"Supplemental" Appliances. How Much Do You Really Use Them?

[HumbleHomeCook]

So, obviously, by "supplemental" appliances I'm talking about those beyond the stove and fridge.

I'm excluding your chosen coffee production method here and am more cooking focused. So I guess that can include a simple bread toaster.

I'm thinking blender, microwave, sous vide, crock pot, rice cooker, immersion blender, stand mixer, sausage grinder (included for our friend @Michi), etc.

The truth is, I don't even use my food processor that much. We bought an Instant Pot and it sits at the back of a shelf. The wife likes her slow cooker but I never use it. I don't even use the microwave that often.

Sometimes I wonder if I should be considering these things more, as in if I made more use of them I'd be happier but I just generally find myself not reaching for them.

How often do you find yourself really using these kinds of appliances and what are your most used?

 

[Rangen]

Food processor: if nothing else, make your own peanut butter in it. But when you need 2C of grated cheddar, what, you break out that flat thing? Also, it's great for kneading small quantities of dough, such as for Florence Lin's chicken curry buns.

Meat grinder: After I killed my KitchenAid trying to grind 12 lbs of my favorite burger mixture through it, I got a real one. It is absolutely indispensable.

I'll give you InstantPot, CrockPot, and other appliances that let non-cooks pretend that they are cooking. Except for the rice cooker. Not only does it suit my laziness, it makes better rice than I can. The one I have acts as a pressure cooker for part of the cycle, which is a technique approved by Japanese rice scientists.

You were wise to exclude coffee, or I would have typed many more words.

Oh, and I occasionally use my Ananova sous vide thingy. Not my style; I like to have my hands on things when I cook, but I admit it is better than simmering in water for corned beef.

 

[Chips]

I use my Anova sous vide cooker a lot. I have way too many cooking tools/gadgets in a very small apartment kitchen, yet still add more and more as the years go by, so this whole thread is very relevant to me. Especially since I'm now starting to side eye the new Anova combo oven thing. It really sounds tempting.

 

[Chips]

And it's funny, my reply overlapped with @Rangen. I thought my comment was the first reply. But it's interesting that we both commented on the Anova (or any sous vide cooker) at the same time, but with different perspectives on it.

 

[WildBoar]

My wife works from home, so she does the majority of the cooking, and she also like baking. So she largely drives this usage list. I mainly cook on weekends these days.

Food processor -- regularly. Makes a few dozen batches of pesto each year, salsas and a lot of other stuff.
Mini food processor -- maybe once/ month; used to get a lot more duty.
Blender -- almost daily. Mostly for smoothies, but gets occasional food use
Hand mixer -- couple times per month.
Stand mixer -- anywhere from a couple times/ week to once a month depending on if the wife is in bread baker mode.
Meat grinder -- dozen or so times per year. Have both a hand-powered and a Kitchen-Aid attachment
Tomato processor -- Only 3 times since picking it up 3 years ago. But it's used when processing a bunch or tomatoes in order to can.
Juicer -- Used to get daily use years back, now largely forgotten.
InstaPot -- this is pretty new. gets used a couple times/ month.
Pressure cooker -- weekly; my wife is big on stocks for soups, as well as beets.
Toaster and toaster oven -- daily use for both
Sous vide machine -- once/ month
Vacuum sealer -- several times/ week, with some sessions for packing bulk items like coffee beans, cases of chicken, etc. into small portions.
Immersion blender -- couple times/ month, mainly for soups

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Food processor: if nothing else, make your own peanut butter in it. But when you need 2C of grated cheddar, what, you break out that flat thing? Also, it's great for kneading small quantities of dough, such as for Florence Lin's chicken curry buns.

Meat grinder: After I killed my KitchenAid trying to grind 12 lbs of my favorite burger mixture through it, I got a real one. It is absolutely indispensable.

