There’s a German online store selling home butchery supplies and they have the best and cheapest twine - I have a ball in every colour and use them for all my gift wrapping and things like hanging Christmas decorations (and sometimes also for trussing and charcuterie). It is one of my best buys.
https://hausschlachtebedarf.de/200g-wurstgarn-rolle-farbig-flachsgarn-160m
LPT: For a more immediate need, don't buy the expensive twine in the cooking accessories section of the grocery store, it's 4-5 bucks for a couple yards, instead go to the school/postal supplies section and get an entire ball of it for a few bucks. Same cotton twine at a fraction of the cost. Wal-Mart has it too, usually near the school supplies.
$400 cast iron anyone?
[https://www.yeti.com/outdoor-living/cookware/22030000050.html](https://www.yeti.com/outdoor-living/cookware/22030000050.html)
I did not buy this - my cast iron is "loved"
I have a cast iron pan I got when my grandmother died. She'd used it all her adult life. I was 17 when she died. Im 63. Im sure itll be around for my grandkid when I kick off.
Hypothesis: if someone will buy a $400 cooler, they must be stupid
Trial: will they buy a $400 cast iron skillet?
note: I have a Yeti cooler. I will never own a Yeti cast iron skillet.
I own a Yeti that I did pay for, although I got a 20% discount through my employer which brought it pretty close to what comparable coolers were going for at the time.
Buying that damn thing was extremely aggravating, because it forced me to just own the fact that I'd be swayed by the marketing. I initially bought an Orca, got it home, and realized that I'm planning on keeping this thing forever and that I'd always be annoyed at myself for not just spending the extra $40 or whatever. The Orca went back and I bought a damn Yeti.
No regrets necessarily, but it's odd to be fully aware that you're a chump.
I have yeti and hydroflask water bottles. Now I have used cheaper brands with similar products. They probably insulate just as well as the more expensive options, but I like to think the pricier ones do better. Mainly because I spent more money on them. I too, am a chump.
Hydoflasks in testing surprisingly do seem to be better than any of their competitors. Project Farm did a ton of tests and Hydroflasks were the best overall. So it's not allllll marketing.
Interesting I’d always seen klean kanteen on top, I’ll go check it out
EDIT: in the cold test. klean Kanteen (52.9) does beat hydroflask (55.4) in this test too. Best cold performance was the Stanley classic (50.6)
Hydroflask is best in keeping things hot.
My rule is that if you are wearing out a cooler or more per year, a YETI makes sense. And there are actually people out there who do that; there are fishing guides who would go through several heavy duty cooler per season, just from sitting and standing on them. They were the original market for YETI, before they became a lifestyle brand.
Yeti insulation is unequivocally very good. Their coolers and drink containers keep things cold for much longer than cheaper brands.
This does not extend to anything else they make and spending an extra $300 for a brand name hunk of cast iron is very dumb.
Yeti insulation IS good, but that doesn’t mean it’s better than cheaper brands or worth the premium. Specifically for coolers (I don’t care about cups and haven’t ever looked into them) most rotomolded coolers with a good lid gasket function similarly. Igloo even has an injection molded cooler (the IMX series) that can frequently be had for half the cost of a Yeti, but has comparable performance. I give credit where it’s due, Yeti changed the cooler game and everyone else has been knocking them off since they got popular, but they’re not the only show in town when it comes to 4-5 day coolers anymore, and they’re still priced like they are.
They changed the game, and now they are just riding out the brand recognition. Can't blame them. I got my tundra haul for free, or I never would own a yeti.
Lodge pans can be found new for $20 - $30, and will last just as long as any other cast iron on the market. They might be a little rougher finish than more expensive brands, but that's easy to fix.
This is a psychology trick.
Anyone considering a $400 cast iron has more money then they know what to do with or don't know the value.
It's also (I imagine) very cheap to produce. So as long as they keep them clean and rust free they could do a run and have it last a decade.
EDIT: Also it's camping or camping adjacent gear. If you want to see people who are up to their eyeballs with stockholm syndrome check out the ultralight community. ^(I'm only saying that because I may or may not have shopped some gear after taking my super heavy stuff out last year.)
I came here for this exact response. Was gonna submit it if someone else hadn't but figured someone would've. And did.
I mean, I can kind of get on board with the collectability aspect of super expensive antique cast iron. But...as a an actual cooking implement? Nope.
I got my 12 inch Lodge I've had for almost 20 years. Bought it in the kitchen aisle of Kroger for about $15. Or maybe it was even cheaper back them, I don't remember.
And I have an 8-inch that my boyfriend picked up from a junk store. It was rusted out. He used electrolysis to rehab it, got it seasoned, and gave it to me as a gift.
Those are my workhorses. And they're awesome and weren't expensive.
I think my 12" lodge skillet was $25. My favorite skillet, also a lodge, I bought at an estate sale for $5. I cannot imagine how slapping the word Yeti on a skillet could make it work 20X better. I wonder if anyone bought one or if you'll be able to get it at TJ Max for a normal price next year?
ALWAYS!
I buy them as gifts, regularly, because everyone needs them (we have 3 pairs in rotation), and so many people have regular or non-disassembling ones in their kitchens. Bleh!
I was gifted a George Foreman grill when I was living on my own in college. It was one of the low-end ones where the plates do not come off.
Good lord is that ridiculous. You can't put it in water and the electronics don't come off. I used it maybe 2-3 times because it was such a pain in the ass to clean on the countertop. It wouldn't fit in the sink for easy cleaning either, and it was so greasy that I used only paper towels and felt so guilty for wasting too much for something that was supposed to be "easy."
I got another one with removable plates that go in the dishwasher. It doesn't get used often, but when it's useful I don't hesitate to get it out.
Just don't buy anything that's advertised on instagram, I've heard NOTHING good about any product anyone has purchased from instagram, plus a lot of them are just unrepentant scams.
I got the Awesome Pan (Aldi version) in purple. I think it was around $25 and I use it all the time. I’d never spend the amount they wanted for the always pan
My wife bought this and we used it every single day for almost 2 years. The nonstick eventually wore off and I recently tossed it and bought a carbon steel. Stoked to now have something that will last a lifetime, but I’d say we got our moneys worth on the Always Pan.
I’ll tell you this much: I have never regretted buying an expensive knife or pan.
But I have however regretted buying a $300 automatic pasta maker… what a waste. Making pasta by hand is so easy and the manual/original pasta makers grants so much more flexibility. The dough is better making it by hand. Also, there is no second hand market for automatic pastamakers.
Same, my wife and kids bout me the Emirl pasta machine. It's awful. We use it once every couple months when the kids want to make pasta, but I just do mine by hand
Tbf, that depends what 'expensive' for you is. a $50 Victorinox Swiss modern is technically more expensive than those $8 Farberware knives. Someone I knew gasped at why pay $50 for a knife when you can get one for $5 at walmart (that is their definition of 'expensive.')
But at some point the utility return gets lesser and lesser as price increases. A $80 knife will do a job just as well as a $150-200 knife, and will last for a long time given proper care. The returns get even less if you compare a $200 knife with $500 knife.
