In the span of a century, no room in the average home has undergone such change as the kitchen. Once a utilitarian room tasked only with food preparation and clean-up, expanding floor space led to the introduction of the kitchen table for both work space and a place to eat informal meals.
Today, it’s far more likely your kitchen is the central hub for social activity and transition between home and the outside world. Open-concept homes remove one or two walls from the traditional idea of a kitchen, using instead islands, pass-throughs, or breakfast bars to bring the food factory out of isolation.
Today, the smart home concept brings the streaming world into all corners, and the kitchen is no exception. Today we look at the newest and niftiest gizmos and gadgets that add to the cachet of the Destination Central that is your kitchen.
Air fryer
Perhaps the hottest kitchen appliance going today is the air fryer. They’ve been on the radar for a few years now, and it seems as though this isn’t a trend that’ll vanish like so many other “trendy” gadgets.
There are options like the Chefman 10 litre Digital Air Fryer+. It’s not only large enough for a family’s air frying needsy, it’s also a rotisserie oven and food dehydrator. Combination units are increasingly common, like the air fryer/toaster oven and the pressure cooker/air fryer.
Not quite an air fryer, but did you know the Instant Pot is a Canadian invention? The trendy, high-tech multi-cooker was developed in Kanata, Ontario!
When space is limited or you’re cooking for one, something like the Dash Compact Air Fryer may be the way to go, with its 1.5-litre capacity. Air fryer options are wide, so the right unit for you is sure to be out there. Some models even have app or smart home controls you can use to take the tech aspect to the next level.
Touchless soap dispensers
Given the expanding hub concept of the kitchen and the heightened focus on the importance of hand washing, hand soap beside the kitchen sink is well-placed and sensible. Better still, it’s a simple matter to add a touchless dispenser to minimize surface transmission of viruses and bacteria. Battery and USB rechargeable designs dominate and most models handle multiple fluids like sanitizers and lotions, and you’d be hard pressed to find many devices for more than $50. Touchless faucets are also becoming more common, meaning you may never have to touch your kitchen sink again!
Temperature display faucets
Temperature display faucets are just as they sound—faucets that detect the temperature of the water being poured. Some variations will give you an exact temperature reading, while others give a more general indication using LED lights in blue (cold), green (warm), and red (hot). The coloured faucets are great for families with kids who want to avoid situations where little ones are unexpectedly reaching under hot water. These light attachments can run from $10 and numerical displays begin around $20 for a gadget that just screws onto your current faucet.
Video smart speakers
Most air fryers and soap dispensers don’t connect to the internet, at least not yet. Smart speakers and digital assistants have been with us for a while, though. An integrated smart speaker in the kitchen may be the ultimate hands-free timer you can set with your voice while carrying a hot cookie sheet. However, for the kitchen, a Google Nest Hub or Amazon Echo Show gives you on-demand, on-screen recipes, both when and where you need them. Waiting for dough to rise? Stream a favourite show without leaving the room.
Bluetooth meat thermometer
The Bluetooth protocol dates back to 1989 and it’s now present in many electronic devices. Bluetooth creates some remarkably versatile functionality in combination with a smartphone. In the kitchen, the digital thermometer is perhaps the slickest. Imagine reading the internal temperature of your food while it’s in a closed oven and being guided through cooking and resting times while you wait?
For maximum flexibility look to brands that offer four and six probe capability. Or, you can choose a single-probe option (like the original MEATER) to replace the old mechanical thermometer of dubious accuracy currently residing in your gadget drawer.
Smart measuring tools
No, measuring your food or weighing ingredients isn’t a new thing, but the way you’re able to do these things is. Digitization has taken a lot of the guesswork out of cooking and baking, with tools like the Drop kitchen scale and digital measuring cups providing accuracy and ease.
The Drop scale connects to an app on your phone, providing not only recipes and suggestions, but also substitutions. In the middle of a recipe and realize you don’t have baking powder? This scale-app combo will give you accurate substitutions to ensure your recipe still turns out great. It can also provide a full rework of the recipe to accommodate what you do have, providing custom, adjusted measurements for every ingredient.
Digitized measuring cups fall along the same lines, letting you weigh and measure in one container—which thankfully cuts down on dishes. Most cooks, and especially bakers, will agree that weighing your ingredients rather than using eyeball measurements leads to a better end product. You can also find similar measuring spoons!
Will the air fryer of today be the yard sale staple of tomorrow? Are the days of failed baked goods finally behind us? Time will tell if these trending gadgets find a permanent place in tomorrow’s kitchens. Remember, it was only 100 years ago when people thought the noisy compressors of the earliest electric refrigerators were a poor substitute for the humble ice box.
Go ahead, grab a snack as you ponder the future of your kitchen.
Courtesy: realtor.ca
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