I'll give you InstantPot, CrockPot, and other appliances that let non-cooks pretend that they are cooking. Except for the rice cooker. Not only does it suit my laziness, it makes better rice than I can. The one I have acts as a pressure cooker for part of the cycle, which is a technique approved by Japanese rice scientists.

You were wise to exclude coffee, or I would have typed many more words.

Oh, and I occasionally use my Ananova sous vide thingy. Not my style; I like to have my hands on things when I cook, but I admit it is better than simmering in water for corned beef.

A rice cooker is the one appliance I'm really thinking about getting.

 

[Rangen]

Oh, yes, I forgot the vacuum sealer. Absolutely indispensable in my kitchen.

I mean, if you're grinding 12 lbs of meat to make burgers for your future, what else is there to do but press them into shape and vacuum seal them for the freezer?

 

[user 16756]

stand mixer gets a ton of use. IMO it's an indispensable tool.
microwave sometimes to melt butter
the toaster is useful for bagels sometimes
next would be food processor and blender, both of which get sparing use.

 

[ian]

Toaster oven gets used multiple times daily for toast and reheating.

Same for microwave: reheating, mostly, sometimes melting something.

My wife uses the stand mixer a fair amount for cookies and cakes and such. I mainly use the pasta attachment and the meat grinder. Probably a couple times a month for each?

SV stick doesn’t see much use anymore.

Rice cooker we use at least weekly.

Instant Pot I use almost exclusively for chicken stock nowadays, although today for instance I made non-pressure cooked chicken stock on the stove. Yea, it doesn’t get a ton of use anymore.

Vitamix gets used a couple times a week.

Basically only use my food processor for pie crust, although my wife uses it for shredding stuff, and other stuff.

 

[McMan]

I've noticed things go in cycles--some stuff gets used more or less depending on the season or how much free time there is, etc. etc.

I bonded with the instantpot. It's not good at everything--and is very bad at some things you'd think it'd be good at (like stews)--but it's a convenience. I was reeeeeeeally reluctant to get one.

I also bonded with toast a few years ago. Regular old school sliced bread toast+butter+jam and a coffee. I use a regular toastmaster toaster.

Blender daily.
Stickblender for soups in the cold weather.
Sous-vide--don't have one, won't get one.
Cuisinart broke a few years ago and can't say I miss it (though grating massive amounts of cheese was fun).
Chef Mike gets use daily.
Good fancypants toaster oven thingy. Wish I had one--I'd use it a ton (toasted cheese!) if I had the counter space.
Dishwasher--wish I had two.

 

[Michi]

Going through the list of things that are electric…

In regular use:

• Dishwasher
• Microwave
• Coffee machine
• Electric kettle
• Toaster
• Stick blender (has a small, 0.5 l food processor attachment)
• Spice mill (one of those cheap coffee "smashers" with two blades)
• Stand mixer (with meat grinder and food processor attachments)
• Rice cooker
• Kitchen scales
• Precision scales to weigh spices for sausage making
• Instant-read thermometer
• Dual-probe thermometer
• Industrial-strength food processor (6 l) for making emulsified sausage
• Sous vide stick (Anova precision cooker)
• Pasta machine
• Vacuum sealer

Used never:

• NutriBullet blender (My wife insisted that she had to have one, but it's now collecting dust, by and large.)
• Electric hand mixer (Gets used maybe twice a year.)
• Bread maker (Used that for a while, then it sat in the cupboard unused for a number of years, then we gave it away.)

Then there are a lot of non-electric gadgets that also see regular use. The full list would be too long; here are a few I can think of:

• Pasta extruder
• Sausage stuffer
• Medium and large Chef'n citrus press
• Pressure cooker
• Fat separator
• Four different sizes of MicroPlane
• MicroPlane box grater
• Too many knives
• Egg slicer
• Olive pitter
• Nut cracker
• Ice cream scoop
• Egg pricker

There are a number of other things along those lines that get used rarely. Among them a garlic press, cheese plane, citrus zester, poultry shears, cake turntable, chocolate fondue set, etc. Every few years, I go through stuff during a clean-up and throw out or give away anything that hasn't been used over the past few years.

