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I am part of the cult. We bought after the recommendation of a friend. What I liked: nice set of presets, comes with a cookbook with quite a few recipes, very e

I am part of the cult. We bought after the recommendation of a friend. What I liked: nice set of presets, comes with a cookbook with quite a few recipes, very easy to operate. Some time ago, when Apple bailed out of self-driving car business, my friend and I discussed what would be the good category for Apple to try next and I suggested advanced kitchen devices. Seriously though: instant pot with Nespresso machine are close to best damn money I spent. Currently I am investigating Anova devices and dreaming about something that would cut down (hehe) my peeling and chopping time.

imglorp 10y ago
I find some basic knife skills to be a huge labor saver. I've had the same decent (ie, not serrated) $25 chef's knife for decades and can plow through basic veg prep in a few minutes. I don't like all the extra gadgets except a peeler. When I factor in setting up and washing some chopping or slicing machine, I'm way faster with just a knife and board. Two things to wash. And the board is also used to hold stuff on its way to the pot, so that cuts down on temp bowls too. Watch one good video on how to dice an onion an you're 90pct there.
- ghaff 10y ago
  I mostly agree. I do have a food processor but, unless I'm doing a lot of chopping and don't care if it's pretty uneven, I find that just using a good knife is less total work and gives better results.
- tonyarkles 10y ago
  While I did mention the food processor in the sibling post, I have to agree with you here too. A great sharp knife with a modicum of skill goes a long way. And the cleanup is definitely simple!
- turnip123942 10y ago
  Agreed! One thing to add: Learn to keep your knives sharp. A sharp knife is a safe knife and makes the whole prep process go faster.
  - pjc50 10y ago
    Any tips on this?
    - yojo 10y ago
      I've had great results with a Japanese water stone. https://youtu.be/kSKpz1UqIl4?t=4m13s https://youtu.be/kSKpz1UqIl4?t=4m13s has overkill levels of detail (and some marketing upsell) but communicates the idea well.
      - exDM69 10y ago
        I sharpen woodworking tools so my point of view is slightly different, but I'd recommend diamond plates over water stones. I've had great results with both but water stones need to be soaked in water before use (instructions say 10 minutes, but my experience is more like 30 minutes), they release a messy slurry when they wear and they don't stay flat for very long (flatness isn't that much of an issue with knifes I suppose, but essential for woodworking tools) and wear down as you use and re-flatten them. Diamond plates stay dead flat, need very little maintenance, ready to use (just wet them, no soaking) and last 10 years or more in my infrequent use. I have big 8" plates for my woodworking tools, but I intend to buy a small 1200 grit sharpener for kitchen for about $6 from here: https://www.fine-tools.com/ezelap-diasharpener.html https://www.fine-tools.com/ezelap-diasharpener.html 1200 grit isn't super fine (compared to water stones) but is enough for basic kitchen sharpening (you don't need coarser ones unless you sharpen damaged blades and you don't need a finer one to get decent sharpness). I'd add a leather strop and some honing compound (chromium oxide) if I needed to get them sharp enough to shave (like I do with my tools). That's about $20 for diamond plate + strop + compound, you can't get a decent water stone for that price. But the real difference between sharp and kinda-sharp is practicing the skill of honing the blade. Sharpen a little at a time, test frequently and do it often.
    - mywittyname 10y ago
      A basic electric knife sharpener will produce very sharp knives, certainly sharp enough for most people. Purist will call them crap, but I use both a traditional whetstone and an electric sharpener and the electric gets 90% of my usage. It takes a few minutes to take a knife from "very dull" to "pretty sharp". The whetstone definitely gets them sharper, but it takes a lot longer and you only notice your knives are dull when you're right in the middle of making dinner.
- ska 10y ago
  Food processors (proper ones, not hand "choppers" and the like - those are nearly pointless) are a terrible replacement for basic knife skills. What they are mostly great at is a few things that are so labor intensive (ever made hummus by hand?) you otherwise might not bother. Also a good time saver for things like pasta dough.
  - haikuginger 10y ago
    Great for hummus; great for purees; great for pastry doughs.
  - nikdaheratik 10y ago
    Good for making mayo and the like by hand and for thin slicing potatoes and carrots. The biggest issue for me is setup + cleanup >> use time for most cases.
  - HelloMcFly 10y ago
