Can Kitchen Gadgets Outpace A Knife-

Are kitchen gadgets actually quicker than using a knife? Let's find out. First we're gonna take a look at this 7-in-1 mandolin food cutter. This comes with a whole array of pieces and attachments, and it can do all sorts of things. Like chopping potatoes to make fries, spiralizing cucumbers into long thin ribbons, this juliette spiralizer for carrot and courgette spaghetti, a grater, and a slicer, which gives these beautiful thin slices. But I'm gonna test it with an onion, and see how it compares to using a knife. But regardless if we're using the mandolin or a knife, we first need to peel the onion. And now they're both peeled, we can start the test. So, let's see how long they take to slice. I'm chopping it in half to fit it in the mandolin, and then, wow, instantly shredded. Wow, that was so quick. Just 10 seconds. And we've got this amazing finely chopped onion. But let's see how I get on with a knife. Now, this is obviously gonna take me a lot longer. I haven't got the best knife skills. I'd say I'm just average. I'm sure a professional chef would cut far quicker than I am. But there we go, 1 minute and 14 seconds. That's considerably longer than the 10 seconds it took with a mandolin. It has cut pretty well. Not quite as uniformly as the mandolin. So, it's definitely a win for the gadget. Of course, I've not taken into consideration the time it takes to clean these items. And, like with anything, a lot of the time, these gadgets only really make sense if you're cutting lots of things, not just one onion. More on that later. But next, we're gonna take a look at this. It's actually a potato spiralizer. It comes with four skewers, the handle, and this corkscrew cutting blade. You need to start with it disassembled, then take a potato, and let's see how long it takes to use. First, you have to slide on the cutter. Then, push it through your potato, making sure it's nice and central. Slide the handle on, and push the potato into the spikes. Then, we need to start turning the cutting tool. It screws down into the top of the potato, and pulls itself through as you wind down the cutting blade. Keep going round and round, until you get all the way to the bottom. Then, remove the handle, and the cutter, and that's us done. And it's taken exactly three minutes and one second. I think if you want to, you can fan it out on the skewer, and cook it like that, but because this is quite a large potato, I decided to remove the skewer, and take a look at that. You can really see how nice and uniformly it's cut it. And I'm cooking mine by fanning it out on an oven tray like this. To be honest, that gadget's done a really good job. I'm impressed. And I'm just adding a few squirts of cooking oil, a little bit of salt, and if you wanted to, add some ground paprika. Then bake it in the oven. So to try this out manually, I'm gonna need to use a kebab skewer, and the potato I'm gonna use is actually a lot smaller than the other one. I'll explain why in a minute. So, once you've poked the skewer through, place it down onto a chopping board, hold your knife at an angle over the potato, and start slicing as you carefully rotate the potato underneath. This is actually really quite difficult. You've got to try and hold the knife blade at a constant angle, and really concentrate not to cut through one of the previous layers. You've also got to be really careful not to cut your fingers, and the further you slice along the potato, the less space you have to grip it. But there we go. This one's done. And it took me four minutes and seven seconds. And remember, that's with a far smaller potato. If we take a look, it has actually come out really well. But it is difficult to do, and I'd definitely recommend using the gadget instead. And check this out. When I tried it with two similar sized potatoes which are round, the gadget actually still makes light work of it, and it came out really well again. Whereas when I tried it with a skewer and the knife approach, I found it really difficult to rotate the potato properly, and to keep the knife straight. There was more drag and resistance there, I think just because the potato was bigger. And when I finished, the results really weren't very good. So for this experiment, I'm definitely giving the win to the kitchen gadget. But have you tried one? Let me know in the comments. Next we're going to test this. It's actually an apple peeler and slicer. It suctions down onto the work surface to hold it firm while you use it. Then you slide back this shaft, push an apple onto the prongs, then start twisting the handle. It slowly winds the apple forwards, then it starts peeling it, and keep turning it until the apple is all the way out to the other side. We get this amazing neat peel, and when we pull the apple off, it's actually cored it straight down the middle, and also sliced it into this amazing spiral. Pretty cool, huh? That's so clever. And with just a few slices afterwards, we've got these lovely small chopped up pieces of apple. So let's see how long it takes, and how it compares to a knife. Pull back the bar, and push on the apple. And this part is so fun. It takes no time at all. Pull off the core, and I'm going to do two apples