The Strangest Kitchen Gadgets Ever Invented

The kitchen is usually the place you will find a few select items that are functional rather than funky, but inventors are always attempting to create new products that push the boundaries of what we traditionally associate with food preparation. Here is a quick overview of some of the most interesting and odd kitchen-related gadgets ever to fly from the drawing board into cupboards and drawers around the world.

The Spork
Sporks are as famous for their delightfully silly name as much as their supreme practicality and it is believed that the first attempt to patent a device, which combined multiple bits of cutlery into a single unit, was made back in the 1870s. In the UK the term Spork was registered as a trademark back in 1975 and an unsuccessful challenge to this claim occurred in 1999. To this day, people ‘on the go’ use sporks to eat meals and lunch times would not be the same without it.

The Egg Cuber
Some people are just not satisfied with the shape of an egg after it has been hard-boiled and the natural curved appearance can be modified if you buy this entirely strange kitchen gadget. The Egg Cuber does precisely what its name implies, which is to cook eggs in a manner that produces a square three dimensional cube of solid egg at the end of the process. You can then slice it or eat it as a normal hardboiled egg and presumably this process also makes it easier to slot the cooked egg neatly into a lunch box.

The Freshness Sensor
If you do not want to rely on your nose or the sell by date stamped on your shop-bought food, then this little gadget will automatically detect when something is still ripe and ready to eat, or a little bit past its best. You just hold the sensor a few centimetres from the surface of the food, press a button and wait half a minute for the device to analyse the freshness of the food with which you have presented it. Three LEDs let you know whether it is fine to eat or worth throwing away and it could save you getting rid of perfectly good grub as well as keeping food poisoning at bay.

Electric Fork
Whilst the Spork is perfect for portable eating, this gadget is the best kitchen device for people who are feeling a little lazy. It is basically a spinning fork with a battery-powered head that rotates in order to tangle up lengths of spaghetti into a manageable mouthful of tasty food. If you have trouble keeping the sauce from your sleeves when you eat Italian meals then this is probably a worthwhile purchase.

Cup Noodle Stove
If you cannot adhere to the instructions on standard noodle-based instant snacks, then this tiny little cooking device is an alternative. It lets you cook up a small pot of your favourite brand of noodle treat in a matter of minutes and it makes boiling a kettle or using the microwave a thing of the past.

Image Credits: Spork, Joe Shlabotnik; Egg Cuber, Andrew Huff

The Top Ten Ways to Make Your Kitchen Environmentally Friendly

The environmentally conscious community is growing rapidly and while most people often try to reduce their environmental impact on the road and around the house, one of the easiest places to start saving the planet is in your own kitchen.

Install Environmentally Friendly Worktops
There are many attractive environmentally friendly alternatives to the harmful man-made worktops, such as those made from recycled or sustainably manufactured materials. Recycled glass, Bamboo and Composite stone worktops are some of the most popular choices that are both stylish and environmentally friendly.

Use Energy Efficient Lighting
Energy efficient light bulbs can save energy consumption by as much as 70% and can also last up to 13 times longer than standard non-efficient bulbs.

Buy Recycled Kitchen Towels
Why not go one better and not use them at all? Kitchen towels have an enormous impact on deforestation, if you must have them then choose an environmentally friendly alternative such as paper towels that have been recycled or produced from a sustainable forest.

Install Energy Efficient Appliances
One of the best ways to save on your energy bills and save the environment is to install energy efficient appliances. Miele currently offer some of the industries most efficient kitchen appliances, such as their line of washing machines, which on average use 42.4% less water and 29.2% less energy than other domestic washing machines.

Use Eco Wash balls
Eco wash balls have received a great deal of attention recently and quite rightly so. They remove the need for using detergents in your washing, significantly reducing your environmental impact and cost of washing.

Compost your Food Waste
Instead of using a food waste disposal grinder found in many kitchen sink units, put your food waste in a compost bin in your garden. This not only reduces the strain on landfill sites and sewage treatment plants, but it also helps to restore the nutrients in your waste food back into the soil, giving you fertile soil to use in your garden.