 

[spaceconvoy]

My oven works well enough for toasting and reheating things. Cooking rice on the stove is pretty trivial. I don't bake and wouldn't know what to do with a stand mixer. And I drink tea, so the few appliances I use are:
- Digital scale, indispensable
- All five grater styles of the fully stainless Microplane professional series, almost didn't include them since they've become like knives to me
- Small Kitchenaid food chopper, for hummus and salsa
- Manual food mill, for grinding canned tomatoes into passata
- Manual spice grinder, mainly for peppercorns, but occasionally some more exotic things
- Electric spice grinder, finally broke down and bought one almost exclusively for coriander, since it took ten minutes on the manual grinder every time I made beans or curry

 

[Jovidah]

I've always tried to keep appliances to a minimum... both because they just end up sucking a ton of space, and because in my experience, unless I can set it up on a permanent spot where I can use it straight away without fiddling they just won't get much use. Maybe it's just lazyness but I'd rather just knead my own dough (or use a no-knead recipe), than having to bother putting stand mixers in and out of cupboards.

I'm a bit inconsistent though, because I do have 2 ovens (wouldn't want to go back to having just 1), which see a shitton of usage and I have a seperate extra freezer (which massively eases food logistics; if it dies it'll get replaced).

Beyond that...
-Kettles (mostly used for tea, but used a good amount)
-Microwave (rarely used, only for reheating... not sure I'd miss it at all if it died).
-Stick blender - a proper one from Bamix (does a lot of different things, including grinding spices, making whipped cream, puree stuff, make smoothies, etc, so it's a bit of a multitasker)
-Crappy blender I got for free once that I don't use anymore since I got the Bamix
-Crappy hand mixer I got for free once that I don't use anymore since I got the Bamix
-Anova... actually using this far less than I expected to; partially because as my meat game progressed I found that I can get similar if not better results with pan & oven combination, but also because I lack a vacuum sealer, and I've had some bad results with just using random freezer bags (some of them start leaking because they're not heat proof).
-Some crappy coffee thing I only really use for guests because I don't drink coffee.

The things I'm seriously considering:
-Vacuum machine. Both to get more out of my ANOVA and because it can simplifiy food logistics. Main thing holding me back is that the affordable devices have a very high cost per bag, but the chamber vacuum sealers are way too expensive.
-A proper meat slicer. I eat a good amount of charcutterie (dried spanish / italian hams, salamis, etc), and it would essentially pay itself back in a few moths simply because buying larger chunks of ham is far cheaper. Main issue is space; I just don't really know where to put it and I'm afraid it'd be too much hassle.
-Food processor attachments for the Bamix. I had something similar for an older crap blender, but occasionally found it useful for quickly generating mirepoix-mush to throw into rices and other stuff when I really didn't care about consistency and just wanted a paste that'd just melt away. Can imagine it could also be useful for making stuff like gremolata (I have to do that in batches now because my grinder attachment is on the small side).

 

[stringer]

In order of frequency of use

Coffee grinder/hot water kettle/French press
Dishwasher
Toaster oven
Soda stream

Crock pot for when I want to cook something in 8 hours that normally takes 2 (set it up before work to be done when you get home)

Instant pot for when I forget to put the stuff in the Crock pot before I leave to work and so I need to cook something in half an hour that normally takes
2.

Mortar and pestle
Popcorn air popper
Cuisinart for pesto and cauliflower rice
Stick blender
I have a Vitamix but it's rarely used

 

[WiriWiri]

I’d basically nick @michi‘s format with same top five basics, plus a rice cooker. I used to be quite proud of my rice, taking great pains with the right pan, gas setting/diffuser etc to get the absorption right. But also happy to admit that the zojirushi does it better than me, plus keeps things conveniently warm in the background while `I sort a one pot/wok meal out.

