- [Dylan] As Seen On TV
products can be a blessing or a curse. So we've taken it upon
ourselves to sift through never ending abyss of Life-Changing
products to find out what's good and what's bad. Oh, and while we're at it,
we'll show you how to make your own DIY versions of everything we cover. Welcome to HouseholdHacker,
it's your didactic confidante, Dylan here to
kick things off with the Bacon Boss. The Bacon Boss aims to give
your perfectly cooked and most importantly, flat bacon directly
from your good friend Chef Mike or as most people
call him the Microwave. Inside the box you'll find
a glass lid with a locking handle, some instructions
and the base plate which internally sits at an angle
to better channel any grease away from your delightful bounty. The process of using this product
is fairly straightforward. Pop open a bag of bacon and lay
out as many strips that will fit on the base plate without
covering the hole in the center. We managed five slices, but
you could probably get more depending on the cut. When that's done, put the glass
lid on and tighten it down to flatten everything out and
your ready to hand it over to Chef Mike. Now, it's important to note
that this only works in microwaves with a turntable
inside so don't use one of these on one of your stationary machines. Now add one minute on the clock
for each slice of bacon that you're cooking. So, let's put five minutes up
on the clock and let 'er rip. Keep in mind, thickness varies
with bacon and you may need to add a bit more time at
the end if your final product doesn't look finished. Just keep an eye on things. All right, time's up let's do this. (clear throat) Excuse me. The bacon will keep cooking a
bit after you remove it so let it sit for a minute and
then pop off the lid. This came out pretty good and worked well. Just shift the bacon over to
a plate, remove any excess grease and enjoy your tasty treat. Now let's make our own
which is just as effective. You'll need one large plate
and two smaller plates that can fit on top of it. The large plate will work as
a grease catcher, the first small plate is where you
lay out your bacon strips. Once you have your strips laid
out, take the second small plate and put it right on
top to flatten the slices. Following the one-minute per
strip rule, put it in your microwave that has a
turntable and give it a whirl. It's important to make sure
that your plates are microwave safe or this would be
an incredibly bad idea. When it's done, you'll need
some oven mitts or gloves to pull the plates out because
they're gonna be hot! However, the bacon will
come out nice and crispy and amazingly tasty. Wow, look at all the grease
the big plate caught. Glad I won't be ingesting that. Now let's throw things over to
Scott and learn about slicing and dicing a pineapple. - [Scott] Whether in stores
or on TV, you've probably seen these pineapple de-corer and peeler tools. And with good reason, because
they take the work and mess out of the tropical treat,
peeling, coring, and slicing an entire pineapple in just 30 seconds. Simply lay the pineapple on
its side and cut off the top about a half inch from the stem. Place the serrated part of the
tool directly over the core of the pineapple, and then press down. With one hand firmly holding
the pineapple, twist the tool with your other hand many times
until the serrated edge is near the bottom. Now continue to hold the
pineapple as you use the handle to pull upwards. Juicy pineapple flesh will
emerge without eyes or bits of peel attached, leaving the core in place. Now just release the handle by
pinching the two buttons, and flip the pineapple upside down
and watch it slide right off the tool. You can serve it as is or slice
down one side with a knife and spread it out on a plate. For an added touch, remove the
core from the shell and add a candle as a temporary
decoration for added ambiance. There are tons of crazy ways
to cut that mouthwatering piece of paradise. But let's be honest, all we
really want is a quick way to breach its defenses and get
down to that delicious and heavily guarded sweetness. So, if you don't want to buy
a specialized tool to do that, here's a quick and effective
way to get in and get out with your bounty. Start by lying a pineapple on its side. Simply cut off the top and
the bottom this time, about a half each from both ends. Now just stand the pineapple
upright and cut in half, straight down the center. You'll want to cut in half
again in the opposite direction to cut the pineapple into quarters. This is the easiest way to get
to the core and remove it by cutting off the 90 degree
angles of the fruit. Now lay each piece flat and
make half inch slices all the way down the pineapple
until you reach the skin. Cut a few times down the center
