Clever or Never? ANTIQUE Gadgets tested | How To Cook That Ann Reardon

Welcome to How To Cook That, I'm Ann Reardon  and this is Dave Reardon. And this is an episode   of clever or never Antique Gadget Edition. Wow  cool! So this crazy-looking gadget, contraption,   I bought in an auction and it was completely  rusted, so I used electrolysis to get rid of   all of the rust and then I used a polishing tool  to get rid of the last bits and polish it up,   then put oil on it and baked it in the oven  to get this nice coating and to stop it   from going rusty again. Now there's still a  bit of a problem with it it's really really   loose so at some points it's not connecting  with the gear anymore but I couldn't fix that,   I tried. Well you did a great job it was a  mess when you got it and it is quite it looks   like it was new right now. Well I don't know if  it'll function like it is. If it was 100 years   ago it looks like it was new. Yes you wouldn't  find this in the shops nowadays because you get   your fingers caught in there and all of those sort  of things but it's pretty impressive looking like   this is the blade I sharpened the blade as well  cuz the blade was rusted. So you're supposed to   put an apple there and then it goes around peels  your apple then the blade automatically goes back   and then this bit is going to push the apple  off yep ready for the next apple. I like it.   Should we test if it works? Yeah absolutely.  That should be nice and tight. Give it a go,   apple on. I will be fascinated and I am this  is excellent. But see my my gears disconnecting   is an issue definitely I need a um some sort of  special tool I think. Time machine? Wow I'm amazed   considering how old this thing is the question is  will it push the apple off? Is it going to kick   it out of home? And here we go ... wow it did.  That was cool. Wow so you don't have to put your   hand on the apple pull it off it is there I mean  it's not perfect we've got a few little bits but   that's pretty good. Yeah. I'm giving it a clever.  Absolutely clever. Gadget number 2 was invented   because of a problem of whipping egg whites. If  you go back to the older cookbooks like the one I   have here for lemon cake it says: take the whites  of 10 eggs put put to them three spoonfuls of rose   or orange flower water and beat them an hour with  a whisk. Wow! An hour with a whisk. Like nowadays   you just turn on your electric mixer and you're  done so I thought we'd see how it was just with   the whisk I've only got five egg whites not 10  I was been kind to us. Originally they started   with a birch whisk. They did not. They did it  was just birch branches and they stripped off   the back tied them in a bundle and that's what  they used to whisk and then somewhere along the   line someone invented the metal whisk they're  not actually sure exactly when this came in but   historians think it was some time before 1841.  Certainly I've got a book from 1865 that talks   about you could either use this or the birch whisk  and they thought the birch whisk was better. So   I thought we'd time how long it will take us  to whisk these to soft peaks and which one's   better. Well I'm going to go the sticks because  uh if I fail with the sticks no one will blame   me. Okay fair enough. Season of the sticks. Let's  go. Let's set a timer on your marks, get set, go! That arm's tired! I'm out of energy. Oh I'm not ooh catching up.  It's getting there still not quite stiff peaks. All right I think that's pretty good. Mine's not! I'm so tired though that a lot of effort.  You're a lot faster than me. I just  feel like I'm ... maybe it's the sticks.  Maybe it's the sticks. Probably the sticks.  Because look how many wires I have  compared to how many sticks you have.  Do you want to swap? No cos then you'll prove   that it wasn't the sticks. But I do want to know if the   sticks work. Alright you go. Because maybe this  is why it took an hour. Do you want me to do   this one? That didn't take me an hour. This one is  not there yet, so let's give it a whisk and see. Got it all down me not good! Your turn. You might have wrecked This is whisky business. It's actually getting  there I mean look at that it's at the soft peak   stage it's definitely a lot slower than this one  was but I am wondering if I had more sticks would   that have made it quicker I'm not actually sure  but either way they use a lot of arm strength   and tire your arm out cuz it's very repetitive  so I can understand why they tried to come up   with solutions for this problem. Before we look at  that though I wonder if you know that Dave doesn't   usually just taste bad food and whisk egg whites.  I reckon they know. Dave is actually an author he   wrote the book The Deep Enders which recently won  an award. Yeah did which is pretty cool. I uh I   got to go over to the US to go to a conference  tone conference with a couple of thousand young   book enthusiasts, even met all these young people  who have got dog-eared copies of my book and were   big fans of it. So that was really cool. And some  exciting news to announce to you all. Yes today   we can announce that after a long time the sequel  to The Deep Enders is done. It's ready to go it's   with our publisher in America right now they're  just tweaking and doing the cover and all that   sort of thing uh but it's coming out. So can  we pre-order now? Yeah you can pre-order now   we'll put a link below and you can jump on all the  websites and Amazon and all those places where you   pre-order and then soon as it comes out you'll  get your copy. Awesome and if you haven't read   the first one yet make sure you get that so you  can read it first before you get the next one cuz   it's in a series. Good fun. All goes together.  All right I'm excited well done thanks you've   done an amazing job Dave used to be a journalist  so he's a very good writer. Now egg white problem.   Sore arms, people everywhere trying to whip egg  whites so then lots of people started making and   patenting inventions to try and solve this problem  and the first ones were things like this which   were a container and then inside the container is  a whisk that spins around which while that's good   it's then hard to to get the egg whites out of the  container so that was sort of the first level of   inventions. And then Monroe invented this which  attached to the side of your bench and then you   turned a handle and it spun the whisk for you in  the bowl. Then on this one they've attached it to   the side of the bench but it's coming up and over  instead of off the edge and then this one looks   very similar but it's got a handle on the side and  then you wind here but it doesn't have the whisks   it's got this little, paddles, which I don't think  would whisk egg whites very well. A lot of people   put a lot of effort into solving this issue well  it's a big issue! Then T. Earl he was really into   egg things and I can tell you why because he has  so many patented egg beaters. This one has the   handle on the side the thing going around and more  of a whisk at the bottom and I like the little   pretty hearts that are in the wheel but I think  that one's pretty amazing. So this was 1866 and   then T.Earl again, Egg Man, he moved the handle to  the top and then you wind which that looks pretty   similar to the rotary beaters you have now. But he  filed this patent in January of 1870 and then if   we move on to May of 1870 this guy Williams who's  credited with inventing the man controversial!   