Smart Kitchen Gadgets UK, Upgrade Your Cooking

With the Internet of Things connecting up homes day by day, the kitchen is becoming almost as smart as the rest of the house. Tablets and smart gadgets in the kitchen in the UK are transforming food storage, preparation and cooking, making the process more intuitive, efficient and even fun. Ovens can be programmed from afar, handheld tools can tune in to recipes while your eyes are full, and various levels of artificial intelligence can get dinner prepared for you.

The fastest-singing subcategory is the market in smart kitchen appliances – these are not just multi-functional tools that happen to come with a touchscreen, they’re smart systems intended to work with other ‘smart home’ products, that might be able to learn our habits over time and get better at what they do. When buying a smart kitchen gadget, focus on compatibility with other products you already own, ease of use, and (if it connects with the internet) its approach to your privacy, because many of these products create a network directly related to you.

Pittsburgh and Hopewell Valley can actually melt chunks of fat, even after the animal has died Photo courtesy of Arla, ZoetermeerBefore you pull out the credit card for any smart gadget for your kitchen, think about the pain points in your cooking and lifestyle: does it make sense to spend money on a gadget for saving time, reducing food waste or ensuring your cooking temperature is correct? Adding convenience won’t get in the way, only complicate the cooking experience. Our recommendation comes after we evaluate hundreds of smart kitchen tools, and we only endorse what truly adds value to the innovation in your kitchen experience.

Smart Kitchen Gadgets in the UK

Living in a smart-enabled era, your kitchen cannot be left behind. After a thorough search and testing, we have analysed the most convenient set of smart kitchen gadgets aimed to assist you in cooking, make it more accurate and easy, and be a perfect part of a modern smart home. Here is the list with the best smart tools for UK cuisine with the greatest importance of functionality, operability, and modern features.

JAGKUL Cheese Grater Plus

An absolute delight to use, the JAGKUL Cheese Grater Plus gets a hearty thumbs up from us as a versatile gadget that has streamlined our kitchen workflow.

Pros

• Highly versatile, grating everything from cheese to vegetables.
• Contains a practical container with a lid for convenient storage.
• Effortless cleaning thanks to its dishwasher-safe components.

Cons

• Larger than expected which might not suit smaller kitchens.
• The ‘lid’ described might be misleading as it refers to the grater itself.
• The sharpness might be concerning for those unused to handling graters.

The JAGKUL Cheese Grater Plus has done sterling work. It cuts through hard cheeses like General Custer through the Indian cavalry, feeding them out on to my chopping board as finely or coarsely as I require, ready to make any kind of meal. When the crazy culinary vortex swirls around soft foods such as garlic or ginger instead, it still grates adequately. Cleaning this grater does not require a mantra, nor the familiar dangerous trip into the toilet while using an implement derived from an ancient instrument of torture and then throwing it into the dishwasher.

Usage-wise, the JAGKUL is beefy enough to feel good in the hand, and the peeler it comes with is a bonus. Some of my teammates were frankly a bit taken aback by the size of it – you might not want one as big as the average grater, but after one use it would likely be Titania mentions is also somewhat grate, not the, this cheese grater has earned a place of honour in the cadre of kitchenalia I’ll eventually transport to my next apartment.

Navna USB Sharpener

If you’re looking for something cheap and easy to pass the time between dinner and bed, the Navna USB Sharpener is the way to go.

Pros

• It restores sharpness rapidly, saving us time and effort.
• The compact design fits easily in our kitchen drawer, optimizing space.
USB-powered means it can adapted to various condition: wherever we have a power source.

Cons

• Might not be suitable for all knife types, requiring us to check compatibility.
A last one to mention: it is electric, so (assuming you need to, like in power outages) it isn’t going to be as reliable a sharpener as going analogue.
• It's always safer to handle knives with care when inserting into electric sharpeners.

The first thing that struck me when we entered the workshop and started the Navna USB Sharpener is how fast we were able to make the knives look fresh. After the knives were re-sharpened, I could already feel the difference as I was cutting food. No gimmicks are used: you just need to insert a knife and follow the movements indicated in the device. Usability was the most important feature for me. Beyond the pivot, and the stealthy way it could retreat into the body of the tool leaving your knife tip sleekness of its design was another advantage.