    Good for homemade bread.
- weaksauce 10y ago
  There's a great, free, video series online that teaches you how to cut[1]. Also, misen knives are excellent for the money.[2] 1. http://www.thekitchn.com/brendan-mcdermotts-knife-skills-class-will-teach-you-everything-you-need-to-know-tips-from-the-kitchn-212443 http://www.thekitchn.com/brendan-mcdermotts-knife-skills-cla... 2. Misen.co and http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/best-cheap-chefs-knives-misen-equipment-review.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/best-cheap-chefs-knives-m...
- bostonvaulter2 10y ago
  New York Times has a really good set of cooking videos: https://cooking.nytimes.com/guides/23-basic-knife-skills https://cooking.nytimes.com/guides/23-basic-knife-skills
tonyarkles 10y ago
As a fellow lazy kitchen-er, I've got a decent recommendation: - small food processor to significantly reduce the chopping time. I picked one up cheap on a whim (I think for making hummus) and now most of the time I just coarsely chop veggies and throw it in with a slicer blade or grater, depending on what I'm making. (By coarse, I mean, I'll quarter the onion so that it fits down the chute) - Quit peeling! I've got a vegetable peeler that is sitting very sad in the drawer because it hasn't been used in a long long time.
- freehunter 10y ago
  I always find that dismantling, washing, and rebuilding the food processor takes more time than just chopping on a board and then washing the board.
  - canes123456 10y ago
    Yep, serious eats has a few videos on cutting that are useful. It only takes a couple minutes to dice an onion or shallot. Much less time than cleaning a food processor.
    - tonyarkles 10y ago
      For sure. For small things, I'll definitely just use a good knife. For making things like stews, I'll probably fill the food processor 5 or 6 times with vegetables (it's on the smaller side), and then just spray down the hopper and the lid with the sink sprayer.
- maccard 10y ago
  Generally learning some basic knife skills made a massive difference to my enjoyment in the kitchen.
- QuercusMax 10y ago
  With both of these, it seems that improving your skills may significantly reduce your perceived time expenditure. If you are proficient with a vegetable peeler it doesn't take much time at all to use, and depending on what you're doing will improve your results.
always_good 10y ago
> Nespresso machine I got one of these as a gift and ended up giving it away after realizing how much garbage I was generating from it with those disposable one-use cups. I don't mind the 30 seconds of ritual to enjoy a cup of coffee/espresso.
- johns 10y ago
  I hate the pods, but they have a recycling program. Unlike K-cups.
  - Slaul 10y ago
    I'm pretty sure K-cups can be recycled now. At least, they are being collected separately from the garbage and somebody comes to pick them up from my office anyways.
  - wvenable 10y ago
    We recycle our K-cups -- it's a bit of effort but it's not really that bad.
- mynegation 10y ago
  Aluminum cups are recyclable with their own program as sibling comment noted. I have Nespresso boutique with the recycling bin very close to my office, but I understand how it can be a problem in general.
- laxentasken 10y ago
  I've find cups that is bio degraded which is also suitable to use in the Nespresso machine (even says to on the package). This is in sweden though.
- Veen 10y ago
  I have an espresso machine and an aeropress. The aeropress was about a tenth of the price and I use it 90 percent of the time.
- criddell 10y ago
  30 seconds? My machine takes 30 minutes just to heat up. I bought my grinder (Baratza Vario) and machine (an E61 based heat exchanger) in 2012 and they are getting to the end of life. I'm seriously thinking about switching to a Nespresso setup because it's way more convenient and the coffee is still pretty good. We have a k-cup machine at work and it's drinkable, but not great.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
MisterBastahrd 10y ago
I own an Anova and a Joule and enjoy both. One item I enjoy a lot is a generic vegetable cleaver. I find them to be better at making consistent slices. Cheapest piece of cutlery I own but the one I use the most.
narag 10y ago
I suggested advanced kitchen devices. OK, so if someone is taking it seriously, let me specify a little, since I've been thinking of it for some time: a rice cooker that uses vapour. I often cook rice in the pressure pot. It takes something like 5 minutes to warm the pot, 4 minutes of cooking and a few minutes more for releasing vapour until I can open it again. It would be nice to have a device that: 1. Wash the rice with cold water first. 2. Makes vapour in a few seconds holding the pressure. 3. Automatically stops when the rice is cooked. 4. Finally releases vapour. 5. Bonus point if it cleans itself. Just that, plain boiled rice in five minutes, instead of 10-15.

