Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Double Kitchen Agent

Spoons, forks and knives, have admirably served western eaters well for centuries — but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for innovation. Following in the prestigious footsteps of the spork, the product think tank at Quirky has devised a new eating utensil that combines the shoveling benefits of a spoon with the spreading skills of [...]

Never over cook again

Sous-vide (pronounced soo-veed) is a rather nerdy, but effective cooking submovement in the world of haute cuisine. The term literally translates to “under vacuum” in french, and involves sealing food in airtight plastic bags which are then placed in a precisely maintained hot water bath for extended periods of time. Typically the water temperatures are [...]

Blended Blender

DeLonghi’s new 12-cup food processor with blender ($300) is designed to combat the kitchen gadget sprawl that plagues many yuppie households. Thanks to a dual-drive motor system, the die cast metal base unit supports speed variations found on most blenders and food processors. With that power issue out of the way, users just have to [...]

Time To Make The....

Typically we avoid covering anything that could anchor a 45 minute infomercial at 4:00 a.m. Based on your response to the King Arthur mini donut maker last spring, though, we had to share this automatic mini donut factory ($180) — which takes a vastly improved assembly line approach to creating the addictive breakfast staple. Simply [...]

Brain Freeze Ready

There’s nothing groundbreaking about snow cones. They’re just shaved ice topped with colored syrup. Still, shaving ice at home isn’t the easiest task in the world. That’s why we had to share Nostalgia Electric’s Retro Series Snow-Cone Machines ($45). The enterprising kids on our block may put a price on our heads for spilling the [...]

Campfires Be Damned

We love camping as much as the next guy, but there’s no reason why the consumption of one of the world’s greatest deserts should be restricted to just jaunts in the woods. Enter the S’More To Love STL-600 S’More Maker ($15). Up to six stacks of marshmallow, chocolate and graham crackers can be locked-down securely [...]

Xacting

Kitchen scales aren’t critical for all cooks, but they come in handy for those who prefer to count salt grains pre-spinkle. The Caso X3 kitchen scale ($45) takes an interesting design approach to the typically boring product category. As a scale, it can weigh up to 6.6 pounds in 0.03 oz increments — meaning it’s [...]

Livin' The Dry Life

Those with dish washers can just ignore this post since your existence is one of privilege. Other readers who deal with the pain of hand-washing out of a lack of space or funds though should listen up. We know its hard to get excited about a dish rack — but eliminating the need to hand [...]

Draught Beer Made Easy

Draught beer is the ultimate party beverage. But let’s face it, unless you’ve got fraternity pledges to do the heavy lifting, kegs are an enormous pain. Mini kegs are the tiny answer to this problem, but dispensing these bad boys properly can seem as troublesome as dealing with a whole keg. That’s where EdgeStar ($160) [...]

Get Iced, Minus the Smirnoff

We have all tried (and failed) to create iced coffee by brewing a pot, and immediately pouring it over a glass of ice. A true glass of iced coffee however takes time, patience, and effort. Or at least that’s what we thought before discovering the Fretta v60 Ice Coffee Maker ($33), which effortlessly brews a [...]

The Next Best Thing to An Open Flame

While the word grill typical inspires visions like this in our head, there’s something to be said for having an electric version on standby just in case. They’re also a great appliance for those short on space who want an alternative to broiling or pan frying. The Breville Smart Grill ($310) is a good option [...]

Attractive, Affordable, Functional

Hand mixers may not be on the top of your must own kitchen gadget list, but their main benefit over that aircraft carrier KitchenAid Stand Mixer you have prominently docked on your counter is that they allow you to bring the power to the place where you need it rather than transferring ingredients to the [...]

Boil Like You Mean It

All of this talk of glorious, French-pressed coffee got me thirsty to thinking. Sure, boiling water is a pretty simple task, but what simple task hasn’t been made better by the advent of a wonderful gadget to perform it for you. Wheras I love a nice stove-top kettle as much as the next guy, I’m [...]

Improve Your Coffee with the Push of Button

Let’s face it, there is an entire industry dedicated to producing highly specialized (and some would argue pointless) kitchen gadgets. This industry exists because in the mid 90s the kitchen became The Place to deck out in the home, and Williams Sonoma, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, etc. needed shiny stainless steel things to line [...]

The idea of juicers sounds like more of a pain than it’s worth, but have you ever had fresh squeezed orange juice? It’s outstanding. The L-Press’ brings on an entirely new look and style to the citrus juicer with it’s appropriately named L-shape juicer. Just get yourself some nice oranges, chill them in the fridge [...]