10 Things You Can Easily Do Without in the Kitchen
Numerous gadgets and kitchen appliances are meant to ease the process of cooking, help diversify one’s diet with new dishes, and give meals an appetizing look. However, oftentimes seemingly helpful purchases end up being used only a couple of times, and then they’re left to gather dust on the kitchen shelf.
5-Minute Crafts offers you a compilation of 10 kitchen appliances that you can easily use without a kitchen or that can be replaced with things you already have in your kitchen. These alternative items can take up less space and boast better price tags.
10. A separator for eggs
There are many dishes that require you to separate egg whites from yolks. But for performing this task, you don’t need to buy a special tool. The easiest way to do this is to break an egg into your hand, holding it above a bowl. The yolk will stay in your palm, while the white will run through your fingers into the bowl.
Also, you can try using a regular sieve. Carefully break an egg over it. The yolk will stay in the sieve and the white will run through it, just like it does in the egg separator.
9. A press for vegetables, burgers, and paninis
The electrical grill takes up quite a lot of space on the countertop and consumes a lot of electricity. If you don’t need it on a daily basis, you can use a grill frying pan or a regular frying pan for cooking dishes and frying products.
Also, you can do it with 2 cast iron frying pans. Place the necessary product (such as vegetables, toast, or meat for burgers) into one and cover it with the second pan, pressing it slightly. The advantage of a cast-iron frying pan is that you use it for cooking on the stove as well as in the oven.
8. A vegetable chopper
The manufacturers of special vegetable choppers promise that you’ll be able to chop products quickly and easily thanks to special nozzles. However, it’s hard to wash these devices after using them, which is typically the reason why they end up lying on the shelf most of the time. An electrical mini chopper can become a good alternative — it will chop any ingredient within seconds.
Also, you can get a regular immense blender with a bowl for chopping. If you use this appliance for a couple of seconds, it won’t turn veggies and fruits into a mash, but it will chop them nicely.
7. An espresso machine
Most coffee machines are quite big, they cost a lot, and require expensive maintenance. As a result, the price of one serving of coffee approaches the price tag of a cup of coffee in a cafe.
If you’re used to saving money and space in the kitchen, perhaps you’d be happy with cooking espresso with the help of a french press pot or a mini geyzer coffee maker.
6. Separate cutters for apples, avocados, and other products
Today, there’s a variety of knives for different products. Manufacturers of these popular tools say that using their product, you can easily cut an apple, avocado, banana, mango, and even grapes in seconds. However, the truth is that most of these knives are designed for standard fruit sizes.
An ordinary knife can do this job perfectly. Although, in some cases, it’s useful to know the techniques that speed up the process of slicing a particular product. Additionally, eliminating multiple gadgets will save you the hassle of finding a separate drawer for rarely used kitchen accessories.
As an alternative, you can go for an egg cutter. It will help you easily slice boiled potatoes or beetroot, kiwis, strawberries, bananas, olives, and grapes, as well as various types of cheese and soft sausages.
5. A steam cooker
A normal microwave oven can perform all the tasks that we expect a steam cooker to do. The only thing to keep in mind is that the products cooked in the microwave should be covered with a lid. Moreover, it helps vegetables boil faster and keep their bright color.
A steam cooker can also be made from improvised means. Fill a pot halfway with water, place a strainer or glass heat-resistant bowl on top, put food that needs reheating or steaming inside, and then cover it. Instead of a strainer, you can use a special foldable metal device that will serve as a strainer or colander.
4. A holder for knives
This holder looks spectacular, but you’ll unlikely be using all the knives from the set. As life shows, one only needs a single big chef’s knife, one small knife for cutting vegetables and fruits, and one knife for bread. And you won’t need tons of extra space for storing them because they can easily fit in a drawer with other cutlery.
3. Juice squeezer
Juice squeezers often come in big sizes and it takes a lot of time to thoroughly wash all their nooks and crannies. That’s why a more convenient option would be to use an immersion blender, which can turn any fruit or vegetable into a mashed state right in the glass within seconds. After that, all you need is to pour the mixture through a fine sieve to get pure juice. This blender can be washed quickly and easily, and it only takes up a bit more space than a regular mug.
2. A toaster
Toasters are in almost any kitchen you walk into. But if you prefer minimalism and don’t want to buy an extra appliance for toasting bread, you can do it with a grill pan. And if you happen to get into a situation where you need to cook a dozen pieces of toast, an oven can come in handy.
1. A bread maker
With the appearance of bread makers, the technology of cooking bread has become significantly easier, and now everyone can make bread without having any experience, skill, or special cookware. All you need to do is pour the ingredients into the appliance, set it to the necessary mode, and then you can go about living your life — the equipment itself will prepare the dough and bake tasty aromatic bread.
If you’re not planning on baking bread every day, you can do it with a deep iron-cast frying pan with a lid. It won’t deprive you of the necessity to knead the dough, but it will be perfect for baking it. Such a pan can also be used for cooking many other dishes.