5 Ergonomic Kitchen Gadgets That Make Cooking More Accessible

Cooking is a valuable life skill, and a fun and enriching hobby besides. Even if you're not planning on engaging in any "Iron Chef" level cookery, it's good to be able to prepare meals for yourself and perform simple kitchen tasks. However, cooking is, by its nature, a very hands-on practice, one that generally requires a good level of dexterity in those digits. If you have any physical conditions that may limit your hands' ability, or even if you're just a bit uncoordinated, cooking can feel somewhat inaccessible.

Luckily, since cooking and kitchen work are both widespread hobbies and necessary tasks, there's no shortage of tinkerers and engineers creating kitchen gadgets, unconventional applicances, smart devices, and other tools to take some of the pressure off of your wrists. These tools will save you a lot of grief and exhaustion in the kitchen, which should let you dedicate more energy to the rest of your day — or back into the kitchen for more creative pursuits, if you're so inclined.

If ever there were a mortal enemy of those with weakened wrists, it would be the stubborn jar. Whether due to atmospheric conditions or an overly enthusiastic vacuum seal, some jars absolutely refuse to be opened, at least without putting your body's entire strength into twisting the top. It's actually possible to hurt yourself by trying too hard to open a jar lid, which is why it may be to your benefit to have an intelbras Automatic Jar Opener nearby.

This nifty electronic jar opener is perfect for household members who may have trouble getting a grip on the situation, such as young kids, people with arthritis, or those with wrist injuries. Just place a jar into the port, close the grip to hold it in place, and tap the big red button on top. A powerful high-torque motor will pop the lid right off, after which the grip easily returns to its original position for storage. This gadget can handle any jar lid from 1.2 to 3.5 inches in diameter, and requires little to no manual input from the user.

Has someone you love ever told you they spent all day slaving over a hot stove? Odds are good, they were standing over a large pot of soup or stew, constantly stirring for what must've felt like forever. Some recipes do require constant stirring to keep things from clumping or solidifying, but it's absolute murder on your hands to stand there and do it while the pot simmers for what feels like an eternity. If you've got better things to do than stand and stir, and you almost definitely do, then let the StirMate Automatic Pot Stirrer do it for you.

This futuristic gizmo is rather genius in its simplicity: it's a motorized stirring stick that you clip onto your usual soup or stew pot to keep things moving while you're busy with other parts of meal prep, or off doing literally anything else. Just insert the special three-pronged stirring stick into the device, clamp it onto the side of your pot, and align the stick with the center. Flip the variable-speed switch, and it'll start stirring until you turn it off. The StirMate can be automatically adjusted to fit any pot from 6 to 9 inches in diameter and 3 to 9 inches in depth, and it can stir continuously for up to 10 hours on a single battery charge.

Grinding your own spices is a good way to fine-tune the flavor profiles of your culinary creations, and keeping a stash of whole dry spices around to grind as necessary is a good way to save space and money. Unfortunately, as with opening jars, the repetitive twisting motion that comes with using a manual spice grinder can be absolute murder on your wrists, especially if you're doing it a lot for a lot of different meals. It's for situations like this that the masters of engineering invented the battery-powered motor, which you'll find in the FinaMill Salt and Pepper Grinder.

While it's billed as a salt and pepper grinder, the FinaMill can handle pretty much any dry whole spices, from rock salt to peppercorn to dried garlic. Just load your spice of choice into the proprietary spice pods, insert the pod into the bottom of the grinder, twist the bottom for your preferred coarseness, and click the button on top. Just like that, you've got ground-up spices, dispensing out the bottom of the pod onto your dish-to-be, all with one hand and no physical exertion. The pods are made of materials with no potentially harmful bisphenol A, while the grinding components are made of long-lasting ceramic, so the only thing you need to worry about is occasionally changing the batteries.

Here's a fun fact: the peels and skins of many fruits and vegetables are actually richer in vitamins and nutrients than the inner parts. Unfortunately, many peels taste pretty lousy, so even if it means losing a bit of nutritional content, they've got to go. Those peels don't go without a fight, though; peeling with a knife or handheld peeler is a very dexterous task, one that can cut up your fingers something nasty if you're not careful. If you'd rather save the money on Band-Aids, just let the Starfrit Rotato Express handle things.

This electronic peeling device is designed to remove the peels and skins from all kinds of produce in a single, clean slice, leaving a perfect fruit or veggie for cutting and cooking. Just stick your target onto the lower prongs, secure the upper prong to hold it in place, and raise the cutter arm to the top. Press the button, and like a needle on a record player, the cutter arm will methodically trim the entire peel off the veggie, automatically stopping once it reaches the bottom. Just like that, you've got a long, singular ribbon, ready for the compost heap, and a nice, clean vegetable for your stew.

Of all the repetitive tasks you could encounter in the kitchen, the king of them all is chopping stuff up. Even putting aside any fears you may have of handling sharp knives, standing around and chopping onions all afternoon is one of the most monotonous things you can do in a kitchen — it's rough on your hands and on your patience. Save the knives for when you really need them, and instead consider leaving all the chopping to the Hamilton Beach Electric Vegetable Chopper.

This professional-grade chopping device is small in stature, but feisty in temperament. Just dump up to three cups of small veggies, nuts, fruits, or whatever else you're looking to cut down to side, place the lid on, and press down. The spinning stainless steel blades whir to life, slicing and dicing your ingredients in mere seconds. The lid also has a built-in oil dispenser if you're looking to emulsify ingredients into sauces and dressings. After you're done, just throw the bowl, lid, and blade in the dishwasher for an easy cleanup.