These Kitchen Unitaskers Are Actually Worth the Drawer Space
Gabriella DePinho is a writer covering trending products. She has written about cheap(ish) things for medicine cabinets, meal prep, and dorm rooms.
We can’t make tedious kitchen tasks less boring, but we can help you get them done quicker.
While your paring knife is a versatile little beast, having a specific tool designed to tackle the most time-consuming tasks can make them easier and less frustrating to get through.
Over the course of several years and lots of testing, our staff has found a few kitchen unitaskers so invaluable, we’re convinced that they deserve a bit of your precious kitchen space. And several of these handy doodads have revealed themselves to be multitaskers.
A superior cookie scoop
Top pick
This cookie scoop is strong and comfortable to hold. In our tests, it released the dough more cleanly than any other.
In our guide to holiday baking gear, the Norpro Grip-EZ 2-Tablespoon Stainless Scoop beat out four other scoops to become the best cookie shaper. The Norpro scoop’s sweeper blade sits nearly flush with the bowl, so it doesn’t get gummed up with thick, sticky cookie dough (which is a problem for scoops with looser blades). The Norpro model’s spring is strong, and its grip sits comfortably in the hand, making it an especially great tool for baking large batches of cookies. While the scoop is an excellent choice for cookie dough, you can also use it to portion out muffin batter, shape meatballs, or dollop frosting onto cupcakes.
Our summer workhorse: the melon baller
Staff pick
Most melon ballers work fine, but this two-headed model gives you a couple of sizes to work with and a soft-cushioned handle that’s easy to grip.
The humble melon baller is a delightfully straightforward piece of kitchen equipment. Thanks to its sharp but not dangerous edges, you can easily scoop fresh fruit into delicate little spheres with a flick of the wrist.
Kitchen-team editor Marilyn Ong has relied on the two-sided OXO Good Grips Melon Baller for several years now. Her favorite part: It allows her young children to help themselves to all the fruit they want — all she has to do is split the melon open for them first. We’ve also found that the OXO melon baller works well for other tasks, such as hulling strawberries, de-stemming tomatoes, hollowing out squash, and coring apples.
A press for perfectly smashed burgers
With this sturdy grill press, you can evenly smash foods without overexerting yourself. Plus, it’s especially easy to clean thanks to its sleek stainless steel surface.
Fans of smash burgers know it starts with a crispy, thin patty. With a little help from a handy tool, it is possible for home cooks to make their ideal burger at home. After trying several burger presses, kitchen writer Maki Yazawa determined that this Cuisinart press is the best she’s ever used. The wooden handle allows Maki to safely press down while cooking, giving her precise control over the applied pressure, and burgers don’t get stuck to the slick stainless steel face. You can also use the press to flatten toasted sandwiches, potatoes, asparagus spears, and more — as long as you don’t mind facing some circular limitations for non-circular foods.
A reliable peanut butter stirrer
Top pick
This handy tool stirs natural peanut butter without the usual mess and is available in a size for every style of peanut butter jar. Be sure to get the one that fits your preferred peanut butter.
During their testing for the best creamy peanut butters, Wirecutter’s kitchen experts depended on this peanut butter stirrer, an excellent tool for incorporating the oil in natural nut butters. Grandpa Witmer’s Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Mixer is an S-hook with a crank, threaded through a lid that screws onto your jar. A leakproof rubber gasket helps keep the oil inside. After cranking countless jars, we’ve found that the best way to mix peanut butter is upright for 30 seconds, upside down for 30 seconds, and repeating once more.
To accommodate different jar sizes, Witmer makes three models: the model 100 for 16-ounce wide-mouth jars, the model 300 for 16-ounce small-mouth jars, and the model 400 for 26-ounce jars. If you don’t know what size to get, Witmer has this neat PDF list that tells you which size works with which peanut butter brand’s jars.
An old-school apple peeler
Most old-fashioned three-in-one apple peelers are pretty similar, but we like that this one is all metal and comes with a two-year warranty.
If you’re whipping up apple pies, ciders, sauces, and more apple-centric delights all September and October long, you’ve likely spent an ungodly number of hours peeling apples. Our staffers have found that, with the help of an old-fashioned Apple Peeler, Corer and Slicer, prepping apples for your culinary adventures no longer needs to be a time- and soul-sucking kitchen task anymore. We like this peeler from King Arthur for its sharp blade, easy-to-use crank, and sturdy base — the fact that it can core and slice is a huge bonus, too.
Tools for silky potatoes
Top pick
This masher cuts into potatoes and other foods faster and more easily than the competition. It’s easy to clean and store, too.
Any ricer is harder to use and clean than a basic masher, but the Chef’n was the easiest ricer to work with of those we tested, and delivered even smoother potatoes.
While the masher and ricer are two distinct tools, both promise the same end result: beautifully silky mashed potatoes.
During testing, the OXO Good Grips Smooth Potato Masher quickly and smoothly cut into potatoes because of the sharp edges of the perforations and grid plate that didn’t clog. The rubbery U-shaped handle provides better leverage than the stick-style handles of the competition.
The only tool that produced smoother mashed potatoes than the OXO masher was the Chef’n FreshForce Potato Ricer. The gear mechanism in the Chef’n ricer significantly increases the force applied to the potatoes when you push down on the handle, without requiring more effort on your part. We found it was easy to disassemble and clean, and when put away, it is relatively compact.