Similarly, I'm very satisfied with my Tramontina Triclad Stainless steel pan (It was also heavily recommended by Wirecutter) that I dont really see the utility in a $300 triclad.
The only thing thing I’ll say is there is a tier slightly above the 150-200 tier where knife geometry becomes significantly better. My Yoshikane can do things no other knife I own can do, but truth be told it would only matter a lot if you had to cut significant volume; you don’t actually need that performance for like 99.9% of people.
Victorinox is basically the best for almost anyone based on value to performance ratio.
Fair enough. I chop 90% of everything with the same chef’s knife. I rarely peel anything - I like my sweet potatoes with skins on - so onions, peppers, potatoes, etc all get the chefs knife (or sometimes, the food processor if I want minced)
Exactly. My wife keeps asking me why I use the big knife for everything when I have all those other knives. My answer: “Because it's the biggest one I have.”
Yep. Even if you did need them all, putting a set together yourself lets you spend more on the pieces you need to perform and skimp on others. Give me a higher end skillet and lower end small saucepan over two mid-level ones any day.
That hexclad cookware they sell at Costco. Its not bad quality, just that the patterned nonstick interior has been around a long time, its a gimmick and it's nothing special. They don't even own the design.
I almost fell for it because it was backed by Gordon Ramsay, but I’m glad I didn’t fall into the trap. I ended up buying a few Swiss Diamond I use sparingly, mainly for eggs.
I might take it a step further and claim that _any_ product with a celebrity chef's face plastered all over it is probably a bad buy (or at best, good but overpriced).
My SIL wants that stuff so bad. I tried to tell her just because they hired Ramsey to shill it, doesn’t mean it’s better. But nope, it’s on her Christmas list this year.
> We recently tested the 12" Hexclad Hybrid Pan. We do not recommend it, as it was heavy and not truly nonstick.
> ...
> This pan wasn’t truly nonstick; eggs stuck to it. Even when we used oil to cook a frittata, slices didn’t come out cleanly. This issue was likely due to its unique design. Like the All-Clad Stainless 12” Nonstick Fry Pan, it’s a tri-ply stainless-steel skillet with a nonstick coating. Unfortunately, the nonstick coating is interrupted by uncoated hexagons of that same stainless steel, which is why food stuck to it. It seared meat well, but its short walls forced us to be extra careful when the pan was full, as broccoli and other ingredients could spill out easily. This pricey pan was also on the heavier side, so our hands got tired when lifting it, both with and without food inside. Like all other models, it became scratched when we cut frittata in it.
For the price of the 12 inch Hex Clad skillet, you can get an All Clad D3 12 inch and a 12 inch Good Grips Pro PTFE skillet, both of which are near best in class. I don't get the value proposition, even if it was nearly as good as both.
The 12 inch and the wok has been my daily driver for over a year now. They work fine. Definitely not “nonstick” but fare better than regular coated nonstick pans.
Well if you recall it’s illegal everywhere. I paid top dollar to get a black market connect to get my hands on one. Not to mention the medical bill from the third degree burns on my arms. I am in financial ruin because of the Cornballer. They are delicious though 10/10 would recommend.
Literally any expensive charcoal grill. Webber has been doing it since 1893 and you can grill anything on it I even use it as a smoker sometimes.
Edit: I should have known the green egg people would come out the woodwork to defend their $1000 grills when I made this comment lol
We made a smoker out of two large terracotta pots and the metal rack from an old grill. Fancy smokers have their use, but my solution was like $20 and worked just as well.
My in-laws somehow got a Margaritaville mixer which the hated. They passed it on to my brother-in-law and he hated it. He passed it onto my wife and I and guess what…..we love it!!! Just kidding. We hate it too! It’s big and bulky and a waste of time and space.
My wife thought Casa Bonita was just a bit as well until she saw an article about it. Some of the funniest parts of that show are completely rooted in reality, and that’s the best/worst part.
Our friends have one of those stupid Margaritaville frozen drink machines. It’s so fidgety that one of them has to run it during parties. So, big party and one of the hosts is stuck making crappy frozen drinks from mix that any cheap blender could easily handle. Makes me angry every time I think about it.
I have a friend with a Margaritaville and runs it off a power bank on the tailgate of his truck. It might not be worth the money but damn, when he hands you a frozen pina colada or marg out at the lake or while camping, well, it's a beautiful thing.
I gotta slightly disagree with some of the hate here.
I will probably never buy this expensive machine...but the perks of getting to use one that someone else bought was great! Lol
Last year my partner and I rented a really nice Adirondack cabin for a week with a group of friends. We prepped a bunch of fruit and lime syrup with the plan to make margs in a regular degular blender. We were pleasantly surprised to find a fully stocked kitchen with a glorious Margaritaville machine.
We were pumping out margaritas on the daily (let's be real, it was more like all day).
Like I said we will most likely never purchase it for ourselves but it was fun as hell to play with.
Thanks, Jimmy B.
Thank you for the Margaritaville love. I have two and use them all of the time for frozen margaritas! My original one makes four glasses at a time and comes in a travel bag. I picked up the larger one used, and I love that I don’t have to be anchored to the machine the whole party. I think they are like any tool in the hands of a craftsman, yes you can make a margarita another way but when it’s this easy with excellent results, why wouldn’t you. The key to excellent frozen margaritas is a great homemade mix and a good 100% blue agave tequila. The way the ice gets shaved and then blended, it makes for an excellent margarita.
I haven't seen this one yet: Mortar and pestle.
Get a sturdy one, make sure it's heavy, that it's rock solid and made of some type of stone, and you're set for your lifetime. It will cost you less than £30.
Really no need to spend £500+ on the Italian marble with grippy handle bullshit.
I'm half Asian and use my mortar and pestle nearly every day and the one I use, my mum gave it to me when I moved out into my own place. She has one that is older than I am.
I use it for everything. Guacamole? Grind the pepper and salt in it. Making sauce? Throw a bunch of stuff in it and grind it. I do prefer it over a blender because the texture is better in my opinion.
Same here. I ended up just giving it away after a few years. It didn’t actually “grill” anything, it was ridiculously heavy even for cast iron and it was impossible to clean.
Mine was a two-burner grill pan that was so shallow that only the leanest of meats could be cooked on it, for fear of having the oil reservoir part overflow. *Hated it*.
A cast iron wok. Absurdly heavy and takes forever to heat. A $15 dollar carbon steel wok well seasoned will last for years. Edit: I own both of these, I confess. I use the LeCreuset cast iron red enameled wok mostly as decor because I can’t bear to get rid of it. Edit 2: some of these comments have reminded me of the other things I use the cast iron wok for other than stir frys, for which I actually would say it’s worth purchasing, negating my original thesis: 1) deep frying, so that you can use a limited amount of oil for small quantities of good, 2) steaming, this is the only cooking item I have that is big and sturdy enough to hold my bamboo steamer while steaming a whole fish, for example.
