Putting the Knife in

The last time I mentioned my toasted-sandwich maker, it was in a post about my kitchen clutter. Yesterday I was putting some steak knives away in the back of a cupboard – they live in a wooden block which  itself is part of the clutter: to be honest we don’t often have steak – and I had to move the said sandwich maker, and the tray bake pan balanced on top of it, to do so. It was then that I discovered an electric juicer.

This particular juicer, which is more battery-powered than electric per se, is not one of those drink-making machines. It will literally juice half a citrus fruit, and is operated by pressing the lid down. The juicer was probably a free gift given away by one of my wife’s catalogues. I don’t think either of us is so silly as to have bought such an item.

The juicer count in the kitchen is thus four (I was about to type three when I recalled the lever-operated device we bought when we tasted real lemonade at a music festival). The other two are a Tupperware version which also has a grater and – if I could only find it – an egg-separator, and a simple wooden one which probably yelled out at me from an artisan craft stall somewhere.

I don’t need four juicers.

The battery version can go – we’re neither of us so crocked with arthritis or bursitis that it would save any effort or pain. The lever-operated version is useful for bulk juicing, and I suppose it has some aesthetic appeal sat on the windowsill. That leaves the Tupperware and the wooden juicers. I think the planet is already damaged by my having four when one or two is sufficient, so it is not a case of choosing recyclable material over non-recyclable.

In the final analysis, the Tupperware juicer has no redeeming features. Its built-in jug feature is of little use, the egg-separator is lost, and the grater itself one of a group of competing kitchen items.

The wooden juicer wins. A kitchen drawer becomes slightly less cramped. Mary Berry’s Cooker Course has struck again, because the steak knives were in use for her Steak with Onion Marmalade, and the juicer(s) for her Lemon Drizzle Traybake, of which more anon.