15 Kitchen Gadget Hacks That Will Surprise You
Ever use a kitchen gadget
beyond what it was made for,
and surprise, surprise, the hacks work as good as
or better than the original purpose?
Yup, that happens quite often around here.
Either we don’t have the right gadget so we improvise,
or it’s the tool we have in hand already and don’t feel like going for the designated device.
Find more helpful kitchen ideas:
31 Indispensable Kitchen Gadgets For More Cooking Fun
7 Surprising Kitchen Storage Ideas When Space Runs Out
Newlyweds Kitchen Check List: Get Our Free Cheat Sheet
Keep an Easy-Clean Kitchen, No Rubber Gloves Necessary
Pantry Cheat Sheet (Keep Kitchen Basics for Economical Cooking)
Here’s a few gadget hacks from our kitchen.
The kitchen gadget in the picture above?
You know what would happen if one of those showed up in my kitchen?
Exactly.
It would go in the toybox for my g’littles to use as a play combine or something.
How useless can a gadget be?
And who has room for every single wild creation someone somewhere thought fit to patent?
While,
sigh,
our Kitchen Gadget Hacks go unrecognized.
Until now.
Now these wild and crazy unpatented ideas are out there for the world to see.
Yikes.
1. Ice Cream Scoop
We can’t take any credit for this, because it’s a wide spread hack for ice cream scoops.
Kitchen Gadget Hacks: Use an ice cream scoop, the kind with a round half ball scoop and a metal loop that swivels and cleans out the bowl, for dropping cookies.
We also use ours for shaping meatballs and measuring hamburger patties. One scoop is a perfect size and shape for a meatball.
And two rounded scoops makes a 1/4 lb. size burger. Drop the balls into a patty shaper and you have the right amount each time.
2. Cook books.
So you’re asking, what do you use cook books for besides finding recipes?
Hack: In our kitchen, a stack of cookbooks becomes a riser in a vignette.
(And have you seen where someone wrapped old hardbound cookbooks together,
stood them up, and tucked their knives into the pages as a knife block!)
3. Kitchen Shears
For years I never had a designated kitchen shears. I used a regular scissors I kept in the kitchen for that purpose. I never realized how much better the kitchen shears worked, shame on me.
Then we visited my son in Nebraska, and they had a red kitchen shears with the name of his Drywall Company on it. I know, weird, right? (Actually, the name is the brand of the scissors and happens to be the same as his company.) Well, I stole it for a souvenir, and I’ve never looked back.
Hacks: I use the scissors, held open, to pick up hot meat for slicing and dicing into a casserole, salad or burrito. Sort of like a tongs, but better, because the flat surface keeps the pieces on it better.
And then, I mix the salad with the opened scissors. Again, better than a tongs!
4. Narrow Neck Silicone Bottle Brush
You know those mayonnaise and Miracle Whip bottles you keep upside down because they dispense right onto your roll? And how they quit dispensing properly when you get to the last third of the bottle? So annoying.
Hack: These nifty bottle brushes, which are made of the same stuff as the silicone baster brushes, can reach in and get a little more of the sauce that’s stuck in the corners. Because no matter how hard you hit the bottle on the table, that last bit won’t come out. Keep this brush with your baster brushes, and you’ll be a happy chef.
5. Plastic container lids
If you love desserts with cool whip (or use margarine and sour cream a lot) you probably end up with a lot of plastic containers taking up space in your kitchen.
Unless you recycle them right away, like I do now.
But I used to wash them all and use them to freeze lemon juice for the summer, or for leftovers in the fridge.
So there was always a bountiful supply of plastic lids which were
just the right hack for little cutting boards.
And the best part? If you cut something juicy like an orange or tomato, it didn’t run all over the counter. Way less mess. And when you were done, you could trash it instead of wash it if you felt like it.
This is super handy on picnics or when camping.
6. Tupperware pitcher.
This one is actually a thing of the past for us, since our favorite brand changed the shape of their packaging.
But we used to buy ice cream in round 1/2 gallon containers,
and the perfect hack:
use the small Tupperware pitcher to hold the ice cream container while passing it around the table.
No drips on the tablecloth, and the handle made scooping so much easier.
7. Orange Slicing Trick
We live in a land where we pick our oranges right off the tree in our back yard.
