My maternal grandmother was famous for having a couple of quirks. The first, a morally questionable game involving rodents & people passing by her house. The other, sending random kitchen tools without their packaging to my mother over a period of about 10 years.
This was in the 80's, when we were all extremely stupid. Without the packaging, Internet searches or a direct line to Julia Child's brain, the items were completely confounding.
Every Christmas new mystery items would make their way from Renfrew, Ontario to my hometown through the magic of the postal service.
Regardless of how useless the contents in the box seemed to be, the arrival of a package DELIVERED TO THE DOOR was an event in itself.
Betty would balance her Craven A on the nearest formica surface, lift the items out of the box and stare at them for a while. They then got dropped into their permanent home, a larger box dedicated to these unknown items that lived in our fruit cellar - for the past 40 years.
This week I opened that box.
I have since identified all of the items except for the ones that are really, really hard.
How Many Can You Identify?
(without the help of the Internet)
Of the 30 items, there are still EIGHT that are unidentified. If you can positively identify any of the 8, I will add it to the list along with the name of the person who identified it.
Answers below photo galleries. Make a list, keep your score and add it to the comments.
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We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
Items 1-19
1.
2a.- 2b.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
- 16a.
- 16b.
- 17.
- 18.
- 19.
- Shrimp peeler & deveiner
- 🤔 - My first thought was a soap dish but I'm not convinced
- 🤔 - It rattles
Identified as an Ice Cracker by Kristi - Butter spreader
- Cherry pitter
- Lemon/lime squeezer
- Tupperware loose tea strainer
- Handi handle
- Apple Pie top crust cutter
- Mini can opener
- Garbage disposal brush
- Putting practice cup (not a kitchen item but it was in the box so ...)
- 🤔 - I don't feel like this is a kitchen item either. Seems like it would be for making nets or something
- 🤔 - Oak tongs that are so hard you can't use them to pick anything up
Identified as toast tongs almost simultaneously by Marion and MJ - Cheese button (You stick it on the top of cheese while cutting so you don't touch the cheese)
- 🤔 - There's a magnet on the back and a couple of little metal teeth in it.
- 🤔 - Some kind of ridged plastic wedge
- Multi Bottle/can opener (I think)
Identified as a 2 litre bottle caddy by Muff - 🤔 - I feel like it's a UFO carburetor
- 20.
- 21.
- 22.
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
- 26.
- 27.
- 28.
- 29.
- 30.
- Roast beef carving tongs
- Canning press (for keeping fruit below liquid when canning)
- Egg cup (Part of a set from Finalnd)
- Butter curler
- Jar opener
- Coffee measuring scoop with rubber tong ends for picking up paper coffee filters
- Pickle fork
- Pot strainer
- 🤔 - wtf?
- Pot watcher (placed on the bottom of a pot of water or milk it alerts you to boiling liquid if you're either out of the room, or blind)
- Brown sugar softener
I 100% thought #29, the stainless steel pot watcher was to put over cans to drain them. It isn't.
If you're still curious about what my grandmother did with those rodents and passersby, you can read a bit of that story here. In fact, that whole post will give you great insight into the genetics of the women in my family and how we carry a recessive gene for a warped sense of humour.
Lay it on me weekend readers. How many of the tools could you immediately identify?
Betty has said now that she knows what the garbage disposal brush is, she wants it back. I'm pocketing the cheese button because obviously.
As for the rest - they will be the subject of tomorrow's puzzle. Their fate beyond that is up for debate but I don't drink tea, have never found a knife to be terribly problematic for applying butter and my current UFO is electric.
Jim. Fraunberger
I. Believe number 2 is used to hold veggies or fruit so you can grate them or cut them safely on a mandolin.
Gina
#13 is an oven rack puller or pusher. You grab the rack to pull it out when it's hot.
Doug
#7, Leveling wedge. Available at any hardware store.
#10, P38 military issue can opener for field rations. These were issued in the old days for C or K-Rations (in cans), before hi-tech MREs.
#13, Clothesline tightener (?)
Susan
#17. It’s a Wobble Wedge for unsteady furniture on uneven floors.
Doesn’t work for people even though it totally fits in a pocket for easy transport.
Karla McIntyre
I think #13 might be an oven rack puller.
Nun yo b
17 is a wedge to put under a wobbly table leg
Nun yo B
I think 13 is a handle for a bucket like the ones you see now for some shopping bags.
Karen
A few others guessed that, but I still can't say for sure whether it's a bag holder, or a piece of wood that keeps laundry lines on a wheel separated. ~ karen!
Betsy
I actually recognize #3 above, rattles and all. That's an ice cracker, to break up ice cubes into more civilized crunchable pieces.
Greer van Eyssen
What a fun mystery hall! I THINK that 3 might be a boiled egg slicer? And 28 looks like one of a pair of salad servers.
Theresa Romatowski
What a fun thing to do. I had 3 wrong, and 3 no idea what they are 16b, 19, and 28. My use for 21 is keeping pickles submerged; 23 is a surprise to me, butter curler, how handy. I'm doing this at my next ladies luncheon. A good reason to clean out that drawer. And my items have accumulated over 40 years also, haha. I always enjoy your articles. Keep your sense of humor. Bless you.
Karen
It *is* a fun idea for a lunch or shower! ~ karen!
Margaret Webb
#17 is a wedge to put under a wobbly table leg
Daun
Number 10 is officially a P-38. Military used it as a can opener.
Number 16 is a gadget to open bags of chips etc. clip it at the top of the bag and slide it across so the pins slit the bag
Gigi
Also my first thought.
Vanessa Devoto
13 looks like a bag handle to me. hold it open side up and hook the plastic bag handles one on each side creating a handle?
18 is (again) a handle you can add to a plastic bottle. I can't tell the size from the picture but for soda or juice maybe.
19 almost looks like a piece that was pulled out of a dishwasher?
E
Sorry, that would be if the angles were the other way. I agree with the shopping bag people. My dyslexic butt got it backwards.
Elaine
13 is something you put your recipe book in. You put the pages in the corners and then it stands up so you can cook from it.
I mean, it might be for making nets too, but I have a thing that looks exactly like that and that's what it does.
Irene
I'm so disappointed!
For AGES now, the page stops loading after 2 or 3 photos. I've tried reloading SO many times.
I've tried with Adblock on and off.
Nothing seems to help. :-(
Karen
Hi Irene. If you know how to, just clear your browser cache. ~ karen!
Jean
13 is a handle for carrying one or more plastic shopping bags. It prevents them from cutting your hand. You put one handle in each groove and hold the wooden part between the grooves in your hand.
Ken
I believe No. 13 on the list is a plastic shopping bag handle used to carry 1 or more bags without threatening to cut the circulation from your hand. At first I thought it to be a tent guyrope tensioner but with slots instead of holes it is clearly designed to hold and release something ie shopping bags.