"Sorry to disillusion but Portmeirion pottery was founded in 1960. So sadly the lasagne dish can't be a hundred years old."

That's a pretty open and shut matter!

I wonder if anyone else reading this thread has been to Portmeirion in Wales. We visited and spent three nights at the Hotel Port. right in the village while visiting the area. It's a VERY unusual and quirky place. Any other fans of The Prisoner out there?

I recently wrote about a spatula that came with a set given us when we got engaged, 58 years ago. I use it only for frying eggs. Its beveled silicone edge slips under an egg better than blunt-edged turners, and we like soft yolk, over-easy eggs. (I'm not sure 'spatula' is the right word for this utensil; I think of a spatula as a wide knife used to spread butter, mayo, etc. What do you call the thing you use to turn an egg or a hamburger patty?)

I have a hot water bath canner that isnt used for anything else.

My mother had an enameled pot that she'd always hand us when we were going to hurl...I've been unable to use an enameled pot like that for anything since.

DH gave me a very lovely double boiler which I use every year to make pumpkin chiffon pie. Nowadays for the other times I need a double boiler, I seem to just put the bowl over a pot of boiling water.

Way back in the late 70's when I was freshly out of grad school and looking for a fellowship year I went to Atlanta for an interview and ate at a restaurant called Pitty Pat's Porch. They served things in small (6"?) cast iron skillets that you took as a souvenir. I began using it to toast Sichuan peppercorns before grinding them with a mortar/pestle - and still do today. Don't have a photo of it handy. I did a Google search and this is what I found...https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/odd-ball-pitty-pat-porch-cast-iron-1916001346

In the Google dictionary:

Spatula

An implement with a broad, flat, blunt blade, used for mixing and spreading things, especially in cooking and painting.

Spatula works, but if you want a different word, try "turner".

This is a sippy cup my kids used 20+ years ago (notice the teething marks). For some reason and I’m not sure what prompted it, but it’s been my shaker for dressings, marinades, and flour/water thickener for gravy, etc. I learned a lot of my cooking techniques from my grandmother, who had a designated jar with lid for vigorous shaking. I hold a finger over sipping holes at the top when shaking, but it otherwise does the job. My now-adult kids still laugh when I use it. But I tell them it’s too sentimental to end up in a landfill, so I found a new use for it. It does get used often.

"Spatula works, but if you want a different word, try "turner""

I just bought an Oxo one and it was called a Fish Turner.

The term "flipper" is used too, though that's maybe one for a grill or hamburgers.

OK...I waited...my toilet!

^^I knew that was coming^^ 😃

We call the rubber/silicone one a rubber spatula, unless it's scraping the side of the mixing bowl, when we might also call it a rubber scraper.

We flip burgers etc(not eggs) with a flipper. And we have a fish flipper that's good for certain things, too.

The thing for spreading, we call a spreader.

Another useful tool is a flat ended spatula with a spoonlike indentation that's very useful as a cooking implement. It's called a spoonula. Better and more useful than a spoon shape, better than a cooking spatula in many instances. I have several high heat solid silicone ones of the StarPack brand from Amazon

I have several granite ware/spatter ware saucepans and a roasting pan that I use only for dyeing wool for my hooked rugs. Also a dedicated seat of measuring spoons and a pair of tongs for the same purpose.

My home-made sushi knives. They are locked in a place not in the kitchen. They are to be used only by me and they will never touch anything except in sushi making.

dcarch

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Mom had a metal pie pan leftover from a Jane Parker pie. She used it whenever making salmon patties. I have the pie pan and only use it for making salmon patties.

I also have Ginger sewing shears that are only used for fabric.

I use cookie sheets (with a lip) for cooking fish, potatoes, so many things.

Jane

My 1940s Hamilton Beach milkshake maker is used for real, old fashioned thick milkshakes. Ice cream, whole milk and flavored syrup, sometimes malt powder or a ripe banana and nothing else touch its blades.

One of my hoof picks (the kind with a brush) is dedicated to cleaning my boots.

My large, low sided graniteware roasting pan is only used for turkey.

I have a Tupperware syrup dispenser with a no drip spout that is dedicated to holding powdered dish washer detergent.

I have too many single use items to list, but like Matthias, I have a blender that I use only for making hot sauce. It has a glass jar, and my other blender jars are plastic, which I do not trust with hot chilies. I have several items that I use only for making hot sauce.

Dcarch, when you say home made knives, you mean **you** made them? Wow!

I'll start with the dog's water bowl :-) and go on to the dish for sliced tomatoes...only tomatoes and tomatoes go only on that plate.

And then there is the old enameled cast iron sauce pan that I use only for lemon curd.

"Zalco/bring back Sophie!-

Dcarch, when you say home made knives, you mean **you** made them? Wow!"

Yes, thanks!

I am too cheap to spend hundreds $$$ for a knife. Good knife steel for making knives is very cheap.

dcarch

I have a mini prep food processor that I only use for processing horseradish root. Also a coffee grinder that is only used for making various ground spices like garlic, onion, and cayenne powder.

