Why is Veeky Forums so against single-application kitchen tools when they are usually the most useful ones...

It's not for steak.

Into the garbage it goes.

>The reason someone invented a single-application tool is because you use it A LOT.

Right. But that tends to apply to a specialized professional cook as opposed to a home cook.

A professional sushi chef needs special knives because he literally spends all day cutting up fish for sushi. A home cook who only makes sushi every once in a while can get by using his standard chef's knife.

>See also: the inordinate preoccupation with cast iron pans

That's the exact opposite of what OP is asking about. Cast iron pans are useful for so many different things. That's why they're popular--they last forever and have many uses in the kitchen. They're ideal for someone who wants a small number of tools in their kitchen.

I love that copper infomercial too. Fuck them, I want one.

Because Alton Brown and other "scientific" cooking outlets push it and because it makes them feel like a serious chef who knows what's necessary and what's not and not a dilettante despite the fact that they're probably getting all their info on what's useful vs. what's a frivolous UNITASKER from reading it online somewhere

what is a flat, square pan's 'single application'?

>what is a flat, square pan's 'single application'?
Well I guess we know who doesn't deep fry their poptarts every morning!

Tamagoyaki

>making tamagoyaki
>when you could be having delicious omurice instead

tamagoyaki for obento, omurice is for famiresu.

Why not use a deep fryer?

A good pan or knife can probably replace it.

Saved you space AND money!

user, think this through.

If you own something with one use and you use it for one thing all the time, it is more used. It is not more useful. Something with two uses will always be more useful than something with one, by definition, even if it never sees comparative use.

There's nothing single-application about that pan.

You certainly could use it for other things than tamagoyaki but the shape would be far from ideal, and the plastic handle also limits its usefulness.

A normal round frying pan would be far more useful to the average person.

not to mention the very square sides would make it useless for tossing

you cant get the same effect as quickly or as efficiently, dipshit. by the time you get to the end of the egg using a mandoline you are 90% likely to ruin the egg by smushing it OR your egg has fallen to pieces from the fall down into whatever is under your mandoline. also, cleaning a mandolin after wanting to cut up a single egg is a pain in the ass. you can use the egg slicer for something like pitless olives or strawberries too.

most of the tamagoyaki pans you can buy commonly have a curved lip where the tossing would be done, so that's actually not true.

>If you own something with one use and you use it for one thing all the time, it is more used. It is not more useful.
This is the dumbest thing I read on Veeky Forums ever. And I go on boards like /int/, /v/, and /k/.

but that's a very true statement.
"more used" means it gets used a lot.
"useful" means it has multiple different applications.

You must be retarded if you can't tell the difference between those two statements.

Pedantic? Sure. But correct.

1) I was talking about the specific pan that OP posted.

2) Why would a tamagoyaki pan have a lip for tossing? Tamagoyaki isn't tossed. It's either rolled, or it's very very thick and isn't moved in the pan at all. The pans for the latter style are completely square--all the corners are straight-up 90 degrees, like pic related.

And here is the second dumbest thing.

>cast iron pans
I've got a cast iron pot (coated in enamel) and I use it for nearly every soup/stew I make
it's so nice

1) okay, fair.

2) it has a lip bc if you're making the tamagoyaki with the wrist flick method you're less likely to have it Break On The Perfectly Square Edge (same reason the pan that OP posted has the far edge jutting out), also it's easier in general if youre doing the roll up method. you only need one square side to give it the shape.

there's literally no need to own anything when a cast iron pan can do anything you need it to. It functions as a non stick pan, a baking pan, a tenderizer. You can craft a sharp iron knife from it, you can use it as a deep fryer, you can use it as a dutch oven, you can use it as a food container, you can use it as a paperweight, you can use it as a stool, you can use it as a helmet, you can use it as a cup. it's literally the most perfect kitchen item ever

Reminder that rice cookers are incredible

omfg yes

Favourite "single-tasker" appliance in my house.

French Toast

I want to get a Tamagoyaki pan for toast. I like how the flat side would make it easier for me to scrap with a flat ended metal spautula when cooking caramlized onions.

>French Toast
What about it? That would cook just as easily in a round pan as a square one.

>>scrap with a flat ended metal spautula
1) You want to use a metal spatula in a nonstick pan?

2) If you have to scrape your caramelized onions you're doing it wrong. Lower the heat foolio.

Never used one until I moved in with friends and they had one. Certainly not a bad appliance and I can see their worth perhaps in small Japanese apartments that only have a portable stove or something.

I love it because I make rice pretty much daily and it's great to have that exta stove free

>Something with two uses will always be more useful than something with one
Pic has more uses than most things in your kitchen but it's not useful to average Veeky Forums user.

That's a good point. More-and-different-uses is only relevant if you actually take advantage of those uses.

Electric kettle is better.

Why would I want one?
I don't drink tea
I don't make instant noodles

What's the point?

Can they cook brown rice or other whole grains?

My rice cooker broke a few months ago and it's such a pain to cook rice in an actual pot. Like half of the time I get it burnt on the bottom and the other half it's still uncooked. I don't want to watch my rice, I just want it cooked.

>here, let me just buy these 400-single use tools instead of like 4 or 5 good tools
fuck out of here. it's not like i want tamagoyaki every single day, or a sandwich toastie every single day, or sliced egg, or de-pitted olives, like what the fuck am i going to do with all this stupid shit just standing around

UNITASKERS OUT REEEEEEEEEE

I'd say an oven

When I first saw Kenji Alt-Lopez use one on his stovetop griddle, I knew my kitchen needed some upgrades

Maybe you should have a house instead of a tiny apartment.

I do, you stupid cuck, but i have better things to do than fill it up with useless shit i'll never use

I justify buying 'specialty' tools if I know that I'm going to use them frequently, or if not having them makes the process infuriating i.e. a specific shape of knife. I make homemade pasta like once or twice a month, but FUCK using a rolling pin, so I got a little crank pasta machine. I also grind meat every now and then, so I have a little grinder attachment for my wife's kitchenaid. Things like that take up a minimal amount of space and I live in a studio apartment in Manhattan.

I think the whole "unitaskers are evil" thing that Alton Brown talks about was his response to homeowners buying a bunch of that "as-seen-on-TV" junk that mostly consists of cheap plastic gadgets like a slapchop, garlic zipper, dumb appliances like the hotdog toaster, and pans like pic related. Not necessarily specialty tools that pros use to make specific foods, like a crepe pan than that he uses in his crepe episode. But don't let hyperbole stop the faggots from playing devil's advocate and shitting on AB in the most pedantic way possible!

depends on tool.
A bunch of them were designed by scoundrels who thought of a way to scam idiots out of their money.
Some idiots want to have every single possible tool available in their kitchen, so inventing some ridiculous contraption, e.g. for breaking eggs, or for slicing crust off the bread, or sharpening forks.

The tools contribute nothing, create clutter and are often inferior to "generic" solutions, or are other kind of solution in search of a problem.

Sure there's a bunch of good single-application tools. I have quite a few. But only an idiot thinks all of them are useful.

Honestly unitaskers are mostly for the lazy inept sonofabitch, and anyone with a fair bit of practice could likely do just as well using traditional methods. Mostly bought to assuage total culinary inability, and end up in a cupboard.

That's the whole point of tools you doughnut.

How can someone have culinary inability when there's no depth to cooking?