Considering i have seen professional chefs without oily hands lose pieces of fingers on TV just by being careless... I personally will probably never touch a mandoline. I am one of the people whom he does the left handed oil test for, it is very nice that he considers people that dont have 2 fully working hands
@@rebasack21 We actually purchased the standing mandolin he reviewed where the blade moves instead of the food. It's much safer and we've used it several times. It cuts great.
idk I have a pretty similar french fry cutter as in the video (also vintage because my family never throws anything away) and it works very well. maybe the blades werent as sharp anymore?
I find that Dan has a likeable personality, so I rate his person a 5/5. Seems like a guy I could watch for numerous videos. I also like that he explains things well, so I rate his presentation a 5/5. It's pretty obvious that he has a lot of experience. Lastly, I like the colors of his outfit today, and so I give his style a 5/5. Nice contrast on the shirt and the polo. Overall, I give Dan a 5/5. I always love videos with him in it.
French fry cutter is supposed to be mounted on the wall so that it's stable, and you can use your body weight. It makes it very easy to use and safer than a mandolin, though you probably still need to have a bit of strength. Admittedly, this makes it useful in a restaurant, but probably unnecessary in a home kitchen
This is EXACTLY what I was about to say...I saw one of those mounted to a wall in a restaurant once and the guy using it was absolutely trucking through a sack of potatoes with it
at in n out they have something similar to this french fry cutter, but it's mounted on the wall and the user pulls down on the lever. looks like it works great
Yeah they've got it down. The leverage on those are perfect and I watch them go through potatoes like nothing. Can't see mounting one in my kitchen though.
They have a wall mounted one at a restaurant I worked, and you still have to add a lot of pressure and sometimes use your bodyweight to slice a potato.
I have two of the items you reviewed, the juice-o-mat and the miracle french fry maker. I bought the juicer to make lemonade shakes like you get at the fair. I priced the modern juicers and they were insane. With a lemon, the juice-o-mat is perfect as is. Now for the french fry cutter. I, too, found it hard to use until I saw it properly utilized. You see, it is meant to be mounted vertically on a wall with a bucket under the blade end. Instead of pushing down, you're pushing the handle up and to the wall. Saw it used at the Canfield Fair this way and the guy could do 10 or so potatoes in less than a minute.
I was just about to say most of this lol My mother has that old juicer and uses it for lemon loaves. It's squeezes every ounce of juice out of something that size. And my local farmer's market has chip trucks parked there and yes, the one guy has one of these fry cutters aligned vertically and just flies through them, one handed. The angle makes all the difference.
Same! I squeeze a lot of lemons and the shape of the cone is perfect. I have an electric juicer and it just doesn't work as well as the metal one. It's one of my cherished gadgets
I think time itself is a big factor. If the gadget is designed well, it has a much higher probability to stay in household after all these years. When the production team sought to borrow or buy old gadgets in good condition for filming, good gadgets have a much a higher chance to be featured.
Also notice the usage of metal instead of plastic. I own a version of the french fry cutter, but everything except the handle and the blades is plastic. I've also seen something similar to the egg cutter, where the handle was made of plastic.
You have to remember the price of this was much much MUCH higher than the ones you commonly find now. This applies to most "things back in the day were built different". Your washing machine has to be sturdy when it costs a months wage
Be nice to for him to show what he designed and how successful he was. For most people he could be a design expert for a bunch of 2 star niche junk for all they know. I looked him up and found it he was behind WAY more amazing products than I thought, he really doesn't give off the vibe of being the genius he truly is.
Well, a lot of geniuses of the past have been like that. Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, and Alan Turing are just a few examples. Back then nobody really respected them, but their legacy lives on to this very day.
One reason why some of the old gadgets work well is that the materials are often much better. Looked like good quality metal and plastic to me, compared to a lot of the new stuff.
The main thing you have to ask with any kitchen gadget is whether it's worth the space it takes up, because "You know, I just have way too much kitchen space" is something that nobody has said, ever...
Exactly! That's what stops me from buying stand mixers, air fryers, blenders... I do have to have my coffee maker. When that breaksdown, I'm going to my trusty vintage Japanese pourover or Turkish teamaker.
Allow me to disadree, Those celebrities living in McMansions who make house tours and they say "Oh you know I never being in this room before!" I bet they have way too much kitchen space. XDXDXD
@@anayelisoria37 A dear friend of mine lived in a pretty well empty McMansion. She was part of an operation for falsifying realtor documents. She had nothing but a big beautiful house to live in. Her gigantic kitchen with floor to ceiling cabinets housed plastic cool whip bowls and Big Gulp drink cups. The butlery contained plastic to go cutlery and mustard/ketchup packets. Meanwhile I can't even have a dishrack on my counter and have to store my baking dishes in a bedroom.
and even if you have the space, will you use it enough to justify any purchase? take the egg slicer for example, it seems to work pretty well but how often do you really need such sliced eggs, 1-2x per year? so unless you give many dinner parties or are otherwise using an unusually large amount of eggs just a knife is enough. + cleaning that thing seems more complicated than simply cleaning a knife.
There's rant I believe is attributed to Alton Brown: No Unitaskers. A kitchen gadget that does only a single thing either needs to do a thing you do very often, or it needs to be multifunctional. Something like the egg slicer is a good example - it's very good at what it does, but spending an extra minute or two twice a year to use a knife isn't going to ruin my life. This assumes I can FIND the damn thing when I need it, too.
@noojhaj What did you think it was? It's called 'Well Equipped' and it's produced by a company owned by Condè Nast one of the largest publishing companies on earth and parent company of reddit. You can see the show title not only in intro sequence but in the title and thumbnail of this video.
For anyone curious about why eggs have a pointy end, there are two main reasons. Eggs are squishy for most of the creation process, so when they are squeezed by the inside of the bird, they naturally tend towards that shape. They come out blunt end first. Secondly, the slightly odd shape makes them less likely to roll away. Birds that lay eggs on rocks or cliffs often have almost conical eggs so they roll in a tiny circle and don’t fall off.
the issue with that potato slicer is double. For one, they really intended it for russet potatoes which are much softer. Two: the blades are highly subject to age, once they've been used even once or twice, they're dull and it was likely cleaned and put back in the box and never used again.
