Here are a few things that were unknown in my Mom's 1950s kitchen, and I sometimes wonder how she functioned without them.
> Digital Thermometer: Mom didn't have any cooking thermometer, much less digital. When making caramel apples she judged the boiling sugar by dropping spoonfuls into cold water, then deciding whether the glob was a soft ball, hard ball or crack thread. I have two digital thermometers; one that clips magnetically to the stove, used for everything from testing loaves of bread to making sure the frying oil isn't too hot. The other has a remote sensor that lets me know when the burgers are done without running outside to the grill.> Rice Cooker: it's not just for rice; steamed veggies cook beautifully in it. In Mom's kitchen, vegetables came from cans and rice came from a red box, so I don't suppose she needed a steamer.
My particular rice cooker is only remarkable in being free of any non-stick coating. Odd as it may seem, that's because we own two parrots. Non-stick coatings give off fumes when heated, and birds are extraordinarily sensitive to those fumes.
Remember the canary in the coal mine? Supposedly miners would lower a caged canary into a mine shaft, knowing that the bird would quickly succumb to any poisonous gasses lurking underground. If the canary was still alive when hauled up from the shaft, the miners could go down safely and get to work.
Because nobody really knows what level of non-stick coating fumes is safe for birds (or humans for that matter) we choose to avoid the stuff altogether.> Parchment Paper: not exactly a new invention, but not something that Mom ever used. I line baking sheets and cake pans with it and occasionally wrap up nice little parchment packages of fish or chicken before nuking, steaming or baking. Basically, parchment takes the place of Mom's aluminum foil. Plus it's safe in the microwave, which brings us to the . . .
> Microwave: That's just too obvious. Of course Mom didn't have a microwave oven, and of course I couldn't function without one. But another thing Mom didn't have that's not so obvious --
> Toaster Oven: I didn't own one either until about a year ago, and now I wonder what in the world I was thinking. Mom had the typical pop-up toaster, and I've had a series of them, typically purchased at thrift shops, which was where I found the toaster oven, too. I'd bought it for a women's retreat when we needed a portable oven for some craft project.
Sometime last summer I wanted to bake cornbread but didn't want to heat up the regular oven -- whether to reduce our carbon footprint and save the planet or just reduce our air conditioning and save our wallet, I can't recall -- but the little toaster oven came to mind. So I hauled it out of storage and it has seen constant use ever since. I'm only cooking for two of us, so why heat up 4 cubic feet of oven when 3/4 cubic foot will do?
copyright Starr Luteri 2009
6 Write Your Comment:
So Many of these new fandangled gadgets appear either without any instructions or read like they were written by a second grade Slovakian that knows English from listening to Winnie the Pooh on tape.
Even so, I can usually figure out how to turn the oven on without burning my cake.
speaking of cake, the cake is a lie
i don't think mr macaw really understands the fine art of cooking with gadgets invented before the civil war. perhaps if he paid more attention to his wife's cooking he might understand a thing or two.
All right, David and BaggyMacaw, don't make me ban you from the site! play nice.
I don't use a thermometer in most of my cooking these days, but I've seen some digital ones that could tempt me. Mom didn't have a food processor, and that's something I wouldn't want to do without... Toaster oven and microwave are essentials.
Thanks for the memories. I can my mother dropping chocolate fudge into that cold water to see if it were ready to pour on cookie sheet.
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