A review of some of the products that have made it into the Tin and Thyme kitchen in recent months. Need a cherry pitter, a set of decent knives or a safe and effective mandoline? This post has you covered and so much more. It’s all about kitchen gadgets to go.
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OXO Good Grips Cherry Pitter
I was super impressed with this sturdy cherry pitter*. It made the task of taking the stones out of cherries really quite easy and the mess and fuss was reduced to a minimum. I couldn’t believe quite how fast I got through a large punnet of cherries. And I don’t mean by eating them. Out of all these fabulous gadgets to go, this one is probably my favourite.
As the title Easy Grips suggest, this is a nice tactile and easy to handle piece of kit. The splatter guard, which is removable, works brilliantly well and as you can see from the picture below, the juice remained where it was supposed to be; I didn’t get a single drop over my clothes, which I’m pretty sure is a first.
When not in use the splatter guard can be put inside and a lock keeps it all together for easy storage. I used the cherries to great effect and made this Black Forest Gateau.
Handily, you can also use it as an olive pitter. It retails at ยฃ11.50.
Gadgets to Go: Edge of Belgravia Knife Set and Block
Knives are an integral part of any kitchen, but how many of us actually have a good set of Chef’s knives? I’ve been using a motley collection to chop, cut and slice most of my life and living in a Cornish cottage, I never expected to see a contemporary and stylish knife set, such as this one from Edge of Belgravia, sitting on my kitchen counter top.
Launched in 2010, Edge of Belgravia prides itself on the quality and avant-garde design of its products.ย Innovation and practicality are key to itsย success, as are itsย use of high-tech materials. Now globally acclaimedย in the field of daring knife design, their products became available in the US in 2013.
Theย Precision knife set, launched in 2013, is the most affordable in the range. The stainless steel blades are sharp, the surfaces have a Swiss llag non-stick coating and the handles are comfortable to hold.
The knives are smart to look at too; Christian Bird has designed the handles to resemble the facets of a diamond. The set consists of four knives and retails at ยฃ69.90. You can, however, purchase the knives individually. One or all of them would make great Christmas presents.
- Chef’s Knife (6″) – suitable for most cutting and slicing tasks. ยฃ24.90
- Deba Knife (5″) – modeled on the Japanese deba fish knife, this also works well on vegetables and fruit where clean cuts are required. ยฃ18.90
- Bread Knife (6″) – the serrated edge ensures the bread does not become squashed when slicing. ยฃ18.90
- Paring Knife (6″) – perfect for precision tasks, such as peeling a lemon. ยฃ12.90
Black Diamon Knife Block
Theย Black Diamond knife block, also designed by Christian Bird,ย is both elegant and functional. It’s not only devised to hold pretty much any kitchen knife as well as the Edge of Belgravia collections, but it’s also a piece of art in its own right. Futuristic in design, it’s fashioned to reflect a rough cut diamond and pairs perfectlyย with the Precision knife set.
The block has space for eleven knives and most will slide in and out of it with ease. It uses a clever weighting technique to ensure the knifes stay put. It’s currently on offer at a reduced rate of ยฃ89.90, normally ยฃ99.90.
I don’t have room in my kitchen for the block, which is a real shame. But the knives are one of the gadgets to go that’s actually staying.
Gadgets to Go: Billy the Teapot
As I type. I’m drinking a cup of tea just poured from Billy the Teapot. Don’t be perturbed by the watery look, it’s green tea and I like it weak.
Billy’s a very nice teapot to use. As well as looking stylish and being eco-friendly, it pours beautifully with not a drip out of place. It’s really a rather clever thermos flask which enables you to brew fresh tea on the go, whether that’s at work or out and about.
It has a two tier strainer that sits at the top of the flask with a handle for easy extraction. Fill the flask with water and the double-walled reinforced glass will keep it hot. Fill the top part of the strainer with tea leaves and when you are ready to brew your tea, place them in the lower strainer which sits in the water.
But Billy is not just for loose leaf tea, or even tea. It works well with teabags, fruit to infuse water, coffee and pretty much any other drink you care to mention. It can keep drinks cold as well as hot.
Designed by James Levine, a tea-loving student at Bristol University, Billy the Teapot is an innovative and versatile product. It’s a very welcome addition to this chai-imbibing household and saves me repeated trips to the kitchen when I’m working. It gets extra points too for being made from glass and bamboo, which has a relatively low environmental impact.
You can purchase Billy the Teapot via their website as well as Etsy and Ebay. It retails at a very reasonable ยฃ13.99 with ยฃ5 p&P.
Gadgets to Go: Tala Triple Sieve
This triple sieve* from Tala is a lovely looking vintage style piece of equipment which gives your average sieve a run for its money on the looks front. It’s based on the original 1950s model and has high cream enamel sides and blue or green carrying handles.
