From smart thermometers to pacoteasers, the best kitchen kit

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I am a suspicious cook who blames his tools (or ingredients) rather than taking personal responsibility for poor outcomes. There are ovens where thermostats are very inaccurate, standalone oven thermometers that shoot salt in pinch, and meat thermometers that raise more questions than answers. Have you pushed the probe in enough? Are these chicken and cow pictures useful or just a distraction? Am I trying to poison my family?

The app provided me with one option of “well done” (with peace of mind)

This new device by Witt relieves much of my anxiety (the rest can be tackled with treatment). The center of accuracy of a CookPerfect system is a probe equipped with five sensors along its length (or, in this dual version, two probes). Push it down to the marked line and calculate the core temperature of the meat and the ambient temperature of the current oven. It communicates wirelessly with a small docking station somewhere in the kitchen (which doubles as a probe charger). That station sends numbers (again, via Bluetooth or 2.4GHz WiFi) to the WITT CookPerfect app on your smartphone.

I loved this. That first run was Sunday lunch: I told the app that the chicken was on the menu, it offered me one option of “well done” (with peace of mind), I pressed Go, and it constantly raised the oven temperature and core temperature with a well-estimated completion time. (Of course, old kitchen habits die hard, so it’s 5°C higher than the recommended 75°C.) The second run is a slow roast bee flavor that was previously tried, with the oven temperature set to an unreasonable level. It’s going to be great. And what do you know? it was.

Smooth operator

You can’t hear the “pasojis” verb outside a few professional kitchens, but that’s the secret behind the incredibly smooth ice cream, buttermix, mice, and concentrates for soups. PacoJett handles frozen foods in special beakers at –20°C, in simplest terms, such as ice cream mixtures, stock peas, guacamole ingredients, and broccoli stems. When you insert a beaker into the machine, the blade shaves the top of the frozen block, creating a puree with textures that even a high-end food processor cannot achieve. Pacott as much as you need to, then place the beaker back in the freezer. A gateway to unique kitchen experiments.

Cast iron excuses

It is the most compact of AGA’s new cast iron cooker with integrated induction hobs, combining traditional radiant heat with a safe, wipe surface. It is packed in a 100cm kitchen unit space. Except for the hot plate and a two-zone induction hob, its four doors hide a roasted baking oven with a grill, a slow cook simple oven, and a traditional fan oven with nine temperature settings (equivalent to the gas mark for recipe purposes) and a speedy 15 minute heat. Behind the AGA badge door is a touchscreen panel that allows you to control the zone and set a timer. The 100 comes in multiple shades, but the black vitreous enamel version just released is impressive.

Please give me the fabric

The dough hooks that come with the food mixer make a brave effort, but they struggle to produce decent gluten development. Ooni, a pizza oven company, has expanded the large commercial machines used to create domestic equivalents used in bakeries. It’s a kneading powerhouse, slightly larger than the average food processor. It works with up to 5kg of dough to produce the consistency you want (there is a timer, but human judgment is recommended in the infamous, unstable baking world). Pizza, Focuschi and Sourdough Bread are their strengths, but their whisks and silicone beaters are also an all-in-one cake mixing Marvel. A food processor that saves you time and considerable effort.

Please clean it

Hidden under the sink: a desktop PC sized water purifier, a small control box, and a bottle of mineral concentrates that Blue Water calls “liquid rocks.” Top of the sink: A wireless O-shaped ring that glows orange as the tap distributes the main membrane. Tapping the ring turns blue, indicating that water is being sent to the purifier, minerals are added to the desired ratio (from “light” to “bold”) and come back from the tap. Purifiers claim to eradicate 99.7% of contaminants (bacterial, microplastics, eternal chemicals) to make tap water safer. I can’t say if filtered water is better or worse than the municipality, but it tastes pretty good.

@Rhodri

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