Pig Tail Food Flipper

Walk in to any Good Sammy’s or Salvos store and you’ll find drawer upon drawer of hideously inane kitchen utensils. Ranging from the used-once melon baller through to the novelty masher, this is god’s waiting room for the poor designed or poorly understood.

Either way there has been a failure for the chef at some point in time to see the true value of the item. I for one am a sucker for such items. Perhaps it’s the promise of a new experience in the kitchen, of, say, an afternoon of unbridled casual wine, music and melon spheres (yes I have one). These are the romantic daydreams that staggeringly impractical devices are sold from, to be only smashed to pieces by the selfish demands of real life.

For durability in use to endure, things must be efficient and predictable – much like the kitchen itself.

I’m not sure how I stumbled across the Pig Tail Food flipper (must have been wanting a good pair of tongs I guess) but I can assure you every meat meal now cooked in our kitchen uses this devilishly simple item.

What is it?
It’s a single piece of metal much like a tapered skewer (with a wooden handle) with a small semi-circle hook at the end. With a technique that takes a few goes to master, you can very quickly pluck, flip and place all manner of food into and out of bowls, pans, grills etc. Because it’s a mechanism is a hook, it securely holds on, and as it’s small you have less cleaning up.

“The genius is in the efficiency. ”

Who wants to handle raw chickeny tongs that dribble their salmonellosis all over the bench and plates?

How about those slippery bits of grilled meat that your “silicon non-scratch tongs” are so expert dropping.

With this little piggy you can pick up a piece of meat, or veg and flip it in mid air and return it to the surface. It makes fumbling with tongs look antiquated.

The speed and precision one gets with this simple item places it in the category of brilliant inventions like chopstick and woks. Single piece of metal, no moving parts, universal application, easy to clean.

Trust me, this won’t be found in a thrift store – you’ll have to delve online.

I had to track mine down from America (Amazon) but I think now they’re offered in the Australian Amazon store.