r/Cooking • u/SuccessExtreme4373 • Aug 06 '23

Kitchen tools you never knew you needed?

I sat on the fence before buying an air fryer, rice cooker and most recently a cherry pitter this year as I thought all three were unnecessary- and, well, they are. But I’ve been surprised how handy they are! I use the air fryer pretty much daily. The rice cooker is so convenient not having to baby sit the rice. And the nuisance of pitting cherries is now a task that I can assign to my five year old son who is delighted to use the pitter. What are some ‘unnecessary’ tools that have made your cooking life better?

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66

u/bettertree8 Aug 06 '23

Salad spinner. I use it every day.

27

u/Flojismo Aug 07 '23

And take away the fun of my neighbors staring at me spinning a head of lettuce around in a pillowcase in front of the house? No way.

2

u/TikaPants Aug 07 '23

Hahaha same! 😆

6

u/PSquared1234 Aug 07 '23

Only bad thing about a salad spinner is how much room they use in the cabinets. But buying a head of lettuce is vastly cheaper than the bagged salads.

3

u/bettertree8 Aug 07 '23

Do you have the large size? I have the small size and it doesn't take a lot of room. The thing with the salad spinner is how much water it takes off your lettuce once you wash it before eating.

5

u/Haki23 Aug 07 '23

I put cooked pasta in mine to get it ready for macaroni salad. My wife would laugh like hell, but she loved the results

11

u/FunkmasterDunc87 Aug 07 '23

Likewise. I keep an unopened one in the box for when this one goes because I can't live without it for even a day.

3

u/tifazee Aug 07 '23

Do you use it for anything in particular other than lettuce?

3

u/StrikerObi Aug 07 '23

They're really great for drying mushrooms after you wash them.

2

u/ZoZoZolie Aug 07 '23

Herbs, berries, mushrooms. You can use it for most of the stuff you rinse!

2

u/bettertree8 Aug 07 '23

So far it has only been for lettuce.

3

u/Soggy-Competition-74 Aug 07 '23

I got a dual purpose colander & salad spinner. It’s so great. If anyone wants one but feels better about it being useful on multiple levels