The idea is a clever one too as it has three seven inch interchangeable stainless steel meshes of varying size: fine, medium and coarse. The fine sieve is designed for sifting cocoa powder, icing sugar and even flour; the medium one for flour or to strain soups, sauces or preserves and the coarse sieve for draining and rinsing pasta, beans or rice.
The high sides are meant to hold in the mess and stop flour or anything else from being spread around the kitchen. It’s a great idea and it works well in some respects. When I used it to sift cocoa powder for my Black Forest Gateau, however, I found the handles sat nicely over the bowl, but the cocoa got caught around the edges of the mesh and didn’t sift through properly.
This was one of the gadgets to go that did just that. It can be purchased at a number of outlets and retails at ยฃ19.99.
Dexam Classic British Biscuit Cutters
I’ve been wanting to try my hand at bourbon biscuits for a very long time – they are rather a weakness of mine. So when I saw these clever classic British biscuit cutters* from Dexam, I was delighted. The pack consists of four cutters for biscuits which the UK public will be very familiar with: custard cream, bourbon, jam treat and iced ring.
No more delaying tactics, I just had to get on and make bourbon biscuits.
The cutter worked brilliantly well and my unbaked bourbon biscuits looked nearly perfect. Recipes for the biscuits can be downloaded from the Dexam website, but I went my own way as usual. The recipe I used had a rather soft dough, so the biscuits didn’t bake as well as I’d have liked, but that is not the fault of the cutter.
Despite this, I was dancing little jigs of happiness at having made something that looked like and tasted even better than a bourbon biscuit. The cutter was easy to use, requiring just a light flouring. First of all you cut the biscuit using the base, then you depress it to imprint the design. I found the cutter a bit tricky to clean, but that’s a minor quibble.
It’s fantastic and I’m looking forward to having a go with the custard cream one next. Custard creams are, after all, the nation’s favourite biscuit.
You can buy the cutters from Fenwicks or online at Emporium Cookshop and Amazon* and they retail at ยฃ10.99. The recipe for bourbon biscuits will be coming to a blog near you sometime soon. It’s a good one, watch out for it.
OXO Good Grips Simple Mandoline
Slicing vegetables with a knife is all well and good, but sometimes you either have so many to prepare slicing them is a bit of a chore, or you want them to be thin and of a uniform size. My knife skills are not so great that I can manage either the thin aspect or the uniformity.
To get around this, I thought a mandoline would be a useful tool to have in the kitchen. I bought one a few years ago, but couldn’t get on with it. I didn’t find it easy to use and wasted large chunks of vegetables which I couldn’t slice down to the end, or anywhere near it. After spotting this OXO simple mandoline*, I thought it was time to try one out again.
As soon as I unpacked it, I knew it was going to work so much better than the previous one. Like all of the OXO tools I’ve tried, the design is both sturdy and comfortable to use. I was slightly concerned it might slip around on the kitchen top, but it grips really well.
It has five settings along the top, which you can see in the middle photo above. As well as three settings for different slice thicknesses, it has one for julienne. It also has a closed position so that it’s flat for easy storage and no dangerous blades are out to catch your fingers. The blade is super sharp.
Courgette, Tomato and Ricotta Tart
I tested my new acquisition out with a courgette. In order to make the courgette, tomato and ricotta tart featured in the very top photo, I needed to finely slice it. I knew if I did it with a knife, I’d make the pieces too thick and they wouldn’t cook through.
It worked even better than I could have hoped. It was so quick and easy to do the slicing, I whizzed through it in no time at all and nothing got stuck. The slight ridges on the runway are designed to stop this happening apparently.
But the thing I was most impressed by was the spring loaded food holder. Not only does this protect fingers, but it goes in close to the blade so that very little is wasted. My last bit of courgette was no more than two slices thick and I was quite happy to eat that. This is one of the gadgets to go that’s worth giving precious space to in my kitchen.
It retails at ยฃ40.
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you try out any of these gadgets to go, Iโd love to hear about it in the comments below. Have you any top recommendations? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
This post contains affiliate links which are marked with an asterisk*. If you buy through a link, it will not cost you any more, but I will get a small commission. Thanks to OXO, James Levine, Tala, Edge of Belgravia and Dexam for these gadgets to go. I was not required to write positive reviews and as always, all opinions are my own. Thank you for your support of the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.
Jacqueline Meldrum says
Really enjoyed this post Choclette. Loved the biscuit cutters and I could really do with a mandoline.
Choclette says
Thanks Jac. The biscuit cutters are really well designed and so is the mandoline come to that ๐
Bintu | Recipes From A Pantry says
Oohhhh I need those biscuits cutter like right now.
