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There are so many things in my kitchen that we've gotten from relatives that have no discernible purpose. Like a ridiculously long knife with a slightly curved

There are so many things in my kitchen that we've gotten from relatives that have no discernible purpose. Like a ridiculously long knife with a slightly curved blade, rounded tip, and blunt edge. Or a serrated knife with that curves back on itself. I keep them because... one day, surely, I'll realize what they're for. These things need labels, people! Here's a good example, a little tiny hammer that you'd never ever use for anything. Oh wait, there's a label on it. Hm. Lemme look that up. OH IT'S FOR MAKING CANDY. https://i.etsystatic.com/7417371/r/il/5caf0a/4106895282/il_fullxfull.4106895282_hovy.jpg https://i.etsystatic.com/7417371/r/il/5caf0a/4106895282/il_f... I have one of these (though it just says "CHOCOLATE") and I mainly keep it around so that when I see it and feel that warm glow of knowledge, I can then be spitefully angry at all the mysterious, unlabeled niche-problem-solver tools in my kitchen.

derefr 2y ago
These are the sorts of things that won't yield to a specific keyword search (because you aren't giving the search engine the "terms of art" used people who use the thing), but where you can probably figure these out pretty quickly if you just do a search to find some kind of index for the category-of-thing and start browsing. I'd recommend search queries like "types of knives", "obscure kitchen utensils", "what is this knife", etc. You can also try giving /r/tipofmytongue or a related subreddit a very detailed description of the object. Some of the results from the above queries point to people asking questions like this on subreddits like /r/tools. (Or you could do the same thing with ChatGPT — but that'll only work if someone has ever before described the object in a book or on the Internet somewhere, in the terms you're using. ChatGPT can only match your verbal questions to verbal memories. Whereas a person on a subreddit can take your description, conjure a mental image of it, and then correlate that mental image with a visual memory.) I'll also take a shot at giving you starting points, just because I happen to find learning about weird kitchen tools fascinating: > Like a ridiculously long knife with a slightly curved blade, rounded tip, and blunt edge. A cake-icing spatula of some kind? I would imagine one made specifically for smoothing the icing on the side of a cylindrical layer cake would have this shape. Usually cake spatulas are also offset (blade makes two complementary bends and so ends up parallel to, but not in line with, the handle), but they don't have to be. > Or a serrated knife with that curves back on itself. If the end can also be used as a fork, then that's a cheese knife.
- robotnikman 2y ago
  I would also add /r/whatisthisthing to your list of subreddits as well. I subscribe to it just to learn about all kinds of obscure tools and utensils.
  - derefr 2y ago
    Ironically, that was the subreddit I wanted to use as the best example of a place to ask questions... but I just couldn't think of its name. :)
- selimthegrim 2y ago
  The first knife could also be a grapefruit knife?
  - bruce511 2y ago
    Yeah, growing up my mom had a grapefruit knife. It's used to "scoop" the flesh out of half z grapefruit. It's a really weird looking utensil if you don't know what it's for. Interestingly I can't find any pictures of what we had online. Ours had a serated blade (both top and bottom) and was arc'd through 90 degrees to the side.
- inanutshellus 2y ago
  > > Like a ridiculously long knife with a slightly curved blade, rounded tip, and blunt edge. > A cake-icing spatula of some kind? Perhaps! The blade is not tall/wide like a spatula, and the handle is oriented like a knife would be, not a spatula, but... it could be! > > Or a serrated knife with [a blade] that curves back on itself. > If the end can also be used as a fork, then that's a cheese knife. Maybe! I've seen a lot of cheese knives over the years but this one is unlike any I've ever seen. My guess is that it's for hollowing something out. If so, it'd be for something that's hard to get into but isn't super tough. Like... maybe scraping all the seeds out of a squash or something. The blade is straight for maybe 4-5" then does a ~80 degree bend to the right and then curves back around to make a full circle back to the blade, making a roughly 2" circle of metal. I'm writing this from memory, so could be off a bit. ... it's basically bent to be a question mark.
cjs_ac 2y ago
I'm pretty sure the hammers are for breaking up large blocks of chocolate; I've got them with blocks from old-fashioned chocolatiers that don't score their blocks.
- whenc 2y ago
  I know it as a "toffee hammer".
- inanutshellus 2y ago
  Yes, the hammer is the one I actually know what it's for (breaking up large sheets of toffee or chocolate bricks), because they labeled it! My point was that it sure would be nice if the other weird things in my kitchen had had a label.
  - Mark-coleman-5 2y ago
    [flagged]
Empact 2y ago
This community is a good resource for that: http://reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/ http://reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/