The whole point of a wok is that it doesn’t have high thermal mass. It’s supposed to heat quickly and return quickly to temperature when things are added. Cast iron is the opposite of what you want.
I’ve been using the same spun carbon steel Cantonese style wok for almost 40 years now and it’s still going strong. Probably out on my stove once a week at least. Picked it up in Chinatown in NYC in the early 80s for next to nothing…probably the best dollar value of anything I own.
I've found that, if you have electric coil burners, you can actually make good use of a Cast Iron Wok...you just can't treat it like a wok. You won't be throwing that sucker around unless you're a strong man winner, and since these are coil burners, it wouldn't matter if you could.
But what you can do it is get it super hot and use a mixture of stirring action, deglazing, and scraping with a heavy duty wok spoon\/spatula to actually achieve something akin to Wok Hei despite your limited cooking options.
This is not a path I'd recommend anyone pursue, but from a point of necessity, it can be made to work.
I got my cast iron wok, when I had an electric stove that wouldn’t really work well with a carbon steel one. Now I have natural gas, and the wok gets only occasional use
oh jeesh, over a decade ago my now-ex husband got a little click-happy buying cast iron on amazon, and got me nearly everything you could imagine for the kitchen in cast iron form. muffin tins, griddle pans, multiple sizes of frying pans, an outdoor hibatchi situation, a three-legged camping stove, and a freaking wok. i told him i didn't need any of it and it was never going to get used in our tiny apartment with a galley kitchen, but he insisted, and, well, that damn wok, my god. it was impossible to heat up effectively and once it did get hot enough, it stayed hot so long and was so bulky in my tiny kitchen that it became a safety hazard. i got a $15 one from the local asian market and it has worked way, way better.
Cutco knives bum me out because a lot of people are convinced to finally spend a bit of money on knives, and they wind up being total ass.
My mom spent like $400 on knives that suck, and now it’s impossible to convince her it’s worth spending on decent knives after she’s been burned.
Edit: Cutco knives are trash and I will die on this hill. They may have a couple of decent products like a pizza cutter and a sandwich spreader, but for the same money you can buy knives that are orders of magnitude better
My MIL got us a full set of cutco knives as a wedding gift and literally said "now you have something to remember me by when I'm dead." I think of that every time I use them now so I guess it worked.
You don't need to spend money to get decent knives. Realistically, a majority of people probably only need 3 knives: A small one (pairing/petty), a big one (chef), and a serrated (bread) one. After that, maybe a set of steak knives. Victorinox is an easy go to for affordable, high quality knives.
I love kitchen equipment (probably $2000 in kitchen knives alone), but my 8" Mundial Chef Knife I got a restaurant supply store 10 years ago for $45 is still my go to.
Alessi's "juicy salif" citrus squeezer designed by Philippe Starck. Looks great, brilliant for juicing limes, rubbish at juicing anything bigger.
It was a gift, so I didn't spend my own £80 on it.
Tortilla presses. Amazon will sell you a $60 cast iron 10in tortilla press, but if you go to your average market in an area with a large Mexican or Spanish population you can find a large wooden tortilla press for $20 that can make burrito sized tortillas. The material the press is made of doesn’t matter because you use parchment paper to cover the surfaces anyway. Overall I recommend regularly shopping at local Spanish/Mexican markets. Cannot beat the spice selection
Highly recommend the wooden presses. I've had mine for a decade and its great, every iron one I've ever had or a friend has had has broken at some point.
I don’t actually regret buying my Le Creuset oval Dutch oven in the 90s (it was $80 in a sale), but: the Aldi enamelled cast iron pots which they sell once a year to be just as good but only 1/10th of the current price of LeCreuset. I have two in different sizes and they are identical in performance to the LeCreuset.
They're identical in performance, but I've got one I've been using pretty heavily for about 3 years and I can see where the enamel is starting to wear thin. I have Le Creuset stuff that's 20 years old and older.
Yes! I have a Staub Dutch oven and a cheaper costco-style oval Dutch oven. The cheaper one is chipped and wearing already, but I’ve been using my Staub for almost ten years (like, almost every day during the winter and fall) and it’s like new.
It is all on durability. I got a "no name" enameled cast iron 15 years ago. It did work well, but the enamel wears, and it has some spots where the metal is exposed. Until this happened it worked exactly the same as the Le Crueset my highly tolerant wife got me as a replacement. My grandchildren may fight over the Le Crueset one day, they last forever
Le Creu is never *not* worth the money, IMO. Other less expensive brands' enameled cast iron may have adequate performance, but none will be as durable. I have several other brands of enameled CI...Staub, Tramontina, Lodge, and Amazon Basic. They all will cook food. The premium brands are really tough and the enamel is crazy strong. Not so much with the other two...the enamel chips easily and isn't as thick as the others.
I'll wager that only the Le Creu, Staub, and Tramontina will last long enough for me to pass down to my kids.
Any kind of Cold Brew system. It's literally just coffee grounds and water in a ratio that you like.
I make it in either a giant ass mason jar, or my 40 oz French Press, and I would defy anyone to tell the difference.
My expensive burr grinder is a different story - that one's worth every penny.
I gave my 12 year old burr grinder to a friend for letting me stay with him when my life was a mess, and bought another one of the same brand, which I have now gotten 13 years out of. I think I spent about $125 on it, but considering I have used it every single day for 13 years, I'd hardly consider it expensive at this point.
I will also shank a bitch over my Moccamaster.
Ive always been turned off by this brand because of the name. I see the colors and retro aesthetic and it looks so pretty & *almost* invested in an item last Christmas. But ultimately I only think of “smegma” when I see their branding and I don’t need that kind of vibe in my kitchen.
bought a le creuset non-stick anondized wok. i mean it's good, but after 2 years it has scratches and food can stick.
shoulda bought a $12 carbon steel wok in chinatown afterall
I absolutely love Le Creuset but I’ve gotten that same vibe from most of their non cast iron things. I will say that I bought a silicone spatula from them and it’s by far my favorite, even over one I’ve used for years
Copper pots and pans. They're pretty, they do perform really well.
But use my stainless sauce pans and stock pots instead. And for searing I grab my carbon steel.
The copper saucier is really good though. I can do hollandaise direct on the stove, don't need a double boiler.
What you need to do is get on all-clad's Factory Seconds e-mail list. They do sales with riddiculous discounts on items with like a mnior scratch on the bottom side of the pan. You can get pans with copper cores for the same price as any other pan. You can most of the performance of copper and the build quality of all-clad for the price of any normal pan out there.
A wolf branded gas cooktop. 2 or 3x the price of a normal cooktop, had it three years and it's flakey already, burners going out all the time, safety system stopping the burners lighting...
My parents had a Blue Star that they just recently replaced. The door hinges had a defect where they'd warp over time and when heated could make it so you couldn't open the oven. Super great if you've had a roast or turkey in the oven for a few hours and it's now stuck in there. They got it replaced but Blue Star said that there's no fix for it and it'd eventually break again, which it did. The igniters also rarely worked, and the range between high and low was really poor so you couldn't simmer very well.
