Jamie Oliver's Flavour Shaker. A review.

frobisher

First things first, I'm no Jamie fan and when I got his flavour shaker for xmas my first thought was "I'll be flogging that on ebay". I stand here a converted man. Jamie is still an annoying gnome but his flavour shaker is brilliant.

It's like an ergonomically shaped plastic cocktail shaker with a hard and heavy ceramic ball inside. You pop in your ingredients like spices and herbs and give it a shake. The ball does it's work and releases flavours. And it really works!!

I just cooked a couple of filet steaks. When they were near done I whacked a garlic clove, maldoon sea salt, fresh pepper and a little olive oil into the flavour shaker and shook it a little then poured it in and sweated it with the steaks for 40secs or so. Bloody brilliant!!

Alun

What does it do that an old-fashioned pestle and mortar can't do?

segadreamcast

Eh, nothing.

And that'd be about 7-8 times cheaper.

... but, it is introducing "casual cooks" to such tools and fresh, natural ingredients which, in my estimation, is a good thing.

Oliver's a clever marketing man!

frobisher

Mortar and pestles are great. I have two and use them regularly. While there are similarities, this is a slightly different tool. Depending on what you're using it for it's far easier than a M&P and is definitely more suitable for working with oils and liquids. That said, I won't be binning my M&Ps either.

Trust me, this is a decent tool.

Sleepy

Interesting, my Mum got me the original "Naked Chef" cookbook for Christmas and the first thing Oliver goes on about in it is how it's so worthwhile buying a proper stone mortar and pestle instead of 'cheap' ceramic ones that 'really aren't up to the job'...

Shabadu

For some reason, I HATE the notion of this instrument and everything associated with it. My other half was threatening to buy me one. No thank you. I have a chopping board, p&m, and my knives. Why do you need this contraption? You'll use it five times and then get sick of cleaning it, and it'll sit unused in a press forever. That said, NoelRock has a very good point.

Nevyn

I have a wonderful pyrex m&p that is dishwasher safe the cermaics tend to get cracked and oils and bits get stuck and taint other mixes.

case_sensitive

Yeah, my Mum got me one of these for christmas, and immediately borrowed it for the dinner! She went out and bought herself one as soon as the shops opened. It's deadly, and it's far superior to a mortar and pestle because you can make liquids in it. I thought it was for salad dressings mostly, but we made pesto in it. Great yoke, and yes, he's a bit of a ponce, but the lad can cook.

Shabadu

Eh- you can use liquids in a pestle and mortar too, you know. :S

Moving this to the main forum.

JimmyL

Here's the website! http://www.flavourshaker.co.uk/

Blub2k4

The Oriental Emporium on Jervis St does large marbel mortar and pestles for about 25 euro and they are a lifetime purchase, I dont recommend picking one up unless you are travelling by car, or into a bit of weights training.

dudara

P&Ms are great to have. I have a huge one, made of stone, and a smaller marble one.

I bought Jamie Oliver's new book there on Play for £5 before xmas, and I've been reading it recently. There's some really tempting recipies in it.

Shabadu

Ok- out of curiousity and in the interests of science, I shelled out for one of these, reasoning that if I hated it I could palm it off as a present at some stage. (Classy- I know)

It's a bit gimmicky and fiddly. The outside gets all oily and foody. It's difficult to manouver the ceramic ball around when you're trying to get the paste off it and into the dish. It took a lot of pounding to get through 2 dried chillis, and even then a p&m would have done a much better job, faster. I doubt it could handle star anise and cinnamon sticks as Jamie claims- but I'll report back after the next curry night.

That said- it was great for herbs & garlic, and nice for making a small quantity of dressing, rather than having to use bigger quantities with the hand blender and chucking the rest out. It made a really nice paste out of semi sundried tomatoes. I have an inkling it could make a nice small batch of mayo.

It also doesn't retain any flavours. I'm in two minds about this- while it's obviously nice to have a pesto that doesn't taste of cumin every now and then, there's something lovely about sticking your nose into a well seasoned p&m.

To sum up, it does have a place in my life, but I will be hiding it when any of my friends who are chefs come over for dinner.

The Sweeper

I prefer basics to gadgets. I have a granite mortar and pestle that's rather large and rather heavy, but it works really well. I also have a basic glass-jug blender, a set of very sharp knives and a heavy wooden chopping block. Between these four items, I find I can achieve whatever I want in flavours, dressings, sauces and other bits and pieces.

I will occasionally supplement these items with an empty glass jar, which comes free with many things that I buy.

I've always found it weird that Jamie O, he of the "less washing up the better" style of cooking, has invented one of these...