Food and Drink #48

[StewPots]

They’ve got brand flavours now, Pepsi etc and apparently they’re pretty good. I go through phases of wanting one but I know in my heart I’d use it incessantly until the first cylinder ran out and then it would join the toastie maker, the bread maker, the egg cooker and other miscellaneous kitchen “gadgets” in the cupboard under the stairs where they go to die.

Yeah I’m a poor so probably couldn’t afford one in the first place but if I could then I’d be the same I reckon!

Although I use my bread maker a lot - best present I had that year! I use packet mix and the same setting repeatedly but it made a lush multiseed loaf today that was perfect for a beans on toast dinner. Also handy to have packets about as they’re the same cost as an actual loaf and when I’m broke, I know at least we have bread. I can make it from scratch but by time I use the oven etc it works out the same cost in electric anyway and none of the effort.

I also got a rice cooker a few months back from Amazon for £12!! Thought it would be tit tbh but it’s brilliant! Total bargain.

 

[skronkywildcat]

Kitchen gadgets I have bought and used about twice before relegating to the back of the cupboard: Juicer, pasta maker, popcorn machine (though it is very good - from Aldi).

 

[Wooh]

Yeah I’m a poor so probably couldn’t afford one in the first place but if I could then I’d be the same I reckon!

Although I use my bread maker a lot - best present I had that year! I use packet mix and the same setting repeatedly but it made a lush multiseed loaf today that was perfect for a beans on toast dinner. Also handy to have packets about as they’re the same cost as an actual loaf and when I’m broke, I know at least we have bread. I can make it from scratch but by time I use the oven etc it works out the same cost in electric anyway and none of the effort.

I also got a rice cooker a few months back from Amazon for £12!! Thought it would be tit tbh but it’s brilliant! Total bargain.

Well, there is always sales and discount codes; keep an eye out. In Australia we have a swap and go system for new cartridges, available at some of the supermarkets, mid level department stores and even petrol stations. Definitely no regassing.

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

I love my soda stream fizzy water maker. The cartridges last me ages and then I don’t get through plastic bottles and it’s definitely cheaper (plus no carting the bottles about). I bought some syrup once though and it was rank.

The water here is really really hard but it tastes nice. I love this time of year when it’s icey coming out of the tap

 

[nothanksbabes]

I'm poorly sick with this lurgy that's going round (or perhaps I've got my first bout of covid at long last, who knows?) and this thread has convinced me that sparkling water is the cure. Of course it's midnight so I'll just have to drink this water out of the tap. Like a savage.

 

[HotesTilaire]

Love my soda stream. I get three canisters delivered they last about a year. I post them back empty, and get the deposit back.
I don’t know why but I hate Evian. For a showy bottle you can’t beat Ty Nant

 

[MurielSnark]

Spoiler: On Soda Stream and its controversies

Putting this behind a spoiler because it deals with a highly sensitive topic that different ninnies will have varying perspectives on. Don't really want to get into a debate about it but thought it might be interesting to fill in some context as people are discussing Soda Stream.

First, the debate about whether bottled fizzy water is less environmentally damaging than a Soda Stream is a powerful one but it's largely been driven by Soda Stream themselves as part of their marketing strategy. If anyone has an independent source on this, I'd be interested to see it.

Bottled water is problematic for the plastic waste and the energy consumed in bottling, transporting etc.

Second, Soda Stream is one of the products identified for boycott by the Palestinian-led BDS movement. You might have seen this in the news around ten years ago -- it's still on the BDS list of products to avoid. Related to this, the company also has some rather terrible employment practices on its report card, tangential to BDS.

There's information about this online if you want to look it up.

Also, there's another brand of soda maker called Aarkle (made in Scandanavia somewhere) that is technically a good alternative to Soda Stream in that it's politically more neutral. However, I remember reading somewhere that the cylinders used in the Aarkle are standard Soda Stream canisters.

Just putting this here as food for thought. In the same way that some of us don't eat meat or avoid Nestle products or whatever, it's good to look at things from all angles.

 

[HotesTilaire]

I was aware and made an informed choice

 

[emm]

Kitchen gadgets I have bought and used about twice before relegating to the back of the cupboard: Juicer, pasta maker, popcorn machine (though it is very good - from Aldi).

The only kitchen gadget I've bought and consistently use years later is a nutribullet, yes you can male smoothies etc but it's great to use as a blender generally and much easier to clean/store etc. I use it for soups, pestos.. everything.
Would love a sodastream for fizzy water but as someone else said I know I'd just use it until the first can ran out then never again. A bread maker I'm actually considering though, I've been on the look out in charity shops near me recently as they often have kitchen stuff so fingers crossed!

 

[griftalo]

I’d love a soda stream - only because they came out when I was a kid and it’s that nostalgia thing but apart from the cola one I’m pretty sure all the rest of the flavours were bleeping shite. Also, how do you get the tubes now? Can you get them “re-gassed” like air com units or do you have to keep buying new ones?

