Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Bites / Kitchen Gear Electric Can Openers: The Princess Phone of Tomorrow
Posted by Nicki Wood on Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 9:34 AM
It's obvious that vinyl records and phone booths top the list of once-important cultural items that will be cocktail conversation for the next generation. "Oh, my grandparents had a dial phone!" or "I have a photo of my great-uncle that was taken with a Polaroid."
In trying to go deeper, I've started a list that includes saccharin tablets, tonsilectomies, dried parsley and tractor feed printers.
The California fresh revolution, better transportation and advances in freezing mean that months pass without a single can being opened for a recipe. The last one was probably coconut milk, which is best opened with a bottle opener.
An electric can opener just seems like another thing to clutter up the counter. And another item -- like the electric skillet -- that's no better in its electric version that a really good manual model.
Help complete the list of buggy whip items -- kitchen and otherwise. Or, maybe you just can't do without an electric can opener. That's worth hearing about, too.
Comments (19)
Showing 1-19 of 19
The fridge doors of today have made yesterday's ice crushers - be they hand-cranked or Osterizer attachments - unnecessary. And with ready access to ice, ice buckets are a trendy accessory, not a requisite bar item.
I still use my grandmother's Proctor Silex "Juicit" juicer that runs like a champ - you will have to pry that one out of my fresh-squeezed California navel orange juice-stained fingers when I'm gone.
The original Sunbeam Toastmaster (two slots, automatically descending and ascending when done) still makes the best toast I've ever seen. I own three in case the one I grew up with ever sheds its mortal coil. Modern toasters exist only to make canned biscuits more attractive.
The panini grill I got a few years ago as one of the last legitimate deals at Essex has wormed its way into my constant use category.
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Never saw the need for an electric can opener. I've always preferred the manual ones...
You can take my Presto skillet away when you pry my cold, dead fingers from around it.
I traded up to a manual can opener years ago, gave the bread maker to Goodwill, and should have given up the handheld mixer at the same time. The Thermapen has rendered all but the deep fat thermometer obsolete, and I have vowed not to replace the drip filter coffee machine when it dies.
I have pigtail flippers and meat forks, gifted to me, that I refuse to torture food with.
I have never used my teapot, but it matches the rest of the daily dishware.
@ Terence, is your Presto skillet an electric skillet? I tested electric skillets for Fine Cooking mag last winter, and the Presto was incredible. It outperformed the All-Clad. (For results, you'll have to buy the April/May issue of Fine Cooking magazine...)
You're gonna want your dang ole manual can opener for your shelter food when the gubmint comes to take away our `lectricity.
We are currently having a debate whether the manual can opener that cuts the whole lid off is preferable to the old-fashioned kind. She said: it sometimes leaves strips of label in the can. I said: but it's really cool and makes it safer to drain cans without that sharp edge.
Who's right?
BTW, I am also a big fan of my Thermapen.
I have an undercabinet can opener and use it relatively often.
My stove is a little used item. I have a George Foreman grill that nearly everything gets cooked on, or I use the microwave.
However, the juicer, breadmaker and mixer are collecting dust.
For the life of me I've never been able to really get an electric can opener to work and prefer the hand-crank kind!
I still use my p38 opener.
Tonsillectomies? If you are prone to sleep apnea, the tonsils are one of the first things to get taken out to increase your airway.
I have a rice cooker that makes the worst, sticky, gooey rice. Sticks to the pan and is a pain to clean.
And my juicer is in the basement collecting dust, too.
As for the electric skillet, i love to cook bacon in it because it keeps the temp steady and I can fit more into it than my cast iron skillet.
I ditched my salad spinner. It's rare that I purchase lettuces that have not already been washed. It was a huge space-taker.
Husband I are divided over the Cuisinart. He thinks it's the greatest thing since electric can openers and George Foreman grills. I really actually like chopping by hand. He is also inordinately fond of a wedding present called the Garlic Genius. True, it does mince garlic with engineered precision, but it's also a pain in the posterior to clean. Knives are easier.
I grew up in a house where my mother refused to get an electric can opener...which I could understand if we had a nice one. But no, I remember aching hands after being "volunteered" to help open cans on chili night. When I got my own place, the first order of business was an electric can opener. God bless that invention.
Senseo coffee maker. My girlfriend uses it when she is over, but otherwise it's a dust magnet.
Also my knife set hasn't seen too much action since I got a couple nice chef knives.
@Kris W -- there's a whole discussion going on over at eGullet (or maybe Chowhound) about garlic presses. I'm on the "no press" side, too. If I'm using garlic, I'm probably also using other vegetables, so the knife and cutting board are already dirty. Why dirty up another utensil?
As for ice crushers, I have to confess that one of the blenders I'm testing, the Blend Tec, makes snow for slushies in about 25 seconds, so suddenly sno-cones are frozen margaritas are just seconds away.