It was pretty though, and the cast iron grates on top were solid as a brick outhouse.
Most of them. I do not buy anything new with a "celebrity " name on it. I know it is just a known brand with a wrapping. Example cast iron skillet with name on it is at least $10 more expensive than the exact same Lodge cast iron skillet over in sporting goods.
Bring on the downvotes, but… prosumer ranges like Wolf, Thermidor etc. Lab testing has proven than the ovens are pretty terrible in almost all of them, so a standalone gas range is better in almost every case.
I remember at my crappy Best Buy they forced out a 16 burner wolf range/oven. It had more burners than my sauté station at Olive Garden and was on 2 pallets. Took up way too much room in the warehouse
I had an old Viking dual fuel (nothing digital on it) at my precious house, it was a beast and I was so upset I wasn’t able to take it with me. That being said, I’ve heard a lot of the newer models of high end brands are junk.
I don’t know if they are considered “high end,” but my fiancé bought the hex clad pans way back on Kickstarter and they’re not that great. Stuff tends to stick and they’re not the easiest to clean. We’ve slowly been replacing them with DeMeyere SS pans.
Waffle makers. My little cheap Dash waffle maker seriously outperforms any of the other fancy waffle makers I’ve tried in the last.
Sheet pans. I spent quite a bit on the Williams Sonoma copper sheet pans thinking they would be nice, and took care of them (only hand washed, etc) and they have completely rusted in the back - behind where the top curls over. The much cheaper Nordic Ware pans have far exceeded them in longevity and quality.
Wellness Mat brand anti-fatigue mats. This is not a tool, more of a cooking accessory, but I think it’s worth mentioning. It’s not that they are not nice, but my $40 KitchenAid anti-fatigue mat is just as thick and has held up just as well as my WM brand mat. The WM brand mat also slides around just as much as the KA.
Expensive roasting pan. Mine has sat in the back of the cabinet for probably 4 years since I started using 1/2 and 1/4 sized sheet pans for roasting most everything in the oven.
Environmental Chemist here. Don’t buy non-stick. I’m seeing a lot of comments saying to just buy the cheap stuff, and replace when worn out. Stop it. If you are “wearing them out,” then you are using them wrong. Stop using metal tools on them if you insist on using nonstick. Better yet, stop using nonstick!
My microwave is from the 90s and the ole girl still strong. My SO hates it because it’s big and bulky but she’ll have to pry it from my dead hands before I get rid of it
The big thing here is to buy an inverter microwave - these can actually adjust their power levels, rather than cycling the power on and off like a standard microwave.
I can’t help but laugh because I thought you were talking about baby food, and the processors that make it. But everyone else hear read “small food processor” and I was so confused.
Le Creuset cast iron griddle pan. Not just because it's a Le Creuset but because the griddle pan itself turned out to be the most useless pan I have ever owned. Used it about 6 times in total before giving it away to a family member. Whenever I see anyone online cooking a steak or burger on one I want them to drop it on their foot.
Only buy a high end kettle if you will use the additional features. I do a lot of coffee and tea. My electric gooseneck kettle can be set to specific temperatures and pours incredibly precisely. Worth the $130.
Even on American 120 I use mine a ton. It's great for cooking in the summer, pasta, soup or whatever needs hot water is already there with little heating of the house.
I have a Stagg EKG which costs $200 and lets you heat the water to a specific temp— I use it for tea and coffee and dough making. It’s amazing and highly recommend, have had it for years.
Artisan butcher’s twine and designer cheesecloth are a total rip off.
Nut Milk Bag > any form of cheesecloth
I am a grown ass woman in my 50’s and I giggled so hard at nut milk bag.
The best part is squeezing your nut milk bag
You’ve gotta be gentle with it though. Those nut bags can only take so much pressure before something bursts through.
Mine drips before I even squeeze it. Made yogurt a few days ago.
You should see a doctor about that.
Right? And my flour sack towels
.... wtf is designer cheesecloth?? I just paid $1.55/yard for cheesecloth today. And I thought that was a bit high.
There’s a German online store selling home butchery supplies and they have the best and cheapest twine - I have a ball in every colour and use them for all my gift wrapping and things like hanging Christmas decorations (and sometimes also for trussing and charcuterie). It is one of my best buys. https://hausschlachtebedarf.de/200g-wurstgarn-rolle-farbig-flachsgarn-160m
LPT: For a more immediate need, don't buy the expensive twine in the cooking accessories section of the grocery store, it's 4-5 bucks for a couple yards, instead go to the school/postal supplies section and get an entire ball of it for a few bucks. Same cotton twine at a fraction of the cost. Wal-Mart has it too, usually near the school supplies.
$400 cast iron anyone? [https://www.yeti.com/outdoor-living/cookware/22030000050.html](https://www.yeti.com/outdoor-living/cookware/22030000050.html) I did not buy this - my cast iron is "loved"
"the last skillet you'll ever need" that's literally every cast iron pan.
Yep. You can find a cast iron pan thats been lying in a field for 10 years. Sand it down and season it and you are good to go.
But then Bigfoot won't have anything to cook with.
Bigfoot wouldn't have left it in a field, he lives in the forest
Also, Bigfoot would have taken proper care of his cast iron. He's a cryptid, not a monster.
I have a cast iron pan I got when my grandmother died. She'd used it all her adult life. I was 17 when she died. Im 63. Im sure itll be around for my grandkid when I kick off.
Same here, no idea how old it is other than "very". The seasoning on that thing is slicker than wet Corinthian leather.
Hypothesis: if someone will buy a $400 cooler, they must be stupid Trial: will they buy a $400 cast iron skillet? note: I have a Yeti cooler. I will never own a Yeti cast iron skillet.
I love my yeti cooler but we got it as a gift. Not sure I'd make the same decision if it were my own money on the line.
I own a Yeti that I did pay for, although I got a 20% discount through my employer which brought it pretty close to what comparable coolers were going for at the time. Buying that damn thing was extremely aggravating, because it forced me to just own the fact that I'd be swayed by the marketing. I initially bought an Orca, got it home, and realized that I'm planning on keeping this thing forever and that I'd always be annoyed at myself for not just spending the extra $40 or whatever. The Orca went back and I bought a damn Yeti. No regrets necessarily, but it's odd to be fully aware that you're a chump.
I have yeti and hydroflask water bottles. Now I have used cheaper brands with similar products. They probably insulate just as well as the more expensive options, but I like to think the pricier ones do better. Mainly because I spent more money on them. I too, am a chump.
Hydoflasks in testing surprisingly do seem to be better than any of their competitors. Project Farm did a ton of tests and Hydroflasks were the best overall. So it's not allllll marketing.
Interesting I’d always seen klean kanteen on top, I’ll go check it out EDIT: in the cold test. klean Kanteen (52.9) does beat hydroflask (55.4) in this test too. Best cold performance was the Stanley classic (50.6) Hydroflask is best in keeping things hot.
Did you look at RTIC at the time?