A cherry pitter that doesn’t miss
Staff pick
This pitter has an easy-spring mechanism, a wide chamber to accommodate a variety of fruit sizes, and a splatter guard to prevent juice stains.
There’s really only one use for the OXO Good Grips Cherry & Olive Pitter — pitting cherries and olives — but if you anticipate making lots of pies, cobblers, or tapenades, you should have this tool in your arsenal. You can find plenty of terrible alternative methods for pitting cherries, but the OXO pitter is quick, convenient, safe, and easy to use. Even though pitting a pound of cherries with this model took slightly longer than doing so with OXO’s multi-pitter (we, uh, pitted them against each other in a race), this single-cherry model left us with a perfectly pitted pound of cherries, whereas the multi-pitter’s batch had a few lingering pits.
It’s easy to squeeze without overtiring your wrist, and it has a splatter shield that helps contain the juice. It’s dishwasher-safe too, but we find it easier to hand-wash.
A doodad for safer avocado slicing
This all-in-one tool halves an avocado, removes the pit, and makes it easier to mash.
With the rise of consumption of avocados came the rise of avocado-related ER visits for injuries healthcare providers have dubbed “avocado hand.” Editor Catherine Kast is one of many thousands of people who faced a hand injury while opening an avocado, which led her to the discovery of the OXO Good Grips 3-in-1 Avocado Slicer. The simple plastic tool has kept her safe ever since. It makes it easy to halve the avocado, remove the pit, and slice or mash the fruit, depending on what the occasion calls for. It’s safe and easy for children to use (with supervision), and can help keep avocado enjoyers of all ages out of harm’s way.
A cheese curler for gussying up your charcuterie board
This special cheese-cutting contraption produces impressively dainty cheese rosettes.
Charcuterie boards have a certain kind of gravitational pull to them — people can’t help but congregate around them at parties . If you’re looking for a way to impress your guests, we think the beautiful, delicate cheese rosettes the Boska Cheese Curler Amigo produces can add a certain element of elegance and surprise to your next board. The simple tool shaves your wheel of cheese into these rosettes which you can prepare and fan around the board; but you can also leave the cheese on the wheel to create an interactive moment for your guests. It works best with room-temperature, firm to semi-firm round cheeses like P’tit Basque, Alisios, Manchego, and the more divisive, full-bodied Tête de Moine.
A greater garlic crusher
This cloaked crusher deftly minces multiple cloves, and it also pulverizes seeds, nuts, and spices.
The Gracula is a little silly, we recognize that, but it’s also a really good kitchen tool. A traditional garlic press requires more applied force, but the Gracula grinds easily with a few twists and provides more control — the more you twist, the finer the grind. It easily grinds garlic, yes, but also seeds, nuts and spices, giving it a life beyond its single designation.
Essentials for the pasta-obsessed
Staff pick
This hand-operated pasta roller and cutter set is durable and easy to use, and it churns out silky, fresh pasta.
Homemade pasta is a treat that can elevate even the simplest tomato sauces. To make it properly, you need to commit to a few tools, such as the Marcato Atlas 150 Pasta Machine, which you operate with a hand-turned crank. It’s reliable, durable, compact, and a good value, despite being a pricier unitasker. Its rollers press your dough into thin, uniform sheets before slicing it into all kinds of noodle shapes. Pasta dough moves through the rollers with ease, never getting chewed up or breaking the gears.
Staff pick
This affordable, textured, solid-wood board is great for rolling out pasta shapes by hand (with some practice).
You can always buy premade gnocchi at a store — or you can make it yourself. For over five years, Wirecutter writer Alexander Aciman has used the affordable Eppicotispai Gnocchi Board to make delicious, pillowy gnocchi, and he says that you can easily master the proper rolling technique (video) with a little practice. You can even use the board to expand your repertoire of pasta shapes to include a few more, such as cavatelli and garganelli (video). Although all homemade, hand-rolled pastas can be a bit time-consuming to make, you might enjoy the meditative practice—and you’ll definitely delight in the meal once it’s time to eat.
This article was edited by Alexander Aciman and Catherine Kast.
Mentioned above
- We spent more than 45 hours researching and testing paring knives to find the best choice for most people. Read on to see what we recommend.The Best Paring Knife
- From durable cookie cutters to a nimble rolling pin, these are the tools we recommend to make holiday cookie baking fun and stress-free.The Best Holiday Cookie Baking Gear
- Achieving the perfect smash-burger patty is easy if—and only if—you have the right equipment. After many frustrating attempts to find the right tool, I’ve found “the one.”This $22 Grill Press Helped Me Finally Crack the Code to Ultra-Thin Smash Burgers
- We tasted 15 smooth-style peanut butters and recommend four that were the cream of the crop.The Best Creamy Peanut Butter
- I scoffed at this peanut butter mixing crank when I discovered it years ago. Now I can’t live without it.Love Natural Peanut Butter but Hate the Stirring? This Doodad Is a Game Changer.
- Even if you bake one apple pie a year, you’ll want this old-fashioned apple peeler, which peels, cores, and slices apples faster than anything else we’ve tried.This Old-Fashioned Apple Peeler Is the Best Way to Peel Apples
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