In regular use:

• Dishwasher
• Microwave
• Coffee machine
• Electric kettle
• Toaster
• Rice Cooker

In irregular use:

• Kitchenaid Blender (smoothies/ice drinks for the kids mainly)
• Magimix food processor (big batches of pepper sauce, juices, decent lazy mash)

 

[jeremysell]

Stand mixer the most
Vitamin blender
Mortar and pestle
Crock pot usually just for work potlucks but wife uses it occasionally more often.
pressure cooker for stock/canning
Food processor
Toaster
Microwave
Have a bread maker my wife needed and I think she’s used twice
The top 3 live on the counter as they get used the most (the toaster and microwave are always out as well)

 

[timebard]

I never bothered with a lot of the newer gadgets like SV, instapot, etc. and barely ever use our food processor or crock pot. The blender and immersion blender don't come out more than a few times a month but are still essential IMO. Our rice cooker gets used regularly and I think is an underrated appliance, especially if you get one with a steamer basket for stuff like dumplings and tamales. Toaster, microwave, electric kettle get used constantly.

 

[btbyrd]

If you don't already have a reason to buy an appliance, don't get one just to have one. I have a lot of appliances and would like to add even more, but it's because I have specific use cases in mind. I do have a couple gadget things I thought I'd use but basically never use, but they're not appliances per se. In any event, let your desired use be your guide -- not some list on the internet.
If there are recipes you'd like to make or techniques you'd like to use, but you can't because of your current equipment, that's the reason to purchase something. And if you're going to buy a new piece of equipment like a blender or toaster oven or whatever, it's so worth it to do the research, take the time, spend the money, and get the best one you can. You're going to have it for a decade or more, make sure it's something you'll love to live with. If it's something you know that you'll use, that is. Which should be your primary consideration.

 

[LostHighway]

My wife is one of the rare women that absolutes hates small appliances (and dishwashers), especially if they are single use, so what he have and use is at least partially dictated by her preferences.
Her take:
Toaster - essential, used daily
Stand mixer - essential. Probably gets used one to five times per month
Immersion/stick blender - granted absolution for not taking up much space. Versatile if you get one with attachments. Again probably gets used one to four times per month
Everything else is superfluous

My take in addition to the above (all coffee & tea gear left off list):
Digital scale - essential, used daily
Thermapen - essential, used daily (the Mk 4 was a major step up from the "Classic" Mk III. I haven't used a Thermapen One)
Kitchen timers (also from ThermaWorks) - essential used daily
Microwave - close to essential, used daily to warm up coffee or tea, soften butter, reheat, ...
Mortar & pestle - used several times per week for spices/herbs. I kind of also want a big one for guacamole, pesto,..., but not sure I'd use it all that much.
Pressure cooker - used a few times per month, especially in fall/winter, mostly for soups
Food processor - we finally bought one last year but, so far, it is not seeing much use

Things I have zero interest in:
Meat grinder
Hand mixer
Sous vide
Bread maker
Instapot or slow cooker
Vacuum sealer - no stand alone freezer
Pasta maker

Things I sort of jones for:
Big a*s blender (Vitamix?)
Rice cooker - I had a primitive one in the past. The Zojirushi or Cuckoo sort of beckon to me but it isn't as though I can't make rice without a $160 device

I could add a bunch of purely manual devices, especially graters but I don't see them as appliances

 

[Jovidah]

If you don't already have a reason to buy an appliance, don't get one just to have one. I have a lot of appliances and would like to add even more, but it's because I have specific use cases in mind. I do have a couple gadget things I thought I'd use but basically never use, but they're not appliances per se. In any event, let your desired use be your guide -- not some list on the internet.
If there are recipes you'd like to make or techniques you'd like to use, but you can't because of your current equipment, that's the reason to purchase something. And if you're going to buy a new piece of equipment like a blender or toaster oven or whatever, it's so worth it to do the research, take the time, spend the money, and get the best one you can. You're going to have it for a decade or more, make sure it's something you'll love to live with. If it's something you know that you'll use, that is. Which should be your primary consideration.

