Does anyone need a gadget to remove the
avocado pit and slice the flesh? If so,
here it is.

Some tools, like a garlic press, an egg separator, a cherry- or olive pitter and an egg slicer make a difficult job easy. Others, like a vegetable peeler and a mandoline, are indispensable.

However, the vast majority of gadgets we test are such a waste of money and drawer space that we get angry at free enterprise for allowing them to exist. All they do is replace a sharp knife, and often not as well.

Here are some of the time- and money-wasters we’ve tried over the past year.

Chocolate fondue is easy prepare, so why don’t we have it more often? You don’t need a special fondue pot: You can use a standard sauce pot and a portable burner to keep the chocolate warm. However, long-handled fondue forks are needed.

A fondue sidebar: Back in the day, we were big fondue fans, hosting frequent fondue parties. We owned the specialty pots dictated by convention for each type of fondue:

We’re trading in our sterno-heated brazier
for this electric fondue pot from Rival.

 
The cheese and chocolate, and the oil for the beef, were heated on the stove. They were brought to the table and placed atop a brazier, a portable metal frame with an underneath heating source: alcohol, Sterno or butane (or the original, less effective heating source, a tea candle).

Today’s portable electric burners and electric fondue pots are a better solution, but for the electric cord and an extension cord trailing over the dining table.

We’re actually moving our fondue party into the 20th century, donating our three fondue pots to a good cause and purchasing one electric pot.

Back to the chocolate fondue:

Chef Trey Foshee of George’s at the Cove in La Jolla, California, goes a step beyond the traditional chocolate fondue recipe and adds creamy mascarpone cheese (a key ingredient of tiramisu).

Thanks to Chef Foshee and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board for the delicious recipe.

What the king ate after the speech:
A Stilton from purveyor Neal’s Yard. Photo
courtesy Whole Foods Market.

We’ve received dozens of recipes for themed cocktail recipes for Oscar parties. For example, combine gin with Earl Grey Tea, and call it The King’s Speech cocktail.

Fatigued at the idea of 12 different “Best Picture” cocktails, we’ve published just two over the past month.

But the idea of an Oscar-themed cheese board caught our interest. Here are suggestions from ArtisanalCheese.com, one of the finest online cheese purveyors, on how to create an Academy Awards cheese board:

While she is an experienced baker, in her rush she grabbed baking soda instead of baking powder. It’s an easy “oops.” Some recipes use both leveners, but if only one is called for, be sure that it’s the right one. Baking calls for very precise chemistry.

So what’s the difference between baking soda and baking powder?

Both baking powder and baking soda are chemical leavening agents that cause batters to rise when baked, by enlarging the bubbles (gases) in the batter. Sometimes you want a little rise (in a cookie, for example), sometimes a lot (in a fluffy layer cake).

Baking soda, also known as bicarbonate of soda and by its chemical name, sodium bicarbonate, is about four times as strong as baking powder.

It’s used to neutralize the acid in recipes that contain an acidic ingredient (for example, brown sugar, buttermilk, chocolate, citrus juice, chocolate, fruit, honey, maple syrup, molasses, sour cream, vinegar and yogurt.)

The acid-neutralizing quality is what makes baking soda, dissolved in a glass of water, a cure for upset stomachs. It’s the key ingredient in Alka-Seltzer, launched in 1931. There’s also aspirin in Alka-Seltzer, but take extra tablets for the headache portion of a hangover.

> The history of baking soda.

> The history of leavening.
 
 
Baking powder consists of baking soda plus cream of tartar (and/or sodium aluminum sulfate, both “acid salts”) and cornstarch.

The cornstarch absorbs moisture so the chemical reaction does not take place until a liquid is added to the batter. Baking powder creates a better rise than baking soda. Nearly all baking powder made today is “double acting,” containing two different types of acids that react at different times and make the baked good fluffier.

The first acid creates gases when mixed with the liquid in the recipe, the second type creates gases when the batter is exposed to the heat of the oven.

> The history of baking powder.

[2] Baking soda is not the same as baking powder (photo © Church & Dwight).

Using the wrong leavener can cause bitterness and/or toughness and a compact (not fluffy) crumb. Once you’ve made the mistake (and we did, when we started to bake), you’ll never do it again. We still keep checking back and forth from the recipe to the can or box: Soda, soda, check. Soda, soda, check. Only then do we add the leavener to the batter.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Go for the unsalted butter (photo courtesy Kasey Albano | SXC).

Some recipes call for salted butter, others for unsalted butter. Does it make a difference which you use?

Yes, and the answer is that unsalted butter produces more consistent results.

The salt content of butter varies from brand to brand. There can be as little as 1/4 teaspoon salt per four-ounce stick of butter, or as much as 3/4 teaspoon. You can’t tell by reading package ingredients.

Recipes that specify salted butter use less added table salt. Recipes with unsalted butter make up the difference with added salt.

But in order to make recipes consistent—especially recipes in which the amount of salt can make a difference, such as delicate cookies and cakes—it’s better to use unsalted butter and add a consistent amount of salt each time.

REVERSE TIP: If you have only unsalted butter but need to convert it salted butter to for a recipe, do what the dairies do: Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt per four ounces of butter.

For table use, you can also can take coarse sea salt or kosher salt and sprinkle it atop a bar of salted butter.

This term is often used by consumers to refer to butter that has no salt. But “sweet butter” is a misnomer, because any butter made with sweet cream (instead of sour cream) is sweet butter.

The appropriate terms to use are unsalted butter or sweet cream butter; but the latter term has disappeared from industry use. Stick to unsalted.
 
 
More About Butter