He patented this one which I think is fascinating  that these are only a few months apart they both   lived in Rhode Island I'd love to know if they  knew each other. Wow this is like sleuthing you   know 1870 culinary crimes! Did he copy of this  one we'll never know so anyway that was the one   that then the Dover Stamp Company that was  a manufacturing company bought this patent   and they also bought the one that attached to the  bench and then they started manufacturing them and   that's they're the ones that took off. Some of you  may have had one like this or similar to this the   original 1870 ones are quite expensive now they  sold very cheaply back in the day and everybody   had one. I'm going to get you to test how long  egg whites take to beat using a rotary beater   and while you do I'm going to read to you from an  old book from 1886. "4 years ago without prevision   that one of the blessings of my life was coming  upon me I paid a visit to my house furnisher he   had a new egg beater for sale. Vanitus vanitatum  I said waving it from me but it comes well   recommended he remarked quietly but as you say so  many of these things are humbugs will you oblige   me by accepting this gift and giving it a fair  trial and letting me know just what it is? I'll   send it up with the rest of your articles. For 3  weeks I blush to write the Dover hung untouched in   my kitchen closet. At Last I took down my gift.  Dover egg beater patented 1870 is stamped upon   the circumference of the Iron Wheel. Egg whipping  ceased to be a bug bear for me that day of which I   speak light portable rapid easy and comparatively  noiseless my pet implement works like a benevolent   brownie. If I could not get another I would not  sell mine for $50 nor 100. Stiff peaks. So it's   clever yeah definitely very clever. Now only 15  years after that invention the first electric   mixer was made cuz electricity came on the scene  and then a little while after that then Hobart   which is the KitchenAid company made the first  industrial mixer that went into restaurants   and cafes in America. And then in 1919 Kitchen id  made the first home mixer for people just at home   but it 65 pounds. Okay that's heavy and it cost  $189 which is equivalent of $3,000 today which   they're still expensive today but they're not that  expensive. So it was only very wealthy households   that could afford one and then in the 1930s  Sunbeam made the Sunbeam Mix Master which was   a lot smaller and it was an electric mixer that  went into a lot of thousands and then somewhere   along the line an Australian invention came out  called the Kan Wonder mixer. Come on here go   Aussie! This does not have electricity connected  it is hand cranked stand mixer. Give it a go we   are an Innovative Nation. Now what date do you  think this is from given 1920s was the KitchenAid   ones and then 1930s the Sunbeam Mix Masters. Given  it's a home device maybe 1920s mid 1920s. I could   not find hardly any information about this  and it took me a long time to track down the   patent for it and I was really surprised when I  discovered the patent is from 1953. Okay so we're   not that Innovative then. So I thought why would  we have this when electric mixers already existed.   Because power is expensive. That's exactly right  apparently the uptake of electrical appliances   was really, really slow because power was so  expensive and so the only things that really   had good coverage were toasters and kettles and  that was it. This advert in a newspaper from 1956   has here the Sunbeam Mix Master so we had those if  you look down the bottom not only does it have the   mix master it has the Kan Wonder Mixer for sale  so they're selling both of these one 7 pounds and   one is 28 pounds which what's 7 pounds in today's  dollars? 7 pounds in today's dollars is $142. So   still quite pricey but then by comparison the Mix  Master would be... Well, four times so 568. Wow so   it's a lot more expensive to get the electric one  plus you've got to then pay for the electricity   which was very expensive and on top of that  the cities of Australia had power but the rural   areas didn't all have reliable power until about  1960, so there was still a market for something   like this. Come on I'm back to being Innovative.  Well done! I think it's cute. yeah I like it and   it's super smooth it's actually like it's I'd use  it now. I even found a picture of one of these a   very similar model that instead of having the hand  cranked handle it had this weird attachment where   you attached a a tap hose and it water-powered  it. Oh I thought how clever is that? So that's   very cool and I really like it it's very cute and  it has a little juicer attachment here so that you   can juice stuff straight into the bowl it also had  apparently a little egg separator that went there   as well but it didn't come with that the model  that I got and this is not the original bowl   either. So it's pretty cool I like it yeah I think  it's fantastic so should we test it out and see if   it actually works let's give it a crack! Go, fast  as you can. It almost needs a handle out here. It's a lot faster the guy who invented it  his name was Sydney Duncan Mouncey if you   are related to the people who made this hit  us up in the comments I'd love to know more   about it and the full story of it. Well done  we're giving this a clever. Very clever. With   thanks so much to all my patrons for your  support that allows us to make videos like   this and buy crazy antique gadgets to review if  you'd like more videos like this make sure you   give a like a comment share and watch more  videos. Yes. Make it a great week by being   kind to others and I'll see you on Friday and  pre-order Dave's book. Oh yes very good bye!

Channel: How To Cook That

Views: 184,211

Keywords: clever or never, testing antique kitchen gadgets, howtocootkaht, ann reardon, food scientist, kan wondamixer, antique stand mixer, antique apple peeler, history of the whisk, egg whisk, dover egg whisk, fun, entertaining, youtube, amazing

Id: s3kOcM8rw1M

Length: 15min 41sec (941 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2024