Most useless kitchen tools you've seen

[ACSAPA]

I was browsing Walmart and noticed a lot of really unnecessary kitchen tools, like a special plastic press that squeezes the excess liquid out of tuna and other canned goods, a masher to break up ground beef in the frying pan and a mat to rest your coffee maker on in case of leaks.
Now I've survived for years just using kitchen towels and regular spatulas to do these jobs.
Do you think the kitchen stuff at Walmart is clever or a waste of money?

Also have you seen any useless devices like these?

 

[Winterybella]

We don't have a local Walmart but I travel and back in the day I used to pick it a lot of unnecessarily things from Walmart which became useless over the years. When I saw the thread I was thinking all you need to do is look in my cupboards and drawers and you should find just what you are looking for.

 

[Trellum]

I was at store (don't remember the name), they had all sorts of ''innovative'' and creative gadgets (yes, I admit I felt tempted for a sec to buy one for my mom) that were supposedly designed to make some tasks easier for the elderly, but to be honest they were kinda ridiculous. Like a very weird pair of scissors that could cut a piece of paper in 5 thin strips in one sitting! According to them could be used for finely cut herbs.

 

[ACSAPA]

I was at store (don't remember the name), they had all sorts of ''innovative'' and creative gadgets (yes, I admit I felt tempted for a sec to buy one for my mom) that were supposedly designed to make some tasks easier for the elderly, but to be honest they were kinda ridiculous. Like a very weird pair of scissors that could cut a piece of paper in 5 thin strips in one sitting! According to them could be used for finely cut herbs.

Or you could just use kitchen shears or a sharp knife to cut the herbs finely.
I saw a hard plastic egg carton at a store. The only use I can see for that is if you go through tons of eggs every week and need egg cartons that you can stack up. Otherwise, the Styrofoam egg cartons do the job well enough.

 

[Trellum]

Ow, yeah! You are right, now that is really useless, lol. Talking about useless gadgets... I got as a birthday present a MR. Tea infuser, when I saw it i had no idea what it was, but then I found out and I thought: ''man, could there be a more useless little gadget out there?''.

I mean, the thing is made in china and is made out silicon, no way I'll sink that in a tea cup or when I cook a broth. I'd be crazy if I did, don't you think so? After all I haven't had a good experience with stuff made in China. I have heard of silicon baking molds from china that after the first use start smelling like plastic.

Plus you can prepare a perfectly safe cup of tea without that creepy little gadget!

 

[ACSAPA]

I think those tiny circular pans that are made to cook one perfectly circular fried egg are silly. I've lived my whole life just fine without perfectly circular fried eggs.
They could be useful for breakfast sandwiches but you'd have to eat a lot of breakfast sandwiches to justify a special tiny egg skillet.

 

[tangela]

A lot of them are just for fun and like...nit-knacks or whatever. I saw this garlic peeler thing and a yolk separator and I thought it was stupid too, but if it makes someone's lives easier then I guess why not?

And in regards to the tiny egg skillet I think it's only for like if you make egg sandwiches. Like a lot.

 

[ACSAPA]

A lot of them are just for fun and like...nit-knacks or whatever. I saw this garlic peeler thing and a yolk separator and I thought it was stupid too, but if it makes someone's lives easier then I guess why not?

And in regards to the tiny egg skillet I think it's only for like if you make egg sandwiches. Like a lot.

A lot of them are just for fun and like...nit-knacks or whatever. I saw this garlic peeler thing and a yolk separator and I thought it was stupid too, but if it makes someone's lives easier then I guess why not?

And in regards to the tiny egg skillet I think it's only for like if you make egg sandwiches. Like a lot.

They don't necessarily make life easier because now you have extra items to wash. If you just smashed garlic with a knife to peel it, you could use the same knife in the rest of your meal prep and just have to wash one knife.

 

[joycemcgregor]

I have seen a lot of unnecesary kitchen hand tools at stores, too. BUT,, I do like my little gadget that helps squish the liquid out of a can of tuna. I do not get the tuna juice on my fingers so my hands do not smell of tuna when I use it. I have a garlic press that I like to use because my finger tips do not get all garlicky smelling. I just cannot get the smell off of my hands and I just cannot seem to manage to work with disposible gloves on to keep the smell away. The gadget that cuts apples into wedges is handy, too. I love peanut butter on apple wedges for a snack and it makes it so much easier to cute/core the apples before using them.

 

[cupcakechef]

I think without a doubt the single most useless gadget I ever saw was a banana slicer. It was a plastic device, shaped just like a banana, with 10 or 12 (or thereabouts) sections so you could literally put it over your banana, push down and it would cut your banana into even sized slices. Truly the most ridiculous thing I've seen! It's not even like a banana is tough to cut through - I must admit I bought an apple slicer once which has metal blades and you just push down on the apple to cut it - but I think that's far more useful than a banana slicer! I guess someone out there though is probably making millions off their banana slicing invention so I guess I shouldn't judge!!

 

[DancingLady]

I am not a fan of single use bulky equipment, whether that is truly single use, or just you only use it for one thing. It just takes up too much space and doesn't get used very often.