lengthwise until you reach the skin again. Take the edge of your knife and
run it between the flesh and the skin to loosen up and
remove all the pieces. You're left with a bunch of
bite size pieces that you can slide right into a container
and serve as you wish. Basically, with just a knife,
we removed the top, bottom, sides, and the core, and were
left with little pieces of paradise. Honestly, both methods are
pretty straight forward, and you can certainly do without the
$6 TV tool, but it deserves every bit of the 4.5 out
of 5 stars it earned. It may just be another one-off
tool to clog up your utensil drawer, but if you eat a lot
of pineapple, we'd suggest this utensil over many others. - [Dylan] This one takes
a bit of explanation. It's called The Egg Piercer. Now, before we embarked on this
journey, I had no idea that piercing an egg before boiling
it added any sort of benefit whatsoever. But, apparently it helps
prevent eggs from cracking while boiling and also makes
them easier to peel. Let's test it out. You simply unlock the device
which allows a small needle to pop up and punch a tiny hole
in the bottom of the egg. Seems simple enough, but as a
precaution, I'll test this one while wearing a glove don't
want 'em exploding on me if I do it wrong. So, load em up one at a time. Give a firm push down and lift back up. This went fairly smooth without
any cracking or mishaps. As you can see, the holes are
tiny, but didn't cause any other damage to the egg. They are also small enough
that nothing will leak out, so don't worry about that. When you're ready, go ahead
and boil up your eggs. I like to add mine to cold
water and let them sit until the water first reaches a boil. At that point, shut off the
stove top and put the lid on for 15 minutes. This usually gives you
perfect hard-boiled eggs. Thanks, Rachael Ray. When that's all done, add your
eggs to some cold water and let them chill out for a few minutes. You don't want to unpeel these
things while their piping hot. Once cool, pop one out, give
it a crack with a spoon and peel away. Now, I've never been great
at peeling eggs in the first place and the tiny hole in
the eggs didn't really make it any easier on me. In fact, I still managed to
mangle them despite my best efforts. All said and done, the eggs
came out good with no cracks or leaks during the boiling, so
I suppose that's beneficial if you make a lot of hard boiled eggs. Now, let me show you how to
do this yourself in about one minute. Grab an empty egg carton and
slice off the lid and other extra pieces. Cut it so you have four
egg pockets from the carton remaining. Now you just need some thumbtacks. Push a thumbtack into the
bottom-center of each pocket and then flip it back over. It should stand up on it's
while using the tacks almost as table legs. Here's a quick test to make
sure this will even function as intended. Just a little push and pull
and we have a nice little hole in the bottom. I went ahead and tried it
four more times to make sure I didn't just get lucky. It worked just fine, no
mess, no egg yolk everywhere. Just simple little holes to
make your boiling easier. So, if you're feeling
egg-stravagant give it a shove. - [Scott] The Potato Express
is a microwave potato cooker that claims to make perfect
potatoes in the microwave in just four minutes. The packaging claims that the
pouch is great for all types of potatoes and even works
with corn on the cob, day old bread, and more, but today
we'll focus on potatoes. Included is a mini recipe
booklet with instructions that claims to hold up to three
potatoes, but it really only fits three large Russet potatoes. The pouch has a bunch of
warnings printed on it, including not to heat on high or for more
than four minutes at a time. For our test, we're going
to keep it simple with just one potato. Simply insert a potato into
the pouch, toss it in the microwave flap side down,
and cook for four minutes. The Potato Express claims to
be a unique insulated design that creates a steam pocket to
cook the potatoes, so there's no need to peel or poke
holes in the potatoes. But we discovered that
after only four minutes the potatoes just weren't
done as advertised. We realize cooking times may
vary, but most reviews said it requires another two to four
minutes, so that claim of four minutes is bogus. However, after six to eight
total minutes the results weren't too bad, but let's
microwave a potato without the pouch for a comparison. This time, prick a potato
several times on both sides with the tines of a fork, and then
place in the microwave for eight to 10 minutes. You can stop it halfway and
flip the potato over to ensure it cooks more evenly, but
it's not really necessary. When the potato is soft, remove
