House Rules: how to stone a mango

About 10 years ago, my very wise mother told my brother and me that she had no more room or desire for additional melon ballers, potato ricers, spoon rests, turkey basters or any of the other gadgets that fill those gift gaps at birthdays and so on.

We got over our dismay and thought, well, there’s always soap and nice scarves. But imagine my shock when, a couple of Christmases later, she gave me a mango stoner.

Small-scale kitchen gadgets make for fun presents, but it’s amazing how quickly their tide rises, and you are soon struggling through endless bits of waffle to find something useful, such as a sharp knife.

One of the problems, apart from the ease of purchase, is the promise they hold. Somewhere, deep down, a part of me thinks that some day I will ball melons. And stone mangoes. Actually, I did try my Good Grips Mango Splitter (£6.99 from lakeland. co.uk) once, only to find that hacking away with the aforementioned sharp knife was just as satisfactory.

And what about the Oxo Poultry Lifter (€14.95 from Meadows & Byrne), or an egg-poacher duo (€16 at Harvey Norman), apple cutter (€3.99 at Homestore and More) and pineapple corer (€4.99 at Homestore)?

Notwithstanding the fact that it evidently costs €1 more to core a pineapple than it does to cut an apple, I find myself slightly beguiled by the idea of people sitting in studios, offices and even at kitchen tables inventing this stuff. There’s a whole process by which they come to design and production before you even consider the off-chance that someone out shopping realises that lifting poultry has become so arduous they just can’t do without a tool.

That said, sometimes a gadget can surprise you. Mum came up trumps last year with a small courgette spiraliser (above). I regret my look of disdain and apologise for muttering about the gadget moratorium. You can get them for €3.99 at Homestore and More, and they’re absolutely, life-changingly brilliant.