Agreed. If you're gonna buy, buy good stuff... but give it some time before you buy. Almost everytime I cheaped out on something I ended up replacing it with something better in the long term. My golden rule is to basically wait at least month or so after I get the urge to buy something and then check if I still actually want it or see the need for it... and then after that I usually wait for some sale to come along. Saves you from impulse purchases that you won't actually use much.

 

[Ochazuke]

Anybody have any experience with the Anova Precision Oven? Not talking about the sous vide stick. I mean the combi oven they put out last year.

I'm not super in to most gadgets, but I would jump all over a combi oven for home use if it was any good. That's the only piece of commercial equipment I really lust after in my home life.

 

[parbaked]

Anybody have any experience with the Anova Precision Oven?

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/new-anova-combi-oven.48910/

 

[cawilson6072]

A rice cooker is the one appliance I'm really thinking about getting.

If you've not tended to make rice in the oven, give it a try before springing on the rice cooker IMO. 2:1 liquid to rice, or thereabouts depending on the rice (this works for basmati and other longer grains that are not very sticky...you might need to adjust water for those a bit). Some use coconut milk, but you do not have to. Regardless, D.O. with or without fat and salt at 375F for 45 minutes gets the job done for me. It put off my desire for a rice cooker for awhile.

Otherwise:

Blender (just one of the NutriNinja jobs), 2-3x per week for smoothies, batters, etc. Bonus: it has a "food processor" bowl that is "o.k." but keeps me from having a proper food processor.
Kitchen Aid Stand mixer, I knead some bread doughs, mix batters, whip meringues, etc. in here. This is indespensible for me.
I use the microwave alot, but any old microwave will do.
I like my immersion blender (nothing fancy) for pureed squashes and soups, daal, etc.
Digital scale is core equipment for me.


Anything else is very "optional". I can do alot with a broiler and box grater vs. a toaster/oven and food processor, for examples, IMO.

Side note - this is sort of something that I love about this and similar communities. I can convince myself that I need a $250 knife for fish butchery and at the same time have no interest in a $15 toaster.

 

[jeremysell]

.
Side note - this is sort of something that I love about this and similar communities. I can convince myself that I need a $250 knife for fish butchery and at the same time have no interest in a $15 toaster.

That $250 knife is way more valuable than a $15 toaster

 

[chefwp]

But when you need 2C of grated cheddar, what, you break out that flat thing

I do, just because I'm too lazy to clean the processor... Which I know is ironic, because it would probably take less time to clean it than it does for me to grate all that cheese. What can I say, I'm old and set in my ways...

A rice cooker is the one appliance I'm really thinking about getting.

This is one I am tempted to add occasionally, but haven't bitten yet. I attracted to it being able to hold rice well after cooking

microwave sometimes to melt butter

same, or on the rare occasion I heat water for a cup of tea, and sometimes to reheat my mug of coffee.

counter top appliances in order of most used to least:

• toaster oven, indispensable, could not do my kitchen business without it, used many times per day.
• coffee maker, daily a few times, probably tied with toaster oven for use. I could live without this and make do with a french press probably.
• mixer (kitchenaid), I use maybe once or twice every month or so, this could be a candidate to more to a storage cabinet if I needed counter space, and that would be true for everything that follows
• food processor, I use it rarely, but when you need it you need it. I use it with the disc to process beets for borscht; to make pesto; for whipped feta for bruschetta; to make ramp butter or chimichuri sauce, to make Muhmmara; to make lemon cream cheese frosting.
• blender, it gets used infrequently by me, but the girls get on a smoothie kick every now and then. I probably use it the most to homogenize the batter for lemon cheese cake ice cream, but will occasionally bust it out if I'm making an unusually large quantity of soup where my little immersion stick just won't cut it.