it from the microwave and cut in half lengthwise. Now top the open sides with
butter, shredded cheese, and of course bacon. For best results, return to the
microwave for about a minute to melt the cheese. The results are just as good,
if not better, without the pouch and only takes a few minutes more. Although the Potato Express
is readily available in stores and online for about $6-8, and
the reviews are surprisingly good, we suggest sticking with
the traditional microwave or baked oven methods and avoid
cluttering your kitchen with one-off products like this. However, if you're still
interested, we've linked to it in the description of this video
along with the rest of the items we mentioned today. - [Dylan] I'm gonna be brief
with this one because it wasn't very impressive. It's called the Chef Basket. The premise is that you can
boil up your pasta or whatever else you want with the basket
inside the cooking pot making it easy to drain out all
the water when you are done cooking. It's also surrounded with metal
prongs which will stabilize it while in the cooking pot. It also has a couple of
handles which will work as legs, allowing you to
prop it up while loading. And you can flatten it
down for easy storage. I put some water on to
boil, and added some cheese tortellini to the basket. I actually, had to add more
water during this process because unless you get almost
to the top, the pasta wouldn't touch the water at all. So, you place the basket it
and boil things up as usual. When everything's done, just
grab the handles, which stay cool, drain the basket and
dump your dinner into a bowl. This didn't really seem like
much more than a collapsible colander. So, to make my own version that
is exactly what I went for. A standard metal colander. The only thing you need to
make sure of beforehand is that the handles on your colander
will allow it to rest on top of the cooking pot while the rest
of it is submerged in water. Add your pasta, and place
it into the boiling water. This has essentially the exact
effect as the Chef Basket and you most likely already have
one of these lying around your house somewhere. The main difference is with removal. The colander's handles will be
hot so you'll need to remove it using mitts or a couple towels. Let it drain right back into
the pot, dump it in your bowl and add whatever sauces
or spices you desire. How simple is that? - [Scott] Last, but not
least is The Clever Cutter. It's a 2-in-1 knife
and cutting board tool. It claims to chop and slice
food in seconds with its razor sharp stainless steel blades. Opening the packaging was
pretty easy, so that's a good start. It comes with detailed
instructions that walk you through how to use their product. There's a safety latch that
locks and unlocks the blade from the mini cutting board. The spring loaded grip handle
really is ergonomic and easy to use without much practice. We tested it first with
carrots, and the results were surprisingly as good as
advertised in the infomercial. For best results during use,
apply a firm, quick snap motion towards the end of each cut. It made chopping celery as
easy as cutting through butter. The sharp blade even cut
through a thick cucumber with no problem at all. Since we had such good results,
we decided to also test it out on pepperoni, and while
we were at it, we also cut the cheese. Any way we sliced it, the
results were much the same. We wouldn't go so far as their
claim to replace all your kitchen knives and cutlery with
one easy to use device, but it really was pretty useful. One of the best parts is that
you can place a bowl, plate or pot underneath to catch the
cut food with no added effort. On the contrary, it wasn't
so easy when we tried using a pair of sharp kitchen scissors instead. The veggies turned out
chunky and flew everywhere. Wouldn't recommend. With that being said, there
are alternatives that are just as quick and simple. One such method requires a
pizza cutter and cutting board. Simply hold your vegetables
firmly down on a cutting board and slice and dice back and
forth to cut up vegetables quickly and easily. It's really that simple. This technique may not be as
versatile, but it's another option and requires only
utensils you likely already have, saving you around $13. Either way, both methods are
productive ways to slice foods without a messy cleanup. - [Dylan] So, turns out that
most of the silly stuff you see on TV at 3:00 A.M. can
be made yourself with a little creativity. If you want to check out some
of the stuff we used, check the description for
links to every product. Thanks for watching and remember,
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me directly refer to zorbo the mighty lizard god that lives
in the lake behind my house.
