favouritekitchenthings

[Mrs Pingu]

 

[Gattopardo]

You can get genuine silicone oven mitts, which are brilliant. Might not be suitable for barakta's needs though, I guess, otherwise I assume you'd have already thought of that.

Yep, we've got some of those.  They're her weapon of choice for oven trays (which tend to be less heavy).  I may have added googly eyes.

I am a big fan of welding gauntlets instead of oven gloves. They provide far far far far better insulation than anything else I've found.

When it comes to doing a BBQ, they also allow you to literally pick up bits of fire and move them to where you need them.

Highly recommend.

J

Note for others, there are different types (material) gloves for tig, mig and gas welding.

Thick welding gloves are also great for gardening too.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I think my favourite kitchen thing is a small, red, serrated knife that has its own sheath. I asked my son what one item he would rescue from the kitchen if the house were on fire, expecting him to say the pizza slicer, but he said the microwave. The pizza slicer would be easier to run with.

[ian]

I just use a tea towel for hut stuff. It's a bit late for me to worry about more scars (got a nice one on the back of hand from catching the shelf above as I removed a pizza). I do have a pair of gloves but it's palaver to put them on owing to my last-minute-it's-burning cooking style.

[Mrs Pingu]

I mentioned my Thermapen at the top of the thread. It’s pretty basic - no alarms or anything fancy like that. Still an excellent bit of kit though.

What model is yours, Mrs P? Might be tempted to upgrade…

https://www.thermoworks.com/ChefAlarm

That looks boss. Mine doesn't even have any buttons - you fold out the probe to switch it on, then close it to turn it off.

My wife asked me the other day if the temperature on it can be set to Fahrenheit. I gave her a withering look by way of response. (The long answer is that you can, but it involves opening up the case - which requires screwdrivers - and adjusting internal components. Then you have to re-open the case when you want to change it back to using sensible units.)

Here's mine in action right now doing the cinnamon bun prep.2021-08-06_10-54-27 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[chrisbainbridge]

very useful for things like italian meringue

[Mrs Pingu]

Also for checking the temp of unfamiliar ovens.

[chrisbainbridge]

We bought a new  fairly expensive Neff oven for our last house and nothing cooked as expected so I checked the temperature.  It was at least 10 degrees lower than stated on the dial.  The engineer who came (in warranty) explained that +/- 10degC was entirely within range of even an expensive Neff.  We learnt to adjust but I remain miffed.

[nuttycyclist]

I took a sharpie to our old NEFF oven to rebrand it NAFF.

So glad I moved and left it behind.   A house move was stupidly expensive, but I'm so glad I no longer have a NAFF.

[Canardly]

That is useful to know. I have wondered about our Neff oven not meeting desired temps. Also upper tray chrome grill rusted within 3 years with replacements at mid £30 each. Overpriced Bosch brand.

[Mrs Pingu]

I like my Bosch oven and will be sad to leave it (and the rest of my dream kitchen).

[Feanor]

Out of curiosity, how do you go about using such a thing to check an unknown oven?

Is it a single-point-in-time calibration measurement, rather than a continuous measurement whist baking something?

Do you just wait till its up to some nominal temperature, then stick the probe in, with the wire coming out the door seal, and leave the reading to stabilise for 5 mins or so?  Are we measuring the air-temperature somewhere in the middle of an empty oven?

[TimC]

That is useful to know. I have wondered about our Neff oven not meeting desired temps. Also upper tray chrome grill rusted within 3 years with replacements at mid £30 each. Overpriced Bosch brand.

I have a fairly uprange Neff double cooker which is also no better than approximate on temperature. I've learned its foibles now, and it does give good results, but it's annoying that the temperature settings are so vague. I have a cheap-ish Beko combination microwave/conventional oven which is far more accurate.

[Mrs Pingu]

Out of curiosity, how do you go about using such a thing to check an unknown oven?

Is it a single-point-in-time calibration measurement, rather than a continuous measurement whist baking something?