Really that is it for things that live on the counter. I have one or two crock pots and a steamer, but they are in storage and only come out every now and then. I am not counting all the little hand appliances that store away easily. The most used of these are scale, micro-scale, hand mixer, molcajette and immersion blender, all of which I use more frequently that all the others that live on the counter-tops. If I didn't have a tall marble island in the kitchen where I do almost all of my prep, I'd probably store away everything except the toaster and coffee maker.

 

[chefwp]

I forgot the ice cream maker, occasional use only but I'm happy i have it. The family favorite dessert is lemon cheese cake ice cream with berries and a brown-butter/toasted-almond/graham streusel. I'm still trying to find the perfect coconut sorbet recipe to accompany caramelized pineapple with vanilla bean or to just go solo for the perfect intermezzo.

 

[agustinnielsen]

Picked up a lot of gadgets during Covid, which is when I took interest in cooking:

Sous Vide - 2x per month, more during the summer
Vacuum Sealer - 4x per month
Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer - 1x per month, more if my girlfriend bakes
Marcato Pasta Machine - 1x per month
Breville Smoker - 1x per month
Blender - Girlfriend uses almost daily for shakes/smoothies
ISI Gourmet Whip - 1x per month
Chitarra - Never, only bought a month ago
Immersion Blender - 1x per month only for soups
Food Processor - 2-3x per month

These are all I can think of for the moment. In general, I think a lot of the gadgets are not necessary, but I really enjoy being able to elevate standard meals. Ie. Taking a standard caprese salad and smoking it for 10' with Breville smoke gun = amazing

 

[rickbern]

Anybody have any experience with the Anova Precision Oven? Not talking about the sous vide stick. I mean the combi oven they put out last year.

I'm not super in to most gadgets, but I would jump all over a combi oven for home use if it was any good. That's the only piece of commercial equipment I really lust after in my home life.

Ochazuke, jump all over it. It's fabulous.

Last night I put some delicata squash in it, steam cooked it at 350/100pc steam for maybe 15-20 minutes. Took it out, dried out the oven and put it to circulate at 400/0pc steam for maybe 4 minutes. It was some banging squash. I've done a few things in it, there's a fair number of recipes I want to tweak, but the chicken thighs (slathered in shiro koji!) 385/75pc steam for half an hour to bring internal temperture to 165 were really good. I made some whole snappers (1 hour), and a pork shoulder (24 hours) using the sous vide mode.

Great addition to the kitchen.

 

[rickbern]

Back to the topic at hand...

I have a blender (gazpacho) and a regular and mini food processor. I wouldn't be without them, but all told I probably use them all a total of 35 times a year. Mostly use the mini for quick purees, it gets the most action. Pesto and such I'd rather do by hand. I use stovetop pressure cookers a lot (stock, brisket, beets, oxtails), my microwave defrosts stock, soups and bolognese, and other than the new oven I listed above there's not that much else. I'm a big fan of mortars and pestles, I have a party size and a personal size food mill (think one can of tomatoes, easy clean up) and the odd microplane.

The anova oven though has definitely won a place in my heart. I'm thinking there's a world of vegetables cooked initially with steam that it's gonna be great at.

edit. Forgot my immersion blender. Love that thing, it lets me give all my neighbors soup

 

[Heckel7302]

Vitamix blender-every day for smoothies. Couldn’t live without it.

Electric kettle-every day for coffee. (Along with the burr grinder)

Immersion Curculator-3 or 4 times a month, love it

Microwave-all the time for defrosting and reheating leftovers

Rice Cooker-2 or 3 times a week. I’ll never cook rice on the stovetop again

Instant Pot-pretty much exclusively for making beans, yogurt, and stock

KitchenAid mixer-my wife does the baking. She uses it all the time.

toaster oven-all the time, for toast and heating stuff when I don’t want to use the big oven.

vacuum sealer-use it all the time. Butchering is another excuse to use knives. Gotta keep all that meat fresh.

Meat Grinder-KitchenAid attachment. Use it all the time. I never buy pre ground meat.

Food processor-almost never use it. Feels like cheating on my knives.

food dehydrator-used it when we first got it, now it just takes up space