Cleaning out the drawers. 50 years of cooking.

[JRinPA]

Can an Aluminum Baked Potato holder be used in a microwave?

From a very young age, metal in the microwave was probably the biggest kitchen taboo. I just found four of them in the 2nd utensil drawer and had to google Kenberry to figure out what they were used for.

Trying to decide to do with 50 years worth of accumulation throughout the house, I thinned out about half the drawer. Everything I use is dirty, so it seemed the perfect time.

[MissS]

Nope. No metal goes in the microwave.

[AKgardener]

Oh the struggle is real haha.. I’m doing that today

[Tormahto]

What does a potato need with a holder? They seem to bake fine by themselves, in their standoffish way.

Also, aluminum is a neurotoxin.

[JRinPA]

So they were for a wall oven then? Or over charcoal? I have two Kenberry, one Taiwan, and one China. I had no idea what they were before looking them up.

About half the stuff in the 2nd utensil drawer are things I never used and never saw anyone else use. Just clutter to have to sift through to find the 1/4 tsp measure... One good utensil was a metal spatula for frosting a cake. Well that got lodged somehow in the nearly empty drawer last night when closing it, and bent it a 1/2" back from the tip. Unless it already had been bent...I didn't look real close at first, just got the number on the handle.It was one of the things that a must keep. Still sell them for $17 at supply houses.

I've been thinning that drawer out over the last year but it was still overloaded.

A citrus peeler. I always thought the name for that was "spoon" but no, there are specialty items. One for peeling, another for slicing in half with a grid. Old sardine can keys, rubber caps for 1 qt glass soda bottles, lots of corn ear holders, jar lid grippers, jar lid lifters, jar lid pry bars, jar lid rings. Kenberry egg whip/beater.

Holler if you see something I should keep in the drawer...

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[Vanman]

The coiled spring looking tool. My Mother had one. Great for getting the lumps out of gravy.

[worth1]

There's some old stuff in that drawer.
Mines a little more eclectic.
That ain't staged that's where it stays.

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[MissS]

Personally I would keep the citrus squeezer/juicer, but then I use a lot of limes and lemons for salad dressings. You can't find them like that one these days.

[worth1]

Personally I would keep the citrus squeezer/juicer, but then I use a lot of limes and lemons for salad dressings. You can't find them like that one these days.

Not tossing anything.
I've got stuff scattered everywhere as you can see.
The ratchet is an old S-K I found on the road that was broken.
I took it to the S-K dealer in San Saba Texas and traded it for a new one.
Citrus tool is probably close to 50 years old.
The syringe looking thing is a meat pump for curing meat.
There is an extra spark box for a motorcycle.
Air lock for fermenting.
You never can have enough 9/16 wrenches laying around.
Two garlic presses.
Pressure canner weight gauge.

[JRinPA]

Personally I would keep the citrus squeezer/juicer, but then I use a lot of limes and lemons for salad dressings. You can't find them like that one these days.

I figured it was for lemons, but I never buy fresh lemons. It looks too small for oranges. I remember a dish juicer, it had a raised center with ridges. That is almost certainly in the cabinet above or the one below the wall oven. Probably below, I can picture the tupperware celery dish down there as well, years and years since that was used.

I need to reallocate most of the space here, and I just can't do it. 50+ years of the family in this house.

I wonder how much of the stuff in this drawer came from her mom, 30 years back when she died. Stuff that was too nice to throw away, or had memories included. But a lot of it is just outdated. Bottle caps...years and years since we bought 1 qt Atreat. Corn stickers, those were used was when we were kids...I remember the last time I used a set, one didn't go in straight into the end of the cob, and I ended up biting down on a hard steel wire with my upper incisors, seems like I can still feel that. I guess they hung around for the grandkids but they are outta there now.

[JRinPA]

What are the blue handled...stickers? Combs? What are they used for?

[worth1]

I was thinking they were some sort of pricker for making holes in skin or salami for drying.
Possibly to help crisp up poultry skin.

[JRinPA]

Trying to ID some of these things, I notice a lot of displays people have made and posted on the internet. Often a frame with chicken wire as the backer, to tie the utensils into place on the 2d space. I say frame, I guess the fancy term might be shadowbox. Been seeing that term thrown around the last few years.

[worth1]

I have stuff nobody will ever figure out what it is but a person in that particular trade.
Even today some stuff anyone years ago would know what it was, the younger people don't have a clue.

[GoDawgs]

Everyone has a junk drawer somewhere, probably more than one. I love kitchen junk drawers and have one myself. By now most of the truly useless stuff has been cleaned out but there is still some old stuff in it because "I just might need it some day", like the cheapo cake decorating bag with assorted plastic tips and the almost empty box of those small matchstick size birthday candles that just about melt completely before the count of thirty. "Quick! Blow them out! They're dripping on the cake!"

The third photo, the squeezer gizmo with holes in it ... is that an old garlic press?

I remember those yellow corn holders. There are still some in my kitchen drawer and they do get used now and then but they're not a real stable way of holding an ear of corn. As you mentioned, it's hard to get them put in centered and level.

Yeah, that blue sticker thing looks like something to dock meat with for tenderizing or marinating or, as @worth1 said, for pricking curing meat.

Interesting collection!

[worth1]

I'm too ashamed to show off my cabinets.
One stuff falls out it you touch something.

You're not eating corn on the cob right if your face isn't covered in butter from ear to ear.

[worth1]

What does a potato need with a holder? They seem to bake fine by themselves, in their standoffish way.

Also, aluminum is a neurotoxin.

It's a neurotoxin if the food is acidic and strips it away.

The potato stands will bake your potatoes faster.
The aluminum or any metal will transfer the heat to the middle of the potato.
But a nail will do the same thing.
I think the reason there's so much aluminum in the drawer is because it looks like they all came from a time in history a lot of stuff was made with it.
The new light weight space age wonder metal.

[JRinPA]

Well, that is the 2nd utensil drawer. The junk drawer, that is another matter, that was Dad's drawer. No pistols but maybe a blank gun I never figured out to work, probably broken.

The box shown was what I culled out from the 2nd utensil drawer. Cheese slicer, garlic press, rubber spatulas, ice cream scoops, that stuff all passed muster and isn't shown. I should have taken a pic of the drawer before tearing into it - it wasn't a planned pictorial. A few month there were three garlic presses in the 2nd utensil drawer. I gave the two old ones away; the two piece viking designed one I bought is so much better for me.

Where do you use the potato stands at? What heating?

The third picture, the irvin ware, that is the lemon/lime squeezer MissS wants me to send her.


Made in Hong Kong. Would have to be for perforating I guess. Again though, it is called a fork! Maybe I will try them for marinating. When I marinate venison I will just cut slices into it where I think it is too thick to absorb or cook evenly. I'm not worried about some perfect shape to the meat for a presentation.
I still think it looks like a hair pick.

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[worth1]

They're too sharp for a hair pick.
And what's the Helix on the tines for.

[worth1]

Possible paper quilling comb.

I've seen some advertised as onion holders for slicing.
That makes sense too to get even slices by using the tines as guides.