We profess a fondness for old-fashioned kitchen tools – things like charming pie birds, wooden butter molds, and a good cast iron skillet. How about you?
Though at times we may suffer from an overly romantic view of the past as we sigh over the offerings at Labour and Wait and Lehman's, in many cases there's a good reason these tools have endured. Not only have classics like the apple corer or mortar and pestle gone through decades or even centuries of refinement, but they're often more sturdy and long-lasting than modern-day (plastic) gadgets. They generally last a lifetime and never go out of style. And then there are tools handed down from parents, grandparents, and other relatives. How wonderful it is to hold a well-worn and loved rolling pin, egg beater, or granny fork passed down through the generations!
What old-fashioned tools do you have in your kitchen? Do you use them regularly or keep them for sentimental or decorative reasons?
Note: The Bromwell Flour Sifter, Egg Beater, and Pie Bird in the image above are available for sale from TagSaleFinds on Etsy.
Related: 5 Favorite Old-Fashioned Kitchen Gadgets
(Image: TagSaleFinds)
A Work Week Menu Plan That You Can Do
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Floral Drink Dispen...
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Beatriz's Fun & Functional Workspace
I have old pieces from my great-grandfathers house and my mom. Rolling pins, rolling mat with pie crusts sized on it, hand beaters, meat grinder, serrated melon spoons, and old Dutch oven from the 70's. All still work great!
I have a cute little pie bird that looks very similar to that one. :) Most importantly, I have all my Nana's cookbooks, with her additions in them. I swear they look like the Half-Blood Prince's potion book. Wouldn't give them up for the world.
I have an old egg beater that was my dad's (maybe my grandma's?) and that I LOVE.
I use it for whipped cream a lot, because that doesn't require a ton of whipping and it doesn't seem worth it to haul out the electric mixer for such a small job. It's really nice for when I'm making dessert with my little brother, too, because it's lighter and easier to use than the electric mixer so he can help.
But I've also used it to beat egg whites for pancakes, and other small beating jobs (heh).
I have an old wooden rolling pin that is amazing (from Grandma) and also an older potato masher. New ones just don't even compare.
Some of my favorite kitchen items are my Great-Aunt's cast iron skillet, my Grandma's pastry cutter, and the Pyrex mixing bowls and refrigerator dishes that were like the ones my parents had when I was growing up.
My mom has her great grandmother's cheese grater. It's still the best one! And we have a beautiful heavy glass platter that always holds the dinner bread, also great grandmother's.
My mother has her great-grandmother's sifter, and I love using it. It's a little rusty and dented but works way better than any of the nice sifters Mom and I have bought at fancy kitchenware stores.
Also, my mini masher isn't heirloom, but was apparently based on a design from the 1800s, and I love that thing.
My mom's kitchen is decorated with old utensils. Luckily they aren't nailed to the wall because we still use them. The wood handled masher, the potato ricer, the enameled wash tubs. Someday I hope to inherit my mom's rolling pin and my grandma's lefse turning sticks.
I've got a sifter about as old as that one; and my ricer; and rolling pin; and mortar & pestle; and many, many others. But, the oldest thing in my kitchen that still works is me :)
We have our great-grandmother's rolling pin and a cast iron mortar and pestle. Grandmothers cookbooks, sadly, were lost 20 years ago in a puppy - related incident.
I have some old wood handled forks that were my great gram's... Mom always used them for cooking meat. I also have old cast iron skillets (far better than the newly made ones) and a vintage set of Pyrex mixing bowls.
My favorite thing is a nearly 100 year old hand written cookbook that was Gram's... In fact, I've turned it into a series on my blog. Every week I post one page from the cookbook and talk about the recipes, some of which I try out and update the recipe to modern times.
http://lifeontheclothesline.wordpress.com/
It is so much fun and I've learned so much about food and my Gram by doing the series than I ever would have by just looking at the cookbook!
Sadly, I wasn't old enough to be interested in cooking when my grandmother died, or I would have made sure to snatch up all her stuff. But a few years ago, I bought a Griswold cast-iron skillet on eBay. It's more than a hundred years old, and has become my favorite kitchen tool. My grandchildren will fight over it when I'm gone...