Appliances
There are many culinary situations that call for the use of labor-saving, powered kitchen appliances to lighten the workload and speed up some of the tasks that traditionally were done by hand.
This section of the website looks at some of the more useful of these devices and how they are used in food preparation and cookery.
I also offer some recommendations of my own favorite appliances that you can buy online from top stores by reviewing items I feel are worthy of at least taking a look at yourself.
While some tasks are better performed by hand in the traditional way (and I'm all for preserving traditional skills when it comes to my food), others are better served by mechanical means if for no other reason that they simply save you time and the drudgery of performing repetitive work (such as mixing, blending etc).
What Devices Are Needed Most?
I won't try to fool you into believing that everything you do in the kitchen should be automated or mechanized, because there was a time long ago when I did everything by hand. That included all prep work like peeling, slicing, dicing, chopping, mixing, blending, pounding and tenderizing!
Sure it all took a long time but even so, it was all part of the enjoyment of preparing great meals that were healthy, wholesome and tasty!
Most of those tasks can be replaced by an appliance or two, such as multi-mixers (my old Kenwood is a mainstay of my prep work), blenders, hand-held mixers, electric knives etc. Even the good old toaster is right up there with the most-used kitchen devices!
What About Nutrition?
Nowadays, people seem to have less time to spend on prepping and cooking meals. That's a shame because cookery can be a highly rewarding hobby especially when it's combined with learning about health and nutrition.
Older generations of cooks were much wiser than you might imagine when it came to ensuring the family were well fed with healthy, nutritious food. They knew that meals needed to be balanced and wholesome to provide their children with the best physical start in life by eating right.
Many simply bypass the majority of the process and simply buy done-for-you meals or meal items from the store that need no preparation and can produce a ready-to-eat meal in next to no time.
Of course there is a serious trade-off for such convenience and time saving.
Yours and your children's health can be severely impacted by eating that stuff!
In addition to this site, I also write a health and weight loss site that deals with the after-math of bad eating habits. These are: weight gain, obesity and the related health issues that associate themselves with those unnatural conditions.
What I'm saying here is if you are concerned about the health of yourself and your family, you'll stop buying packaged junk food from the store and make it your mission to learn all that you can about food, nutrition and cookery.
And make time to spend in the kitchen.
You'll be doing yourself and your family a good turn and in the process do your bit to save money on medical costs now and in the future by raining a healthy family that is not beset by all the health problems that junk food eating families are suffering from!
Educate Yourself
Back to the kitchen. If you didn't already know, this is the most important room on the home. Yes it is!
It's where you get to not only feed your family but feed them healthily and with amazing meals that you simply cannot buy in a packet from the store! Home cooked meals are simply the best. Go ask your grandmother!
If that's not important, I don't know what is.
What is important is that if you haven't already done it, you need to educate yourself about cooking, food and nutrition. Go buy some cook books and watch some of the many useful cookery videos on Youtube. Get some cooking courses, watch, read and learn.
However you do it, learn how to make healthy and tasty and interesting meals for your family and you'll never look back!
What's more, you don't need to "slave over a hot stove" as many people's grandmothers doubtless would complain about. These days, there are so many labor-saving devices that you really do spend less time "working"in the kitchen and more time enjoying your cookery hobby.
Go read some of my related articles on this subject and get familiar with some of the more important appliances you can buy and use in your cookery.
Author: Dr Johnathan Cook
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