derefr 2y ago

These are the sorts of things that won't yield to a specific keyword search (because you aren't giving the search engine the "terms of art" used people who use the thing), but where you can probably figure these out pretty quickly if you just do a search to find some kind of index for the category-of-thing and start browsing. I'd recommend search queries like "types of knives", "obscure kitchen utensils", "what is this knife", etc. You can also try giving /r/tipofmytongue or a related subreddit a very detailed description of the object. Some of the results from the above queries point to people asking questions like this on subreddits like /r/tools. (Or you could do the same thing with ChatGPT — but that'll only work if someone has ever before described the object in a book or on the Internet somewhere, in the terms you're using. ChatGPT can only match your verbal questions to verbal memories. Whereas a person on a subreddit can take your description, conjure a mental image of it, and then correlate that mental image with a visual memory.) I'll also take a shot at giving you starting points, just because I happen to find learning about weird kitchen tools fascinating: > Like a ridiculously long knife with a slightly curved blade, rounded tip, and blunt edge. A cake-icing spatula of some kind? I would imagine one made specifically for smoothing the icing on the side of a cylindrical layer cake would have this shape. Usually cake spatulas are also offset (blade makes two complementary bends and so ends up parallel to, but not in line with, the handle), but they don't have to be. > Or a serrated knife with that curves back on itself. If the end can also be used as a fork, then that's a cheese knife.

robotnikman 2y ago
I would also add /r/whatisthisthing to your list of subreddits as well. I subscribe to it just to learn about all kinds of obscure tools and utensils.
- derefr 2y ago
  Ironically, that was the subreddit I wanted to use as the best example of a place to ask questions... but I just couldn't think of its name. :)
selimthegrim 2y ago
The first knife could also be a grapefruit knife?
- bruce511 2y ago
  Yeah, growing up my mom had a grapefruit knife. It's used to "scoop" the flesh out of half z grapefruit. It's a really weird looking utensil if you don't know what it's for. Interestingly I can't find any pictures of what we had online. Ours had a serated blade (both top and bottom) and was arc'd through 90 degrees to the side.
inanutshellus 2y ago
> > Like a ridiculously long knife with a slightly curved blade, rounded tip, and blunt edge. > A cake-icing spatula of some kind? Perhaps! The blade is not tall/wide like a spatula, and the handle is oriented like a knife would be, not a spatula, but... it could be! > > Or a serrated knife with [a blade] that curves back on itself. > If the end can also be used as a fork, then that's a cheese knife. Maybe! I've seen a lot of cheese knives over the years but this one is unlike any I've ever seen. My guess is that it's for hollowing something out. If so, it'd be for something that's hard to get into but isn't super tough. Like... maybe scraping all the seeds out of a squash or something. The blade is straight for maybe 4-5" then does a ~80 degree bend to the right and then curves back around to make a full circle back to the blade, making a roughly 2" circle of metal. I'm writing this from memory, so could be off a bit. ... it's basically bent to be a question mark.

cjs_ac 2y ago

I'm pretty sure the hammers are for breaking up large blocks of chocolate; I've got them with blocks from old-fashioned chocolatiers that don't score their blocks.

whenc 2y ago
I know it as a "toffee hammer".
inanutshellus 2y ago
Yes, the hammer is the one I actually know what it's for (breaking up large sheets of toffee or chocolate bricks), because they labeled it! My point was that it sure would be nice if the other weird things in my kitchen had had a label.
- Mark-coleman-5 2y ago
  [flagged]

Empact 2y ago

This community is a good resource for that: http://reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/ http://reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/