@@asobimo5532 u mean automation? Since these are nowhere used in restaurants Most of them use either actual slicing by chefs themselves or just fast food fries
@@kyarumomochi5146 working at a few restaurants when I was younger I can tell you that some places use them and some places don't, and typically the chefs aren't doing basic stuff like cutting fries
@@kyarumomochi5146 Nope. I worked in large kitchens for years, as prep, line, and garde manger, and all our fries were made with a larger versions of the vertical cutter he was misusing. I know because it was one of many jobs all of us did. You don't know what you are on about. Sorry. Terrifying watching him using the mandolin, as well.
@Long Face - Back in the late '50s, early 60s, my mother was a Jell-O molding queen. She made all kinds of colorful, filled Jell-o dishes. It was a gift.
We have a snow cone maker that uses ice disks and it's fantastic! We really do just keep some containers of the disk in the freezer. When we're tight on space we put them straight into the ice cube bin. Ours is a Pampered Chef one and it came with containers, with lids, in the perfect size for the machine. I think the solid ice chunks are what create the better texture. I wouldn't trade it for the texture ice cubes make.
@@monroerobbins7551 it is, but I actually got our snow cone machine at a thrift store. I don't even think they make it anymore. I should have been more clear in my post. I only said the brand at all because other people may one one similar to the video and the PC brand one is definitely easy to find. I stumble upon a used one 2-3 times a year.
@@monroerobbins7551 they do have some good products, for a price. (As with Norwex and Tupperware) Sales people differ - we've only met laid-back people.
I used to sell PC, and the ice shaver is my fav. I’m hoping I have it in storage because I really loved melting red hot candies into water and freezing the disc of that to shave! It was cold and refreshing red hots! 😃 Good to know I can pick it up on eBay if it’s not in my storage!
I got hooked on these videos bc I’m just kinda in love with this dude! Wicked smart and a great sense of humor! Just super likable… I hope he does a lot more videos. 😘
I used one of those french fry makers at a restaurant while going to collage. They work great but you do have to bolt them to the counter. Not something I would suggest in a home setting.
The juicer is designed for a smaller fruit than what we're used to today. The wedge shape was designed to smash and spread a small fruit out more efficiently. The fact that you still have a recognizable half of the orange instead of a ripped out cone husk is the most telling part. Your fruit was too big.
Instant click on the video and like when I see it is Dan. :D Edit After Watching: I have a newer version of the French fry maker and it works really well! It doesn’t use that much force and I like to use it with potatoes, mushrooms, onions etc… if you put it through two ways, you can get nicely cubed veggies! I like it.
For the juicers, it's better to place the orange the other way around, with the peel side down. It's unintuitive but you get a cleaner squeeze and more juice out of it.
When i was a kid we owned a small snowcone maker very similar to that ice pet, the main difference was the way it was positioned. The handle was on the top and there was a small enclosed bucket to put the molded ice in before closing and grinding into snow. It came with molds for the ice as well that also doubled as a simple bowl to catch the snow in. We loved it! I think really the main differences between the 2 were just making it a bit safer for small children.
One problem with the Bean X is how would you sharpen the blade? Also, I like how he used only similarly sized blood oranges for the Juicer test, it just helps ensure the variable that is the fruit stays fairly similar, therefore demonstrating a more reliable demonstration and sort of study with the thing. I appreciate that. :) (also, I imagine just using any regular circular Tupperware would be good for the ice pet.)
Given that the Juicer wasn't designed for left handed people (handle on the left for right handed users) the only thing you have to do is make the handle reversible or have a handle that joins in the front allowing both left- and right-hand users equal benefit.
HE IS FREAKING ADORABLE! i just recently discovered this series and i’ve been watching all the videos bc his personality is so lovable and his jokes def make this so enjoyable to watch
I have a similar French fry cutter, and I love it. It makes cutting French fries so quick. I even use it for mashed potatoes, or to more quickly cut the potato into little cubes. I use it weekly!
@@headerahelix The potato stays together pretty well despite being cut. It’s easy to just hold onto the potato cuts and cut after. Sometimes I separate it in half, but it’s still quick to do.
For the juicer, I would assume the insert is a cone rather than a dome to account for the varying diameter of fruits. A small orange will use the top of the cone, a large orange will use a larger portion of the cone. Neither are 100% effective, but both will work. If you went with a dome, it will work perfectly for an orange with the same diameter as the dome, but it would only get a small portion of a larger orange, and a smaller orange would... get flattened? I'm not actually sure the latter is a problem. It might actually make more sense to have an inverted dome (bowl) instead and just embrace that you will be crushing the fruit.
I got that potato cutter except the handle on mine is red. I've been using it for years and I really like it. I would recommend it to anyone. These things are used in restaurants and they're usually screwed onto the walls with the action reversed so you're pulling the lever down. It does take a lot of strength to use but it is supper efficient and I can cut enough fries for a family in a minute or less.
As a kid, we used that French fry cutter fairly often after my mom got a Fry Daddy. My brothers and I had the task of cutting the potatoes. We used to put it on the rough concrete floor of the storage room with a plate to catch the fries. That way we could push down on it with our body weight and it wouldn't slip. I don't see how it compares to a mandolin, the use such a different technique. A more modern fry-maker was designed with the grid of blades facing down with legs that you could place a bowl under and a handle in a wide tube that pushed the potato down through the blades into the bowl. Sometimes that broke the blades. The screw idea would have worked much better.
theres something about old kitchen gadgets that makes them feel more reliable, maybe is that they are Made of steel instead of a cheap plastic or maybe it could be because on that epoch they were more worried about making the thing work as efficient as posible instead of making it look unique and diferent from any other
Maybe it’s just the implementation of planned obsolescence on modern products Washing machines are massive fir that (especially comparing a soviet washing machine to modern ones)
That's probably why the ice pet was designed the way it was, less wasted plastic from trimmings, more cost effective to use less plastic, cheaper to make moulds that are smaller/thinner ect. If it was made in the 60s maybe they didn't have the means to recycle trimmings, i doubt they cared but interesting to think about
Ice pet looked pretty cool. I might even imagine making room for it somewhere, unlike any of the other gadgets. Especially since I already have a mandolin. Not at all convinced with his ice cube holder alternative for the Ice Pet though. He had a hard enough time loading a single disk of ice as it was. Can you imagine the trouble of fumbling around trying to load four ice cubes as they continuously fall out as you try to load more? 1/5 for the improvement.