I’m hoping someone knows what I’m asking - it’s been a long day of studying, walking (hard work for me) housework and job applications

I got one because I was ashamed at the amount of bottles I get through and I didn’t get along with it. It worked out more expensive for gas by my calculations and after it wouldn’t stop discharging gas one time and emptied the canister, I sent it back. Tbf I got a full refund due to the policy but I thought I’d love it and didn’t.
I do like my toastie machine, we’ve used that for a long time.
ETA kitchen gadgets we have: coffee machine - used multiple times a day
Blender - very rarely
Hand blender - more often
Instant pot x 2 one with fryer lid - use daily multiple times
Rice cooker - 1-3 x a week

 

[Lazarus]

i looked at the Aarke water carbonator, but to be honest i'm not sure the trustpilot reviews are very, very mixed. for the price, i'm just not yet convinced.

 

[CabalofBolorneaise]

Spoiler: On Soda Stream and its controversies

Putting this behind a spoiler because it deals with a highly sensitive topic that different ninnies will have varying perspectives on. Don't really want to get into a debate about it but thought it might be interesting to fill in some context as people are discussing Soda Stream.

First, the debate about whether bottled fizzy water is less environmentally damaging than a Soda Stream is a powerful one but it's largely been driven by Soda Stream themselves as part of their marketing strategy. If anyone has an independent source on this, I'd be interested to see it.

Bottled water is problematic for the plastic waste and the energy consumed in bottling, transporting etc.

Second, Soda Stream is one of the products identified for boycott by the Palestinian-led BDS movement. You might have seen this in the news around ten years ago -- it's still on the BDS list of products to avoid. Related to this, the company also has some rather terrible employment practices on its report card, tangential to BDS.

There's information about this online if you want to look it up.

Also, there's another brand of soda maker called Aarkle (made in Scandanavia somewhere) that is technically a good alternative to Soda Stream in that it's politically more neutral. However, I remember reading somewhere that the cylinders used in the Aarkle are standard Soda Stream canisters.

Just putting this here as food for thought. In the same way that some of us don't eat meat or avoid Nestle products or whatever, it's good to look at things from all angles.

Spoiler: Small response

Ah yes, the BDS boycott that led to them moving their factory (what BDS wanted, them not to operate there) so 200+ Palestinians lost their jobs and source of income. BDS try to blame Israel for this by saying they just wanted sodastream not to operate in the occupied territories but that in itself would always have led to the loss of jobs, the two options were relocate further into Israel and they’d lose their jobs or close it entirely where they’d also lose their jobs.

 

[Wooh]

Spoiler: On Soda Stream and its controversies

Putting this behind a spoiler because it deals with a highly sensitive topic that different ninnies will have varying perspectives on. Don't really want to get into a debate about it but thought it might be interesting to fill in some context as people are discussing Soda Stream.

First, the debate about whether bottled fizzy water is less environmentally damaging than a Soda Stream is a powerful one but it's largely been driven by Soda Stream themselves as part of their marketing strategy. If anyone has an independent source on this, I'd be interested to see it.

Bottled water is problematic for the plastic waste and the energy consumed in bottling, transporting etc.

Second, Soda Stream is one of the products identified for boycott by the Palestinian-led BDS movement. You might have seen this in the news around ten years ago -- it's still on the BDS list of products to avoid. Related to this, the company also has some rather terrible employment practices on its report card, tangential to BDS.

There's information about this online if you want to look it up.

Also, there's another brand of soda maker called Aarkle (made in Scandanavia somewhere) that is technically a good alternative to Soda Stream in that it's politically more neutral. However, I remember reading somewhere that the cylinders used in the Aarkle are standard Soda Stream canisters.

Just putting this here as food for thought. In the same way that some of us don't eat meat or avoid Nestle products or whatever, it's good to look at things from all angles.

Spoiler: Edited: spoiler add, SS response

Absolutely love your post. Respect. In truth had I known about the Australian made SS substitute, I would definitely have purchased it. I note the Aus made SS also "fits all SS canisters", so I had wondered about their, shall we say, full commitment.

I've made my choice about the issues, as you can see. Absolutely acknowledge that this and almost every single decision we make each day is important at some point in the supply chain.

What I like is [all people] making an informed decision, not just assuming that all resources are ours.

@MurielSnark, I think we're in the same book here, if not the exact page.

---
May I add to the conversation to bread making? Oddly, I'm anti bread maker, but that is not important: I think I heard once 20 years ago they use tit loads of electricity, and somehow I took umbrage.

I used to make all my own bread. Nowadays I just take the scraps of sourdough from work (because I'm not getting any less weird and I eat far less bread and it's not lockdown anyway.) I cooked it 2 hours in slow cooker on high (frugal! thrifty beige postcards!)

I didn't do sourdough, I made yeast bread. Often wholemeal cottage cheese dinner rolls. I learned even to prep the dough and freeze batches. OMG the pleasure of it! The fun and creativity and crafty science of it. I urge you, one and all - if you can - to give it a go.

So speaks the child free woman who loves cooking. Not everyone is in *this* zone.

 

[skronkywildcat]

I got amazing at making sourdough when it was lockdown. I can't bear the thought of it now. I don't like breadmakers because of that hole in the bread. At least my friend who had one - it always came out with a knitting needle width hole through it.

 

[Witchfinder Sargeant]

New thread here https://tattle.life/threads/food-and-drink-49.43673/