Old-Fashioned Kitchen Tools That Kids Today Would Be Puzzled By

A breadbox is literally a box in which people stored their bread. In the past, people used them to keep their bread fresh. This was in pre-mass-produced, preservative-laden days when people actually made fresh bread at home. A typical breadbox could hold one or two loaves of bread. Like pressure cookers, breadboxes are something most of us may have seen in our lifetimes but never used. Breadboxes are still available for purchase. Modern bread boxes can be made of metal or wood. Antique breadboxes are usually made of wood or pottery.

When you are thinking of an apple peeler or corer, it probably doesn’t look like the ones they used back in the day. Modern people use apple peelers and corers that can fit into a drawer out of sight until they have a hankering for an apple. In the past, in places such as New York, apples were a way of life. According to Edible Manhattan, before the 20th century, most homeowners grew apples. They would put the pretty apples in the cellar for eating and turn the ugly ones into cider, applesauce and apple butter. Coring and slicing all those apples was tough work, so our forefathers created tortuous-looking labor-saving devices such as apple peelers that cut down on processing time.

Back when you had plenty of space for completely unnecessary kitchen gadgets — and before there were clocks — you could boil your eggs in this contraption equipped with an hour glass timer.

Back in the day the kitchen was a scary place. This meat tenderizer would have kept us out of it for sure.

We wish we had an ice cream sandwich maker in our kitchen. This is one vintage kitchen item we wish had stood the test of time.

This kitchen set made it seem as though all home-cooked meals should be served with ornate vegetable garnishes.

You can still buy these aluminum ice trays, but would you?

The kitchen chopper was meant to chop faster than a knife, because three blades are better than one. But it just doesn’t look that safe.