apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

OH! It's a butter warmer! When I moved away from home and accrued all of my dad's cast off cookware, I got what seemed to be the world's tiniest and least useful cast iron sauce pot. Now I know what it is!

But I'll still never use it.

Okay, this is probably a good time to ask -- what is the use of a zester? I just use a cheese grater to zest lemons. It's pretty easy. Am I doing this all wrong?

cakekick -- Let me have your (dad's) butter warmer! I need an insanely-small saucepan, especially one with a pouring spout.

22209 -- The all-purpose grater is perfectly fine for zesting. I find that a zester is better at creating attractive mini-strips of citrus peel, for dishes where they are more visible (like desserts).

22209,

You're not doing anything wrong by using a cheese grater.

However, specialized zesters accomplish basically the same thing, fine pieces of lemon skin, but with slightly different results.

The zester pictured above will give you long ribbons of zest in addition to thick strips of lemon through the use of the channel knife which is the blade with one hole in the center.

A microplane, which is basically a very fine and sharp plane will provide you with an almost lemon dust strictly comprised of the lemon skin or zest, not the white pithy part of the rind. A cheese grater is quite rough and you may run the risk of digging into the white pith which is very bitter.

Got it. Thank you!! Then I will keep grating my rinds for now, and when I have more room for more toys I will get myself a zester!

I think firing up a stove simply to melt butter--or chocolate--is ridiculous. Can we please allow the microwave to pull its weight?

Of course, this is n/a to those lacking a microwave, but I think we need to be more realistic in letting go of some weird fuzzy feeling of tradition and resistance to banal technologies like the microwave in the name of common sense consideration regarding energy consumption.

I'm not trying to be high-horse about it, but I think many of us, as cooks and/or bakers, don't always consider how energy-demanding our hobby is. It's a shame if the same desire to be connected with our food/planet that has led to good things like farmers markets and eating seasonally and sustainable seafood, etc., doesn't also come into consideration when we actually cook it.

Likewise with the gas vs. electric stove question: as a cook, gas is better, more control, instant response, etc., But it's so inefficient.

Anyway, just throwing it out there.

* My potato peeler. If I try to peel anything with a knife, I end up cutting off about twice as much as with a peeler.

* Definitely ramekins. They're so handy for holding spices and ingredients that need to be added to the recipe later.