EQUIPMENT CORNER j BY M I Y E B R O M B E R G , L I S A M CM A N U S & L A U R E N S AV O I E k
RECOMMENDED
H I G H LY R E C O M M E N D E D
H I G H LY R E C O M M E N D E D
RECOMMENDED
RECOMMENDED
PHILIPS TurboStar Airfryer, Avance Digital
OXO Good Grips
KERSHAW
BEHMOR Connected
Under Appliance Duster
Taskmaster Shears
8-Cup Brew System MODEL:
OXO Good Grips 8 Cup Smart Seal Rectangle Container
PRICE:
MODEL:
HD9641/96 $249.95
1245400 $15.51
MODEL:
MODEL:
PRICE:
PRICE:
(Also sold as Shun Multi-Purpose Shears DM7300) MODEL: 1120 PRICE: $26.30
GRT20C01CMC $167.00
PRICE:
11174000 $14.99
Air Fryers
Behmor Connected 8-Cup Brew System
Air fryers are large countertop appliances that ofer a bold promise: perfectly fried food with very little oil (often less than a tablespoon). But these fryers don’t actually fry; they bake food like a convection oven does, using a fan to circulate hot air. To see how they performed, we made oven-fried versions of French fries, chicken wings, and chicken Parmesan and compared them with the same recipes prepared in nine air fryers (priced from $60.20 to $249.95), making slight tweaks to cooking times and temperatures as needed. Impressively, every model we tried produced food that was just as good or better than oven-fried versions. Our favorite, the Philips TurboStar Airfryer, Avance Digital ($249.95), stood out thanks to its slimmer proile, automatic shutof, easy cleaning, and intuitive digital controls. For a more afordable option, we recommend the GoWISE USA 3.7-Quart 7-in-1 Air Fryer ($75.15) as our Best Buy. Air fryers aren’t for everyone, but if you frequently cook in small batches, prepare a lot of frozen foods, or have hungry teens who need an easy way to heat up after-school snacks, one of these products might deserve a place in your kitchen. –L.S.
The Behmor Connected 8-Cup Brew System ($167.00) promises to be a “smart” cofee maker, with a mobile app that lets you turn it on remotely, conjuring up thoughts of brewing cofee before getting out of bed. It also encourages the cofee geek in you to customize how it operates by adjusting brew temperature and length of preinfusion. We put the machine through a number of tests and were impressed by the results. A big part of the Behmor’s success is that it operates like an electric kettle, heating all the water to the selected temperature before brewing begins; if you set the temperature within the industry-standard range for good cofee (195 to 205 degrees), you’re guaranteed a brew that isn’t over- or underextracted, meaning it will be bold and lavorful but not harsh or too bitter. (Traditional automatic drip machines begin moving the water over the grounds before it hits that range, and by the end, it’s boiling.) We also enjoyed tinkering with temperatures and found noticeable lavor diferences when we brewed the same cofee at 190, 200, and 207 degrees. We appreciated the Behmor’s intuitive design, which made it simple to ill and clean, and the ability to brew without the app simply by pressing a single button on the machine. A couple of downsides: The machine is slow, with all brewing cycles taking upwards of 13 minutes, about twice as long as our favorite automatic drip cofee maker, the Technivorm Moccamaster ($299.00). The app was also less intuitive than we’d have liked, and there was a small learning curve for testers. –L.M.
Under-Appliance Dusters Under-appliance dusters promise to remove dust bunnies and bits of food from tight spaces. We wanted to know if any of these products are worth owning, so we bought four, priced from $7.77 to $15.51, to clean under our test kitchen appliances as well as under a mock appliance built to mimic the space speciications beneath a home refrigerator. The heads and handles of most of the dusters were too bulky to it into a 1-inch opening, the standard space under refrigerators and stoves. But the broad, relatively thin microiber head of our winner, the OXO Good Grips Under Appliance Duster ($15.51), it under our real and mock appliances and did a good job at collecting dust, lour, chickpeas, and rice. It was long enough to reach into far corners and even succeeded at sweeping up greasy lour. It’s also machine washable. –M.B.
Glass Storage Containers Plastic and glass food storage containers both have their advantages. While glass is heavier and more fragile than plastic, it also resists staining and warping, can go in the microwave without worry, and can be used in the oven. We tested ive glass storage containers alongside six plastic containers (see related story on page 26). One product that was more like a covered dish—it lacked a silicone gasket or laps to secure the lid—failed immediately, leaking water when we shook it. Two others leaked at diferent times during testing. Our winner, the OXO Good Grips 8 Cup Smart Seal Rectangle Container ($14.99), never dripped or let moisture in, even after we put it through 50 dishwasher cycles, froze water in it, and reheated food in it in both the microwave and the oven. The lid’s large silicone gasket was easy to remove and replace for cleaning; faintly ishy odors and an orange tint on the lid from chili faded after a few dishwasher cycles. Also, with its 8-cup capacity, this loaf pan–like container held plenty of food; however, we’d have preferred a slightly wider, latter shape to help foods heat and chill more uniformly. –L.M.
Kitchen Shears Our longtime favorite shears, the Kershaw Taskmaster Shears ($26.30), which are also sold as Shun Multi-Purpose Shears, boast knife-like sharpness and a comfortable grip. They are also ambidextrous and can be taken apart for cleaning. To see how they compared with ive other inexpensive models priced from $12.99 to $39.95, we snipped twine and herbs, cut parchment rounds, trimmed pie dough, cut heads of caulilower into lorets, and broke down whole chickens into parts. Some models had blades that were too short or too fat, lacked deep serrations, or were sharpened to wider angles, impairing cutting; others had uncomfortable handles. In the end, our previous favorite triumphed yet again. –M.B. COOK’S
For complete testing results, go to CooksIllustrated.com/jun18.
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