Experiments in Art, Craft, and Food

The lovely folks over at Useful Things contacted me about doing a few product reviews, and they had such neat stuff that I though Dabbled readers might like, so I said yes. They sent me two of their neat products – Ice Shooter Molds and Herb Scissors. So here’s what I have to say about them.

Ice Shot Glass Molds

I had to try the Ice Shooter Molds, because I kept thinking of so many interesting uses for them…

They are made by Fred, which always seems to make cool products, and these were no exception.   They are just simple silicone molds, in the shape of shot glasses.

The shot glass mold pretty much worked as advertised.  Fill with water, freeze, and pop out four shot glasses made of ice.   The only issue I found with it were that sometimes there would be a bump on the interior from the freezing process, so you wouldn’t get a perfectly formed interior.  It’s just the nature of the freezing process, the top freezes first, and then the interior water expands as it freezes, and the silicone (being soft) can’t stop it from expanding outward.  This can be eliminated by filling halfway, freezing, and then filling the rest of the way. Or you can just ignore it, I suppose.

Other things to be aware of:

• I’m sure you’re aware of the nature of ice, but these do melt fast, so have a plan to stash in freezer, and/or use quickly.  They are a fun conversation starter, but not overly practical.  Although I am planning to make a bunch for my halloween party.
• Ice will have bubbles in it.  Again, the nature of the freezing process.  I tried several techniques to try to get these crystal clear (like boiling the water before freezing it), but never really succeeded..
• These worked really nicely for shots which are best chilled, like a good vodka.
• Eco-friendly!  No glasses to wash or throw away!
• Freezing juices: Although the packaging says you can, and I did try some with layers of juices (to a neat effect), it isn’t really practical, as the shot glasses are then sticky as well as melty!

The Party Testers say:  Yum!….

Bottom Line:

I like these.  They are a fun and silly thing to pull out at a party.  Not very practical, but works as designed!

Herb Scissors

Looking at these Herb Scissors, the first thing that runs through my mind is Alton Brown saying “Single Tasker”!  But hey, there’s a place for some really good single taskers in my kitchen, so lets read on, shall we?

Basically you have multi-bladed scissors, similar to shredder scissors.  The idea is to with one snip, do the work of multiple snips of scissors.

Removing them from the packaging, they seem well constructed.  The metal is not flimsy, and I like the little plastic blade guard.  So how do they work?

Well, I’d give them mixed reviews.  The first herb I tried was basil, and I tried rolling up the basil prior to cutting, similar to how you do a chiffonade.  That did NOT work well.  The basil got caught up between the blades and ended up pretty bruised.  Not a good result.

Doing individual leaves fared better.  Less bruising, but still caught up between the blades.  So any time saved from just using regular scissors was lost poking the herbs out of the blades!  And it was faster still to actually roll up and chiffonade the basil with a knife!

Stiffer herbs, like green onions and rosemary worked better, with less getting caught in the blades.  I can see a use for these scissors if you are only adding a little bit of herbs (like for garnish) and don’t want to pull out a cutting board and knife.

Note: Maybe not a single tasker:  my 5 year old says he can’t wait to try them on paper!

Bottom Line:

While they seem to work as designed for stiffer herbs, softer leaves were more problematic.  Even in the best conditions, I can’t see any huge advantage in these over just regular scissors for adding herbs to a plate.

*Dabbled received  the items for review from Useful Things.  No other compensation was received and the opinions expressed are my own.  If you’d like Dabbled to review your product, email me!