Do you just wait till its up to some nominal temperature, then stick the probe in, with the wire coming out the door seal, and leave the reading to stabilise for 5 mins or so?  Are we measuring the air-temperature somewhere in the middle of an empty oven?

Whatever you like really. I've put my probe in with the wire coming out of the door while the oven is heating up and then just left it there in an empty oven, hanging off a wire shelf, if you were to reset the unit once the oven got to temp the Chef Alarm would show the variation in temperature between heating cycles in the high and low section at the top of the screen. I don't think I've ever bothered measuring it while it's been baking something but there nothing to stop you.
Handily our fridge freezer is next to the oven so the readout hangs on the fridge door.

I also have one of those infrared gun things which I've used to check the temperature of my pizza steel in the past. That appeared to work through the glass door as far as I can remember.

[ian]

I like my Bosch oven and will be sad to leave it (and the rest of my dream kitchen).

Rip it out and take it with you.

My oven has two temperatures, really hot (for pizza) and not so really hot (for everything else). I am not a creature of sophistication.

As a plus, I did get the fan heating element replaced, so I have a fan oven again.

[Mrs Pingu]

LOL, it's in the contract!
I shall be taking a note of the model number and features to attempt to get the closest oven again though...

[ian]

In our last move we sold the appliances with the house and then on the eve of completion we got a call saying they didn't want them and could we take them with us? No.

That was a tad annoying as they were plumbed and wired in, but in the end they ended up paying for them (as yes, it was in the contract), and we got our handyman to uninstall them and sold them to someone else (his daughter, admittedly at a bargain-basement price). Wish we'd kept the dishwasher tbh, it was a nice Siemens model.

[HectoJ]

I recently have purchased and fallen in love with one of these:

[Legs]

We liberated my inlaws of their bread maker when we went up to visit/clean 10 days ago.  Have made a few very delicious loaves since  .

[citoyen]

I recently have purchased and fallen in love with one of these:

Our pressure cooker is the same make. We've had it years. It's been great.

[Tim Hall]

I have a New! Shiny! favourite thing in my kitchen.  An Opinel "N°118 Chief Multi-purpose Parallèle" knife. Shiny! Sharp! Lovely beech wood handle.

[Slave To The Viking]

A 24cm Le Creuset iron pot, from their outlet shop in York. I've had a few more big iron pans from there - a flatter, wider one, and a slightly bigger oval one - and they are largely ignored, but this is spectacular. I know folk who've had bad ones, and folks who really don't rate them, but this would be my rescue-from-a-burning-building item. Well, were it not flameproof and thus retrievable from the smouldering ruins...

[quixoticgeek]

A 24cm Le Creuset iron pot, from their outlet shop in York. I've had a few more big iron pans from there - a flatter, wider one, and a slightly bigger oval one - and they are largely ignored, but this is spectacular. I know folk who've had bad ones, and folks who really don't rate them, but this would be my rescue-from-a-burning-building item. Well, were it not flameproof and thus retrievable from the smouldering ruins...

Except if it's got hot and the water fairies spray it with water, then it will crack...

J

[Slave To The Viking]

Except if it's got hot and the water fairies spray it with water, then it will crack...

J

It did once survive an unattended grape jelly making attempt, resulting in its base becoming melded with something resembling a charred leather frisbee, then plunging into water to arrest any further nastiness. But...yeah...OK, you're probably right. I'll rescue it.

Wait...maybe I could just not set fire to the house? Would that work?

[T42]

A 24cm Le Creuset iron pot, from their outlet shop in York. I've had a few more big iron pans from there - a flatter, wider one, and a slightly bigger oval one - and they are largely ignored, but this is spectacular. I know folk who've had bad ones, and folks who really don't rate them, but this would be my rescue-from-a-burning-building item. Well, were it not flameproof and thus retrievable from the smouldering ruins...

Except if it's got hot and the water fairies spray it with water, then it will crack...

J

We regularly take our cast-iron frying pans off the stove and put them under the hot water tap.  They've lasted ~40 years so far.