[1 - 2] - Hi, this is Lisa from America's Test Kitchen Gear Heads
[2 - 4] and I'm here to answer some of your questions
[4 - 8] that you left on our video about fruit gadgets.
[8 - 10] First of all, some of you got really deep and philosophical
[10 - 15] about the avocado and tomato fruit or vegetable question,
[15 - 17] we loved those comments, thank you so much.
[17 - 18] Says that one person asked,
[18 - 19] would you ever cover the correct way
[19 - 21] to wash fruits and vegetables?
[21 - 23] Should I bother with vinegar, salt
[23 - 24] and/or vegetable fruit sprays?
[24 - 27] We actually did some testing related to this
[27 - 27] several years ago,
[27 - 29] there is a piece on our website
[29 - 31] and we still believe in this technique,
[31 - 34] you don't really need dedicated fruit and vegetable washes
[34 - 37] but you can make an equally effective solution
[37 - 39] with just white distilled vinegar and water.
[40 - 42] You fill a spray bottle with three parts water,
[42 - 44] one part vinegar,
[44 - 46] and you can spray it and then rinse it with tap water
[46 - 47] and that does the trick.
[47 - 50] Or if you want to do it in a bowl,
[50 - 51] you can get a big bowl and fill it
[51 - 53] with the same proportions,
[53 - 56] three parts water, one part vinegar, submerge everything,
[56 - 58] smoosh it around a little bit, rinse it off.
[58 - 59] That's also really good for things
[59 - 61] like when you're cutting melon or avocado
[61 - 64] or anything where you're gonna be pushing stuff
[64 - 66] from the rind through the fruit that you're going to eat.
[66 - 67] You don't need anything fancy
[67 - 74] and really just good water, scrubbing, rinsing is the best. Someone asked,
[74 - 77] where can the average person buy the perfect avocados?
[77 - 78] You know, it really depends on where you live
[78 - 80] and what you've got in your stores
[80 - 82] but if you can buy some nice looking, intact ones,
[82 - 84] even if they're kind of firm,
[84 - 86] if you put them in a brown paper bag for a couple days,
[86 - 87] feel 'em every single day,
[87 - 90] when they start to give a little, they'll be ripe.
[90 - 93] If they ripe and you have too many of 'em ripe at once,
[93 - 94] we found you can put them in the fridge
[94 - 96] and that will keep them for a few more days,
[96 - 98] they won't keep going till they're all brown.
[98 - 100] So those are some things we've learned
[100 - 103] and it definitely helps you get the avocado
[103 - 105] to the right texture that you want
[105 - 106] and then hold it there a little bit longer
[106 - 108] than just having it out on the counter.
[108 - 111] Will we review kitchen composers?
[111 - 113] If by that you mean compost buckets,
[113 - 115] we just, just reviewed them, we have a new winner,
[115 - 117] they're awesome, I love it.
[117 - 118] You know, for when you're cooking
[118 - 119] and you got scraps and things,
[119 - 121] you wanna put those in compost,
[121 - 123] it's a nice little countertop bin
[123 - 125] that you can lift with one hand and drop in,
[125 - 128] it's by OXO and yeah, check out the full review,
[128 - 130] we have lots of ones that we covered
[130 - 132] and we did tons of testing.
[132 - 133] As far as like the ones that are outside
[133 - 137] that compost material, we have not reviewed those.
[137 - 139] They're bigger, they're more expensive,
[139 - 142] we were just like, we're gonna do the indoor part,
[142 - 147] a lot of places have municipal compost pickup now,
[147 - 150] so that's the way we went, but we've not ruling it out,
[150 - 153] it may happen in the future, just we have not done that yet.
[153 - 155] Is there a cherry pitter you'd recommend?
[155 - 158] Yeah, we didn't talk about our cherry pitter, it's great.
[158 - 159] We did a whole bunch of testing,
[159 - 162] we did many, many models, we pitted a ton of cherries.
[162 - 164] Some of them,
[164 - 165] it looked like Jackson Pollock had been through,
[165 - 166] it was a mess,
[166 - 170] the winner we like is by Leifheit, it's L-E-I-F-H-E-I-T,
[170 - 172] and it can do a bunch of cherries at the same time,
[172 - 174] it was very fast, it was efficient
[174 - 176] and it didn't waste too much fruit
[176 - 177] and it kept all the pits in one place.
[177 - 180] So if you're gonna be doing a lot of fresh cherries,
[180 - 183] doing cherry pies or whatever, preserves,
[183 - 184] that's the way to go.
[184 - 188] The ones that do one at a time, you'll drive yourself crazy, so, yeah.
[188 - 189] Would any of the tools that we talked about here
[189 - 191] make it into our capsule kitchen?
[191 - 193] You know, some of these are uni-taskers
[193 - 195] as some people pointed out,
[195 - 198] and they, you know mentioned Alton Brown and no uni-taskers.
[198 - 199] The reason that we like those tools
[199 - 202] is that in fact they're kind of better than some of,
[202 - 204] you know, at those specific tasks,
[204 - 206] they're a little bit better and quicker, more efficient,
[206 - 208] a little safer, in the case of the strawberry heller,
[208 - 211] than using a knife or something you already have.
[211 - 213] We're not big fans of uni-taskers either
[213 - 214] unless they actually make a difference
[214 - 217] in terms of the speed, the efficiency, the comfort
[217 - 219] of doing a specific task.
[219 - 221] And in that case, these are the ones we recommend.
[221 - 223] Would they make it into a capsule kitchen?
[223 - 226] Probably not in sort of a generic capsule kitchen
[226 - 228] of things you absolutely have to have.
[228 - 229] Yes, you can do a lot of those things
[229 - 232] with knives and things but if you do a lot of apples,
[232 - 233] the apple tools are useful.
[233 - 236] If you do strawberries, tomatoes, whatever,
[236 - 237] you know, as someone pointed out,
[237 - 239] if you're facing two bushels of tomatoes,
[239 - 242] that little tomato corer is your best friend
[242 - 245] and it's less than five bucks, so why not, treat yourself.
[245 - 246] That's it for this time,
[246 - 250] we'll see you next time on Gear Heads. (upbeat music)