This is one of the most curious gadgets we've ever come across, and we've been at a loss as how to post about it. This is an "automatic stirrer" from British design group üutensil, a company that has designed some fun products. So we were fascinated by this stirrer and yet completely baffled as to why anyone would need it. Read on for our impressions and a quick video of this gadget in action.
On the one hand, this product seems preposterous. Who needs an automatic stirrer when you have your arm and a spoon? Was this the ultimate in uni-taskers, we wondered? And yet we were so curious about the engineering of the thing that we decided to give it a try. We also wondered if it had potential as a really useful product to people who have a disability and are unable to stand and stir for long periods of time.
This stirrer has little feet has you can see above, and when you put batteries into the gadget and turn it on, the feet vibrate. They do this in just the right rhythm so that the stirrer rotates, slowly. You can change speeds, too, from slow to faster to pretty brisk. Fascinating, right?
As we played around with it we started thinking of some things that would benefit, after all, from an automatic stirrer. Things like polenta, risotto, scrambled eggs, and any milk-based sauce that has a tendency to scorch. No, we probably still wouldn't buy a stirrer for any of those things, but hey, it might come in handy from time to time, right? Especially when multi-tasking?
Well, in the end, after we got the Stirr into a pot or two of sauces, our final verdict was sadly not a good one. The idea, as we admitted above, has some potential, but the execution is lacking. The Stirr, it turned out, won't actually stir anything thicker than a thin liquid. We tried dish after dish with the Stirr to see if it would help out, but it proved far too weak for polenta, oatmeal, and even milky sauces. As the sauce firmed up or started coating the bottom of the pan, the Stirr would get stuck and stop. And this when you really need the pan to be stirred, right?
Our final attempt is documented below: a pan of scrambled eggs. Surely it could handle this, we thought. And scrambled eggs are one of the dishes that would actually benefit from an automatic stirrer; we had visions of scrambled eggs cooked for an hour over ultra-low heat, stirred constantly by our mechanical arm. The ultimate in luxury!
But again, the poor little Stirr just wasn't up to it. As soon as the eggs thickened and coated the bottom of the pan, the Stirr was stuck.
So, final verdict: Very interesting idea and fascinating execution: but still needs some work.
• More about the Stirr: Stirr at üutensil
Related: Odd Gadget: Al Dente Operatic Pasta Timer
(Images: Faith Durand)
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Now that is a deeply silly gizmo. And probably a lot harder to clean that a simple spatula or wooden spoon.
What's wrong with stirring? It builds up your arm muscles and keeps children and significant others occupied while you do other stuff.
I wonder how that would feel on my back or the top of my head?
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you are not a big cook. A stirrer would be great for sauces that ask you to stir the whole time they are cooking, while you are making the other parts of the meal. I've had to ask other people in the house for an extra hand in these cases. Another great example would be risotto, like you mentioned. But scrambled eggs? They turn out best with minimal stirring, at just the right point-- not stirring the whole time from the beginning like this. This gadget could actually be useful for cooking, but definitely needs some work. Thanks for the demonstration!
I agree with ackbeth regarding this being useful for things that need constant stirring over a long period of time.
Also, if you're juggling multiple dishes and can't constantly stir something, this could be handy.
Neat idea. Maybe they need to go to a corded model that could offer more power and stir through thicker sauces.
Yes, this could be useful in certain circumstances, but I would be far too embarrassed to own one. I'm an old-school stirrer.
this is a new age of laziness....
In the lab we have stir bars---they are magnetic bars coated in plastic, you put them on a stir plate and they just spin around in a circle. I've always wondered why no one has adapted this for the kitchen. I doubt it would work for gas stoves just due to space constraints but there is no reason it couldn't work easily for electric since that is basically what it is paired with on a hot plate. Still, wouldn't use it for eggs though, maybe pudding.
This would be a great gizmo for someone like mother who has severe carpal tunnel and the delicacy of stirring with a wooden spoon for long periods of time causes her pain.
My culinarily inclined science friends and I have also wondered why they never built magnetic stir bar technology into modern stovetops, especially given all of the bells and whistles the upscale ones have. A magnetic stirrer would be great for sauces, risotto, etc. It does a decent job with fairly thick liquids and it's totally heat resistant.
On the stir bars - probably the issue is getting the mag field to the stir bar. Big difference between glass flasks/tubes and a pan. Most everything works on an induction cooktop right, so you're very unlikely to get the rotation passed through the pot/pan.
Could be a great uber expensive gadget for Mauviel owners :D
Traditional chai requires 15 minutes of continuous stirring. I would definititely use it for that. I'd would probably make chai a lot more frequently if I had one of these things.It probably has some other similarly specialized uses.
Of course it won't work for risotto, which is too thick, and you need to scrape it away from the bottom of the pan anyway, not just stir it.
In my job we use a thing called a Le Saucier to make wheat starch paste. As far as I'm aware, it's a piece of culinary equipment that the conservation profession has adopted.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tefal-836819-Saucier-Sauce-Maker/dp/B00028XM50
I've never tried it with food, but it copes easily with thick wheat starch pastes. Now I'm tempted to get another one and experiment with scrambled eggs...
You ask who could possibly use it - someone who is partially disabled. I can not stand for longer than a minute or so, and would love to be able to have something that could stir for me. Unfortunately, corn meal mush (i.e., polenta) is one of the things I would have purchased this for.
There is a market, albeit small, but a market, for such things.