That means we serve a lot of orange slices, for every meal from breakfast to evening snack.
The best hack for easily and safely slicing oranges is to use a tomato knife (serrated)
and cut the orange in half from the stem end across to the bottom. Lay each half slice side down on a plate,
then cut the cross-wise slices. We usually get 4 double slices after cutting the ends off.
And don’t just throw the orange ends in the trash.
Put them down the disposal, rub your sinks shiny with them, or boil them in water with cloves and cinnamon for awesome room freshener.
8. Angel food cake pan makes one of our Kitchen Gadget Hacks.
I love angel food cake.
And my DIL makes the best sauce to pour over the cake, hot, with ice cream.
Mmm.
However, there’s a neat use for that pan during corn season.
Kitchen gadget hack: To cut the kernels off a corn cob, stick the tip in the hole of the angel food cake pan, then slice downward from the top, and all the kernels (if you’re lucky) will fall into the pan.
We buy Olathe corn in bulk for freezing, and this is a huge help when cutting a big batch.
9. Cookie Sheet
Our cookie sheets are those aluminum 1/2 sheet cake size with about 3/4″ tall sides.
Cookie sheet hack: Place your cutting board into a cookie sheet when you carve meat.
It keeps all the juices contained, and there’s plenty of room to slice and sort the meat from the bones and fat.
10. Cookie Sheet
A batch of cookies usually makes about 3 and a half or our cookie sheet pans. But we only have 2 pans.
Another cookie sheet hack: Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Have 4 pieces of parchment, and drop all the cookies out on the parchment, all ready to bake.
When a pan comes out of the oven, slide the parchment out of the pan, and slide a cookie dough filled paper into the hot pan.
The cookies can cool right on the parchment, and there’s no wait time while filling another cookie sheet with dough to bake. And if you’ve never baked cookies on parchment paper, it’s time to try it. They turn out perfect every time!
11. Wide Mouth Jar Ring
You’re going to say this is a reach, and we’ll grant you, not everyone is going to find uses for wide mouth jar rings the way we do.
Have you ever seen a pumpkin made out of jar rings tied together? It’s amazing how real it looks.
Kitchen Gadget Hack: Last winter I wanted to make tiny wreaths (think ornament size) and a wide mouth jar ring was perfect. I went outside and picked some greenery from our miniature bottle brush plant, and glued it around the ring. Our bottle brush has a lightish green hue somewhat like lamb’s ear, so it was perfect. It stayed green for about a month, then dried in perfect shape. I still have one hanging over a small mirror in the laundry room.
12. Wide Mouth Jar Lid
If you use the jar rings for wreaths, you’re left with extra lids.
Which, if you’ve ever done any canning with your mason jars, you always do, anyway.
The rings you can use over and over, but the lids are a one time sealing deal.
Hack: This project needed a fire-proof (or at least heat proof) base, so we used a canning jar lid. It’s stable, and candle drips don’t hurt it.
13. Wide mouth jar ring with lid inside
In number 3 above we talk about using our ice cream scoop to size hamburger patties.
Hack: If you drop the scoops into a wide mouth jar ring with the lid inside, you can flip the set over after patting it flat, and the lid and ring separate to allow the patty to be removed with ease. If you’re like me and can’t stand hamburger on your hands, you appreciate a way to make patties without having to touch the meat. We usually overfill the ring, so the burger is a little bigger when you extract it and flatten it a bit more.
Drop each burger patty onto a square of wax paper, then use another square to shape and flatten it. Again, meat free hands!
14. This isn’t really one of our Kitchen Gadget Hacks,
but we love Claussen pickles.
Did you know you can save the juice and
hack it for a second jar of pickles?
Just buy an English cucumber, slice it thin, or in spears, and brine it in the juice in the fridge for a few days.
They are the best!!
15. Which brings me to my final gadget swap.
We used to make spicy pickle rings, where you took all the pulp out of the cucumbers before slicing them for the brine.
The best hack for taking out the pulp was a vegetable peeler.
You run the wrong side of the peeler around the inside of the solid outer mass of the cuke,
and the pulp scrapes right out!
It was so much faster than making a ring out of each individual slice.
Which Kitchen Gadget Hacks
would you add to our list?
Because I know these are just the beginning of the list short cuts and cooking and baking tips and tricks that are out there.