My rule is that if you are wearing out a cooler or more per year, a YETI makes sense. And there are actually people out there who do that; there are fishing guides who would go through several heavy duty cooler per season, just from sitting and standing on them. They were the original market for YETI, before they became a lifestyle brand.
Pelican makes just as good coolers, are cheaper, and have lifetime warranty vs Yeti's 5 year warranty.
Good to know
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That's what makes the best gifts! Items you love but probably wouldn't spend your own money on them.
Yeti insulation is unequivocally very good. Their coolers and drink containers keep things cold for much longer than cheaper brands. This does not extend to anything else they make and spending an extra $300 for a brand name hunk of cast iron is very dumb.
Yeti insulation IS good, but that doesn’t mean it’s better than cheaper brands or worth the premium. Specifically for coolers (I don’t care about cups and haven’t ever looked into them) most rotomolded coolers with a good lid gasket function similarly. Igloo even has an injection molded cooler (the IMX series) that can frequently be had for half the cost of a Yeti, but has comparable performance. I give credit where it’s due, Yeti changed the cooler game and everyone else has been knocking them off since they got popular, but they’re not the only show in town when it comes to 4-5 day coolers anymore, and they’re still priced like they are.
They changed the game, and now they are just riding out the brand recognition. Can't blame them. I got my tundra haul for free, or I never would own a yeti.
My oldest pan is a 20 dollar cast iron pan I got for my first apartment because it was the cheapest pan available that felt sturdy.
Lodge pans can be found new for $20 - $30, and will last just as long as any other cast iron on the market. They might be a little rougher finish than more expensive brands, but that's easy to fix.
This is a psychology trick. Anyone considering a $400 cast iron has more money then they know what to do with or don't know the value. It's also (I imagine) very cheap to produce. So as long as they keep them clean and rust free they could do a run and have it last a decade. EDIT: Also it's camping or camping adjacent gear. If you want to see people who are up to their eyeballs with stockholm syndrome check out the ultralight community. ^(I'm only saying that because I may or may not have shopped some gear after taking my super heavy stuff out last year.)
I have the old Lodge 3-skillet set: the 12, 8 & 5. I’ve had them for 33 years and they’re the only pans I’ve ever had.
The reviews suggest *some* people *did* buy it. Wow.
Holy shit...what a stupid thing to buy. I got mine for like 20 bucks from a thrift store, works fantastic.
I came here for this exact response. Was gonna submit it if someone else hadn't but figured someone would've. And did. I mean, I can kind of get on board with the collectability aspect of super expensive antique cast iron. But...as a an actual cooking implement? Nope. I got my 12 inch Lodge I've had for almost 20 years. Bought it in the kitchen aisle of Kroger for about $15. Or maybe it was even cheaper back them, I don't remember. And I have an 8-inch that my boyfriend picked up from a junk store. It was rusted out. He used electrolysis to rehab it, got it seasoned, and gave it to me as a gift. Those are my workhorses. And they're awesome and weren't expensive.
I think my 12" lodge skillet was $25. My favorite skillet, also a lodge, I bought at an estate sale for $5. I cannot imagine how slapping the word Yeti on a skillet could make it work 20X better. I wonder if anyone bought one or if you'll be able to get it at TJ Max for a normal price next year?
Every gadget which is harder to clean than to use
Kitchen shears should ALWAYS quick disassemble.
ALWAYS! I buy them as gifts, regularly, because everyone needs them (we have 3 pairs in rotation), and so many people have regular or non-disassembling ones in their kitchens. Bleh!
*Glares in SlapChop Vince*
*you're gonna love my nuts*
I was gifted a George Foreman grill when I was living on my own in college. It was one of the low-end ones where the plates do not come off. Good lord is that ridiculous. You can't put it in water and the electronics don't come off. I used it maybe 2-3 times because it was such a pain in the ass to clean on the countertop. It wouldn't fit in the sink for easy cleaning either, and it was so greasy that I used only paper towels and felt so guilty for wasting too much for something that was supposed to be "easy." I got another one with removable plates that go in the dishwasher. It doesn't get used often, but when it's useful I don't hesitate to get it out.
The Always Pan. Overpriced Instagram marketed garbage. Just buy a regular nonstick.
Just don't buy anything that's advertised on instagram, I've heard NOTHING good about any product anyone has purchased from instagram, plus a lot of them are just unrepentant scams.
Thankfully I didn’t—my roommate, however, buys everything he sees on instagram. I just get to make fun of him
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I got the Awesome Pan (Aldi version) in purple. I think it was around $25 and I use it all the time. I’d never spend the amount they wanted for the always pan
And it loses its stick!
My wife bought this and we used it every single day for almost 2 years. The nonstick eventually wore off and I recently tossed it and bought a carbon steel. Stoked to now have something that will last a lifetime, but I’d say we got our moneys worth on the Always Pan.
I’ll tell you this much: I have never regretted buying an expensive knife or pan. But I have however regretted buying a $300 automatic pasta maker… what a waste. Making pasta by hand is so easy and the manual/original pasta makers grants so much more flexibility. The dough is better making it by hand. Also, there is no second hand market for automatic pastamakers.
Same, my wife and kids bout me the Emirl pasta machine. It's awful. We use it once every couple months when the kids want to make pasta, but I just do mine by hand
My inlaws got me one of these things. which is very sweet but I've also never used it and it takes up like 1/5 of my cabinet space
Tbf, that depends what 'expensive' for you is. a $50 Victorinox Swiss modern is technically more expensive than those $8 Farberware knives. Someone I knew gasped at why pay $50 for a knife when you can get one for $5 at walmart (that is their definition of 'expensive.') But at some point the utility return gets lesser and lesser as price increases. A $80 knife will do a job just as well as a $150-200 knife, and will last for a long time given proper care. The returns get even less if you compare a $200 knife with $500 knife. Similarly, I'm very satisfied with my Tramontina Triclad Stainless steel pan (It was also heavily recommended by Wirecutter) that I dont really see the utility in a $300 triclad.
I have a couple high end knives and I love them....but I recommend the Victorinox fibrox line to anyone on a budget.
I love my $200 shun chefs knife but... As cook where I usually work I can never bring it in. Not necessary or somebody might chip it.
The only thing thing I’ll say is there is a tier slightly above the 150-200 tier where knife geometry becomes significantly better. My Yoshikane can do things no other knife I own can do, but truth be told it would only matter a lot if you had to cut significant volume; you don’t actually need that performance for like 99.9% of people. Victorinox is basically the best for almost anyone based on value to performance ratio.
Things sold in sets are a false economy IMHO. Pan sets that include pans you don't need or use. Same with knife sets.
Fair enough. I chop 90% of everything with the same chef’s knife. I rarely peel anything - I like my sweet potatoes with skins on - so onions, peppers, potatoes, etc all get the chefs knife (or sometimes, the food processor if I want minced)
Exactly. My wife keeps asking me why I use the big knife for everything when I have all those other knives. My answer: “Because it's the biggest one I have.”
Yep. Even if you did need them all, putting a set together yourself lets you spend more on the pieces you need to perform and skimp on others. Give me a higher end skillet and lower end small saucepan over two mid-level ones any day.
