The Art of Gadgetry: A Journey Through Unconventional Cooking Gadgets

As I stood in front of my kitchen counter, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and curiosity. Today, I was going to put to the test six unconventional cooking gadgets that promised to revolutionize my culinary experience. From cheese curlers to chocolate shavers, these gadgets were designed to make cooking easier, faster, and more efficient. But would they live up to their promises?

My first gadget to tackle was a dessert maker that consisted of three different components: a crunchy base, a mango cremeaux, and a raspberry mousse on top. I had been warned about the potential challenges of using these gadgets, but I was eager to see how they would perform. As I assembled the dessert, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at its complexity. The combination of textures and flavors seemed almost too good to be true, and I couldn't wait to take my first bite.

As I worked on the dessert, I noticed that the different components had unique shapes and sizes. This was actually a deliberate design choice, meant to showcase the versatility of the gadget. While the pointy side of each component looked slightly different from one another, I realized that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it added to the overall visual appeal of the dessert. When finished, my creation looked almost too good to eat – or was it? The combination of crunchy base, creamy mango filling, and light raspberry mousse on top was absolute perfection.

The next gadget I turned to was a cheese curler. This small device promised to create beautiful cheese flowers that could be used as decorations for chocolate desserts. While I wasn't particularly fond of cheese myself, I was intrigued by the idea of using this gadget to create something new and exciting. Unfortunately, it seemed that the cheese curler didn't quite live up to its promises. Despite trying my best to coax a flower out of the Gruyere cheese, I ended up with nothing but shavings instead.

However, when I turned to tempering chocolate, things took a turn for the better. The chocolate looked and smelled incredible – rich, smooth, and utterly decadent. But as I tried to create flowers using this tempered chocolate, it became clear that it was not going to be easy. While the chocolate did make beautiful shavings, it seemed unable to form into delicate flowers. Still, I couldn't help but admire its potential.

The final gadget on my list was a small silicone colander replacement for metal ones. This device promised to streamline my cooking routine by making it easier to rinse pasta and rice without taking up valuable space in the dishwasher. I was eager to put this gadget to the test and see if it lived up to its claims. As I attempted to clip the device onto my pot, I realized that it might be a bit more finicky than I had anticipated.