I have a small retractable utility knife that I keep in the kitchen to cut paper labels off cans. I have a magnet inside the range hood and the knife hangs on the side of the hood as if by magic.

Here a turner/spatula is ofteoften called an ”egg slice”.

Hey, thank you all for the 'spatula' information. I'm going to call my dedicated egg utensil a *turner* from now on -- along with the wider fish turner and the medium width turner I use for hamburgers.

Now...I will be up the creek one of these days when my spring loaded Ecko metal tongs give out after at least 20 years of use. I use those for turning thick pieces of meat like steak and chops. They clamp and release with a turn of the wrist. I've never found any like them. (Worst were the wimpy tongs with silicone heads.)

I forgot about my old paring knife. The blade is somewhat triangular, and I use it only to remove stapled tags from thrift-shop finds.

@fawnridge (Ricky)...ha...no! I gave the botanic pattern as a wedding gift to a GF in 1984. It was launched/put into production in 1972! The company Portmeirion was established in 1960.

Nothing comes to mind, except a very large, clear glass bowl that I use to mix up my fruitcake. It is larger than the biggest bowl that comes in the nesting sets, but I believe Pyrex made it. I was sure it was in a far corner of a bottom cabinet, but not there now. There is limited space here, so not sure where I could've put it. I know I have used it since moving here, so it isn't packed up somewhere.

Oh, there is this.... I recently bought a mini electric chopper at the thrift shop. It practically pulverizes what you put in it, which is perfect for making tartar sauce. I don't like premade tartar sauce and used to hand chop the ingredients for it, but this takes seconds and is perfect.

The bowls I use have really short sides, flat bowls we call them. lol Never noticed...until I tried using them .....really hard to fill them up without spilling over the sides. So if I'm serving salads I serve them in side-dish bowls. :0) This is a "flat" bowl....lol

Thanks to everyone who showed how lame my memory is.

This is my husbands plate. It’s a Royal Doulton, Canadian National Hotels plate. It was part of the package when I married him. I don’t ever use it but it is the only plate he uses for rollmops. It is small and oval shaped.

@fawnridge (Ricky)...OOps! I didn't read anything after YOUR post! I feel a special connection to that china pattern....lol ♥ I paid $25 a plate, back then. The china was stolen by my GF's movers and she took a cash settlement and never replaced them.

nicole - are your "flat bowls" Dansk?

I use a stainless steel small bowl which is kept at the side of the large soapstone farmhouse sink to hold stuff to take up to the compost pile.

@seagrass_gw Cape Cod...yes. I had a stager DO the house I was living in, when I was selling it. She put them ALL over...literally. She thought they were "art". lol

My large wooden bowl (probably walnut) ( from my dear departed FIL who only let it live next to him on the end table by his recliner) and is only used for what he only used it for --- pretzels! My son, when he was to be married, said that he wanted it for himself. I told him I would will it to him when I was done with it because it held special memories of my FIL. Then son burst my selfish bubble by saying it held memories for him too! I kept the bowl but I gave son the end table from next to the recliner with the drawer my FIL always had filled with candy. Son is happy, I'm happy, and pretzels still only live in it until..

Nancy, we have a wooden bowl that Dad used only for cashews or mixed nuts with cashews, and now we do the same.

Well live and learn as they say. @fawnridge (Ricky) I love portmeirion and was astounded to learn it is younger than I am. I do think it's beautiful and could believe it has been around long enough to be in your family for 100 years.

(and thanks to all who clarified that )

I have a small blender with a plastic jar that I only use for making red enchilada sauce from soaked dried red chilis.

roxsol, I would call that a pasta plate or pasta bowl. I have several of those, but not enough. They are more difficult to find that other plates and bowls, but they are perfect for pasta.

If you eat bread with pasta (I generally do not), the flat rims are good for holding slices of a baguette.

I’ve never eaten pasta from an oval plate and that one looks too shallow for pasta to me. Looks like a serving dish imo.

Lars, it is only 7 inches by 10 inches and not deep at all. I think it would be too shallow for pasta. It’s a small platter.

Lars, I have 18 H&K Tunstall bowls that I use for everything from pasta to soup to stew. They have a nice rim on them.

I don’t eat bread with pasta, either.

Roxsol, what are 'rollmops"? Oh, it just hit me! Is it a dish you'd put sauce, gravy, oils on to dip your roll into??

Jasdip, they are pickled herring fillets, rolled up around a filling and stuck with a toothpick. Very smelly.

From wiki;

The name "rollmops" is German in origin,[2][3] derived from the words rollen (to roll) and Mops meaning pug or fat young boy. The form Rollmops is singular, and the plural is Rollmöpse.

Rollmop, Ragmop, doodle-e-ah-de-da-la! Great, now I have an earworm.

Just out of curiosity I had a look at my Portmeirion 12” cake plate. It’s dated 1972 on the back.

It could be said to be dedicated ..... to enormous cakes.

I have an old banged up misshapen skillet that I took from my mother's house when she died that I only make one thing in: Shakshuka. She used to make shakshuka in it, among other things I'm sure! But for me, that's its one and only use. Might have to make some soon now I think of it!