Manual Vintage Kitchen Tools We All Need

Today it’s all about manual vintage kitchen tools we all need. Some people call these items vintage tools, but they’re what we grew up using in the kitchen, right? If we cook from scratch we have all of these, just admit it.

I remember when my mother died and the family went through some of her stuff and my sister found a pink-handled egg beater. What a treasure! I wanted my mom’s recipe box, “squeal.” I wish there were more recipes in the box she had written, or that I had asked for her recipes before she passed away. Just FYI, ask your mom, grandma, or favorite relatives for the recipes you love today, not tomorrow.

Manual Vintage Kitchen Tools

Cheese Grater:

I remember someone writing something funny that we have to buy our cheese grated in a bag because we are too busy to grate it ourselves. I giggled, I thought it was funny. I remember buying a bag and thinking wow, I don’t have to grate this whole chunk anymore. I can do a small piece at a time. I soon found I had to freeze the grated cheese because once I opened the bag it would go bad before I could use the whole bag. Modern Cheese Grater and Rotary Cheese Grater

After the girls moved on to start their own families, I quickly learned I needed to buy smaller bags. But then, I went back to buying larger bags and putting two cups of cheese in each bag, and freezing the smaller bags. I love saving money.

Old Can Openers

This is so crazy. I live in a small town and it’s really hard to find certain things when I need them. I swear I had an old can opener, but I couldn’t find it in the kitchen tools drawer. I thought, really??? So, I ordered a can opener on Amazon. I wanted one like the old-fashioned ones. Manual Can Opener and Electric Can Opener (great for my arthritis, not for a power outage). Manual Old Style

I remember when my mom would bring home some bottles of root beer and RC Cola, oh my gosh, I’m loving writing this post. What do you remember using those bottle openers for?

Meat Grinder

My mom and dad made the best homemade pork sausage and I don’t have the recipe. It was perfect, juicy, and with a little kick. They ground the fresh pork with a meat grinder and added some seasonings. Does anyone have a great recipe for freshly ground pork patties? Meat Grinder

I remember my mom also made the best ham salad with a little pickle relish with some mayonnaise. Life is good with a yummy sandwich. We even ground our own chuck roasts, the hamburger tasted so good.

Fine Strainer/Sieve

If you rinse your quinoa, or rice, or make jam, jelly, or tomato sauce, this is one I have used for years. I also had one that had a handle to strain the grapes for juice. Manual Hand Stainer

Hand Egg Beater

I use my manual egg beater all the time rather than drag the stand mixer over to the table to use it for whipped cream, etc. Oh, and eggs, I have to make sure the whites of the eggs disappear before I make scrambled eggs. Yep, I use my egg beater. If you can locate some of these at thrift stores, that would be awesome! I have found some, but I try to stick to stainless steel manual vintage kitchen tools, if possible. Manual Hand Beater

Apple Peeler

I remember growing up and we used a paring knife to peel apples. I have gone through two manual apple peelers in my life. I used one for years for applesauce and dehydrating apples. I’m now on my second one. Here is the one I have now. Manual Apple Peeler and a Paring Knife

Pastry Blender/and Scraper

I need a Pastry Blender when I make biscuits. No, I don’t make pie crusts, I buy pies. I use a Pastry Scraper to cut my bread dough. If you make homemade bread you know we should never pull the dough, only cut it into sections we need.

Biscuit Cutters

Now, you can use cookie cutters, but I love big thick fluffy biscuits, so I use different Biscuit Cutter sizes all the time. I have to give you my biscuit recipe. Do you love biscuits as much as I do?

Chuck Simmons Sausage Recipe

Chuck (a Food Storage Moms follower-thank you, Chuck) sent this recipe to me in a comment! Yay!

5-6 lbs lean pork shoulder (can also use country-style ribs)
5 teaspoons red pepper flakes
2-1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
6 teaspoons ground sage
Trim fat from pork and retain it. Grind the remaining pork and mix in the seasonings. We like fairly lean sausage, but you need to have some fat for good sausage. Grind fat and gradually add to your own desired level of fat content. Here again, we come to personal taste, but we prefer our sausage on the spicy side, so we add additional pepper flakes. Make a few small patties and fry them for a sample. Adjust spices accordingly.
We make the mixture into balls (approx 1/4 lb) and put them in the cheap fold-top sandwich bags and flatten them into patties and store them in a larger freezer bag.

Final Word

Thanks for reminiscing with me today. If we all have some manual vintage kitchen tools we can continue cooking and baking without any power. Life is good if we are prepared for the unexpected. Please store water and food for your family. May God bless this world, Linda

Are Vintage Skills A Thing Of The Past?