In the end, while not all of the gadgets I tested were completely successful, I was impressed by their potential and creativity. Who knows? Maybe with a little practice, I'll be whipping up cheese flowers in no time. And who knows what other culinary wonders these gadgets might hold in store for me.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enWelcome to How To Cook That I'm Ann Reardon and this is Dave Reardon 👫 and this is an episode of  Clever or Never where we test kitchen gadgets and we should do other gadgets ... you should  get other Gadgets in things you're interested ... car gadgets! Whatever gadgets you like but  this episode is kitchen gadgets and we're going to test them so that you don't have  to waste your money on them if they're no good or if they're good you might actually want them. To  start with we have a cake serving Gadget. I'm gonna serve a slice how I normally would and  then you can serve a slice using the gadget and you can decide which way is better. Here we go  so I would just use the knife straight under the cake like that put it on a plate and use a little  butter knife to slide it off. Oh that's pretty good. All right your turn. All right so ... it's  going under behind it under nice nice slide! Very good very good. I mean it could have been  just me. Now onto the plate and then here we go it does not appear to be pushing the cake.  No, oh wait wait. There we go it's mildly clever. Does that get it not a clever not a  never just a ... It's not not clever and we've had some not clever ones. We've had terrible  Gadgets in the past so it's not terrible but I just I don't know if it's necessary. Yeah.  Moving on to gadget number two all right this contraption here is a tortilla maker. Oh I like  tortillas and it's a little bit more pricey for a gadget it's actually 34 Australian dollars so  it's up there but it's made out of solid metal. I'm Gonna Roll mine out using a rolling pin.  Traditional. Yep and you're going to use the gadget. Gadget. On your marks, get set, go.All right I think I'm done. You're done you're finished? Well...I guess that worked yeah okay. Is that just am I just flattening it?  That looks a bit too small does it go any flatter?  Have you got to do it twice or we've got to do it and hold it I don't know.  But I weighed the dough so we've got the same size piece of dough. That's better you've got to hold  it a bit longer right I just still don't think it's comparatively ... I'm disappointed because  I thought that it was going to roll these out like this I thought it was going to come out super thin  like that but I feel like what's happening is it's closing this side but it's staying open  in the middle rather than actually pressing it. See how this side down here is pressed so thin  it broke but it didn't do anything to the stuff in the middle but I have a feeling there's probably  a very good one of these and this is probably a bit of a dodgy knockoff. Could be wrong. Right.  If you have one let us know in the comments. All right moving on to gadget number three the next  Gadget is actually four gadgets but they're all related to eggs. 🥚 The first one says it is an  egg piercer they're supposed to be for putting a little hole in the egg before you boil it so  that they don't crack place the egg on top of the egg piercer hold the eggs one hand and push down  on the egg piercer with the other hand don't push down on the egg push down in the egg. Oh I see.Come on! Well it didn't pierce the egg it looks  like it's going to injure you and it doesn't actually miss the egg.Put the egg on. Okay but it's just pushing the egg out well I reckon I've got to hold it don't I?Oh don't get your thumb. Never 👎🏻 definitely a never. These three egg  gadgets, each of them is designed to cut the top off a boiled egg. When was  the last time you had a boiled egg in an egg cup? When I was about 10. Same. This  one definitely looks like it could inflict some damage it really does but here we go...I feel like only one side of the blades came out when you did that if we turn it round to  see the camera yep that does not look like an egg you could serve at a restaurant it  really massacred the egg.Uh Gadget number four...I'm gonna go for this one ... so three two one...Wow. Not what I was expecting. A suction cup. Well now what do I do? Now my egg is  egg is stuck to the device and it's cracked all the way around. It's a portable it's a ... oh look  at that! It just took this took this shell off, not what I was expecting but I like that wow that  impressed me yeah, clever 👍🏻 Next can yours match  up to that? All right. Let's pop that one there give you the last of the cooked eggs.All right here we go let's see and I'll raise this up yep...Til the tension is palpable...Oh, that's not cooked!  Is this cooked? A cooked googy egg.Bang! 💥 Oh wow. Yes. That had impact oh but it's still on top can you lift it off?  The winner is this one. That was clever this one was amazing it's even still got the eggshell in  there and I'm not quite sure how you get it out I guess that you just um do that.  That is a very neat cut as well. It is it's really really nicely done well done good  design. Now for Gadget number four. This Gadget is a piece of metal and  I want to see if you can figure out what this piece of metal is for. Oh wow um...Something in the kitchen. Yes. I'm feeling like it should be a  a love heart which would be pretty cool for a cake but when I go like this it turns  into a teardrop which is kind of like when I asked you about a first date and you said no.  To be fair you asked me to the movies and I didn't say no I didn't want to go on a date I just said I  don't really like the movies oh and you took that as a blanket no. Absolutely I did. And ran away.Anyway I kept coming back. You did. Kept trying. How does it work? Let me  show you if instead of asking me to the movies you asked me out for dinner ...  wow that's the secret ❤️ What do you think would happen if you baked a cake if you  put this on a rack and you baked a cake? It's all gonna come out. Your love would  bleed out. My love for you will never bleed out. You can't actually bake a cake in this,  this is for making mousse type desserts but you have to use a piece of acetate because  otherwise the mousse also will leak out because making mousse desserts takes quite some time I  thought I would bake ahead yesterday so I've made a dessert that has a crunchy base then  it's got a mango cremeaux. Wow. And then it's got a raspberry mousse on top. Delicious. Wow look at  oh that's really good. So I actually did them in different sizes normally with this sort of dessert  you the biggest would be the mousse and the others would be hidden inside it but I wanted to do the  different sizes so that you could see the shapes because the shape actually changes with the size.  They look good this side but the point side their point side is a little bit different on each of  them so not ideal from that perspective but you could certainly use it in the traditional way  if it was one big mousse cake so you weren't comparing the shapes together. I like it. I'm  giving it a clever too. Now for Gadget number five. This is the most expensive Gadget we're  going to be looking at today and it is apparently a cheese curler now for this we are supposed to  use a cheese forgive me if I say this wrong called a Tete De Moine which is a cylindrical  shaped cheese which would fit perfectly over the top. None of our local Grocers had them  so apparently a similar type of cheese is this one which is called a Gruyere. Now the idea is to come  up with cheese shavings well no it's supposed to make like a flower of cheese I'm wondering if this  cheese just isn't as similar as it needs to be to Tete De Moire. Oh look you're the best at this,  whoa how good is that? Cheese flowers. The reason I wanted to buy this though is I've heard you can  use these for chocolate because I don't really love cheese you like cheese I like the chocolate.  Definitely getting chocolate shavings I mean I guess it's an impressive way to make chocolate  shavings at a table but it's not making a flower, not with tempered chocolate. That's a good chunk  of chocolate. Moving on to the chocolate that is not tempered but there's nothing added to it, it's  just plain chocolate. You want to level it? Level up. Know any songs with the word level in it?  Stop it's level. All right let's see if the untempered chocolate can make flowers here we go  is it going to make a flower do you think? I don't think so I think we've just got  impressive chocolate shavings again it's not a flower No but it's impressive in its own  right. It's messy. Gadget number six. This last Gadget is this small little piece of silicon  that promises to replace this huge metal colander which would be great because this always takes up  a lot of room in the dishwasher and we have pasta and rice quite a lot so if we can use  this instead of this would actually be really useful, so it's got some little clippy things  on the sides so see if you can clip it onto the pan and yeah do you reckon it goes that way?  Do you reckon it goes that way Ann. I don't I don't goes that way but I could be wrong  I would imagine that it go this way because it just kind of looks more like it should go this  way. Oh I see yeah sure okay well let's try it your way 😉 Okay can you pour it into this as  if this is the sink that we would be pouring into without getting any pasta, we only want water go.  Guess what. What? I have thought of a song that has the word level in it oh what is it Level of  Concern. I told you my level of concern but you walk by like you never heard. Okay I'll give you  that. Yeah what about \"pasta\" a song with the word pasta. This is working by the way ... this  is working can you see that ... there is no pasta in the bottom. If this was the sink there is only  water in there there is no pasta all the pasta is in the pan and it's drained it's a clever! Okay  yes a nice clever to finish off. Thank you you're clever because you can think of songs with random  words so what about the word pasta? Well let's put that to the uh subscribers out there. Does that  mean you don't know one? No I know one I'll write my answer in the comments like everyone else. You  could put it in the subtitles because did you know Dave does the subtitles so he can often put  little things in there. Little Easter eggs 🗿🥚 So turn your subtitles on.1. (All she wanted was a bowl of pasta,  without anyone looking at her - New Rules)2. (Where the captain's a captor, And I'm a puppet to pastor - Kings Kaleidoscope). 😉With thanks to our patrons for all of your support and the lovely community on Patreon I really enjoy that and really  just so thankful for your support, you guys a wonderful. Make it a great week  by being kind to others and we'll see you on Friday 💕 See you later.\n"