We had an earlier version of the Juice-O-Mat and the insert was round, like an orange, and significantly beefier that the version in the video. Perhaps the 60's version was redesigned to allow the insert to be stamped instead of cast.
To be frank this is the main reason I watch this channel. Dane is great with his logic and knife skills. Leading to to believer its hard to make something better then a knife.
I think that old ice shaver work well because that mold make solid line that alway incontact with shaver knife. new version can take all shape of ice ... but there is air in those ice
Hey! I have that French Fry cutter, although mine does come with a rubber suction piece that keeps the gadget solidly in place and completely prevents sliding. It works fantastically, outside of, of course, needing a bit of arm strength to actually push the lever all the way down.
The way to make the juicer extract more juice is to make the top and bottom mate perfectly. That way it doesn't matter what shape your fruit is: in the end the skin will tear to conform to the shape and there won't be any spare room for the juicy bits to hide. In theory, anyways.
We had a juicer (when I was a boy so many years ago) like the Juice-o-matic, but it was from the 1950s and it had a dome! The inset juicer was cast iron and not stamped like this one seems to be. It worked very well.
I actually remember having one of those potato slicer things in my parents house growing up. It did not work well. I think if it was mounted vertically it would have worked much better. Flat on the surface just wasn't great. I'm pretty sure McDonald's used something like that mounted vertically from the beginning so it clearly worked well for the time.
the trend i see with these gadgets is that they solve pertinent issues, and not conjuring an issue up then fail to solve that said issue simultaneously
I like that this guy thinks about the accessibility of each product. People really take it for granted but they will appreciate using an ergonomic and comfortable item especially into old age.
We had something similar to the bean-x when I was a kid in the 1960s. We grew runner beans which are fatter than American green beans and do need slicing before cooking. Dealing with beans was one of my favorite kitchen chores.
My friend has an oversized French fry cutter mounted to a wall, where you pull down and the fries come out to bottom. That's what I compare everything else to now.
My mother had that french fry slicer, way back in the 70's. I think she used it twice, before she threw it aside and used a knife. Came across it, somewhere in the back of a closet, when we cleaned out the house for the sale, last year.
Literally had the french fry cutter in the kitchen at a cook job I had once. Worked great mounted to the wall. Tray underneath, load large potato, and since it was mounted up a bit, you had excellent leverage using your legs to help you push the lever up. Worthless for home use, but in a restaurant kitchen it was fast and easy to get a large volume of fries made quickly.
I've been using the mandoline to prepare finger food my whole life and I've never had a problem! Oh, by "finger food" I mean food with pieces of my finger in it.
I need to rifle thru all my kitchen drawers and cabinets. There’s like at least 3 generations of kitchen gadgets. I gotta see if I find something cool like this stuff 😂
I have one of those juice-o-mats I have never used it though. It was given to me 30 plus years ago when I got married, I don't squeeze my own juice. It just sits on a shelf in my kitchen and looks cool.
The best accessory to the ice-shaver was always a margarine tub. It was the best way to freeze discs for it, and it let you freeze orange juice for shaving.
That French fry cutter is absolutely still used today in professional kitchens. You know it's supposed to be mounted on a wall right? So instead of pulling away from the machine you're pulling down, using your body weight. They're honestly very easy to use.
Unfortunately, I think you are mistaken. I owned one these models as these were sold for domestic use. Note it was in sale in the 1960's (and 1970s). The blades are thin but not sharp and there are no table top grips for stability either. His assessment is correct. Perhaps the model you used was designed differently because if you pulled down to cut with this attached to the wall, the fries would come out of the top and fall all over the place. A redesign could make it way more efficient than this model. But modern commercial kitchens use electric cutters now that you just put a bucket of potatoes in and the machine does the rest.
@@BigHenFor I understand that the lever is facing the opposite way, but a quick search shows you can simply unscrew the lever and flip it. And in the kitchens I've worked in, one in particular had an electronic fry cutter that we refused to use. Was way easier to keep the box near the wall mounted cutter, put a tote under it and away you go. But seriously, flip the handle, screw it to a stud and give it a go, super easy.
My mom also had one of these in the 90’s and the lever thing couldn’t be flipped nor it would be mounted on a wall, I think the ones marketed for professional kitchens and the ones marketed towards housewives differ greatly.
@@elif6908 How do they differ greatly if all it is is a reversed lever and a mount? The blade and mechanism is only fastened by afew screws. Looking at the patent, it is very easy to simply remove it and reverse it. As for mounting it, just a couple screws and a bracket. Simple. 5-10 minutes out of your life and a dollar at the hardware store. And just for argument sake, both the commercial and home versions are the same price, and are about 40 bucks.
It's funny because my nonna had the french fry cutter he used and she used to whip through a 5lb bag of potatoes in no time 😂 nonna's are known to be super strong though because they did everything by hand. When my nonna was growing up (and also as an adult) she made bread and fresh pasta every week.
I have one of those chip cutter contraptions, and I absolutely love it. On some potatoes, ones that have a wee hard spot in the middle, you do have to apply more pressure, but most of the time it's easy peasy (even on the hard spots, its not that bad. I'm a proper weakling and I manage just fine), mine has a super strong suction cup on the bottom, which really helps with the hard potatos. I bought it because I cook for my Da and he loves chips, but i'm really awful at cutting chips equally sized. It's made cooking so much more fun for me. I really enjoy using it, and in my opinion, it works really well.