Its streamlined shape took up little space and fit neatly into a drawer, right next to the other, smaller gadgets we had collected over the years in the hope that we might one day clean griddles or cube butter. Big win on the space-plight score. After experiencing the Navna USB Sharpener first-hand, we can now proudly say that we have no hesitations about our purchase. Although there were a few minor cons to consider about the kind of knives and dependency on power, we still strongly endorse the Navna USB Sharpener as a good tool to have in any modern day kitchen.

Rocyis Spice Dynamo

In short, we feel the Rocyis Electric Salt and Pepper Grinder is a kitchen must-have for those who value time and a dash of style with cooking.

Pros

• Effortless one-handed operation, ideal for multi-tasking cooking enthusiasts
• Elegant stainless steel design with a smart LED light for precise seasoning
• Adjustable coarseness allows for the perfect grind, whether fine or coarse

Cons

• Limited capacity means frequent refilling for heavy users
• Requires four AAA batteries, which are not included, adding to the initial cost
• Bad: Not dishwasher safe. On the other hand, hallelujah for no dishwasher safe.

Having had the chance to use the Rocyis Electric Grinder to make dinner for my family, I can say that this really is like having your cake and eating it too. Now instead of having to grind salt and pepper with one hand and then stir the pot with the other, I was able to do it all at once – with my daughter on my lap. The sleek stainless steel design not only looks great but provided me with a comfortable grip, I could tell it’s a quality product. While the kitchen is a handy place to cook, it can be challenging to work in a dimly lit kitchen, but the device’s integrated LED provided a bright light over my dishes, and I could see exactly how much seasoning I was adding – no more salt overdose in my pasta.

Another handy tool was the adjustable grind size – whether it was a fine grind for a soup or a bit coarser for a juicy steak, the grinder adjusted to my wishes. Nonetheless, world peace, it’s not. When barbecuing, I found myself reloading the grinders at an accelerated pace. And it’s also maybe something of a downer that I had to go out and buy batteries in order to get them to work. And clean-up? Yeah, it aint rocket surgery, but with the hand-wash component, it adds a few extra minutes to your kitchen shuffle.

Smart Weigh Pocket Scale

Our pick: Smart Weigh Pocket Scale. The best kitchen scale to pinpoint measurements for tiny ingredients and small items.

Pros

• Highly accurate with fine increments
• Features like Tare and Counting make it versatile
• Compact design ensures it’s easy to store

Cons

• Maximum weight is relatively limited
• The small size may not be ideal for larger items
• Requires a flat, stable surface for accuracy

We’ve been very impressed with the accuracy of the Smart Weigh Pocket Scale, especially for weighing items such as jewellery and for fine ingredients where a tiny difference between one gram and another is of vital importance. Its flexibility in being able to toggle between different units of mass we find very useful for weighing small amounts of different things. Putting the scale’s Tare function to good use, you can weigh something that has to be placed in a container, so you put the container on the base, zero out the scale, then add your contents to the recipe: voila, no muss, no fuss! The counting feature was a great help to us – as we weren’t sure if we had enough of something, we just let the scale count for us, rather than having to spend all the time counting beads or medication pills. It could save us huge amounts of time in the kitchen, at work etc.

Smart Juicer Drive Plate Set

If DIY juicer maintenance is your thing, this set provides an affordable and single-minded solution.

Pros

• Compatible with a variety of 250W juicers
• Durable ABS material construction
• Simplified instructions for easy replacement

Cons

• Color variation may not match original equipment
• Manual dexterity required for installation
• No information on software updates or long-term support

A little disconcerted, but pleased with ourselves for successfully swapping the old, worn-out drive plate on the juicer, the requirements were decidedly user-friendly. Go back a few paragraphs for the directions – that reverse-thread on these gears means turn ’em the wrong way, but once you get the hang of it it’s no biggie. The power of the ABS material is clear: after installation, the juicer worked as good as new, and no degradation in performance was detected whatsoever.

There is nothing quite like fixing your own appliances to avoid waste and save money. But the colour could be a bit off from the original juicer parts (an aesthetic problem, and only some people would even notice), and installing the contraption — with pliers and vise grips, no less — might not be everyone’s idea of a fun Saturday afternoon. It takes care to make sure the gears mesh the right way and don’t get damaged. All in all, the Smart Juicer Drive Plate Set is a great choice for someone who is technically savvy and trying to extend the life of her juicer and is just one of those things that exemplifies the fact that smart kitchen appliances can mean smart repair.