What are your 'must have' kitchen gadgets?

[Mrs Dobby]

Must haves -

Decent set of knives and chopping board
Decent set of pans & frying pan
Decent set of utensils
Wooden spoons!
lock n lock plastic storage tubs
Freezers!
Kettle!

Used often and considered useful
Magimix
Breadmaker
Deep fat fryer
Slow cooker
Kitchen scales

Used occassionally but nice to have
Smoothie maker
Microwave
Pressure cooker
Coffee maker
Toaster
Coffee grinder

Used rarely and wont replace when broken / worn out
Toastie sandwich maker

[Alison]

Not that into gadgets (you should see my mum's house, it's like the Argos catalogue!) but have been known to impluse buy too often over the years so now only buy things after quite a bit of deliberation.

Essentials in our kitchen - kettle, bread maker, hand held blender, toastie maker with alternative panini plates, griddle pan, wok, decent knives, pans, etc

Quite handy but can do without - food processor, slow cooker, microwave

Never use / why did I buy - juicer (real pain to keep clean), toaster (just takes up space on the side), steamer, coffee grinder and machine. Was also given a second hand ice cream maker but gave that away years ago

Wouldn't even think about buying - deep fat fryer, any kind of plug in grill / frying pan (mum keeps on banging on about her George Foreman and am sure she'll randomly buy me one for my birthday one year!) and all those specific job things like smoothie makers, dounut pans etc, kitchen just not big enough!

Thinking about but probably won't get until next year! - dehydrator

Am sure there's others but I still tend to prefer doing most things (except bread) the old fashioned manual way, I know it works and it suits me.

[rustylady]

Don't consider it a gadget as I use it all the time, but I love my breadmaker. And good knives - each for their own purpose. Must have for me.

Oh yes Alice, good knives. My daughter and I take turns doing Christmas Dinner, but we both get it ready. When it's her turn to host I take my own knives with me - you get used to your own, don't you?

[Seahorse]

Oooh... want a Remoska now!

Totally agree about good pans and knives - I just didn't include them because I wasn't counting them as 'gadgets'. I got a fabulous set of three Hackman/Polaris steel heavy base pans for a fiver from a junk shop recently. Haven't used anything else since!

When my children finally leave home I think I might knock out all the internal walls (leaving enough for essential support!) and have the entire ground floor as a kitchen and all the upstairs as a library/craft space!

Claire

[OverWyreGrower]

I need in my kitchen:

Decent set of pans (from Lakeland)
Nice utensils
My 2 freezers
Soup N Sauce bags (Lakeland)
Foil trays (like takeaway ones) (from Lakeland)
Kitchen scales
Food processor (can be both a hand held mixer and blender thing)

Useful and fairly often used
My jam-pan!
Microwave
Burger maker (lakeland)
Silicone bakeware - loaf tin, muffin tray, lasagne pan

Bought for us as presents and never used
Pannini press
Juicers - both electric and manual

Spent an hour in Lakeland yesterday

Bought some new utensils, some plactic picnicware for camping, some more soup n sauce bags, a heavenly almond cake and some more jam jars and lids.... I love when the Lakeland catalogue arrives at our house!

[Bren In Pots]

My most used item is the Kenwood Chef, use the dough hook for my twice weekly bread baking session, the juicer gets used most days and pasta maker every Saturday.

Best pan is a cast iron Dutch oven

[rustylady]

Can't use cast iron pans, too heavy - my wrists can't cope. I use stainless steel, good quality 18 gauge. I can lift them, and they are strong and thick enough to cook well. They are also easy to clean.

[Alison]

Oooh... want a Remoska now!

A what?

[Seahorse]

A what?

Sue posted about them above (#8)

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/product.aspx/!2511

Claire

[Alison]

Sue posted about them above (#8)

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/product.aspx/!2511

Claire

Ahh, not really something I'd ever use so wouldn't even consider paying £80 for one but then again we're all different. I'm happy with a load of good quality normal pots and pans and a conventional oven. Suits me just fine but as I said above, I'm noto a gadget girl. Did have a bit of a look around the Lakeland site while I was there though!

[SarzWix]

My Kenwood Chef is the best thing I've bought, used for baking day a few times a month, the mincer attachment is brilliant and makes sausages too, the ice-cream maker attachment is pretty good. When I can afford it, I'll be getting more bits for that.
Also wouldn't like to do without an electric hand-whisk, stick blender, food processor-a Kenwood I've had since I was 18 & it's still going strong... Errmm, what else? Definately a good potato peeler, that gets used for allsorts including shripping potatoes & swede for proper cornish pasties..
Wouldn't bother with a bread-machine again (prefer to do it in Kenwood and by hand), a deep-fat fryer (ugh, smelly), slow cooker (just use a low oven), toastie maker (impossible to clean).

[willowstar]

my must have is my salad spinner...I got a fab new one this year with a pull cord on it which is much better than the one I had before where I had to twist it by hand.

[Sue]

I can see why Lakeland is such a profitable company...And given my addiction to kitchen equipment am fortunate (unfortunate) to have a massive kitchen supplier here in town. Aladdin's cave isn't in it, have to not go to the part of the town or my credit card goes into meltdown.

As my gas oven gave up the ghost recently, I'm debating whether I need to replace it, there's no recycling scheme so would have to go to the tip, £35 thankyou very much and I'd need to buy a new one and have someone instal it, £350+
So I've got a small table top electric cooker and a ring which with gadgets, slow cooker, grill etc, am seeing if I need a new oven as well. Hence the desire for a Remoska, which would be another way of cooking using very little electricty.
And since I added to this thread have now been to Lakeland AGAIN and got a nifty set of saucepan separators so I can cook three things in one saucepan.
And if we're talking saucepans, then a jam pan is a must and a big stock pan for stock, soups and cooking fruit.
I'm envious of the Kenwoods, had a look at the price of them - gulp.
Sue

[SarzWix]

I'm envious of the Kenwoods, had a look at the price of them - gulp.
Sue

Bought mine off eBay, someone's unwanted wedding gift. Cost less than half price. There's always a load of 2nd hand ones too - they don't break down easily so should be a reasonably safe bet! They also turn up at car-boot sales all the time, for about £10 -£15. Wouldn't be without mine now

[kernowyon]

two definate mainstays are my rice cooker and slow cooker, working shifts means erratic eating times etc, so the idea of just putting a curry in the slow cooker and coming home later with it all done is invaluable to me (i put rice cooker on timer switch as well) anything for an easy life