I've had/have that same french fry cutter for 30+ years (2nd one last 15 years). It's works great. Yes, sometimes I really had to pull hard but when that happened, I just kept pulling the handle down in increments by hitting it, which helped push the potato through. It's always been terrific other than making sure you didn't use giant potatoes. If you did, you cut them in half before cutting them.
I've worked in restaurants my whole life. Those fry cutters are amazing for bulk, the problem is they need to be wall mounted so you're pulling down, not across.
in regards to the juicer test...he was actually putting the orange halves in the wrong way...you put them in curved side down. It seems counter intuitive but that is the proper way
I actually have that potato 🥔 gadget in my kitchen! It's a workout for sure, but I think that it does a good job. As for the bean tool, I don't really care for French cut green beans, so I just need to snap them and I only need my hands for that. I wouldn't mind that egg wedger though! As for the snowcone gadget, I'm going with the newer one that can handle regular cubes. All in all, once again a really fun video to start the day with!
Here in Chile we still use the beans cutter regularly. When I go to my mom's house sometimes I help her by sitting down at the living room watching some tv while cutting a bowl of this beans.
This show is oddly addictive. Like explaining to someone "i watch and older gentleman test kitchen gadgets" and they look at me like im nuts, but yet, here i am
You have a french fry cutter thats made out of stainless steel or cast iron with stainless steel cutters and its bolt on and going straight down cutting potatoes and they have a bigger lever so its mutch easyer to use. They use it in the netherlands at fry shops like bram ladage
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I used one of those potato cutters in a restaurant I worked at, admittedly we used it to chop onions but I've used one. It was wall mounted so it made it so much easier to get leverage.
I was not aware of Dan work, I met him here through the videos, and I discovery that his work was already impacted my life. I used the Cimzia injection that was one of his designs.
On the french fry cutter, I've had something similar, but newer, cheaper, and plastic. Plus it had interchangeable "blades". (Small Fries, Large Fries, Apples) I still had the same problems with it that Mr Formosa has. The design used by the first fast food place I worked at to chop onions would work a LOT better. (Basically just two rods sticking up to hold a thing that you slam down through the blades. Basically the same concept as the device shown, but fewer moving parts and vertical.) On the egg slicer, the big key to things like that not making a mess is that they're using wires to cut. I realized long ago that most of my wire cheese slicers are also great for eggs. Also great for butter, cheesecake, or anything soft. (In fact, I have a "butter slicer" that I more often use to slice bricks of cheese for snacking) The nicest thing about the wires is that while they may eventually break or snap, they never go dull. The larger newer juicer probably does work better because it has more leverage. As to the cone, it's probably that way to cover more citrus fruits than just an orange. A person is as likely to want to use it for a lemon or lime as a grapefruit. Now I'm going to go see what an ice pet is running on ebay.
If you try using the mandoline slicer with oily hands, you'll realize that the French fry cutter is pretty good.
I was hoping he'd use that vertical standing mandolin that he reviewed a while back (and liked!) to compare.
Considering i have seen professional chefs without oily hands lose pieces of fingers on TV just by being careless... I personally will probably never touch a mandoline. I am one of the people whom he does the left handed oil test for, it is very nice that he considers people that dont have 2 fully working hands
@@rebasack21 We actually purchased the standing mandolin he reviewed where the blade moves instead of the food. It's much safer and we've used it several times. It cuts great.
Or just use a knife
idk I have a pretty similar french fry cutter as in the video (also vintage because my family never throws anything away) and it works very well. maybe the blades werent as sharp anymore?
Praise to the set staff for making the Jell-O fruit dish decor for the video, totally fits the vintage vibe of the gadgets.
I was thinking the same thing!
We love aspic
I find that Dan has a likeable personality, so I rate his person a 5/5. Seems like a guy I could watch for numerous videos.
I also like that he explains things well, so I rate his presentation a 5/5. It's pretty obvious that he has a lot of experience.
Lastly, I like the colors of his outfit today, and so I give his style a 5/5. Nice contrast on the shirt and the polo.
Overall, I give Dan a 5/5. I always love videos with him in it.
Now for the left-handed oil test.
He's neat!
@@jincyquones let’s see what we can reveal
@@jincyquones You can't do that to Dan he's too innocent
You got test him with an oily left hand too
There's a lot to be said about a host personality making or breaking a show, but Dan is undeniably a gem to watch.
You can almost say that Dan's.... The man? :p
He's a great host. TV is full of people more dull than he is.
French fry cutter is supposed to be mounted on the wall so that it's stable, and you can use your body weight. It makes it very easy to use and safer than a mandolin, though you probably still need to have a bit of strength. Admittedly, this makes it useful in a restaurant, but probably unnecessary in a home kitchen
Glad I'm not the only ne who knew that.
This is EXACTLY what I was about to say...I saw one of those mounted to a wall in a restaurant once and the guy using it was absolutely trucking through a sack of potatoes with it
That’s what I thought; it reminded me of the ones they have at In-N-Out restaurants and they fly through potatoes with those things.
I was trying to see whether or not it could be mounted because I thought that would be the best way.
@@Knulppage yup! at about 7:20 you can see what I'm presuming are mounting holes when it's sideways during the redesign section. :)
at in n out they have something similar to this french fry cutter, but it's mounted on the wall and the user pulls down on the lever. looks like it works great
The lever on the one at In N Out is a lot longer, making it easier to apply a lot more force
Yeah they've got it down. The leverage on those are perfect and I watch them go through potatoes like nothing. Can't see mounting one in my kitchen though.
They have a wall mounted one at a restaurant I worked, and you still have to add a lot of pressure and sometimes use your bodyweight to slice a potato.
At five guys, we use one that's anchored to the sink counter top. Longer handle. Momentum is your friend with these.
In N Out Employee here, the dicer does work great. Doesn't take a lot of effort to pull down, but we do end up using more energy.
I have two of the items you reviewed, the juice-o-mat and the miracle french fry maker.
I bought the juicer to make lemonade shakes like you get at the fair. I priced the modern juicers and they were insane. With a lemon, the juice-o-mat is perfect as is.