for each experiment. So reset the machine, and do the same again. If you don't want any skin on your apple, you can just snap this bit off, then slice up the apples, and there we go. One minute and four seconds to peel, core, and chop two apples. That really doesn't seem bad, but let's see how we get on manually. I'm using an ordinary hand peeler for this process, and to make things a bit quicker, so I don't have to put down and pick up the same utensils, I'm peeling both apples at the same time. Then I'm using this manual corer, and finally slicing them up with a knife. And there we go. Two minutes and 25 seconds. That's over twice as long. And that's just for two apples. Imagine you had to do 20. So that's definitely a clear win for the gadget. Now I want to take a look at some avocado gadgets. This one's quite clever. The top bit here actually adjusts to fit different sized avocados. And at the bottom here, we've got this stainless steel blade, which we can use for cutting the fruit. Once you've sliced it all the way around the middle, give it a twist and open it up, and you can use this part of the utensil with these sharp pointy teeth to remove the stone. They grip it firmly, and with a little twist, we can pull it out. And the adjustable loop should cut between the fruit and the skin. You can adjust it to different sizes, then turn it out. That looks perfect. So let's see how it gets on. I can't see this really being a lot quicker than using just a knife and a spoon, but it'll be interesting to see. And oh dear, something's happened here. Turn it over, and you can see it's actually cut its way through the skin. Oh, that's disappointing. I've not had that before, but let's try it on the other half. I've adjusted the time to start from the same point. This time it scooped it out properly, and there we go, 26 seconds. And on the whole, it's done a good job of cleaning out all the fruit. There's just a small bit left there. So let's try the same thing with a knife and a spoon. You do need to be a bit more careful with a knife because you're handling something sharp, but I do like using it for popping out the stone. Then I'm using this nice large spoon, because the avocado is quite large, to scoop it out. Turn it over, and oh dear, you can actually see I've left loads behind in the skin. Go for a second pass, and there we go. But let's repeat that with the other half. And again, I've adjusted the time to match where we were. And oh no, I've done it again. Maybe that is the one downside of using a spoon sometimes. They don't adjust for size like the gadget, but in terms of time, they were pretty negligible on which was quickest. So I don't really think it matters. And for this one, I'll give the win to the gadget. Now this gadget does something very similar. You can slice something in half with a blade here, then use this section to remove the stone, and this hoop here, although it's not adjustable, has actually got six cutting blades running down the middle. So as we scoop out the avocado, it also slices it. That's quite clever. For this one, let's just see how well the gadget works compared to a knife. It scoops through it pretty well, although it is a little bit difficult when you get to the end. You kind of got to push the last bit through with your thumb. Then turn it out, and there we go, sliced avocado. And for this half, I'm just scooping it out again with a spoon, and using a knife to cut it. And something I noticed straight away is how much cleaner the cuts are. Because the knife blade is so much sharper, it doesn't kind of drag its way through as it's cutting. So it looks a whole lot nicer. If we compare the skins though, you can see again, I did leave a little bit of fruit behind using the spoon. Maybe I just selected the wrong spoon size or something. But what I do like about this gadget, is you can kind of do it all without the need of a knife, a spoon, or a chopping board. So if you wanted a bit of sliced avocado on toast or something, this is quite a quick and simple way of doing it. And the gadget is pretty easy to wash. So I think I'll give the win to the gadget for this one. But what do you think? Is it something you'd consider owning? Now the next avocado gadget I want to look at is this cutting cage. To use it, you just push it down into half an avocado like this, then grip it and give it a twist, and remove the skin. It's all held in the cage. Then just give it a tap, and we've got these kind of cubes of avocado. Oh, not bad, I suppose. They are a bit mushy, and it does leave a bit behind in the skin. Of course, the alternative way is just to scoop it out with a spoon again, and slice it into cubes with a knife. And the results are pretty much the same as the last gadget. We get far cleaner cuts with a knife, and I don't really think it takes much longer. Now one of the cool things about this gadget, is you can actually dice up your avocado, while it's still in the skin, before you scoop it. Then turn it over, and well actually that has worked really well. Now on to the next one. This handy little grape cutter. It's got this crossed blade at the bottom, with these vicious looking teeth, and when you squeeze the handle, it pushes the plunger down like this. To