Four Kitchen Gadgets Put to the Test: Pickle Jar, Whizzy Whisk Pro, Nut Butt and EvoChef Dosa Maker

Introduction

Some kitchen gadgets solve problems you did not know you had. Others solve problems you definitely do have but never thought a tool could fix. We put four viewer-suggested gadgets through hands-on testing with professional cooks to find out which ones actually earn their place, and which ones are fun but forgettable.

WhiteRhino Hourglass Pickle Jar: Mess-Free Pickles, at a Price

The WhiteRhino hourglass pickle jar tackles a very specific annoyance: getting pickles out of a jar without making a mess or, more importantly, without contaminating the brine. Flip the jar and it temporarily drains the pickle liquid from the main chamber, so you can lift pickles out cleanly. Close the lid, flip it back, and the pickles are re-submerged.

The hygiene argument is stronger than it first sounds. Properly pickled cucumbers keep their crunch when fingers stay out of the jar, because bacteria on your hands can change the vinegar activity and turn a crisp pickle into a soggy one. If you have spent months nurturing a batch, coming back to mush two months later is genuinely frustrating.

In testing, the design impressed on simplicity. There is nothing to go wrong, it is easy to clean, and detachable silicone pieces stop it sliding on the worktop. The lid is BPA-free food-grade plastic and the glass is food grade. Beyond pickles, it works for olives and cherries too. At £21.99 it is not cheap, and even its fans admit most households will not buy six of these for the pantry. Still, if the pickles in your house keep going floppy, this is a real solution.

Whizzy Whisk Pro: Fast Froth, Limited Control

The Whizzy Whisk Pro is the big brother of the original Whizzy Whisk. Push the whisk up and down and the head spins, using ten circles on the whisk head to pull air into whatever you are whisking. The marketing list is long: meringues, omelettes, lattes, cappuccinos, mayonnaise, gravy, salad dressings, batter mixes, cake mixes, and lump-free custard. It is dishwasher safe, useful for people with dexterity issues, and it retracts into its own handle for compact storage.

In a head-to-head against double cream and egg whites with powdered sugar, it got to stiff peaks quickly and with minimal effort. A few more thrusts took it to a quenelle-ready consistency that held marks.

The trade-off is control. The whisk only works from the bottom of the vessel, so it suits a tall, thin container rather than a wide bowl. It performs best with relatively small amounts, getting there fast without effort, but it does not replace a traditional whisk for every job. At £12.99, it is cheaper than most people guess, and the verdict was roughly this: it does its one job well, but it is still a single-purpose tool.

Nut Butt: A Single-Use Tool That Actually Works

Anyone who buys natural nut butter knows the problem. The oil separates and sits on top, leaving a liquid layer up top and a rock-solid slab at the bottom. A spoon only mixes at the point where it contacts the surface, so you end up rotating a thin piece of metal through three quarters of the jar without actually blending anything.

The Nut Butt is a flat slotted metal stirrer designed to churn nut butter through a full 360 degrees and back upwards, blending the oils back into the solids. Tahini and seed pastes suffer from the same separation, and the same hard bottom layer, so the tool applies there too.

Testing confirmed it does work, particularly on jars where the bottom layer has gone genuinely hard. The clever part is the little card tool included in the pack, which cleans the slots out, because the stirrer itself is difficult to get clean otherwise. The sceptical take is fair too: it is a single-use item, and a bigger jar with a bigger spoon gets you part of the way. But for a very specific job, few things are more effective. At £13, the price drew raised eyebrows for what is essentially a branded piece of shaped metal.

EvoChef Dosa Maker: The Star of the Line-Up

Dosas, the thin crispy savoury crepe-style dish from India, are notoriously hard to replicate at home. The traditional technique relies on a gentle, controlled movement with a flat-bottomed ladle across a specific hob setup, which most home kitchens simply do not have.

The EvoChef Dosa Maker takes a different approach entirely. Fill the batter tank up to the fill line, hold the power button for three seconds, then choose your cooking time, the number of dosas to print, and the thickness. After a three to five minute preheat, it prints fresh dosa sheets one after another, peeling each one away automatically and stacking it neatly on the last.

Watching it work is genuinely mesmerising, closer to a 3D printer for food than a conventional appliance. In testing, dosas came out stringy, stretchy, and with a clean break, then cooked through evenly. Served with coconut chutney, aloo masala, and sambar, the results were called sensational and idiot proof. Batter is easy to source too: dry mixes that you just add water to are stocked in most supermarkets, while wet pre-made batter usually means a trip to an Indian grocer.

At 13,999 rupees, roughly £132, it is the most expensive gadget here by a wide margin. But the verdict was unanimous: it is smartly engineered, surprisingly simple, and delivers India’s greatest dish with almost no skill required.

Which of These Should You Actually Buy?

The pickle jar and the Nut Butt both solve real problems for people who care about the details, but each is a hard sell for anyone who does not. The Whizzy Whisk Pro is a pleasant surprise at its price if you want quick froth and easy whipping with no strain. The EvoChef Dosa Maker is the clear standout: expensive, niche, and completely brilliant at what it does. Match the gadget to the habit you actually have, and you will not go far wrong.

Conclusion

Three of these four gadgets do exactly what they promise; only you can decide whether the problem is worth solving. If your kitchen habits align with any of them, the links above are a good place to start. And if you know a gadget we should test next, we are always listening.