Now for the french fry cutter. I, too, found it hard to use until I saw it properly utilized. You see, it is meant to be mounted vertically on a wall with a bucket under the blade end. Instead of pushing down, you're pushing the handle up and to the wall. Saw it used at the Canfield Fair this way and the guy could do 10 or so potatoes in less than a minute.
I was just about to say most of this lol My mother has that old juicer and uses it for lemon loaves. It's squeezes every ounce of juice out of something that size. And my local farmer's market has chip trucks parked there and yes, the one guy has one of these fry cutters aligned vertically and just flies through them, one handed. The angle makes all the difference.
he put the orange the wrong way in the juicer right?
Same! I squeeze a lot of lemons and the shape of the cone is perfect. I have an electric juicer and it just doesn't work as well as the metal one. It's one of my cherished gadgets
Surprised by how well a lot of these old gadgets work. Simple designs for simple tasks.
development started not 100y ago)) many stuff already done and pretty well by our predecessors.
I think time itself is a big factor. If the gadget is designed well, it has a much higher probability to stay in household after all these years. When the production team sought to borrow or buy old gadgets in good condition for filming, good gadgets have a much a higher chance to be featured.
Also notice the usage of metal instead of plastic. I own a version of the french fry cutter, but everything except the handle and the blades is plastic. I've also seen something similar to the egg cutter, where the handle was made of plastic.
You have to remember the price of this was much much MUCH higher than the ones you commonly find now.
This applies to most "things back in the day were built different". Your washing machine has to be sturdy when it costs a months wage
Although that French Fry slicer was awful
Be nice to for him to show what he designed and how successful he was. For most people he could be a design expert for a bunch of 2 star niche junk for all they know. I looked him up and found it he was behind WAY more amazing products than I thought, he really doesn't give off the vibe of being the genius he truly is.
Well, a lot of geniuses of the past have been like that. Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, and Alan Turing are just a few examples. Back then nobody really respected them, but their legacy lives on to this very day.
Nikola Tesla and Alan Turing, sure, but Einstein won a Nobel Prize and was consulted by presidents.
One reason why some of the old gadgets work well is that the materials are often much better. Looked like good quality metal and plastic to me, compared to a lot of the new stuff.
you need to go to a pricier kitchen shop to buy better gadgets
@@syasyaishavingfun I do :)
The main thing you have to ask with any kitchen gadget is whether it's worth the space it takes up, because "You know, I just have way too much kitchen space" is something that nobody has said, ever...
Exactly! That's what stops me from buying stand mixers, air fryers, blenders... I do have to have my coffee maker. When that breaksdown, I'm going to my trusty vintage Japanese pourover or Turkish teamaker.
Allow me to disadree, Those celebrities living in McMansions who make house tours and they say "Oh you know I never being in this room before!" I bet they have way too much kitchen space. XDXDXD
@@anayelisoria37 A dear friend of mine lived in a pretty well empty McMansion. She was part of an operation for falsifying realtor documents. She had nothing but a big beautiful house to live in. Her gigantic kitchen with floor to ceiling cabinets housed plastic cool whip bowls and Big Gulp drink cups. The butlery contained plastic to go cutlery and mustard/ketchup packets.
Meanwhile I can't even have a dishrack on my counter and have to store my baking dishes in a bedroom.
and even if you have the space, will you use it enough to justify any purchase? take the egg slicer for example, it seems to work pretty well but how often do you really need such sliced eggs, 1-2x per year? so unless you give many dinner parties or are otherwise using an unusually large amount of eggs just a knife is enough.
+ cleaning that thing seems more complicated than simply cleaning a knife.
There's rant I believe is attributed to Alton Brown: No Unitaskers. A kitchen gadget that does only a single thing either needs to do a thing you do very often, or it needs to be multifunctional. Something like the egg slicer is a good example - it's very good at what it does, but spending an extra minute or two twice a year to use a knife isn't going to ruin my life. This assumes I can FIND the damn thing when I need it, too.
Is it just me or is Dan somehow getting better and better at leading the show??
Well he is not a TV presenter, he is a designer, so I would totally expect that happening. The longer he has this show, the better he's getting at it.
How dare you say he was never just perfect? uwu
Dan is becoming more and more comfortable in front of the camera
@Tisna Rahani oh come on! Not here! Anywhere but here!
Someone should give this guy his own show creating gadgets. Funny dude.
He has one, you just watched it.
@noojhaj What did you think it was? It's called 'Well Equipped' and it's produced by a company owned by Condè Nast one of the largest publishing companies on earth and parent company of reddit.
You can see the show title not only in intro sequence but in the title and thumbnail of this video.
@@tjmarx I think they were responding to the original comment in a confused tone
@@madelineleighyoung1748 my mistake
@Floating Door - This man has had a long history of designing gadgets for some well-known companies including Oxo.
For anyone curious about why eggs have a pointy end, there are two main reasons. Eggs are squishy for most of the creation process, so when they are squeezed by the inside of the bird, they naturally tend towards that shape. They come out blunt end first. Secondly, the slightly odd shape makes them less likely to roll away. Birds that lay eggs on rocks or cliffs often have almost conical eggs so they roll in a tiny circle and don’t fall off.
the issue with that potato slicer is double. For one, they really intended it for russet potatoes which are much softer. Two: the blades are highly subject to age, once they've been used even once or twice, they're dull and it was likely cleaned and put back in the box and never used again.
And they should also be attached to the wall. I can see their use in a restaurant because they go through a lot of fries
@@asobimo5532 u mean automation?
Since these are nowhere used in restaurants
Most of them use either actual slicing by chefs themselves or just fast food fries
@@kyarumomochi5146 working at a few restaurants when I was younger I can tell you that some places use them and some places don't, and typically the chefs aren't doing basic stuff like cutting fries
@@kyarumomochi5146 Nope. I worked in large kitchens for years, as prep, line, and garde manger, and all our fries were made with a larger versions of the vertical cutter he was misusing. I know because it was one of many jobs all of us did. You don't know what you are on about. Sorry. Terrifying watching him using the mandolin, as well.
@@kyarumomochi5146 Lmao no.
