I had to replace a broken installed oven, so I used the opportunity to completely eliminate a countertop appliance that I did still use. Other than slightly increasing the expense, it was the best of all possible options.
[TMI warning]: On winter backpacking trips, a snowball does the job effectively, isn’t nearly as unpleasant as you’d imagine, and is about the most eco-friendly medium for the purpose imaginable. [I *told* you it was Too Much Information.]
That happened when my brother (10 years younger than me) was just about ready to potty train. He hated wet diapers and had learnt that he’d start out dry if he fountained while his pants were down. He trained fast once we got the idea of removing the diaper and plunking the kid on the pot in one move. It took almost no time for him to realize he could do that himself.
Anyone else remember the infamous ‘baby peeing’ ad (from Woolward & Partners) for Logitech mice? That could have been my brother.
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I see two advantages to rice cookers: they are more set-and-forget than cooking it in a pot, and they don’t require a burner on a stove. Here’s my version of Hawai‘ian-style sticky rice, though of course it depends on what rice you start with. I don’t think anybody makes a rice cooker that will let you eat Uncle Ben’s with chopsticks.
- Bring 1 unit of rice and 2 units of water to a boil.
- Reduce to low.
- Cook covered for 25 minutes.
- Serve with your widest wooden spoon.
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This escalated quickly. Looks like everybody is stressed out. 
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My last place in Seattle had windows like that. shrug
That’s good to know! Is it a relatively new thing to have the optional mosquito barrier? Because I have never encountered that in Germany when I’ve lived/visited there.
Just to add to the cross cultural (mis)understanding: in Germany it is often the case that the tenant supplies their own kitchen and appliances - and either takes them with them when (/if) they leave or sells them to the next tenant.
Germany’s renters traditionally stick around. You can of course get furnished places and yes, landlords in that market will often put in whatever they think they can get away with.
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The US doesn’t have fan ovens? Even the cheapest built in ovens are fans in the U.K. now.
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Nitpicking here, but typical American household power is split-phase 240V.
On which note:
If some day I own my home, I fully intend to wire up a European-spec outlet in my kitchen so I can import a proper kettle and stop waiting for water to boil.
In my experience, many Americans don’t even own an electric kettle since there’s less of a time savings compared to heating a kettle on the stove. I also have a theory that this is the reason tea is less popular in the states than, for example, the UK or China, where 3kW kettles are standard - but Japan might disprove that theory.
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I am a cold brew sceptic. Through ignorance, of course. But since I’d leave my cafetiere for four minutes (or until the grounds drop naturally to the bottom of the glass) wouldn’t doing that with cold water just give you water and moist grounds?
In school I learned that convection heating is how “old fashioned” ovens without fans work. In other words, most ovens are convection ovens whether they have fans or not.
Personally my go-to heating device is the Panasonic FlashXPress toaster oven. It uses both radiant and convection heating to give most food a nice crispy outside and soft inside. I think because it cooks quicker, food doesn’t dry out as much. Especially toast; I can’t eat toast made in a conventional toaster without gagging now.
91 comments later and the conclusion is: use what you like and what works for you. If you want a single purpose machine and that cooks things the way you like, get it. If you prefer the machines that can do multiple things, do that. If you find a tool that serves your purposes, be happy. Deep fryer, air fryer, convection oven, rice cooker, instapot, whatever. Be happy mutants.
The real treasure was the kitchen appliances we loved along the way.
Also, European windows rock. The end.
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The thing I miss the most are the roladen.
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If you think this is, um, high-volume, over-enthusiastic opinion sharing you should see any of the knife-sharpening threads…
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Rolladen.
(When savoy cabbage is back in season I’m going to make some Kohlrouladen and post pics in the food thread.)
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Those too. But I meant the window shades.
Exactly. I like wirecutter as a resource for when I know I want something and want to see if they’ve reviewed that thing so I can make an informed purchase (a couple years ago the site was very helpful when we were updating our camping set up, for example). But I don’t think of them as arbiters who are qualified to tell me if I want a particular thing.
ETA: that was hilarious. As soon as I read your first post I started drooling, thinking the same thing as @FGD135, whose food pics I will look forward to seeing!
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I’ve tested it and I simply can’t get a cup of water to boil in 45 seconds like I can with my electric kettle. I use a plug adapter and a kettle from the UK. I’ll even use the kettle to jump start boiling things on the stove. (I have a NEMA 6-20R on a GFCI breaker in the kitchen for this purpose)
Japan works around this problem by having hot water dispensers that keep the water at a specific temperature and always ready to go.
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Cold brew takes 10+ hours. And while you can use regular ground coffee, you’ll probably like the result much better if you use a burr grinder set all the way coarse.
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Rollladen. Gotta get used to the new spelling, even if “new” means almost a quarter century now.
The joke was that since you had inadvertently misspelled it, it looked more like Rouladen (the dish) than Rollladen (the shutters).
I like me some Kohlrouladen but nothing beats Rinderrouladen, simmered for a really long time
and served with a very tart, flavourful sauce and potato dumplings.
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