use it, you just place a grape in, and give it a squeeze. And it makes light work of cutting them. So I'm taking a whole palette of grapes, and I counted out 25. I'm actually gonna bundle them all up around this side of the bowl here, so they're nice and straightforward to grab. So let's see how long it takes. Oh, it really is easy with this thing. It's nice you don't have to get close to a knife blade. Cutting something like grapes or small tomatoes, can be a bit fiddly. And there we go, 41 seconds. That seems quick to cut 25 grapes, and not just in half, they're all in quarters. Let's see how we get on with the knife. This really is fiddly doing this. You've got to concentrate a lot, because you're cutting right next to your fingers. I definitely prefer using the kitchen gadget, and I can already tell, it was a lot quicker. But there we go, one minute and 24 seconds. That's over twice as long. That's a considerable difference. So it's a big win for the grape cutter. And it's nice not having to use a chopping board. And what I do also like about this gadget, is you can also use it for small tomatoes. But next we're going to take a look at this. It's a 10 bladed tomato saw. The idea is, you take a larger tomato, and use the saw to give you nice even slices. I do find it a bit awkward to use. You have to start by gripping the tomato from underneath, then switch your hand to hold it from the top, when you're halfway through. But to be fair, it does seem to give quite good results. But how does it compare to using a knife? I'm going to be chopping two tomatoes with each, and we'll see how long it takes. It's such an odd gadget this, and I definitely don't find it easy to use. But there we go, both tomatoes cut in 43 seconds. Now let's try the knife. You definitely need a nice sharp knife, to make it easy for yourself. And it's not that easy to get all your slices, exactly the same thickness. But there we are, 38 seconds. So slightly quicker than the gadget this time. So this time a win for the knife. Next we're going to try these multi-blade scissors. There's 10 blades altogether. I got this chive plant, and I'm going to try cutting half with the scissors, and half with a knife. Let's see how it goes. And almost straight away, I found the blade starting to clog up. It felt like I was kind of forcing it through, rather than nicely cutting. There we go, 34 seconds. But you can see they've kind of been ripped, rather than nicely cut. And there's some longer bits in here too, which must have fallen short of the blades. So let's try with a knife. And already the cuts are looking far cleaner. And that's taken me just 18 seconds. I could have gone on for longer and cut them smaller, but they definitely look better to me than these herbs which were crushed with the scissors. So another win for the knife. But on another occasion, I did have quite good success with the scissors and some chives. But what do you think? Have you tried these scissors? And what else can I use them for? Now next we're going to try this. It's a cool little garlic press. The top opens up, and we've got this cutting deck here. And in the top there's this press, for squeezing the garlic through the blades. It's got this removable plate for cleaning out any stuck garlic, which is cool. It's a bit like a mini version of that food mandolin we looked at at the start. So I split open a bulb of garlic. I found six similar sized cloves and peeled them. So ready for the test. So let's see how we get on with the gadget. Just sit the clove on the cutting deck and press down. Huh, that's pretty straightforward. There's still a little bit here attached to the top. So I put it back down on the deck. Then remove the cleaning tool. Place this back on the deck as well. And squeeze that through as well. There we are, 34 seconds. And if we open the little drawer, we've got these nicely cut up pieces of garlic. Now let's replicate that with a knife. You do have to be really careful with your fingertips. And it can be difficult to hold the smaller bits of garlic. It's not a job I particularly enjoy doing. And it also makes your fingers really smell of garlic. But there we go, 58 seconds. So all in all, it took longer than the gadget. And there is a risk element with cutting your fingers. So for this one, I'm going to give the gadget the win. Now I do think there's all sorts of reasons why people may want to use kitchen gadgets. Not just as a time-saving device. Like we've seen, they can be safer to use if they keep your fingers away from blades. And they can make cutting or preparing food a lot easier, which could be the priority. Not necessarily time. Of course, the time taken to set up and wash the gadget afterwards can often outweigh the advantage of using them. Especially if you're only using it for one or two items. And then of course, there's the space it takes to store them we need to consider. But what do you think? Have you got a favorite kitchen gadget? Let me know in the comments. It would be great to hear your thoughts and suggestions. But now, if you'd like to see me use this really fun gadget, which injects bananas with your favorite filling, you can click on the link here. Have fun, stay safe, and as always, thanks for watching.