Monday, May 28, 2012

Day 10: Just the thing

A corollary to "a place for everything..." is "the right tool for the right job."
 Ad slogan used for True Temper tools since at least 1907 which 
 may not have been the first use of the saying, but did help popularize it in America.       

This might not always be the job for which the tool was intended, or invented, but somewhere along the line you discover it's the perfect solution. I am intrigued by the mechanism that makes it occur to you to put something to a use it wasn't originally meant for. Why, for example, did it occur to me to put an egg slicer



to the task of preparing potatoes for home fries? In hindsight, it is the perfect tool. You get even slices of the right thickness. It's quick and easy. Anybody else out there slice their boiled potatoes this way? What other uses have you put your egg slicer to?

Many years ago when I was an undergraduate at NYU, I knew a woman who had a great holiday tradition with her best friend who lived on the west coast. They exchanged Christmas presents by post and each of them would include one kitchen gizmo in the package. The gizmo had to have a specific use and had to be sent unwrapped and removed from its packaging. Then they would each have fun trying to figure out what the implement was intended for. Some years were harder than others and we would get to join in the fun of trying to help Joie figure out what her friend had sent.

In the "right tool for the right job"-in-the-kitchen department, no one outdoes Tupperware. Here is a photo of two task-specific Tupperware products, one of which I actually used just the other day. Two gold stars to the first person who identifies what either or both are meant to be used for!



 What's your favorite right tool for the right job?

4 comments:

  1. Den gula saken är för att separera äggula från äggvita.

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  2. Is the red one for pitting cherries? or avocados??? My favorite kitchen gadgets are my lemon press and my micro graters. They are awesome. A Kitchen Aid is pretty amazing too. I love the idea of exchanging unwrapped kitchen gadgets! How fun!

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    Replies
    1. Close...the red thing is for de-leafing strawberries...works like a charm.

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