Gadgets which make Danish Life Easier

I have realised one thing from visiting a number of houses in Denmark…the Danes looove their kitchen gadgets Everywhere I go I am faced with a new and improved gadget which I need to figure out a way of how to use without making a total fool of myself. I thought I will write about some of the more useful ones which, although probably/maybe available in Malta, are not in as widespread a use as here…

Cheese cutter

There are two kinds of cheese cutter here (not sure where you use what and how and why, or if they are interchangeable…I will use whatever is presented with the cheese, and hope that is fine ).

Palette-like Cheese cutter

Wire Cheese Cutter - Have two sides which cut cheese to different thickness

So imagine me, the first time I came to Denmark and we sit down to eat, and I am told that since I am the guest, I start, and I am presented with the wire cheese cutter which I never used (or at least regularly)…I had to admit my ignorance, and tell them: please go before me! Now I am strating to get used to this embarassment

Honey Dipper

At home in Malta we use honey quite a lot, especially in winter, due to sore throats (and also as we like it ). But we always tend to make a whole mess of it as we try to ‘pour’ the honey into the cup and then try to stop THAT without making a mess. Not in Denmark! Here they have what I was calling (and have now confirmed to be) a honey dipper! Just dip into the honey, rotate till the honey strand is disconnected from the rest of the honey in the bottle, and VOILA’!, dip it into your hot drink and let the honey dissolve – honey in your drink without a mess. Brilliant!

Honey Dipper

Pouring Out Tea

They also have sophisticated bottles for pouring tea and stuff! When we visited his sister, we got this glass flask, with a metal pourer in its mouth which locked to the glass with like a rubber bung, to prevent dripping when you stop pouring. Also, the bottles had like a zipper cover to keep the material warm In Malta you tend to try not to drip, and if you do you wipe

Tea Flask

Piston Coffee Jug – Stempelkande

Well, you cannot just have this stuff for tea and have no gadget for coffee can you? (Though the previous flasks are also used for coffee). Well, with this gadget, you put the coffee beans in the flask with the hot water. When you want to pour the coffee, you then push the piston you see at the top down, pushing the beans downwards, so you can get coffee with no beans in it

Piston Coffee Jug

Wine Pourer

And what about the wine? I realised they drink a lot of that here – they drink it with every meal! So what they used here for the Christmas dinner, when a lot of wine was going to be poured, was a circular piece of foil, which they make into a cylinder and introduce into the mouth of the wine bottle. With it you can then easily pour the wine without dripping. And best of all? It can be dishwashed and used another time!

Wine Pouring

Well, that is all for now with Danish gadgets…but as you can see, they do try to make their lives as easy as possible (even easier than required maybe )

Tags: cheese cutter, coffee, coffee flask, coffee jug, Denmark, gadgets, honey dipper, piston jug, pouring wine, stempelkande, tea, tea jug, wine pourer