Small Kitchen Gadgets That Earn Their Drawer Space

The test for a kitchen gadget is not whether it works, but whether it replaces something you already do badly. A tool that adds a step to a task you did not mind is clutter, however clever it is.

We cooked with eleven gadgets for six months and tracked which ones came out at least weekly.

How we chose

Weekly use, and whether it replaced a knife, a bowl or a worse tool.

• Used at least once a week in a normal kitchen.
• Fits in a drawer without dismantling.
• Washes by hand in under a minute.
• Replaces an existing step rather than adding one.

What earns its place

Bench scraper

Cuts dough, moves chopped vegetables, cleans the counter. It costs a few pounds and does three jobs better than the alternatives.

Microplane grater

Zest, garlic, parmesan, ginger. It replaces a box grater for small jobs and does them in a quarter of the time.

A small digital scale

Baking is a weighing activity, and coffee is too. A cheap scale improves both.

The bottom line

Buy a bench scraper, a Microplane and a small scale. Under sixty dollars for all three, and each one replaces a worse tool you already own.