Kitchen gadgets are constantly evolving to make our lives easier. If the tech doesn’t save us time, it won’t make it to the top of our shopping list. We can all remember items in our parents’ kitchen that are now redundant. These were labor-intensive devices and, while we can look back on them with nostalgia, few of us miss using them.
1. Jell-O Molds
Jell-O molds may be outdated, but have they ever been replaced? It’s a curious entry because nothing came along to make jello production easier. Instead, fewer of us consume it, meaning that original Jell-O molds are outdated and are decorative items.
2. Safety Gas Lighter
While these gadgets remain available, I can’t imagine a market for them. When I was growing up, you turned on the gas stove, lit a match, and hoped for two things — that the oven didn’t explode and fumes didn’t overcome you. The extended safety lighter made life easier, but gas stoves now provide their spark, making these devices redundant.
3. Overhead Gas Grill
They don’t make gas ovens with overhead grills anymore, and they are now contained in the main body of the appliance. They needed the safety lighter, but they produced the best toast. If anything could transport me back to my childhood, it’s one of these.
4. Hand Cranked Whisk
A whisk powered by a crank wheel was all the rage in the 1970s. It was faster than other devices, but there was an issue. You had to steady the whisk with your non-dominant hand, which often resulted in a mess. The mixture slipped from its bowl, leaving a sticky but tasty residue on your worktops.
5. Bread Box
I still use a bread box, but it’s nothing like the classic 1970s design, with its plastic, roll-back cover. Loaves are well protected now and last longer, but while the bread bin makes the list, some of us still think it has a place in the kitchen.
6. Metal Ice Trays
In the days before plastic dominated, metal trays made ice. The gadget was short-lived, however. I imagine hands and fingers stuck to the metal weren’t a central selling point.
7. Stovetop Kettle
It was the only way to make tea or coffee in the 1970s. Fill the kettle with water, place it on the stovetop, turn the switch to start the gas, grab the safety lighter, and hope you didn’t blow up the kitchen. The only part I miss is that satisfying whistle the kettle made when the water had boiled.
8. Cookie Press
A press was an essential kitchen gadget if you wanted pretty and perfect cookies every time. Its interchangeable heads could bring many different patterns to the party table. The cookie press wasn’t replaced by more extraordinary technology, but cooks discovered that a humble cookie cutter could do a better and cleaner job.
9. Hostess Trolley
The hostess trolley was a famous prize on game shows in the 1970s and 1980s and was a luxury item in homes. It was a status symbol, allowing you to bring hot food from the kitchen to the table. You can still buy a hostess trolley, but the best models cost several hundred dollars, and that’s one reason why their use died out.
10. Butter Dish
A casual Sunday night meal always featured the butter dish as a centerpiece. They could still serve a purpose now, but they’ve gone out of fashion. We’re also too lazy to remove the butter from its package when the dish is empty.
11. Egg Poaching Pan
Many gadgets aim to make perfect poached eggs, but none will work if you can’t get your timing right. The egg poaching pan had egg-shaped slots, but you only needed a deep saucepan and boiling water. In modern days, the closest I get to perfect poached eggs is via the microwave.
12. Tomato-Shaped Ketchup Dispensers
Nothing says 1970s kitsch like this little kitchen gadget. They were an essential part of cafes in the UK, while fast-food chain Wimpy also employed tomato sauce dispensers shaped like a tomato. They were plastic and unhygienic, but I want one in my kitchen.
13. Meat Tenderizer
With their metal spikes on a roller, early meat tenderizers resembled medieval instruments of torture. That sinister appearance may have affected sales, and it’s much easier to use a wooden mallet or a rolling pin instead.
14. Soda Siphon
A soda siphon once sat at the side of every bar. If you were a trusted patron, the staff would even let you fill your drinks. Unfortunately, they were also valuable in a water fight and have now been replaced by soda guns, which are under the counter and strictly for staff only.
15. The DrinkMaster
The soda siphon thrived at a time when the DrinkMaster did it all. When I say “all,” it simply mixed drinks. The design resembled a science fiction view of the future kitchen, and this item was too big for most homes. The DrinkMaster, however, looks cool.
16. Juicy Salif Lemon Squeezer
If you have this item in your home, you are likely considered pretentious. The Juicy Salif lemon squeezer features the classic design by Philippe Starck, and its price makes it redundant as a kitchen tool. A friend keeps one of these in a display cabinet, and it’s never been used.
17. Wall-Mounted Can Openers
They may have seemed convenient, but wall-mounted can openers had one major design flaw. The gadgets frequently became detached, spraying tins and contents across the kitchen. Cans with ring pulls are commonplace, while hand-held openers are significantly better than early designs.
18. Punch Bowl
Those classic frat boy movies would have lost an essential prop without the iconic punch bowl that was regularly spiked. Nobody uses a punch bowl these days. Instead, cocktails go directly from the shaker into the glass.
19. Egg Separator
An egg separator is an odd-looking device. It resembles a spoon with gaps. As the name suggests, it is used to separate the egg whites from the yolks. It’s easy to do this with eggshells, but it’s messy, so the egg separator may still play a role in the modern kitchen.
20. Nut Grinders
Devices to grind nuts came in all manner of different designs. The most common versions were similar to meat mincers but much smaller. In the present day, when we have less time to spare in the kitchen, the most straightforward approach to a nut is to smash it with a hammer.
21. Store Scales
Home cooks in the 1970s and 1980s didn’t enjoy the luxury of digital scales. Instead, they made do with large products similar to scales in grocery stores. In the electronic age, modern scales mean we can weigh ingredients with greater precision, and there’s more room in our cupboards, too.
22. Foley Fork
The Foley Fork is the stuff of kitchen folklore, and it’s said that renowned TV chef Julia Child used one to mash potatoes. It’s a fork with six tines that is now a design classic, even if it’s a useless item compared to today’s gadgets.
23. Tea, Coffee, and Sugar Containers
I was sad to learn that these are considered outdated kitchen items. I was also surprised because I have tea, coffee, and sugar holders in my home, but then I realized they were unused and in a cupboard under the sink. The rise of tea bags and coffee machines has hastened their demise.
24. Fondue Sets
Another gadget doubling as a time machine, the fondue set can transport you back to the 1970s. They were another regular prize on game shows, but has anyone outside Switzerland ever enjoyed a fondue in the last 20 years?
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