Everyone has a drawer in the kitchen—the junk drawer. In it goes all the little things that don’t quite fit into a neat category—corkscrews, melon ballers, garlic presses, vegetable peelers, the odd rubber band.

In every junk drawer, there’s probably a selection of effective but completely unnecessary kitchen gadgets. Gadgets useful for exactly one thing. I had a rummage through ours today and found these gems.

The crinkle cut knife—This truly does make awesome French fries, but it’s shorter than your average potato, and who wants to sit there and carefully line up the little wavy lines so your fries look nice?

The candy dipper—If this worked as well as a fork, I might pull it out when I dip truffles. It certainly looks really cool. Unfortunately, an ordinary fork is easier to use.

The herb scissors—These are all the rage right now here; every kitchen store has them. I took one look at them and thought, “Cute, but you’d never get them clean.” Ian took one look at them and thought, “Great stocking stuffer for Robinne!” We pull them out occasionally for the humour value, but I find a knife works just as well, and is easier to clean.

The spring-loaded whisk—I don’t even really know what to call this gadget. Press down on the handle, and the whisk spins. For small quantities of vinaigrette, it does a fine job, but give it anything more, and it can’t manage. Even for stuff it could manage, I still tend to reach for a fork instead.

What unnecessary kitchen gadgets are in your junk drawer?