Got me some nice bits of beef and root vegetables to make a big old stew the other day. I couldn’t find my one and only chopping knife so had a root around and found a mini-hacksaw. Quite strange mini-hacksawing away at veggies. Onions- easy! Parsnip – Got to speed up a bit put on some pressure. Swede – Tough, broke a blade.

I was wondering what other improvised tools people have used. Suppose you could make a blender with a drill, a container and some sort of drillbit?

I once strained pasta through a Giro mesh helmet cover.

I’ve just prepared sushi with the world’s shitest, bluntest knife. Not really a bodge, but I tried my hardest to get an edge on the damn thing, and in the end had to use the pitted, dodgy steel as a very fine saw to cut the stuff.

I _wish_ I could afford those Kyocera ceramic knives. Alas, I can’t, but if I could, I bet my wife would find a a way of knackering them. Probably by overfilling the dishwasher…

Willard, I invested in a lansky sharpening system and really recommend it.

Prefer steel knives myself (Porsche, Marttiini are my current faves apart from my cheapo chinese cleaver) but do have a couple of what seem like reasonable ceramic ones from IKEA.

I use a wetstone for keeping the edges on steel.

slainte 🙂 rob

Once used a hand-drill and a paint-stirrer attachment with a fork tied to it to make some whipped cream.

Weren’t perfect, but a lot quicker than doing it by hand for ages. Bit messy though.

Back on topic, being a bit of a cooking obsessive I don’t often find that I am missing a utensil. Did once have to use cheap plastic salad tongs to flip stuff on a barbecue while camping though. it didn’t go well.

slainte 🙁 rob

I have a leatherman that is my general go-to cooking tool. Wood saw is a cheese grater. end of the file opens a bottle and cracks yins eggs. Even use the little scissors to cut bits of steak with.

Wine bottle rolling pin.

and.. I use a scarf I found as a pot holder.. because I am too cheap to get a real one. It briefly doubled as a drying rag.. but it was not as versatile as the leatherman…

My fists as potato mashers

carrying our toolkit down to gruinard bay a dog walker asks us “what are you building lads?”

“sandwiches”

we’ve also got a drill driver powered coffee grinder

Mi nob as a meat tenderiser