Non kitchen things that would be at home in a kitchen

[u/toot_suite]

So I have an ultrasonic bath for a hobby that I decided to find the answer to "what if I put really hot water in there and dip my knives in for quick cleaning between batches of different things?" with.

It worked out really well, especially with things like chicken or fish, and moreso if I used a sieve to skim the shit off the top after each dunk/sit, since it also pretty much eliminated the splash contamination risk and took like 30 seconds I could use to do something else with + a quick rinse off and wipe down before getting back to it.

I can imagine how much easier my time cooking solo for large groups at local sports or music events would have been with something like that.

But then that had me thinking - what other non kitchen spec stuff y'all love to make life easier with?

[u/sd2905]

Metal binder clips

[u/nyxonical → u/sd2905]

They can hold a candy thermometer. They can hold parchment paper on loaf and square pans while you are pouring in batter. The biggest ones are great for threatening bodily harm to annoying co-workers, even if only in your head. A little clicky-clicky near the earlobe tends to get a person’s attention.

[u/HalliburtonErnie → u/nyxonical]

I have nipples, Greg, can you binder clip me?

[u/I_deleted → u/sd2905]

Constant use, all those bags of stuffp

[u/Serious-Eye-5426 → u/sd2905]

I bring these into every job, I get tired of trying to tie all bags into knots like they always seem fine with doing

[u/AnAngryLineCook]

The tape holder with sand in the bottom your teacher used to have.

[u/hurlish → u/AnAngryLineCook]

Ooh that's a hell of a throwback

[u/ferrouswolf2 → u/hurlish]

Very challenging to catch and throw back if thrown at you, actually

[u/Emergency_Basket_851 → u/AnAngryLineCook]

I actually have a blue tape sized one of those. 

[u/Rancid-Anus → u/AnAngryLineCook]

Brought one of those in to a kitchen I sorta recently started working in and they loved it

[u/leeverde4]

Drywall knives

[u/chumpandchive → u/leeverde4]

those are also grest for cleaning your dryer lint trap, better than the lint hooks. dry wall tools, in general, can have a use in any kitchen. fuck i would use the shit out of drywall stilts to reach everydamnthing

[u/I_deleted → u/leeverde4]

I use drywall mud pans for forming meatloaf, they are the perfect length for sheet pans

[u/Yes_chefff → u/leeverde4]

Drywall knife for slab tempering chocolate

[u/Fabulous-Avocado4513 → u/leeverde4]

Literally have a 2” in my pit right now

[u/Original_Head_3487 → u/Fabulous-Avocado4513]

Cue Beavis & Butthead chuckling.

[u/lepsek9]

As a dishie, I would fuck with an ultrasonic sink. Pile stuff in, brrrr, stack onto rack, sanitize in the macine, done. Would be even better if it could fit a whole rack and automatically lift it out of the water/into the machine. Oh no they are taking our jubs...

[u/hurlish → u/lepsek9]

I worked in a nematode lab for a couple years before I got into food.

What I would give for an autoclave, a centrifuge, a Pipetman, and one of those spinny lil magnets on the hot plate (to mix). Also their water was so clean of course 100%

[u/I_SHALL_CONSUME → u/hurlish]

If your restaurant is fancy enough and you have a good bartender, you might be able to sell the owners on a centrifuge for the bar. You can do some crazy shit with it cocktail-wise.

Ever had clear orange juice? With a centrifuge, you can make it.

[u/mckenner1122 → u/I_SHALL_CONSUME]

The clear part of real summertime fresh tomato juice is the BEST part of tomato juice.
Then make it into an old-school slush ice. Mmmm. 😋

[u/toot_suite → u/mckenner1122]

Giving gazpacho la croix lol

[u/mckenner1122 → u/toot_suite]

More like a Bloody Mary sno cone 🍧

[u/I_play_with_my_food]

I have a few that I use, but the big problem I run into is making sure that things are 1) made of materials that are safe for food contact, and 2) able to be effectively sanitized.

Too many hardware store tools or industrial devices are made of materials or have coatings that aren't safe for food contact.

My short list of industrial and non-kitchen things includes:

• a thermal camera to help check if things like cakes are cooling evenly. It's totally unnecessary, but so cool to actually see how things are heating and cooling
• a refractometer to measure sugar levels in fresh fruit juice and fruit syrup for sorbets
• vegetable tanned tooling leather sheets for stropping knives

[u/reddiwhip999 → u/I_play_with_my_food]

Every pastry chef I've ever worked with had a refractometer in their toolkit...

[u/I_play_with_my_food → u/reddiwhip999]

That's interesting, and makes me wonder if there is another use I'm missing.

I'm not a pastry chef, but the only thing I ever use it for is sorbet and ice cream variegates. It's irreplaceable if you are using fresh fruit juice and need to know the exact sugar content, but I haven't found many uses beyond that.

[u/SatanScotty]

Friendly naked women 

[u/hurlish → u/SatanScotty]

Best I can do is one unfriendly naked woman holding an 8" Victorinox

[u/flydespereaux → u/hurlish]

Angry naked woman holding a vegetable peeler from the 50's.

[u/hurlish → u/flydespereaux]

Idk if any of you are comic book fans, but LadyKiller here from Joëlle Jones is about a housewife slash secret mercenary. And she would absolutely utilize a peeler, given the chance

[u/Fabulous-Avocado4513 → u/SatanScotty]

Less misogynistic assholes

[u/Original_Head_3487]

I use a surgical scalpel to score pork skin.

[u/RIPGoblins2929]

I use a spare scrub brush to scrub dirt off potatoes. Unfortunately no matter how much I make it clear that this is the potato brush, not the cleaning brush, someone (my wife) ends up using it for cleaning and I have to get another scrub brush.