13 Puzzling Kitchen Items That Were Instantly Identified by a Team of Experts

As unbelievable as it may sound, the kitchen can be a mysterious place. Did you know there’s a special utensil used for eating grapefruit? There are more than 29 different types of spoons, and most of us only use 3 types on a daily basis. Let’s play a game and try to identify the following items without a name that people shared online in the hopes of finally exclaiming, “Solved!”.

Now I’ve Seen Everything prepared a list of unknown items; and finding out what they were made us look at the strange thing in the back of our kitchen drawer with new, more curious eyes.

1. “Open spoon with spikes; trident-like fork; tongs with a chicken foot and a perforated spoon. All antique silver. What are these things?”

Answer: The first one is an olive server, the middle one is a lemon fork. The third one is an ice tong.

2. “What’s this thing?”

Answer: It’s a jar opener. You can remove a jar lid without damaging it and use it again.

3. “It was a gift, but I don’t want to ask what it is.”

Answer: This is a propagation vase.

4. “A kitchen utensil with a wooden handle, attached to a round metal cup with 3 spikes (with holes in them)”

Answer: It’s a tool used to make a Portuguese sweet called fio de ovos aka Portuguese egg threads, made with sugar and egg yolk; here’s a recipe.

5. “This item in our kitchen, we’re not quite sure what it is.”

Answer: It’s a pastry cutter.

6. “What is this tiny saucepan thing my husband inherited? It has a removable thing with holes around the edges.”

Answer: This is a device for cooking eggs. You put water in the bottom and an egg on top. It essentially poaches the egg.

7. “I found these 2 spoons attached to a wooden handle at the thrift store.”

Answer: It’s a musical instrument literally called “spoons.”

8. Stainless steel flatware with slats about the size of a teaspoon. The back says “stainless steel Japan” but no other markings.

Answer: “They’re for buttering corn on the cob. We had them when I was a kid.”

9. “It was titled at auction as ’sewing bag’ but it’s completely padded inside and I have no idea what it’s for.”

Answer: It’s a tea cozy. The generic tea cozy is more hat-shaped than suitcase-shaped.

10. “I found these 2 weird items in my old stuff a few days back.”

Answer: The one on the left is a fork for pickled cucumbers, you can pick up a cucumber in a jar with it, and put it on a plate. The one on the right is a trough for cutting cabbage, meat, or mushrooms.

11. “We found these in our family silver set. It’s a full dining set, but we weren’t sure what these 2 pieces were used for.”

Answer: The first item is a perforated serving spoon for peas. The other one is a stilton scoop.

12. “I found this thing buried in the backyard.”

Answer: “It’s a waffle iron. My grandmother had one identical to this, and she used to make waffles in a pot-bellied stove for my brother and me when we were little kids.”

13. “Heavy, metal, found in a collection of old kitchen things; what could this be?”

Answer: It’s a nutcracker.

Which of these mysteries was way too easy to crack? Have you ever seen an item whose purpose you couldn’t identify? Tell us in the comments below.