Don’t leave your kitchen gadgets to gather dust

Dave – I normally agree with you about domestic appliances but I am rather glad that the coffee percolator is no longer popular. Fine if the coffee is fresh but the percolator encouraged many to keep their coffee hot for too long and the result was horrible. Coffee filter machines created the same problem but many produced tepid coffee that remained drinkable for longer. I use a late 80s Rowenta filter coffee maker (a Which? Best Buy) and switch it off as soon as possible, so that the coffee is fresh. For a second cup, I warm it in the microwave. That is better than keeping it warm.

I am surprised that you have no use for a microwave oven. I would not consider using anything else for cooking certain vegetables, though I don’t use it for much else except re-heating. One of the problems with microwave ovens is that most people use them on full power all the time, which can leave the inside poorly cooked and overcook the outside, and splatter food everywhere. I have a miserly 500 watt model and only use it at full power for the time needed to start cooking. Incidentally, it is a Philips model dating from the late 80s or early 90s and the inside is cleaner than some microwave ovens are after use for a few weeks.

@Wavechange.

I agree that Percolators badly used are a terrible way to ruin good coffee, but I have to say that I used to use a stove-top one that was pre-war and found it pretty good except when I mis-judged the gas flame and basically burned the coffee, so in 1985 I bought a Salton Filter Gold coffee maker. It was pretty good and in many ways I wish I had not got rid of it, but it’s one drawback, as you say, was the lack of warmth to the coffee. It also had a very dribbly jug, but that was a very minor issue. Hence I bought the electric percolator in 1986 and I’ve been very happy with it. In my case, though, I only make the amount of coffee I want, so there is never any left to keep warm (and spoil). It’s also marginally faster than the filter machine was so when I am giving a dinner party I can pour one lot into the Coffee pot for use at table and pop it back on for a next one and have it ready before anyone has been waiting long for their next cup.

As for a microwave, I’ve never desired one. I’m a pretty decent cook (even if I do say it as shouldn’t) and I’m do a great deal of baking. I cannot imagine cooking anything in a microwave (because I’ve hardly ever tried) but when I have seen them in use or attempted to use one myself I have been very disappointed with the results. Couple this with the fact that in my tiny kitchen I simply don’t have room for one (it would have to go in the pantry – which is already full to bursting and houses the freezer) or in the utility room – neither of them convenient places – and there has just never been anything to encourage me to try one at home. I must admit the state many people get theirs into doesn’t inspire me either, but if I did have one I would certainly be forever cleaning it. My late neighbour bought a Sharp microwave in the late 1980’s and went to a course of evening classes to learn how to cook well with it. She did use it quite a bit at first and enjoyed the results, but by the mid 1990’s the only thing she ever used it for was to make her Horlicks at bed time and this remained the case until she died in 2008. She told me many times that after the first few years she decided that it was easier to cook on the gas cooker than to use the Microwave. She did keep it absolutely impeccably clean though – when she died one of her grandchildren had it and it was in showroom condition still.

As for vegetables – I steam all of mine in a stove-top multi-layer steamer. I can boil potatoes or other very hard root vegetables in the pan at the bottom and steam up to 3 other veg in the baskets above, all over the smallest gas ring. Even when I am cooking a meal for 10 I can do all the veg we need over the one gas ring, which is very economical and leaves me plenty of stove-space for other parts of the meal.

I admit that much of my gadget-less cooking stems from having such a small kitchen but in general I do find that most gadgets that I like the look of and have tried have lost their novelty value quite quickly.

Impeccable logic as always, and we can certainly agree on the importance of coffee being fresh.

One gadget I will never buy is a bean-to-cup coffee maker. They make great coffee and make a simple job even simpler but you would not be impressed by the build quality and (lack of) reliability. There’s little chance of handing one on to the next generation.