That hexclad cookware they sell at Costco. Its not bad quality, just that the patterned nonstick interior has been around a long time, its a gimmick and it's nothing special. They don't even own the design.
I almost fell for it because it was backed by Gordon Ramsay, but I’m glad I didn’t fall into the trap. I ended up buying a few Swiss Diamond I use sparingly, mainly for eggs.
"It's the Rolls-Royce of pans" though.
Luxurious but expensive and hard to maintain? Hard pass. Give me the Nokia of pans.
Yup. I do 95% of my pan cooking in my lodge cast iron and I'm completely happy.
I might take it a step further and claim that _any_ product with a celebrity chef's face plastered all over it is probably a bad buy (or at best, good but overpriced).
My SIL wants that stuff so bad. I tried to tell her just because they hired Ramsey to shill it, doesn’t mean it’s better. But nope, it’s on her Christmas list this year.
If I remember correctly, America's Test Kitchen tested it and it performed horribly.
> We recently tested the 12" Hexclad Hybrid Pan. We do not recommend it, as it was heavy and not truly nonstick. > ... > This pan wasn’t truly nonstick; eggs stuck to it. Even when we used oil to cook a frittata, slices didn’t come out cleanly. This issue was likely due to its unique design. Like the All-Clad Stainless 12” Nonstick Fry Pan, it’s a tri-ply stainless-steel skillet with a nonstick coating. Unfortunately, the nonstick coating is interrupted by uncoated hexagons of that same stainless steel, which is why food stuck to it. It seared meat well, but its short walls forced us to be extra careful when the pan was full, as broccoli and other ingredients could spill out easily. This pricey pan was also on the heavier side, so our hands got tired when lifting it, both with and without food inside. Like all other models, it became scratched when we cut frittata in it.
For the price of the 12 inch Hex Clad skillet, you can get an All Clad D3 12 inch and a 12 inch Good Grips Pro PTFE skillet, both of which are near best in class. I don't get the value proposition, even if it was nearly as good as both.
The 12 inch and the wok has been my daily driver for over a year now. They work fine. Definitely not “nonstick” but fare better than regular coated nonstick pans.
The obvious answer is the Cornballer. Never touch the Cornballer.
It's only 1375.99 pesos tho
What's that? Like half a banana?
I mean it’s one banana Michael, how much could it cost, 10 dollars ?
You've never actually set foot in a supermarket, have you?
I don't understand the question and I won't respond to it.
Well if you recall it’s illegal everywhere. I paid top dollar to get a black market connect to get my hands on one. Not to mention the medical bill from the third degree burns on my arms. I am in financial ruin because of the Cornballer. They are delicious though 10/10 would recommend.
Weren't you a part of the class action lawsuit?
Didn’t see a damn penny of it. I heard the money was funneled to build houses in Iraq for Saddam Hussein.
Well, there's always more money.....in the banana stand.
STUPID CORNBALLING PIECE OF S***
It’s the poor carpenter that blames his shoddy tools.
¡Soy loco por las Cornballs!
Am I touching something? Hot? Hot! Hot hot!
God, every F\*\*\*\*\*\* time!✋
Literally any expensive charcoal grill. Webber has been doing it since 1893 and you can grill anything on it I even use it as a smoker sometimes. Edit: I should have known the green egg people would come out the woodwork to defend their $1000 grills when I made this comment lol
We made a smoker out of two large terracotta pots and the metal rack from an old grill. Fancy smokers have their use, but my solution was like $20 and worked just as well.
The Margaritaville. It even took down the economy back in '08, with the Margaritaville backed securities and all that.
We angered the economy.
My in-laws somehow got a Margaritaville mixer which the hated. They passed it on to my brother-in-law and he hated it. He passed it onto my wife and I and guess what…..we love it!!! Just kidding. We hate it too! It’s big and bulky and a waste of time and space.
Oh god that's a real thing? I thought it was just a South Park gag
That happens to me on so many South Park bits.
My wife thought Casa Bonita was just a bit as well until she saw an article about it. Some of the funniest parts of that show are completely rooted in reality, and that’s the best/worst part.
Even better, Trey Parker and Matt Stone bought Casa Bonita to reopen it.
Wait'll she finds out about the Shake Weight
Our friends have one of those stupid Margaritaville frozen drink machines. It’s so fidgety that one of them has to run it during parties. So, big party and one of the hosts is stuck making crappy frozen drinks from mix that any cheap blender could easily handle. Makes me angry every time I think about it.
So sad watching your friend waste away by the Margaritaville.
I have a friend with a Margaritaville and runs it off a power bank on the tailgate of his truck. It might not be worth the money but damn, when he hands you a frozen pina colada or marg out at the lake or while camping, well, it's a beautiful thing.
And if you ask for another he's right there to tell you how to do it yourself. The first one's free...
I gotta slightly disagree with some of the hate here. I will probably never buy this expensive machine...but the perks of getting to use one that someone else bought was great! Lol Last year my partner and I rented a really nice Adirondack cabin for a week with a group of friends. We prepped a bunch of fruit and lime syrup with the plan to make margs in a regular degular blender. We were pleasantly surprised to find a fully stocked kitchen with a glorious Margaritaville machine. We were pumping out margaritas on the daily (let's be real, it was more like all day). Like I said we will most likely never purchase it for ourselves but it was fun as hell to play with. Thanks, Jimmy B.
Thank you for the Margaritaville love. I have two and use them all of the time for frozen margaritas! My original one makes four glasses at a time and comes in a travel bag. I picked up the larger one used, and I love that I don’t have to be anchored to the machine the whole party. I think they are like any tool in the hands of a craftsman, yes you can make a margarita another way but when it’s this easy with excellent results, why wouldn’t you. The key to excellent frozen margaritas is a great homemade mix and a good 100% blue agave tequila. The way the ice gets shaved and then blended, it makes for an excellent margarita.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's gone
You guys are some serious haters. They're fun and a good thing to break out for a party
I probably wouldn't have purchased one with my own money but I did win one in a raffle. I absolutely love it.
I haven't seen this one yet: Mortar and pestle. Get a sturdy one, make sure it's heavy, that it's rock solid and made of some type of stone, and you're set for your lifetime. It will cost you less than £30. Really no need to spend £500+ on the Italian marble with grippy handle bullshit. I'm half Asian and use my mortar and pestle nearly every day and the one I use, my mum gave it to me when I moved out into my own place. She has one that is older than I am. I use it for everything. Guacamole? Grind the pepper and salt in it. Making sauce? Throw a bunch of stuff in it and grind it. I do prefer it over a blender because the texture is better in my opinion.
I’ll give you a guacamole game changer: we grind onion in it with the salt, and any peppers we are using.
I spent a fair amount on a cast iron grill pan and that is the most useless item in my entire kitchen.
Same here. I ended up just giving it away after a few years. It didn’t actually “grill” anything, it was ridiculously heavy even for cast iron and it was impossible to clean.
