These 6 kitchen gadgets are a godsend to busy parents
As a mom of three, efficiency is one of my top priorities in cooking. If there’s a way to eliminate dishes to be dirtied or combine recipe steps, I’m going to go there.
But if there’s a gadget that promises to make cooking easier, well ... I may be a little bit wary. How much space does it take up? How well does it work? How hard is it to clean? How often will I actually use it?
In my days as a novice, post-college cook, I was pretty anti any single-use kitchen gadget. I mashed potatoes with a fork one time. I wouldn’t exactly recommend that.
With time I’ve learned that while there are a lot of unitaskers, as Alton Brown calls them, that are not worth the space in your drawer, there are some that hold their own: efficient, easy to clean, a rockstar at their intended function. They earn their keep, and I’ve found myself touting their usefulness to friends as if I’m paid to do so (to be clear, I am most definitely not).
These are the little heroes of my kitchen drawers, the pals that help me through each recipe I make. I’m sure you have your favorites, too, and I’d love to hear about them (email me!).
Chef’n Garlic Zoom XL
A few years ago Journal Sentinel Food editor Nancy Stohs and I tested out six gadgets for mincing garlic. I kept a few after testing, but the only one I still have is the GarlicZoom. I’m 100% with the person who wrote in an Amazon review: “This tool has changed my life.”
I can’t remember the last time I chopped garlic by hand because this makes it so much faster, easier and less messy. Just pop a few peeled cloves into the chamber, close the lid and zoom the device across your counter or any surface (my 4-year-old son loves to help me with this part — it’s like playing Hot Wheels while cooking). Six small blades rotate around and chop up the garlic.
With a couple of taps and a few swipes with your finger, you can dump the chopped garlic right where it needs to go. Washing it is simple: just rinse out with hot water right after use. And no dirty cutting board. $14.99 at chefn.com or amazon.com.
Chef’n StemGem Strawberry Huller
The first year we went strawberry picking as a family, my in-laws came with us. After we arrived home with something like 22 pounds of berries, my mother-in-law went out and bought me this fancy little strawberry huller. I told her I was good with a paring knife, thank you very much.
I’ve since changed my tune (and apologized for my ungrateful comment) because there really is no more efficient way to hull a strawberry. This thing is a gem. It allows you to remove the stem and white part and nothing more, so there’s no wasted red.
I pull it out whether we’re prepping pounds of berries or just a handful for a snack. I find it easiest to rip the stem off before hulling, but you don’t have to. As crazy as it sounds, the StemGem makes strawberry hulling fun. $7.99 at chefn.com or amazon.com.
Apple corer and slicer
I call my daughter Apple Girl because she helps herself to at least one or two apples a day. She can wash and dry the apple herself, but then brings it to me on a plate with this gadget, a device that has perhaps given me back hours of life that otherwise would have been spent slicing apples with a knife.
Ours is made by OXO and has been in heavy rotation in our house for almost 11 years. It’s a bit awkward to wash (we usually just rinse it) and store, and yeah it’s really not that hard to slice apples by hand. But we still use this thing daily, so I guess that speaks for itself. There are a variety of brands available for $10 to $15 or less.
Lemon and lime squeezer
For years I squeezed citrus juice on an adorable mint green ceramic juicer from Anthropologie. It was wildly inefficient, chipped easily, spilled juice everywhere when pouring it out and did nothing to prevent seeds from sliding in. In hindsight, it was probably just meant to sit and look pretty on a shelf.
Then I discovered the citrus squeezer. In one squeeze, this little handheld citrus press gets every last drop out of lemons or limes while filtering out seeds. It makes me look forward to cooking and baking with fresh citrus and is a must for summer cocktails. The brand I have is Zulay, $14.99 at amazon.com, but there are others that do the exact same thing.
Safety/smooth edge can opener
A can opener is one of those unitaskers most of us consider vital, but this is one sleek can opener. It grips the outer edge of the can and smoothly rotates around, pressing into the sides to unseal the lid, rather than cut into it like a traditional can opener. Once you get the hang of it, the result is no sharp edges, and, even better, a smooth sailing cruise around the can. I also love that it fits more easily into a drawer than your traditional can opener. Mine is by Zulu Quality. $17.99 on amazon.com.
Cookie scoop
If you bake drop cookies, do yourself a favor and buy a cookie scoop. It’s like many gadgets; you think you’re perfectly fine without it until you start using one and realize how much it improves your life.
Not only does a cookie scoop create perfectly rounded, uniform drops of cookie dough, but it also gives my kids a chance to scoop the dough without me feeling the need to redistribute and reshape each ball afterward.
(They do need a little help squeezing the scoop so that the dough comes out, as it takes some strength.) Mine is from Pampered Chef is and is excellent quality. $18 to $20 (depending on size) at pampered chef.com.
Honorable mentions
I have to admit, as frustrating as it is to have a potato masher jamming up your drawer, I have come around to appreciate mine. I love baking with overripe bananas, and the potato masher mashes them up like none other.
I use my candy thermometer anytime I bake with yeast just to ensure the water temperature is within the proper range of 105 to 115 degrees to activate the yeast.
Is it even possible to cook with fresh ginger without a Microplane grater? I also pull it out anytime we want freshly grated Parmesan on our pasta.
Once you start grinding your coffee beans fresh each morning, you’ll never go back to preground beans. My coffee grinder is plain and simple, but it gives me a great cup of coffee daily.
Alison Sherwood is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, a mother of three and freelance writer. Find her on Instagram @alisherwood. Email her at alison. sherwood@gmail.com.