What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?

RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 1032 points –

I bought a piece of 1.5 inch stiff foam to try to fix a sag in a bed. It didn't work but having that thick piece of solid foam around has been a life saver.

Need something flat to put a laptop on? Throw it on the foam. Going to be doing something that requires you to be on your knees for a while? Get the foam!

It went from stupid purchase to something I'd gladly replace if it broke.

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Pizza Scissors. Great for frozen pizzas so you can cut it up right out of the oven without waiting for the cheese to cool off. It's also great for cutting dough and just having a 2nd pair of kitchen shears if your normal pair was used to cut raw meat.

Big chefs knife is what I use for pizza. Though having a couple sets of scissors around wouldn't be a bad idea.

I've worked in a few different pizza places in my day. Most used the circular roller cutter but pizza hut had my favourite cutter. It was a long rocker blade (curved so that it's taller in the middle then you place it and "rock" it from one side to the other to make the cut).

Rollers or anything that slides the blade along the pizza will pull cheese and toppings along with it and will only cut as straight as you keep it. Plus, if you realize halfway through a cut that your line isn't very good (like you're about to cut some pepperonis in half and probably drag at least one part off the slice entirely when a slightly different angle would have gone between two pepperonis), you're kinda committed to it already, while a rocker blade allows you to see the whole line easier before you start the cut.

I don't have one at home though because it's not very practical to store and only really worth having if you're cutting a lot of pizzas and flat breads. It could work for cake, too, though it depends on how high the cake is.

I have a smaller version of this, its just slightly larger than a normal frozen pizza. Pure game changer.

so you can cut it up right out of the oven without waiting for the cheese to cool off.

I'm confused as to why you would need to let your pizza cool before cutting anyway.

The "cheese" on frozen pizza usually gets pulled by the pizza cutter if it isn't cooler a little bit before hand. Might just be from buying target pizza cutters, as a ceramic one I had a decade ago worked like a charm. But I still see it as kitchen sheers with a study base/platform > a good pizza cutter.

Cheap pizza cutters are terrible as they aren't sharp enough. I just use a normal cheap chef's knife and cut straight down. I'm wondering if maybe it's about pizza thickness though as on a thick pizza (which isn't really a thing here) you'd still drag the toppings a bit cutting down through the thickness?

I’m confused as to why you would need to let your pizza cool before cutting anyway.

because he is cooking frozen pizzas, they are low quality cheeses.

low quality cheeses.

I still have no idea how this would make a difference.

Maybe one of you could explain what happens when you try to cut such a pizza without letting it cool first?

You don't let it cool completely but for like 5 minutes. The cheese solidifies a bit more once it's not blistering hot so when you slice the pizza the toppings are less likely to slough off. It keeps the cheese on the slice instead of being dragged with the scissors or slicer. Same idea with lasagna or shepherd's pie, it holds it shape a bit better instead of spilling apart into a mess when you try to serve it.

Maybe this is an issue for thicker pizzas? With thin pizzas (which is 99% of home pizzas where I live) you just kinda chop straight down rather than drag the knife through.