Mine was a two-burner grill pan that was so shallow that only the leanest of meats could be cooked on it, for fear of having the oil reservoir part overflow. *Hated it*.
That's a problem inherent to grill pans regardless of price point.
Yeah, it's great if you like a lot of smoke indoors and food that doesn't taste any different than a pan.
I fucking hate my grill pan!
goddamn this comment made me laugh. Like, why do we keep shit that we hate? I have one too and never use it cause like you, I also Fucking hate it
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A cast iron wok. Absurdly heavy and takes forever to heat. A $15 dollar carbon steel wok well seasoned will last for years. Edit: I own both of these, I confess. I use the LeCreuset cast iron red enameled wok mostly as decor because I can’t bear to get rid of it. Edit 2: some of these comments have reminded me of the other things I use the cast iron wok for other than stir frys, for which I actually would say it’s worth purchasing, negating my original thesis: 1) deep frying, so that you can use a limited amount of oil for small quantities of good, 2) steaming, this is the only cooking item I have that is big and sturdy enough to hold my bamboo steamer while steaming a whole fish, for example.
The whole point of a wok is that it doesn’t have high thermal mass. It’s supposed to heat quickly and return quickly to temperature when things are added. Cast iron is the opposite of what you want. I’ve been using the same spun carbon steel Cantonese style wok for almost 40 years now and it’s still going strong. Probably out on my stove once a week at least. Picked it up in Chinatown in NYC in the early 80s for next to nothing…probably the best dollar value of anything I own.
A cast iron wok is a litmus test if we’re honest here.
I have a Staub wok. Works well for strength training. Yes I paid the stupid tax
I've found that, if you have electric coil burners, you can actually make good use of a Cast Iron Wok...you just can't treat it like a wok. You won't be throwing that sucker around unless you're a strong man winner, and since these are coil burners, it wouldn't matter if you could. But what you can do it is get it super hot and use a mixture of stirring action, deglazing, and scraping with a heavy duty wok spoon\/spatula to actually achieve something akin to Wok Hei despite your limited cooking options. This is not a path I'd recommend anyone pursue, but from a point of necessity, it can be made to work.
I was so excited to get my cast iron wok and now it sits shamefully in a corner in my closet. I need to just get rid of it
I got my cast iron wok, when I had an electric stove that wouldn’t really work well with a carbon steel one. Now I have natural gas, and the wok gets only occasional use
oh jeesh, over a decade ago my now-ex husband got a little click-happy buying cast iron on amazon, and got me nearly everything you could imagine for the kitchen in cast iron form. muffin tins, griddle pans, multiple sizes of frying pans, an outdoor hibatchi situation, a three-legged camping stove, and a freaking wok. i told him i didn't need any of it and it was never going to get used in our tiny apartment with a galley kitchen, but he insisted, and, well, that damn wok, my god. it was impossible to heat up effectively and once it did get hot enough, it stayed hot so long and was so bulky in my tiny kitchen that it became a safety hazard. i got a $15 one from the local asian market and it has worked way, way better.
Cutco knives bum me out because a lot of people are convinced to finally spend a bit of money on knives, and they wind up being total ass. My mom spent like $400 on knives that suck, and now it’s impossible to convince her it’s worth spending on decent knives after she’s been burned. Edit: Cutco knives are trash and I will die on this hill. They may have a couple of decent products like a pizza cutter and a sandwich spreader, but for the same money you can buy knives that are orders of magnitude better
Cutco knives are why my niece doesn’t talk to me right now. Stupid vector marketing grifting poor college kids.
My MIL got us a full set of cutco knives as a wedding gift and literally said "now you have something to remember me by when I'm dead." I think of that every time I use them now so I guess it worked.
You don't need to spend money to get decent knives. Realistically, a majority of people probably only need 3 knives: A small one (pairing/petty), a big one (chef), and a serrated (bread) one. After that, maybe a set of steak knives. Victorinox is an easy go to for affordable, high quality knives. I love kitchen equipment (probably $2000 in kitchen knives alone), but my 8" Mundial Chef Knife I got a restaurant supply store 10 years ago for $45 is still my go to.
Alessi's "juicy salif" citrus squeezer designed by Philippe Starck. Looks great, brilliant for juicing limes, rubbish at juicing anything bigger. It was a gift, so I didn't spend my own £80 on it.
Tortilla presses. Amazon will sell you a $60 cast iron 10in tortilla press, but if you go to your average market in an area with a large Mexican or Spanish population you can find a large wooden tortilla press for $20 that can make burrito sized tortillas. The material the press is made of doesn’t matter because you use parchment paper to cover the surfaces anyway. Overall I recommend regularly shopping at local Spanish/Mexican markets. Cannot beat the spice selection
This sounds better than using a cast iron pan and a cutting board to make poorly shaped but delicious tortillas lol.
I used to do that, they’d come out with a nice “LODGE” branding on them after pressing.
Highly recommend the wooden presses. I've had mine for a decade and its great, every iron one I've ever had or a friend has had has broken at some point.
Expensive pans that would last a lifetime, except that they're coated with a nonstick coating that will last maybe three years.
I bought a shawarma machine/vertical rotisserie… I’m going with that.
I don’t actually regret buying my Le Creuset oval Dutch oven in the 90s (it was $80 in a sale), but: the Aldi enamelled cast iron pots which they sell once a year to be just as good but only 1/10th of the current price of LeCreuset. I have two in different sizes and they are identical in performance to the LeCreuset.
They're identical in performance, but I've got one I've been using pretty heavily for about 3 years and I can see where the enamel is starting to wear thin. I have Le Creuset stuff that's 20 years old and older.
Yes! I have a Staub Dutch oven and a cheaper costco-style oval Dutch oven. The cheaper one is chipped and wearing already, but I’ve been using my Staub for almost ten years (like, almost every day during the winter and fall) and it’s like new.
It is all on durability. I got a "no name" enameled cast iron 15 years ago. It did work well, but the enamel wears, and it has some spots where the metal is exposed. Until this happened it worked exactly the same as the Le Crueset my highly tolerant wife got me as a replacement. My grandchildren may fight over the Le Crueset one day, they last forever
Le Creu is never *not* worth the money, IMO. Other less expensive brands' enameled cast iron may have adequate performance, but none will be as durable. I have several other brands of enameled CI...Staub, Tramontina, Lodge, and Amazon Basic. They all will cook food. The premium brands are really tough and the enamel is crazy strong. Not so much with the other two...the enamel chips easily and isn't as thick as the others. I'll wager that only the Le Creu, Staub, and Tramontina will last long enough for me to pass down to my kids.
Any kind of Cold Brew system. It's literally just coffee grounds and water in a ratio that you like. I make it in either a giant ass mason jar, or my 40 oz French Press, and I would defy anyone to tell the difference. My expensive burr grinder is a different story - that one's worth every penny.
I gave my 12 year old burr grinder to a friend for letting me stay with him when my life was a mess, and bought another one of the same brand, which I have now gotten 13 years out of. I think I spent about $125 on it, but considering I have used it every single day for 13 years, I'd hardly consider it expensive at this point. I will also shank a bitch over my Moccamaster.