Use Renewable Flooring
If you’re remodeling your kitchen, consider using floorboards or tiles that use renewable materials such as cork, bamboo or composite stone. Cork and bamboo are not only substantially cheaper than traditional flooring materials like hardwood and laminate flooring, but they also have many other benefits; the waxy suberin in cork makes it both water and fire proof, while bamboo is scuff resistant making it ideal for pet owners.

Install a Recycle Station
By having a recycle station that allows you to easily separate your paper, plastic, glass and food waste you can help reduce your impact on the environment by limiting the amount of waste that ends up in a landfill site.

Buy Organic Foods with less Packaging Locally
Unnecessary food packaging causes an enormous strain on landfill sites, which has multiple negative implications on the environment. By purchasing locally sourced organic food you can not only reduce the amount of unnecessary packaging that you dispose of, but also limit some of the negative production and transportation impacts that buying inorganic and internationally produced foods have.

Don’t Buy Disposable Dishcloths
Instead of buying disposable dishcloths that are wasteful and unrecyclable, buy reusable cotton or micro fiber dishcloths.

Image Credits: Jorge Quinteros and Steve Webel

UK Whitegoods talk kitchen refit…

Johelian is having a kitchen refit and has leapt onto the UK Whitegoods forum to ask for advice. Seeing as they intend to upgrade all their appliances the question is should they go with their first choice of Miele products despite the price?

Don, a UK Whitegoods moderater has responded with the following,

“Miele have a good reputation and track record for producing top quality appliances, hence why washing machines start around the £700 mark. Guarantees can range from five years to ten depending on appliance purchased.

The real issues are the extremely high price of spare parts and the lack of knowledge available to the service sector unless you are a Miele service agent of course.”

Do you agree with Don, would you recommend Miele? Leave your comments below. Or why not join in the UK Whitegoods thread.

Miele appliances praised on Boards.IE

Miele appliances are held in high regard by Crossmolinalad, something he has expressed on Boards.IE.

The thread was started by Aldente who is looking to invest in an induction hob and a wall-mounted extractor. They are keen to hear of any recommendations or experiences of various brands to help inform their choice. They do express a preference for German appliances, but are aware that they are expensive. Crossmolinalad offers the following advice,

“Always bought everything Miele = expensive, but washing machine is now 15 years old and still working without ever needing a repair. Bought kitchen stuff two years ago in Germany, rented a van drove to Germany and bought the lot there.”

Road-trip! It might be a little extreme for most, Aldente included, but the advice was still well received. If you want to get involved the full thread is here.

Miele Museum and the DGC 5080 XL combination steam oven

Last week Forever Better was able to take DustFluffGrit and Machines That Go Bing to Gutersloh in Germany to visit the Miele Museum.

A good time was had and DustFluffGrit has put together an excellent post with details of the trip and a collection of photographs of the vintage appliances on display. It was the heritage that seemed to strike a chord,

“…our tour guide Jörg gave us a tour of the Miele Museum. A home for numerous examples of their vintage washing machines, dishwashers and vacuum cleaners, the museum provides a beautiful showcase for Miele’s heritage – a history which now spans 110 years!”

In accordance with the content on DustFluffGrit the photographs are mostly of vacuums, a few of which are included below.

Machines That Go Bing has focused on the imminent launch of Miele’s new combination steam oven, the DGC 5080 XL – a fully-fledged oven and steam cooker in one appliance.

“The new oven offers a larger cabinet (39 litre) despite having a height of only 45 cm and demand in Germany has been so high that production targets have had to be increased. It will be available in April 2010.”

Included in the post is a list of features the new oven provides such as the fingerprint-resistant CleanSteel finish. There is also talk of the possibilities it offers for chefs of all standards,

“The XL […] allows a gourmet to cook just the way they like it and a hobbyist cook to follow the oven’s instructions and get it just right.”

If you’d like to read more on either the Miele museum or the Miele DGC 5080 XL head over to DustFluffGrit and Machines That Go Bing.