imglorp 10y ago

I find some basic knife skills to be a huge labor saver. I've had the same decent (ie, not serrated) $25 chef's knife for decades and can plow through basic veg prep in a few minutes. I don't like all the extra gadgets except a peeler. When I factor in setting up and washing some chopping or slicing machine, I'm way faster with just a knife and board. Two things to wash. And the board is also used to hold stuff on its way to the pot, so that cuts down on temp bowls too. Watch one good video on how to dice an onion an you're 90pct there.

ghaff 10y ago
I mostly agree. I do have a food processor but, unless I'm doing a lot of chopping and don't care if it's pretty uneven, I find that just using a good knife is less total work and gives better results.
tonyarkles 10y ago
While I did mention the food processor in the sibling post, I have to agree with you here too. A great sharp knife with a modicum of skill goes a long way. And the cleanup is definitely simple!
turnip123942 10y ago
Agreed! One thing to add: Learn to keep your knives sharp. A sharp knife is a safe knife and makes the whole prep process go faster.
- pjc50 10y ago
  Any tips on this?
  - yojo 10y ago
    I've had great results with a Japanese water stone. https://youtu.be/kSKpz1UqIl4?t=4m13s https://youtu.be/kSKpz1UqIl4?t=4m13s has overkill levels of detail (and some marketing upsell) but communicates the idea well.
    - exDM69 10y ago
      I sharpen woodworking tools so my point of view is slightly different, but I'd recommend diamond plates over water stones. I've had great results with both but water stones need to be soaked in water before use (instructions say 10 minutes, but my experience is more like 30 minutes), they release a messy slurry when they wear and they don't stay flat for very long (flatness isn't that much of an issue with knifes I suppose, but essential for woodworking tools) and wear down as you use and re-flatten them. Diamond plates stay dead flat, need very little maintenance, ready to use (just wet them, no soaking) and last 10 years or more in my infrequent use. I have big 8" plates for my woodworking tools, but I intend to buy a small 1200 grit sharpener for kitchen for about $6 from here: https://www.fine-tools.com/ezelap-diasharpener.html https://www.fine-tools.com/ezelap-diasharpener.html 1200 grit isn't super fine (compared to water stones) but is enough for basic kitchen sharpening (you don't need coarser ones unless you sharpen damaged blades and you don't need a finer one to get decent sharpness). I'd add a leather strop and some honing compound (chromium oxide) if I needed to get them sharp enough to shave (like I do with my tools). That's about $20 for diamond plate + strop + compound, you can't get a decent water stone for that price. But the real difference between sharp and kinda-sharp is practicing the skill of honing the blade. Sharpen a little at a time, test frequently and do it often.
  - mywittyname 10y ago
    A basic electric knife sharpener will produce very sharp knives, certainly sharp enough for most people. Purist will call them crap, but I use both a traditional whetstone and an electric sharpener and the electric gets 90% of my usage. It takes a few minutes to take a knife from "very dull" to "pretty sharp". The whetstone definitely gets them sharper, but it takes a lot longer and you only notice your knives are dull when you're right in the middle of making dinner.
ska 10y ago
Food processors (proper ones, not hand "choppers" and the like - those are nearly pointless) are a terrible replacement for basic knife skills. What they are mostly great at is a few things that are so labor intensive (ever made hummus by hand?) you otherwise might not bother. Also a good time saver for things like pasta dough.
- haikuginger 10y ago
  Great for hummus; great for purees; great for pastry doughs.
- nikdaheratik 10y ago
  Good for making mayo and the like by hand and for thin slicing potatoes and carrots. The biggest issue for me is setup + cleanup >> use time for most cases.
- HelloMcFly 10y ago
  Good for homemade bread.
weaksauce 10y ago
There's a great, free, video series online that teaches you how to cut[1]. Also, misen knives are excellent for the money.[2] 1. http://www.thekitchn.com/brendan-mcdermotts-knife-skills-class-will-teach-you-everything-you-need-to-know-tips-from-the-kitchn-212443 http://www.thekitchn.com/brendan-mcdermotts-knife-skills-cla... 2. Misen.co and http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/best-cheap-chefs-knives-misen-equipment-review.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/best-cheap-chefs-knives-m...
bostonvaulter2 10y ago
New York Times has a really good set of cooking videos: https://cooking.nytimes.com/guides/23-basic-knife-skills https://cooking.nytimes.com/guides/23-basic-knife-skills