 

[Zyni]

I was at store (don't remember the name), they had all sorts of ''innovative'' and creative gadgets (yes, I admit I felt tempted for a sec to buy one for my mom) that were supposedly designed to make some tasks easier for the elderly, but to be honest they were kinda ridiculous. Like a very weird pair of scissors that could cut a piece of paper in 5 thin strips in one sitting! According to them could be used for finely cut herbs.

I love gadgets. I generally don't waste money on them, but I like looking them over. Some are fun or clever, but yeah, some of them are just dumb.

Okay, I would like those scissors. They sound good for crafting. I often cut paper into strips to upcycle it into bag or box filler when packaging gifts. But hey, we're talking about cooking and baking. My bad.

 

[Trellum]

I love gadgets. I generally don't waste money on them, but I like looking them over. Some are fun or clever, but yeah, some of them are just dumb.

Okay, I would like those scissors. They sound good for crafting. I often cut paper into strips to upcycle it into bag or box filler when packaging gifts. But hey, we're talking about cooking and baking. My bad.

Actually those scissors could be used to finely chop herbs But other than that I think it was useless. Oh don't worry, you are just mentioning something you would like to do with said scissors, NOTHING wrong with mentioning something like that from time to time on this forum. It'd be a problem if you started doing that in every thread. So don't worry, ok?

 

[ChesterV]

There used to be a kitchen gadget store in one of the malls where I used to live. I loved to go in there and look around at all the useless stuff they had! Heck, I couldn't even figure out what most of the were!!!

THIS is THE most useless kitchen gadget I've seen in a long time....

If you have never seen or heard of these, well....basically they are egg shaped plastic containers to boil your egg in.

The premise of this piece of crap is that you don't have to peel boiled eggs anymore.

They got these in at my local dollar store a couple years ago. I figured I would try it out, so I bought one.
6 of these "eggies" come in one box.

So you have these 4 pieces of plastic, plus two other pieces that are actually super thin clear plastic gaskets...one for the top that screws on, and one for the middle section that screws the top part and the bottom part together.

Ok, this is supposed to save you time and aggravation from having to peel boiled eggs.

I boiled 6 eggs the "old fashioned" way. I timed it, and it took me 14 minutes to boil the eggs, cook them, and then peel them by hand.

I boiled 6 eggs using these "eggies". I took me almost 45 minutes!
I had to clean the eggies, then I had to oil the inside of the eggies, then I had to put the eggies together, then I had to crack open the eggs and pour the contents into the eggies, then I had to screw the lid down on the eggies, then I had to boil them until cooked, then I had to let them cool off, then I had to unscrew the eggies to get the eggs out, then I had to wash the eggies.

AND ...... you HAVE to wash these eggies by hand! You CANNOT put them in the dishwasher, otherwise you will lose a piece...more than likely the gaskets.

These things did NOT save me any time. They were more infuriatingly annoying to use than having to peel eggs by hand!

Most useless piece of crap I've seen in many, MANY years!!!!

 

[Diane Lane]

Haha, I was about to post that, @ChesterV. I have a friend who actually bought that. I don't understand why anyone would buy it, but to her, it was worth it. At least until she bought and tried it, then she complained about what a pain it was. I could already tell that from the description, and anything that makes the original task more work is useless in my opinion.

 

[Winterybella]

I have to say @ChesterV will find it. I honestly never knew these things existed. I have resigned myself to not buying any new gadgets unless I have to. They just become collectibles and any collectibles I get should to be worth something down the road.

 

[Zyni]

Actually those scissors could be used to finely chop herbs But other than that I think it was useless. Oh don't worry, you are just mentioning something you would like to do with said scissors, NOTHING wrong with mentioning something like that from time to time on this forum. It'd be a problem if you started doing that in every thread. So don't worry, ok?

Thanks.

Yeah, those would be perfect for herbs and stuff. Good idea.

Thanks for the warning, @ChesterV. I have to say, I enjoyed your post (and laughed a bit).

What about egg slicers? Does anybody actually use those things?

 

[ChesterV]

Thanks.

Yeah, those would be perfect for herbs and stuff. Good idea.

Thanks for the warning, @ChesterV. I have to say, I enjoyed your post (and laughed a bit).

What about egg slicers? Does anybody actually use those things?

OMG!!! Does anybody remember the Ronco gadgets from the 60's and 70's????

Specifically the slicer/dicer gadget???

 

[Tina Nord]

OMG!!! Does anybody remember the Ronco gadgets from the 60's and 70's????

Specifically the slicer/dicer gadget???

I remember the Ronco gadgets from Ronco and it seems like they had something for everything you needed to do in the kitchen, but could no longer do with the simple tools you had laying around in your kitchen. I remember that my mom used to love to sit around and watch the infomercials.

 

[Trellum]

I bought one of those egg boilers for my future mother in law, she gave it back to her soon a few weeks later Lol, yeah, I realized how useless that gift was since the start, but I was all like ''meh''. But who knows, I might use it at least once or twice in a while Not a huge fan of boiled eggs, but that might change