Don't Be Fooled: Avoid Buying This Useless Kitchen Gadget

Although we are fans of some single-purpose kitchen tools like the inimitable salad spinner, those stamps of approval are few and far between. For every terrific device that'll dry your produce like no other, there's a high-end pot filler that isn't worth its exorbitant price point. Another one we love to loathe is the surprisingly cheap, yet completely unnecessary herb stripper.

This tool is right up there with banana slicers among the kitchen gadgets destined for clogging up the junk drawer. Their intended purpose is right there in the name: to liberate your cilantro, oregano, or parsley leaves from their stems via variously sized rings stamped into a handheld piece of metal or plastic. Now, some might work just fine, but plenty others are best left to the analog days of late night television commercials. Plus, you probably already have some de facto herb strippers that don't demand extra shipping and handling.

Many folks will be able to use their very own appendages like a dedicated herb stripper. Once cilantro is rinsed and dried, you can hold it upside-down by the stem in one hand, pinch the top end between your thumb and the first two fingers of your other, and make a single, swift motion straight down to release those verdant petals. This probably won't work with machine precision — but guess what? Neither will the herb stripper! You can pluck off any remaining bits in a negligible period of time.

You've probably also seen the semi-viral trick to de-stem your herbs with a box grater. Try that instead. Pick a side (it's likely going to be the one you use for things like cheddar, not the finer panel you pick to practically powder Parm), poke the stem side through, and yank it out to let your newly useful herbs flutter gently downward. You can approximate a similar effect through the tines of a fork, or even the slots of a spatula. With a little imagination, you can make any tool into a DIY herb stripper.