The jello jiggling was a great addition. quirky isn't just entertaining, it's a must have for relevancy
@Long Face - Back in the late '50s, early 60s, my mother was a Jell-O molding queen. She made all kinds of colorful, filled Jell-o dishes. It was a gift.
He is my favorite person to watch, always so funny and knowledgeable. Absolutely love his videos
We have a snow cone maker that uses ice disks and it's fantastic! We really do just keep some containers of the disk in the freezer. When we're tight on space we put them straight into the ice cube bin. Ours is a Pampered Chef one and it came with containers, with lids, in the perfect size for the machine. I think the solid ice chunks are what create the better texture. I wouldn't trade it for the texture ice cubes make.
Isn’t Pampered Chef an MLM?
@@monroerobbins7551 it is, but I actually got our snow cone machine at a thrift store. I don't even think they make it anymore. I should have been more clear in my post. I only said the brand at all because other people may one one similar to the video and the PC brand one is definitely easy to find. I stumble upon a used one 2-3 times a year.
@@monroerobbins7551 they do have some good products, for a price. (As with Norwex and Tupperware) Sales people differ - we've only met laid-back people.
I used to sell PC, and the ice shaver is my fav. I’m hoping I have it in storage because I really loved melting red hot candies into water and freezing the disc of that to shave! It was cold and refreshing red hots! 😃
Good to know I can pick it up on eBay if it’s not in my storage!
Where in the world do you even _get_ ice discs?
newer gadgets like the fry cutter actually work pretty good, my family has one that we've used for a long time and it works very well
I got hooked on these videos bc I’m just kinda in love with this dude! Wicked smart and a great sense of humor! Just super likable… I hope he does a lot more videos. 😘
I used one of those french fry makers at a restaurant while going to collage. They work great but you do have to bolt them to the counter. Not something I would suggest in a home setting.
Flip the citrus fruit upside down. It turns the fruit inside out when you press it and you get more from the fruit.
Yup, came to comments to say that :)
This is what I've always been taught.
The juicer is designed for a smaller fruit than what we're used to today. The wedge shape was designed to smash and spread a small fruit out more efficiently. The fact that you still have a recognizable half of the orange instead of a ripped out cone husk is the most telling part. Your fruit was too big.
Instant click on the video and like when I see it is Dan. :D
Edit After Watching: I have a newer version of the French fry maker and it works really well! It doesn’t use that much force and I like to use it with potatoes, mushrooms, onions etc… if you put it through two ways, you can get nicely cubed veggies! I like it.
I love Dan and I need him to continue this series for the rest of his life please
@KR Smith - Or at least for the rest of MY life! .^_^.
For the juicers, it's better to place the orange the other way around, with the peel side down. It's unintuitive but you get a cleaner squeeze and more juice out of it.
When i was a kid we owned a small snowcone maker very similar to that ice pet, the main difference was the way it was positioned. The handle was on the top and there was a small enclosed bucket to put the molded ice in before closing and grinding into snow. It came with molds for the ice as well that also doubled as a simple bowl to catch the snow in. We loved it! I think really the main differences between the 2 were just making it a bit safer for small children.
I heard that on citrus juicers you are supposed to put the fruit in upside down. Or the counterintuitive way.
This is what I've always been taught. It does seem to get a lot more juice out this way, at least with the handheld juicer that I use.
One problem with the Bean X is how would you sharpen the blade? Also, I like how he used only similarly sized blood oranges for the Juicer test, it just helps ensure the variable that is the fruit stays fairly similar, therefore demonstrating a more reliable demonstration and sort of study with the thing. I appreciate that. :) (also, I imagine just using any regular circular Tupperware would be good for the ice pet.)
I love that everything made back in the day is made so well.
Given that the Juicer wasn't designed for left handed people (handle on the left for right handed users) the only thing you have to do is make the handle reversible or have a handle that joins in the front allowing both left- and right-hand users equal benefit.
HE IS FREAKING ADORABLE! i just recently discovered this series and i’ve been watching all the videos bc his personality is so lovable and his jokes def make this so enjoyable to watch
I have a similar French fry cutter, and I love it. It makes cutting French fries so quick. I even use it for mashed potatoes, or to more quickly cut the potato into little cubes. I use it weekly!
Don't you have to reassemble the potato for a cube cut?
@@headerahelix The potato stays together pretty well despite being cut. It’s easy to just hold onto the potato cuts and cut after. Sometimes I separate it in half, but it’s still quick to do.
For the juicer, I would assume the insert is a cone rather than a dome to account for the varying diameter of fruits.
A small orange will use the top of the cone, a large orange will use a larger portion of the cone. Neither are 100% effective, but both will work.
If you went with a dome, it will work perfectly for an orange with the same diameter as the dome, but it would only get a small portion of a larger orange, and a smaller orange would... get flattened? I'm not actually sure the latter is a problem.
It might actually make more sense to have an inverted dome (bowl) instead and just embrace that you will be crushing the fruit.
Now I want to see Dan review gagets he designed.
This
I agree
OMG ITS DAN THE MAN HES BACK AT IT AGAIN WITH THE OIL HAND TEST YESSSSS
Ok no joke dan should have his own youtube channel id subscribe
I got that potato cutter except the handle on mine is red. I've been using it for years and I really like it. I would recommend it to anyone. These things are used in restaurants and they're usually screwed onto the walls with the action reversed so you're pulling the lever down. It does take a lot of strength to use but it is supper efficient and I can cut enough fries for a family in a minute or less.
As a kid, we used that French fry cutter fairly often after my mom got a Fry Daddy. My brothers and I had the task of cutting the potatoes. We used to put it on the rough concrete floor of the storage room with a plate to catch the fries. That way we could push down on it with our body weight and it wouldn't slip. I don't see how it compares to a mandolin, the use such a different technique. A more modern fry-maker was designed with the grid of blades facing down with legs that you could place a bowl under and a handle in a wide tube that pushed the potato down through the blades into the bowl. Sometimes that broke the blades. The screw idea would have worked much better.