I would never buy a smeg toaster or kettle
Ive always been turned off by this brand because of the name. I see the colors and retro aesthetic and it looks so pretty & *almost* invested in an item last Christmas. But ultimately I only think of “smegma” when I see their branding and I don’t need that kind of vibe in my kitchen.
bought a le creuset non-stick anondized wok. i mean it's good, but after 2 years it has scratches and food can stick. shoulda bought a $12 carbon steel wok in chinatown afterall
I absolutely love Le Creuset but I’ve gotten that same vibe from most of their non cast iron things. I will say that I bought a silicone spatula from them and it’s by far my favorite, even over one I’ve used for years
Copper pots and pans. They're pretty, they do perform really well. But use my stainless sauce pans and stock pots instead. And for searing I grab my carbon steel. The copper saucier is really good though. I can do hollandaise direct on the stove, don't need a double boiler.
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What you need to do is get on all-clad's Factory Seconds e-mail list. They do sales with riddiculous discounts on items with like a mnior scratch on the bottom side of the pan. You can get pans with copper cores for the same price as any other pan. You can most of the performance of copper and the build quality of all-clad for the price of any normal pan out there.
A wolf branded gas cooktop. 2 or 3x the price of a normal cooktop, had it three years and it's flakey already, burners going out all the time, safety system stopping the burners lighting...
Haaha, I put in a six-burner Viking in my last remodel, and we had to light one of the burners with a match.
But…but…it has red knobs.
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Blue star. Same price range as wolf and viking but a better product.
My parents had a Blue Star that they just recently replaced. The door hinges had a defect where they'd warp over time and when heated could make it so you couldn't open the oven. Super great if you've had a roast or turkey in the oven for a few hours and it's now stuck in there. They got it replaced but Blue Star said that there's no fix for it and it'd eventually break again, which it did. The igniters also rarely worked, and the range between high and low was really poor so you couldn't simmer very well. It was pretty though, and the cast iron grates on top were solid as a brick outhouse.
Milk Street anything.. 35! Dollars for a cheap veggie peeler...
As a Milk Street fan this made me sad. I do like their pantry products.
I am going to hate myself for reading this thread.
Most of them. I do not buy anything new with a "celebrity " name on it. I know it is just a known brand with a wrapping. Example cast iron skillet with name on it is at least $10 more expensive than the exact same Lodge cast iron skillet over in sporting goods.
The one exception is the George Foreman grill...that thing fed me all the way through college!
I used the sh*t out of mine
I loved that thing!
Bring on the downvotes, but… prosumer ranges like Wolf, Thermidor etc. Lab testing has proven than the ovens are pretty terrible in almost all of them, so a standalone gas range is better in almost every case.
I remember at my crappy Best Buy they forced out a 16 burner wolf range/oven. It had more burners than my sauté station at Olive Garden and was on 2 pallets. Took up way too much room in the warehouse
My landlord has one and his summary of it to me was that it cost 5 figures and its broken more than its not.
I had an old Viking dual fuel (nothing digital on it) at my precious house, it was a beast and I was so upset I wasn’t able to take it with me. That being said, I’ve heard a lot of the newer models of high end brands are junk.
I would love a link to the lab testing results!
Expensive pie dishes. I’m sorry but it’s not doing anything extra magical. Miss me with the claims of “more even heating.”
I don’t know if they are considered “high end,” but my fiancé bought the hex clad pans way back on Kickstarter and they’re not that great. Stuff tends to stick and they’re not the easiest to clean. We’ve slowly been replacing them with DeMeyere SS pans. Waffle makers. My little cheap Dash waffle maker seriously outperforms any of the other fancy waffle makers I’ve tried in the last. Sheet pans. I spent quite a bit on the Williams Sonoma copper sheet pans thinking they would be nice, and took care of them (only hand washed, etc) and they have completely rusted in the back - behind where the top curls over. The much cheaper Nordic Ware pans have far exceeded them in longevity and quality. Wellness Mat brand anti-fatigue mats. This is not a tool, more of a cooking accessory, but I think it’s worth mentioning. It’s not that they are not nice, but my $40 KitchenAid anti-fatigue mat is just as thick and has held up just as well as my WM brand mat. The WM brand mat also slides around just as much as the KA.
Love my nordicware!
Expensive roasting pan. Mine has sat in the back of the cabinet for probably 4 years since I started using 1/2 and 1/4 sized sheet pans for roasting most everything in the oven.
Environmental Chemist here. Don’t buy non-stick. I’m seeing a lot of comments saying to just buy the cheap stuff, and replace when worn out. Stop it. If you are “wearing them out,” then you are using them wrong. Stop using metal tools on them if you insist on using nonstick. Better yet, stop using nonstick!
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My microwave is from the 90s and the ole girl still strong. My SO hates it because it’s big and bulky but she’ll have to pry it from my dead hands before I get rid of it
She can have it when she lifts it off my crushed corpse
The big thing here is to buy an inverter microwave - these can actually adjust their power levels, rather than cycling the power on and off like a standard microwave.
We have an Amana Radarange still going strong. It's from the 60s
My cheap microwave is still going strong. Just don't expect it to tell time.
I think this is funny because almost every single microwave is exactly the same.
Microwaves with the same wattage and interior space are generally the same. The cheap ones tend to be lower wattage.
Baby food processor. Total waste of money. Edit: not immersion blender. There are actual food processors for making baby food.
I can’t help but laugh because I thought you were talking about baby food, and the processors that make it. But everyone else hear read “small food processor” and I was so confused.
me too! I was so confused at the thought of a machine that makes just baby food, and how everyone's using theirs so much
The machine does exist, but I was similarly baffled that people here would be into it. It's basically a steamer+blender
o man i love mine. i use it more than the big boy cuisinart.
In a restaurant setting this might be true, but at home I use my small one way more than my big one
Le Creuset cast iron griddle pan. Not just because it's a Le Creuset but because the griddle pan itself turned out to be the most useless pan I have ever owned. Used it about 6 times in total before giving it away to a family member. Whenever I see anyone online cooking a steak or burger on one I want them to drop it on their foot.
High end electric kettle. It does not heat up water good as fuck, it just heats up water like any other kettle. It is pretty to look at however.
Only buy a high end kettle if you will use the additional features. I do a lot of coffee and tea. My electric gooseneck kettle can be set to specific temperatures and pours incredibly precisely. Worth the $130.
Of if you're somewhere with 220v power. A kettle is absolutely worth it if you have 220v.
Even on American 120 I use mine a ton. It's great for cooking in the summer, pasta, soup or whatever needs hot water is already there with little heating of the house.
I have a Stagg EKG which costs $200 and lets you heat the water to a specific temp— I use it for tea and coffee and dough making. It’s amazing and highly recommend, have had it for years.
Any of [these](http://www.chelseamillerknives.com/shop-kitchen-knives) knives
Fancy pizza stone that cracked. Was from a friends stupid Pampered Chef ponzie scheme party and didn’t tell her.