No. 13 — The Best Niche Kitchen Tool
Plus 12 other tools that might make your cooking and kitchen a little more efficient. Featuring: way too many alliterations.
I’m struggling to write this week. I have a two-part series in the hopper — including my first interview for Le Mix — that I’m so excited to share with you, but I don’t want to rush the first part out the door. It’s a topic near and dear to my heart, so I’m choosing to let it marinate for another week to get the flavor just right.
Sometimes, writing feels like figuring out what you want to eat; you get a craving for something: a feeling, an opinion, a memory, a solution, and work backward into how to serve that craving up. I’ll save you from the dash of this and pinch of that bit and just say that sometimes it’s easier to just reheat something frozen. A “What to write when you don’t feel like writing” kind of vibe.
So today, I’m taking a draft out of the metaphorical freezer (an old editor of mine would have hated all of this so much) and sharing a little dribble for this drab week. Frivolous things for folks who probably don’t need more things but might be delighted to know these items exist. We’re diving into single-use kitchen items: incredibly niche tools for super-specific situations.
This all started with a gift I gave to Matt one Christmas, which also ended up being a gift to me: a jalapeño corer. Matt loves jalapeños. Perhaps as much as I love cheese as a meal enhancer. He could have sliced or diced jalapeños on pretty much everything. And I love them too! I particularly love them in this Love and Lemons dip for summer.
But anyone who has sliced a jalapeño has probably endured the pain, or more specifically, the pain from the membrane of the pepper: the white, pithy layer inside the pepper. Most people think it’s the seeds that deliver heat, and while they do contain some capsaicin, it’s actually the membrane that really brings the heat. So when you’re carefully slicing that jalapeño over the trash and trying to carve the innards out, and you inevitably get some of that heat on your fingers, it’s from those darn membranes. One swipe of the eye region later, and you’re done for.
After many rounds in the chopping board ring with these spicy little fellas, I turned to the Internet to find a better way. Sadly, I had not come up with an idea for the next great kitchen invention, but happily, the corer existed already! Tool secured, gift given, and likely hundreds of jalapeños cored later, I can safely say this is my favorite single-use kitchen tool.
A frivolous thing to have? Perhaps. I have a paring knife that works great. But does it bring me the same satisfaction as the twist and rip of a jalapeño corer? That it does not. Does it neatly prevent my inevitable pain? Not even close to the corer’s powers of prevention.
Sadly, the jalapeño corer does not have the same reviews as the iconic banana slicer, but for what its Amazon listing lacks in humor, the humble jalapeño corer makes up for in daily, practical use.
In reflecting on the joy this magical little invention gives me, I am so happy to share 12 other completely frivolous but totally helpful, single-use kitchen items that I love:
Butter dish
I’m Team Cold Butter. I will leave the butter in the fridge for as close to need as necessary. As soon as the toast is ready, I’ll put a thick swipe of butter across the bread and sprinkle a bit of flaky salt (from my trusty salt pig, mentioned below) and enjoy immediately. Cold butter is its own food group. To keep it cold and readily accessible (and outside of the store container that gets messier and messier with each retrieval), I love this OXO butter dish. There are way cuter ones out there, but I can’t break this one, and it’s easy to clean.
Tiny ceramic loaf pans
These small loaf pans are for gifting, particularly around the holidays. They are so cute and the perfect size for a holiday tradition I adopted from my Mom of gifting gluten-free lemon poppyseed bread to friends.
Melon baller
For melons in the summer and ice cream in the winter. Or anytime you need to scoop something slightly soft into satisfying balls of similar sizes.
A good bread knife
It’s a great tragedy when you’re in someone else’s kitchen, a friend or stranger, and there exists no bread knife. No strong, serrated blade in sight with which to perfectly cut a slice of fresh sourdough. If you enjoy bread, have guests that enjoy bread, or anticipate ever needing to cut a loaf of bread, please get a good bread knife.
A scale
This isn’t so niche use, but it is the most useful tool for baking properly. If you’re interested in going to the next level in baking, I can’t recommend a good scale enough. There are so many out there, so I would just choose one that fits your budget and style. Pay attention to the battery life and how light or heavy it can go in weight (for example, weighing salt for sourdough is pretty minuscule, and some scales don’t register that low).
An ebelskiver pan
Ebelskivers are essentially round pancakes (wiki here). They are my favorite thing to make on Christmas morning, but you need a specific pan to make them. So worth the storage, I promise!
Glass straws
I regularly make smoothies for breakfast, and while you don’t need these glass straws to drink a smoothie, it just feels a little more “made” or maybe special. They also go through the dishwasher, so they are super easy to keep clean! I’m pretty sure I got mine on Amazon, but if I were buying them again, I’d totally go for these colorful ones.
Dishscraper
This little scraper tool allows you to scrape bits off glass baking dishes. Lifesaver!
Ramekins
These circular small bakeware dishes first came into my arsenal for flourless chocolate cake. But they also work for French onion soup or any mise en place work. I have this set for larger groups and treasure these Le Creuset ones in Marseille.
Salt pig
Don’t keep your salt tucked away or in a shaker, use a salt pig (originally pygg for the clay it was made from)! I love a small dish or ceramic vessel you can quickly and easily dip your fingers into. Personally, I don’t understand or like the look of the front-ish facing ones, and instead prefer my top loader (TIL, it’s actually a coffee cup).
A kitchen timer
Stop using your phone! It makes a hideous sound when the digital timer goes off and it’s always messy when your hands are dirty or wet. Get a real kitchen timer like an adult. This is one of my favorite gifts from Matt (along with a great bread knife).
Takeaway containers
Okay, I’m taking a little bit of advantage of the term “single-use” to suggest that you should save your single-use plastic takeaway containers, if you aren’t already. Stick them in the dishwasher, hand wash them, whichever you prefer, and then tuck them in a cupboard to send guests home with leftovers after dinner parties, to take meals on flights, or as extra Tupperware during the week!
Thanks for reading this reheated, packaged goods-full post, and I am excited to see you soon with something a little more homemade. If you have a single-use kitchen item that you adore, I would love to learn about it in the comments!
Le Mix is written and edited by Morgan McCarty. Anything you’d like to see included? Questions? Reply to this email or comment to reach me. And if a friend shared Le Mix with you, click here to subscribe!