15 Kitchen Tools That Only Make Sense on Infomercials
We’ve all been there—sitting on the couch late at night when an enthusiastic host demonstrates a kitchen gadget that promises to revolutionize your life. Suddenly, basic tasks like peeling an egg or slicing a banana seem impossible without this miraculous invention. The dramatic black-and-white footage of people struggling with everyday kitchen tasks is followed by the colorful solution that makes everything effortless.
Here is a list of 15 kitchen tools that somehow convinced people to reach for their phones and credit cards despite their questionable practicality.
Banana Slicer
The banana slicer promises to cut your banana into perfect rounds in one swift motion. Because apparently using a knife is just too complicated and time-consuming.
These plastic contraptions come in various designs, but they all solve a problem nobody actually has. The irony is that bananas come in different sizes and curves, making this single-shaped tool hilariously ineffective for most bananas you’ll encounter.
Egg Separator
This gadget typically resembles a small plastic fish or chicken with an open mouth designed to suck up egg yolks when you squeeze and release it. While separating eggs can be tricky for beginners, most home cooks quickly learn to use the eggshell halves or their own hands.
The egg separator takes up drawer space to perform a task you might do a few times a year at most.
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Avocado Slicer
The all-in-one avocado tool splits, pits, and slices avocados in what infomercials claim is one smooth motion. In reality, it’s often flimsy, struggles with avocados of varying ripeness, and requires cleaning multiple crevices afterward.
A knife and spoon accomplish the same tasks with less fuss and are tools you already have in your kitchen.
Strawberry Huller
This tiny tool is designed solely to remove the green leafy tops and core of strawberries. It resembles a small claw that you insert and twist to extract the stem.
While it looks clever in demonstrations, a paring knife or even the tip of a spoon can do this job just as efficiently without adding another single-purpose item to your drawer.
Corn Kernel Stripper
This device promises to remove corn kernels from the cob in one quick motion without the mess. The reality involves awkward positioning, corn kernels shooting across your kitchen, and a gadget that’s harder to clean than the cutting board you’d use with a knife.
Most home cooks find that a sharp knife and a steady hand work perfectly fine for this occasional task.
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Electric Jar Opener
For those moments when twisting a jar lid is presented as an insurmountable challenge, the electric jar opener comes to the rescue. These battery-operated devices clamp onto jars and twist the lids off automatically.
They’re bulky and expensive, and they solve a problem most people handle with a dish towel, rubber grip, or by tapping the lid edge with a butter knife.
Quesadilla Maker
Essentially a specialized panini press, this gadget takes up significant counter space to perform a task easily done with a frying pan. The infomercial version makes it seem impossible to flip a quesadilla without specialized equipment.
In reality, millions of people successfully make quesadillas daily using just a pan and spatula, without the storage headaches or cleaning complications.
Microwave Pasta Boat
This elongated plastic container promises perfect pasta without having to boil water in a pot. The demonstrations make it seem like boiling pasta traditionally is an overwhelming challenge.
Most pasta enthusiasts agree that using a proper pot allows better control over cooking time and texture, while the pasta boat often results in unevenly cooked pasta and takes up valuable cabinet space.
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Salad Spinner Bowl Scissors
This bizarre hybrid tool features scissors attached to a bowl for cutting salad ingredients directly into the container. The infomercial makes traditional chopping look like an exercise in frustration and mess.
In practice, these scissors are awkward to use, difficult to clean, and far less efficient than a proper cutting board and chef’s knife for food preparation.
Butter Spreader Knife
This electric or battery-operated knife supposedly heats up to make spreading cold butter easier. The commercials show people destroying bread with refrigerated butter as if it’s an everyday crisis.
Most households simply leave butter at room temperature in a butter dish or use a regular knife to slice thin pieces of cold butter that spread easily enough.
Hands-Free Automatic Pot Stirrer
This device sits on top of your pot and automatically stirs the contents so you don’t have to. The infomercial portrays stirring as an exhausting activity that keeps you chained to the stove.
In reality, occasional stirring gives you a chance to monitor consistency, taste, and adjust seasonings—all important parts of cooking that this gadget removes from the experience.
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Countertop Egg Cooker
This appliance promises perfect eggs—boiled, poached, or as omelettes—without the hassle of using your stove. The commercials suggest boiling eggs in water is a complicated science beyond the average person’s capability.
The truth is that a simple pot of water cooks eggs perfectly well, doesn’t require storage space, and doesn’t limit you to cooking just a few eggs at a time.
Hot Dog Slicer
This specialized cutter creates perfect diagonal slices in hot dogs, supposedly enhancing flavor absorption and cooking. Infomercials present this as a game-changing innovation for hot dog preparation.
In reality, a regular knife works perfectly fine for the occasional times you might want to slice hot dogs, making this single-purpose tool the definition of kitchen clutter.
Onion Chopper
These devices promise tear-free, perfectly diced onions with the push of a lid. The commercials show people sobbing uncontrollably while cutting onions the traditional way.
While onion choppers do work, they’re often flimsy, difficult to clean thoroughly, and take up significant storage space compared to the chef’s knife most home cooks already own and use daily.
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Pancake Batter Dispenser
This specialized pitcher promises perfectly portioned, round pancakes without drips or mess. Infomercials show people struggling with spoons and ladles, creating misshapen pancake disasters.
Most competent home cooks achieve perfectly good results using a regular measuring cup or ladle, without needing to clean and store yet another single-purpose kitchen tool.
The Reality of Kitchen Gadgetry
The world of kitchen tools is filled with innovation—some genuinely helpful and others solving problems that barely exist. Many of these infomercial sensations capitalize on minor inconveniences that most people handle easily with basic kitchen skills and multipurpose tools. The most useful kitchen contains a few quality essentials rather than dozens of specialized gadgets gathering dust in drawers and cabinets.
Next time you find yourself mesmerized by a late-night kitchen gadget demonstration, remember that the struggle shown in those grainy black-and-white scenes is often dramatically exaggerated. Your grandmother managed just fine without an electric avocado peeler, and chances are, so can you.
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