The lo-tech kitchen workout

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Posted at 11:55AM, 14 October 2008 by Toby Travis - Food blogger

Too much time spent reading dusty old cookbooks from the 1950s has left me with a reactionary preference for old-fashioned methods of grinding, slicing, grating and pounding. I've developed a strong aversion to any kitchen gizmos you have to plug in and switch on. Perhaps because I spend half my waking hours lost in the abstract world of computer code, I try to preserve the kitchen as a haven from modernity. In this time capsule, electricity is used for lighting and keeping things cold, and that's about it.

One particularly labour-intensive habit is making breadcrumbs in a pestle and mortar. Chunks of stale bread (preferably white) are left to dry out for a few days, violently bashed into submission, then passed through a sieve. The fine crumbs in the bowl are kept for coating fillets of fish and meat or thickly sliced veggies, the coarse ones put aside for stuffings or meatballs. It's a labour of love, and I get a childish glee from knowing these little jars of joy are stored away ready for action. Essex Girl thinks this is pathetically sad, but I prefer to think of it as charmingly quirky.

The lo-tech kitchen is an opportunity to keep fit without getting hot, sweaty, bored or bothered

Sometimes while I'm pounding the breadcrumbs I can hear my old scout master's voice in my head, extolling the virtues of elbow grease. Putting your back into it. For long term gym-refusers like me, the lo-tech kitchen is an opportunity to keep fit without getting hot, sweaty, bored or bothered. Cooking as workout. It's not going to win me any medals come 2012, but the exercise goes some way towards keeping the love handles at bay.

One old-fashioned contraption I have great affection for is my food mill, or mouli-légumes in chef-speak. It looks great, with the shiny gleaming curves of the bowl, and its exuberant handle, which reminds me of the gear stick on the battered old Renault 4 my mum had when I was a kid. It's not the fastest or easiest way to blend a soup, but I reckon it's the equivalent of 10 minutes on the rowing machine.

Does anyone have any favourite low-tech gadgets they can recommend to a kitchen Luddite?

Comments

Belit

14 October 2008, 12:46PM
Belit

Here's an idea: do everything while carrying a toddler who's fighting back. That might actually take you some way toward 2012 glory...

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Craig

20 October 2008, 12:27AM
Craig

Grinding your own mince is a great way to shed a couple of calories, while ensuring you know the provenance of its ingredients...

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Gravybrowning

20 October 2008, 8:01PM
Gravybrowning

Don't forget the great pecks developer of the stoneware cookpans which need lifting from the upper/lower shelf - not to speak of hauling them in and out of the oven filled with a yummy slow-cooking hotpot or brisket! (Great for flattening the tum as well - even after devouring the goodies!)

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Siti Merrett

21 November 2008, 11:21AM
Siti Merrett

Well done Toby Travis! I can now associate with someone. I have been using the same large stone pestle and mortar for the past 25 years without any problem in my Victorian home. They work like a therapy for me because you can be aggressive (to release your anger or anxiety) thus will produce good smooth curry paste..or less aggressive you will produce a chunky paste.

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lalybaba

24 April 2010, 9:59AM
lalybaba

Much to the bemusement of my mother I did a sponsored "cakathon" (Cake baking marathon) to raise money for chairty a couple of years ago. Half way through she discovered that I didn't have either a mixer or a food processor and that I was doing everything, from rich fruit cake to fatless sponge, the way my grandmother did all her life ie by hand and elbow grease. So horrified was she that I promptley received a food processor. I think I've used it three times. Much prefer using my elbow grease! Oh and I have a mouli too :)

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