Tupperware has such a device...I don't know how I feel about MLMs thought
Dan entertaining, fun, humorous, expertise 5/5. He is a fantastic host.
this has to be one of the best epicurious series
theres something about old kitchen gadgets that makes them feel more reliable, maybe is that they are Made of steel instead of a cheap plastic or maybe it could be because on that epoch they were more worried about making the thing work as efficient as posible instead of making it look unique and diferent from any other
Maybe it’s just the implementation of planned obsolescence on modern products
Washing machines are massive fir that (especially comparing a soviet washing machine to modern ones)
I would really love if the actual manufacturing was taken into account. Like having to release from the molds for example.
That's probably why the ice pet was designed the way it was, less wasted plastic from trimmings, more cost effective to use less plastic, cheaper to make moulds that are smaller/thinner ect. If it was made in the 60s maybe they didn't have the means to recycle trimmings, i doubt they cared but interesting to think about
Ice pet looked pretty cool. I might even imagine making room for it somewhere, unlike any of the other gadgets. Especially since I already have a mandolin.
Not at all convinced with his ice cube holder alternative for the Ice Pet though. He had a hard enough time loading a single disk of ice as it was.
Can you imagine the trouble of fumbling around trying to load four ice cubes as they continuously fall out as you try to load more?
1/5 for the improvement.
We had an earlier version of the Juice-O-Mat and the insert was round, like an orange, and significantly beefier that the version in the video. Perhaps the 60's version was redesigned to allow the insert to be stamped instead of cast.
5:00 the potato slicer is supposed to be mounted to a wall for stability and ease of use!!
I don’t see any mounting points on the device
Can be mounted, but yea just flat on a surface is the worst way
To be frank this is the main reason I watch this channel. Dane is great with his logic and knife skills. Leading to to believer its hard to make something better then a knife.
I think that old ice shaver work well because that mold make solid line that alway incontact with shaver knife.
new version can take all shape of ice ... but there is air in those ice
I have that french fry cutter but with a suction cup, I wouldn't trade it for anything else. It works perfectly and is easy to use.
The egg slicer already has a countertop counter part. My grandmother had one and it did wedges or slices (both at the same time if you wanted!)
Hey! I have that French Fry cutter, although mine does come with a rubber suction piece that keeps the gadget solidly in place and completely prevents sliding.
It works fantastically, outside of, of course, needing a bit of arm strength to actually push the lever all the way down.
The way to make the juicer extract more juice is to make the top and bottom mate perfectly. That way it doesn't matter what shape your fruit is: in the end the skin will tear to conform to the shape and there won't be any spare room for the juicy bits to hide.
In theory, anyways.
I love using (as youth calls it) vintage kitchen tools. I had almost all of them by the time I was 20. It made working in the kitchen fun.
We had a juicer (when I was a boy so many years ago) like the Juice-o-matic, but it was from the 1950s and it had a dome! The inset juicer was cast iron and not stamped like this one seems to be. It worked very well.
Love the 60's-70's jello mold!! It brings back memories. 🥰
My grandmother had one of the French fry cutters and made it look easy. I'll note she had 11 children. Her skills in the kitchen were amazing.
I love Dan! I can watch you all day. 🥰
I actually remember having one of those potato slicer things in my parents house growing up. It did not work well. I think if it was mounted vertically it would have worked much better. Flat on the surface just wasn't great. I'm pretty sure McDonald's used something like that mounted vertically from the beginning so it clearly worked well for the time.
I feel like you should compare the time to clean the devices alongside the tool it's trying to replace.
RE Juice-O-Mat: add vertical texture/details on to the cone/dome, and make it twist when pushing on the lever, to extract more juice.
This was weirdly so satisfying to watch🙌🏾🤍
the trend i see with these gadgets is that they solve pertinent issues, and not conjuring an issue up then fail to solve that said issue simultaneously
I like that this guy thinks about the accessibility of each product. People really take it for granted but they will appreciate using an ergonomic and comfortable item especially into old age.
I love looking at vintage gadgets - keep 'em coming.
I love to see him test his own gadgets
We had something similar to the bean-x when I was a kid in the 1960s. We grew runner beans which are fatter than American green beans and do need slicing before cooking. Dealing with beans was one of my favorite kitchen chores.
I'm not sure I want sliced beans or eggs, but I do want more Dan videos!
My friend has an oversized French fry cutter mounted to a wall, where you pull down and the fries come out to bottom. That's what I compare everything else to now.
Dan’s humour is something else 😂
My mother had that french fry slicer, way back in the 70's.
I think she used it twice, before she threw it aside and used a knife.
Came across it, somewhere in the back of a closet, when we cleaned out the house for the sale, last year.
Most mandolins come with a safety cover of some kind. You need to look for yours
Literally had the french fry cutter in the kitchen at a cook job I had once. Worked great mounted to the wall. Tray underneath, load large potato, and since it was mounted up a bit, you had excellent leverage using your legs to help you push the lever up. Worthless for home use, but in a restaurant kitchen it was fast and easy to get a large volume of fries made quickly.
Love seeing these videos, thank you Dan and Epicurious.
I've been using the mandoline to prepare finger food my whole life and I've never had a problem!
Oh, by "finger food" I mean food with pieces of my finger in it.
I need to rifle thru all my kitchen drawers and cabinets. There’s like at least 3 generations of kitchen gadgets. I gotta see if I find something cool like this stuff 😂
I have one of those juice-o-mats I have never used it though. It was given to me 30 plus years ago when I got married, I don't squeeze my own juice. It just sits on a shelf in my kitchen and looks cool.
The best accessory to the ice-shaver was always a margarine tub. It was the best way to freeze discs for it, and it let you freeze orange juice for shaving.
"On a scale of 1 to 5..... *ZERO."* LOL that one got me to laugh pretty good Ngl. 🤣🤣
Love these videos . Give this guy a raise and more air time haha. Cheers always a joy watching
I like that on all episodes of this series accessibility and usability is never forgotten
That French fry cutter is absolutely still used today in professional kitchens. You know it's supposed to be mounted on a wall right? So instead of pulling away from the machine you're pulling down, using your body weight. They're honestly very easy to use.
