I Tested Viral Cooking Gadgets

"A knife solves most of your problems" is such a great thing to say out of context if you want someone to look at you with concern and back away! LOL

1:36 fun fact: Barilla actually has a Spotify playlist with songs you can play that is the perfect length for each kind of pasta to cook al dente.

What we learned in this video: buy a knife

As a reminder, most of these things are disability aids that are repackaged as "funny kitchen gadget," or sometimes a reformat of another thing. The egg roll thing can cook an egg, but it can also heat up any stick-shaped food. But if you just want eggs, you can use a Dash Egg Cooker, which is actually amazing since you don't have to boil an entire pot of water to boil eggs.

Definitely have to emphasize the disability assist some of these items give. The slapchop has been very useful for those who have issues with trembling hands where finer cuts present an issue.

I recognize that some of these are for sure 'just use a knife' for most people, but things like The Slap Chop specifically were actually designed with the elderly and disabled in mind! A lot of seemingly useless gadgets on infomercials are disability aids that capitalism had to find a way to sell to the average consumer! Once you realize that and start to look at (most) of these odd gadgets that are seemingly useless or for 'lazy' people who don't want to learn to do it the correct way, it really recontextualizes them! The Snuggie, Kettle Tippers, the Slap Chop, The Clapper, automatic jar openers, weighted blankets etc etc. The Rollie is still an affront to God, however.

While a lot of people have mentioned the disability aspect, I have a 4 year old in my life and can tell you the hot dog cutter is for the independent "no, mommy. I can do it myself!" preschoolers in our lives.

Slap chopper is actually really useful. If you don't want to get out the big food processor for small batch stuff, the chopper is way easier to just grab, use, then rinse or throw in the dishwasher. I use it for garlic and onions mostly. It's great for onions because it helps reduce the tears issue if you go quick enough.

The avocado tool is made by OXO, and they primarily make tools for the disabled. My stepdad who is blind and has little feeling in his hands is able to use that with very few problems, even though it is not as easy to use as a knife. The center part is meant to be placed against the pit, and then turned which will pop the pit out. OXO is actually one of the few gadget makers who makes tools that can be used by people with disabilities (especially the blind); Kitchen Mama is another who makes a handsfree automatic can opener.

10:08 I’ll admit, the slap-chop is gimmicky, but my Mom has one, and where it is useful is for chopping small stuff like dried fruit, nuts, and seeds. You can put a handful in it, put the cover on, and chop em as fine as you like. Kinda takes the place of a food processor in that regard, and is smaller to store and easier to clean.

Every single comment is either about helping disabled people, children safe cooking, or saying how people used these and it helped a lot. They are all correct. Even most YouTubers reviewing these gadgets talk about how good they are. We forget Joshua is an able bodied professional who doesn’t think about every angle when talking about stuff which is apparent by watching any of his videos.

The only use for the egg sandwich maker is in an office "kitchen" or other stoveless situation. A few of the other things, like the auto pepper mill, can be accessibility tools - sometimes if you can't think of a reason why someone wouldn't do it the traditional way, the answer is that they can't. My mom has the auto-stirrer and uses it when making batch after batch of homemade pralines for Christmas that would otherwise have her standing in front of the stove for a solid 6 hours or so. She swears by it. It does work in a bigger pan.

The slap chop helped me when I was having dexterity issues with my hands from carpal tunnel and it was hard to maintain knife control.

The slap chopper's primary utility is in chopping nuts (where it can be hard to control where the nuts go if they are particularly hard or your knives aren't as sharp as they might be)

Avocado tool was made for people who don't have the dexterity to open one with a knife. Supposedly the term "avocado hand" is a thing in emergency rooms across the US. So from a safety perspective its actually pretty worth it.

the stirring thing would help for ppl with wrist pain and/or arthritis for sure. i love the idea, wish it were more efficient bc id benefit from it so much! chronic pain is why im unable to cook as much as id like. i love gadgets that make it a little easier!

as a former daycare teacher, the slap chop is really useful for feeding solid foods to babies. do you have a little one old enough to self feed, but still needs it to be chopped up super small so they don't choke and also have 1 or more other kiddos waiting to be fed? make one meal, and put the baby's portion in the chopper, bang bang bang, lunch is served.

The pancake bottle + cast iron skillet + camping = bliss !

14:54 when I was a kid(32 now) we used a sealed bucket to roll back and forth on the floor to make ice cream. It definitely held more inside it then this ball thing but hey it works and looks fun none the less.

Oh, and the ice cream ball + a bunch of kids on a trampoline is GREAT. We also had 3 other ice cream makers going because this doesn't make a ton at a time, but it rocked our summer party.