tonyarkles 10y ago

As a fellow lazy kitchen-er, I've got a decent recommendation: - small food processor to significantly reduce the chopping time. I picked one up cheap on a whim (I think for making hummus) and now most of the time I just coarsely chop veggies and throw it in with a slicer blade or grater, depending on what I'm making. (By coarse, I mean, I'll quarter the onion so that it fits down the chute) - Quit peeling! I've got a vegetable peeler that is sitting very sad in the drawer because it hasn't been used in a long long time.

freehunter 10y ago
I always find that dismantling, washing, and rebuilding the food processor takes more time than just chopping on a board and then washing the board.
- canes123456 10y ago
  Yep, serious eats has a few videos on cutting that are useful. It only takes a couple minutes to dice an onion or shallot. Much less time than cleaning a food processor.
  - tonyarkles 10y ago
    For sure. For small things, I'll definitely just use a good knife. For making things like stews, I'll probably fill the food processor 5 or 6 times with vegetables (it's on the smaller side), and then just spray down the hopper and the lid with the sink sprayer.
maccard 10y ago
Generally learning some basic knife skills made a massive difference to my enjoyment in the kitchen.
QuercusMax 10y ago
With both of these, it seems that improving your skills may significantly reduce your perceived time expenditure. If you are proficient with a vegetable peeler it doesn't take much time at all to use, and depending on what you're doing will improve your results.

always_good 10y ago

> Nespresso machine I got one of these as a gift and ended up giving it away after realizing how much garbage I was generating from it with those disposable one-use cups. I don't mind the 30 seconds of ritual to enjoy a cup of coffee/espresso.

johns 10y ago
I hate the pods, but they have a recycling program. Unlike K-cups.
- Slaul 10y ago
  I'm pretty sure K-cups can be recycled now. At least, they are being collected separately from the garbage and somebody comes to pick them up from my office anyways.
- wvenable 10y ago
  We recycle our K-cups -- it's a bit of effort but it's not really that bad.
mynegation 10y ago
Aluminum cups are recyclable with their own program as sibling comment noted. I have Nespresso boutique with the recycling bin very close to my office, but I understand how it can be a problem in general.
laxentasken 10y ago
I've find cups that is bio degraded which is also suitable to use in the Nespresso machine (even says to on the package). This is in sweden though.
Veen 10y ago
I have an espresso machine and an aeropress. The aeropress was about a tenth of the price and I use it 90 percent of the time.
criddell 10y ago
30 seconds? My machine takes 30 minutes just to heat up. I bought my grinder (Baratza Vario) and machine (an E61 based heat exchanger) in 2012 and they are getting to the end of life. I'm seriously thinking about switching to a Nespresso setup because it's way more convenient and the coffee is still pretty good. We have a k-cup machine at work and it's drinkable, but not great.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

MisterBastahrd 10y ago

I own an Anova and a Joule and enjoy both. One item I enjoy a lot is a generic vegetable cleaver. I find them to be better at making consistent slices. Cheapest piece of cutlery I own but the one I use the most.

narag 10y ago

I suggested advanced kitchen devices. OK, so if someone is taking it seriously, let me specify a little, since I've been thinking of it for some time: a rice cooker that uses vapour. I often cook rice in the pressure pot. It takes something like 5 minutes to warm the pot, 4 minutes of cooking and a few minutes more for releasing vapour until I can open it again. It would be nice to have a device that: 1. Wash the rice with cold water first. 2. Makes vapour in a few seconds holding the pressure. 3. Automatically stops when the rice is cooked. 4. Finally releases vapour. 5. Bonus point if it cleans itself. Just that, plain boiled rice in five minutes, instead of 10-15.