mrs B & I got together, it was one of the items lost in the consolidation of our households, in favour of a Pyrex roaster.

[scullion Profile]

i inherited a little stack of enamel pie dishes including a couple of small oblong ones from my great aunt. they bought back memories of being little, as the said aunt would bring one of the dishes filled with egg custard whenever one of us was ill.
they are still in good nick.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

I also inherited one of those oval enamel roasters.

I have two enamel roasters - one inherited, & one I bought - I would not be without them - although the older inherited one roasts far better - thicker enamel, & years of historical roasting use - - je ne sais quoi an' all that - plus I love using it and all the memories it conjures up.

[Sakkarin Profile]

I was just looking through some old Cranny Faddock books I bought for a laugh a while back, and came across this piccy of a utensil she considered vital, although she doesn't explain what it's for. It's called a "vegetable roller" ("Home Cooking", BBC Publications 1965, price two shillings and sixpence). Anyone any ideas what it was used for, I'm sure it's plainly obvious and I'm just being dim.

Maybe it was for ironing out the wrinkles in savoy cabbage when the recipe called for greens?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I've seen those in the bits and pieces boxes at jumble sales etc Sakkarin, and always wondered what they were for

Google is unenlightening for once, I hope someone knows!

[Pampy Profile]

I've seen the vegetable roller too but have no idea what it's used for. I think the grater must have been the prototype for a dalek!

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

No idea neither.
But this looks rather useful for those buffet moments in your life

[Sakkarin Profile]

Makes it look so easy, but I have a feeling the cabbage leaves I used for my last batch of that fab Polish stuffed cabbage dish would have killed it

After 20 minutes of cooking, the cabbage leaf edges had melted away, but the stalks were still rock solid. I had to trim the stalks while they were still red hot.

I'm wondering if the recipe is supposed to use green cabbage rather than white cabbage.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

All kinds of stuffed cabbage leaves I use a light green cabbage and trim the stalks, preferably flat head cabbage, from Turkish stores

https://www.alamy.com/stock-image-flat-head-cabbage-for-sale-at-market-stand-st-jacobs-market-ontario-165029087.html

They go very pale during long slow cooking in a slightly acidic medium but they don't start white

[jeral Profile]

Given the shape of the roller, having its widest point in the middle, I wonder if the idea was to crush the central stem of cabbage leaves so they cooked in the same time as the leaf?

Hard to see why Fanny would describe it as a "vital" bit of kit since none of us it seems has one or knows its use. Another mystery of life.

[Sakkarin Profile]

By coincidence her "Adventurous Cooking" book (1966) has a stuffed cabbage recipe, and she doesn't mention any special implements!

The first recipe in her "Adventurous" book?**

Pea Casserole.


** "Book" is a bit of an overstatement, as it only has 36 pages - "Leaflet" would probably more accurately describe it.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

My Mum had a lot of the Fanny Craddock BBC booklets, but they were in such bad condition I discarded them, shame

She's easy to mock, and as I have mentioned before I disliked her in person, but I learned a lot form here - sweet pastry, béchamel, soufflés


I suppose doing anything with veg beyond adding a knob of butter or marg and possibly a shake of Pannet & Needen's dried parsley would have seemed adventurous to many in 1966

[Joanbunting Profile]

Sue I still have a few of Fanny's part work magazines. She taught me all about souffles too. I abandoned the faff with greaseproof paper collars and took her advice - don't butter the sides of the dish - would you like to climb a greasy pole?

I also always use her recipe for goulash with masses of onions. Everyone loves it.

I still can't see that gadget of anything else other than a masher.