Unfortunately, I think you are mistaken. I owned one these models as these were sold for domestic use. Note it was in sale in the 1960's (and 1970s). The blades are thin but not sharp and there are no table top grips for stability either. His assessment is correct. Perhaps the model you used was designed differently because if you pulled down to cut with this attached to the wall, the fries would come out of the top and fall all over the place. A redesign could make it way more efficient than this model. But modern commercial kitchens use electric cutters now that you just put a bucket of potatoes in and the machine does the rest.
@@BigHenFor I understand that the lever is facing the opposite way, but a quick search shows you can simply unscrew the lever and flip it. And in the kitchens I've worked in, one in particular had an electronic fry cutter that we refused to use. Was way easier to keep the box near the wall mounted cutter, put a tote under it and away you go. But seriously, flip the handle, screw it to a stud and give it a go, super easy.
My mom also had one of these in the 90’s and the lever thing couldn’t be flipped nor it would be mounted on a wall, I think the ones marketed for professional kitchens and the ones marketed towards housewives differ greatly.
@@elif6908 How do they differ greatly if all it is is a reversed lever and a mount? The blade and mechanism is only fastened by afew screws. Looking at the patent, it is very easy to simply remove it and reverse it. As for mounting it, just a couple screws and a bracket. Simple. 5-10 minutes out of your life and a dollar at the hardware store.
And just for argument sake, both the commercial and home versions are the same price, and are about 40 bucks.
@@WeAreClaves do you not understand? THE DOMESTIC VERSION DOES NOT HAVE THESE FEATURES.
I love Dan's reviews an analyses. Thanks for posting! 👍👍👍
i thought the french fry cutter is doing well at what it's supposed to do...
Same. It even did better than the modern one, but I guess it's still easier to do it with a simple knife
It is a bit flimsy, need to be better secured and a better lever, a really long one.
It's funny because my nonna had the french fry cutter he used and she used to whip through a 5lb bag of potatoes in no time 😂 nonna's are known to be super strong though because they did everything by hand. When my nonna was growing up (and also as an adult) she made bread and fresh pasta every week.
It would be cool to do one of these with James Dyson as well!
I have one of those chip cutter contraptions, and I absolutely love it. On some potatoes, ones that have a wee hard spot in the middle, you do have to apply more pressure, but most of the time it's easy peasy (even on the hard spots, its not that bad. I'm a proper weakling and I manage just fine), mine has a super strong suction cup on the bottom, which really helps with the hard potatos. I bought it because I cook for my Da and he loves chips, but i'm really awful at cutting chips equally sized. It's made cooking so much more fun for me. I really enjoy using it, and in my opinion, it works really well.
Hey epicurious always fun watching all ur vids. Can we do a three level chefs making kimchi video next please?
I've had/have that same french fry cutter for 30+ years (2nd one last 15 years). It's works great. Yes, sometimes I really had to pull hard but when that happened, I just kept pulling the handle down in increments by hitting it, which helped push the potato through. It's always been terrific other than making sure you didn't use giant potatoes. If you did, you cut them in half before cutting them.
Y'all know that every two weeks someone at Epicurious says: "Hey Dan, play with these for two hours and we'll make a video, sound good?"
I've worked in restaurants my whole life. Those fry cutters are amazing for bulk, the problem is they need to be wall mounted so you're pulling down, not across.
in regards to the juicer test...he was actually putting the orange halves in the wrong way...you put them in curved side down. It seems counter intuitive but that is the proper way
Yes
thanks for that info I've been using mine wrong all this time....
I actually have that potato 🥔 gadget in my kitchen! It's a workout for sure, but I think that it does a good job. As for the bean tool, I don't really care for French cut green beans, so I just need to snap them and I only need my hands for that. I wouldn't mind that egg wedger though! As for the snowcone gadget, I'm going with the newer one that can handle regular cubes. All in all, once again a really fun video to start the day with!
The ice shaver is made for countertops.. How would that suction up not work on almost all surfaces. You’re not camping with the thing. Lol.
Here in Chile we still use the beans cutter regularly. When I go to my mom's house sometimes I help her by sitting down at the living room watching some tv while cutting a bowl of this beans.
This show is oddly addictive. Like explaining to someone "i watch and older gentleman test kitchen gadgets" and they look at me like im nuts, but yet, here i am
You have a french fry cutter thats made out of stainless steel or cast iron with stainless steel cutters and its bolt on and going straight down cutting potatoes and they have a bigger lever so its mutch easyer to use. They use it in the netherlands at fry shops like bram ladage
I really love this vidoe at large❤ but investing in crypto now should be in every wise individuals list. In some months time you'll be ecstatic with the decision you made today.
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To be honest I invested as low as $1,000 because I was skeptical initially. Receiving my profit gave me more confidence to reinvest higher.
He's Back. You gotta make more of these. I really enjoy them.
I used one of those potato cutters in a restaurant I worked at, admittedly we used it to chop onions but I've used one. It was wall mounted so it made it so much easier to get leverage.
I was not aware of Dan work, I met him here through the videos, and I discovery that his work was already impacted my life. I used the Cimzia injection that was one of his designs.
On the french fry cutter, I've had something similar, but newer, cheaper, and plastic. Plus it had interchangeable "blades". (Small Fries, Large Fries, Apples) I still had the same problems with it that Mr Formosa has. The design used by the first fast food place I worked at to chop onions would work a LOT better. (Basically just two rods sticking up to hold a thing that you slam down through the blades. Basically the same concept as the device shown, but fewer moving parts and vertical.)
On the egg slicer, the big key to things like that not making a mess is that they're using wires to cut. I realized long ago that most of my wire cheese slicers are also great for eggs. Also great for butter, cheesecake, or anything soft. (In fact, I have a "butter slicer" that I more often use to slice bricks of cheese for snacking) The nicest thing about the wires is that while they may eventually break or snap, they never go dull.
The larger newer juicer probably does work better because it has more leverage. As to the cone, it's probably that way to cover more citrus fruits than just an orange. A person is as likely to want to use it for a lemon or lime as a grapefruit.
Now I'm going to go see what an ice pet is running on ebay.