Choclette says
The cutters are great fun Bintu and they work well too.
Nayna Kanabar says
I love kitchen gadgets and the mandoline looks really great.
Choclette says
I bet you’ve got some great gadgets Nayna. If you do a lot of slicing, I’d say the mandoline is worth having.
Roy @ Piece of Cerebrum says
What a dream collection it would be!
I am a green tea person and Billy thr teapot grabbed my eyeballs right away. But I craving the grater..(I need one!)
Choclette says
Haha Roy. No-one said you were limited to one item only ๐
Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe says
A cherry cutter with a splatter guard sounds wise though it always amuses me to see the splatter when I use mine! Love the biscuit cutters and wonder if the name of Billy the Teapot has anything to do with the aussie billycan in which swaggies used to make tea
Choclette says
This is good going Johanna – another comment has made it through ๐ I very much imagine billycan is where the name came from. Splatters with me invariably end up on my clothes and won’t wash out – very happy not to see any splatters ๐
Maggie says
I’ve got more gadgets than you can throw a stick at but I still like looking at them! I’ve got that cherry pitter and it and works perfectly.
Choclette says
It’s a good one indeed Maggie. I love looking around kitchen shops, but try very hard not to buy.
Kirsty Ralph says
Oh wow I love the biscuit cutter, I am a sucker for gadgets I must say, but given how small my kitchen is I don’t have many!
Choclette says
Small kitchens just shouldn’t be allowed Kirsty – mine needs to be so much bigger.
Molly Kumar says
Oh My – they all look Soooo good and Useful but I definitely Love ‘Billy the Teapot’ & Dexam Buscuit Cutter’ (Nothing like a homemade classic Bourbon Biscuits) – Awesome Post!
Choclette says
Thanks Molly, I felt really pleased with my bourbon biscuits, even if they weren’t perfect.
Priya says
useful gadgets! Even I have a stock of gadgets which I use for my blog and time-to-time I clean up the ones which I don’t use or else my kitchen starts looking cramped up..
Choclette says
Yes Priya, space is a real problem and gadgets have to earn their keep to stay in my kitchen too.
Sundari says
Love the biscuit cutter more..
Choclette says
The biscuit cutters are a lovely idea Sundari and they work well too.
Preethi'scuisine says
Love the Cherry Pitter. Looks useful. Thanks for sharing.
Choclette says
Thanks Preethi. It’s a very useful little tool and neatly designed.
Prateek D says
The tea maker and cherry pitter look great. I have been pitting cherries with my knife , which works fine if I am making a sauce or using it in a cobbler or pie but not good when I want the shape of the cherries maintained.
Choclette says
I find it takes too long pitting cherries with a knife Prateek and it was messy too, but you’re right it would be hard to keep the cherries in one piece using a knife.
Sarah (@tamingtwins) says
I know I don’t need any more gadgets but… It’s my vice! The biscuit cutters look absolutely lovely. Such a good idea.
Choclette says
The biscuit cutters are great Sarah. I’m looking forward to having a play with the others.
Sarah says
I’m a real sucker for gadgets – I love anything that makes life in the kitchen easier. Really like the sound of the OXO mandoline as my knife skills are not the best either.
Choclette says
This mandoline is heaps better than the last one I tried Sarah and it’s cheaper too.
Suelle says
I like the idea of the Tala sieves. Do you think the meshes are sturdy enough to do something like rubbing fruit through to extract skins and pips? Or are they really just for sifting and draining?
Choclette says
They are pretty sturdy Suelle. I’ve just had a go at pressing down with my hand quite hard and there is no give, so I think they should do the job.
Roz Goodgame says
gosh the cherry pitter! i need one of these, i eat so many cherries when they re in season, this would make it a lot easier!!
Choclette says
This really would make the job of eating cherries easier Roz ๐
Ceri says
What a lot of new gadgets to try! A mandolin has been on my list for ages, I’ve made do with a sharp knife and a steady hand for far too long! Cherry pitter sounds brill too – much quicker and I’m sure more successful that using your fingers as I do ๐
Choclette says
My fingers and a knife were my cherry pitters too and what mess I used to get into – this tool is fab. The mandoline is pretty good too, though I haven’t in fairness tried the julienne function.
Lucy Parissi says
I must admit I am a bit fed up with gadgets. They just take up space and unless they are useful they get gifted to the charity shop! But I do have the mandoline and it is really great. And I love my spiraliser! Your teapot looks interesting – I love making loose leaf tea.
Choclette says
I know the feeling Lucy, something has to be really good or something I know I will use a lot to get precious space in my kitchen. I have already become very fond of the teapot – it’s staying ๐