You’ve narrowed down that you need a kitchen gift for a food lover. Congratulations, that’s more than half the battle of finding a great present. As for the rest of the gift-giving battle, there are a ton of wonderful, truly helpful kitchen appliances available at surprisingly affordable prices. For once, you can show how thoughtful you are and actually stay within your budget here. Here’s my list of actually useful kitchen appliances, each for less than $50.
I can’t tell you how often I use my tea kettle for things that are not tea. I boil water for instant noodles, pour water baths, brew pour-over coffee, pre-warm mugs, and I actually use it to water my indoor plants too (not with boiling water; it's just a nice vessel). The reason I’m not recommending the stovetop kind is because those take forever. The universe will end before you have boiling water. An electric kettle will boil your water in about five minutes or less. I prefer one with a digital temperature control panel so I can brew green tea to the ideal 170°F, or keep water at 200°F for pour-over coffee.
No home cook, chef, or food hobbyist should go without a digital kitchen scale. Not only does a scale give you access to recipes written by weight instead of volume, it allows you to be more consistently accurate in all of your cooking. Measure portions out for meal prepping, add the correct weight of chocolate chunks when the recipe uses morsels, and make sure your Thanksgiving dinner roll recipe comes out perfectly year after year. Heck, you can even use it to measure your dog’s prescription diet food. Many are small, lightweight, and run for close to a year on a pair of double A batteries.
I know this isn’t the first thing folks consider when they think of gifts for chefs, but having a small, handheld vacuum has really helped me keep a tidy space. Cooking on a daily basis (maybe multiple times a day) will have you dropping crumbs, coffee grounds, shredded cheese, cereal, you name it. A hand vac and 30 seconds can change everything and allow you to feel at peace if you have to run out the door. You can find models designed for kitchen use, but car or upholstery vacuums are essentially the same thing. Just be sure to find one that comes with a thin, precision nozzle, like the vacuum below.
Some folks think toaster ovens are good enough to toast bread, but if your giftee is a true toast lover, they must have an appliance that is toast specific. Nothing makes toast as well as a single purpose, spring-loaded toaster—air fryers and conventional ovens dry out your bread, and toasting bread in a frying pan is a recipe for accidentally burning it. It’s a good gift, and choosing an attractive one makes it a great gift.
Waffles are the fun breakfast food that people without waffle makers yearn for longingly—before they make the same old pancake recipe. Give them the gift of fun breakfast. I’d be remiss if I didn’t inform you that a waffle maker is actually a multi-purpose cooking tool. You can cook more than waffles—think: meats, cheeses, or entire breakfast sandwiches.
These pint-sized air fryers are the perfect gift for someone who’s not quite ready to commit a larger one yet. Whether they’re living in a dorm, small apartment, or they’re just not sold on how effective air fryers are, give them this wee convection oven to try out.
We all know that a regular blender works well, and yet I think we all have a shared hatred of cleaning it. I recommend the immersion blender, also called a hand blender or stick blender, as a great gift. The biggest benefit to using one of these is that you can blend in reverse—instead of being restricted to fitting things inside the blender container, you put the stick blender into any container. As long as it has enough liquid to blend, it’ll work wonderfully. I often blend smoothies, make whipped cream, and purée soups with mine.
There are two types of milk frothers that you can choose between: an electric milk steamer and frother that hovers near the $50 mark, or the milk frother wand that costs around $10 to $15. Budget is the biggest deciding factor here, but beyond that, they two deliver different results. The electric one is good for a coffee lover who wants to duplicate a cafe-style latte or cappuccino but doesn’t want to fuss with a steamer wand. The appliance heats the milk while creating a microfoam.
The battery-powered milk frother wand is simply an agitator. It won’t heat the milk or create a silken microfoam, but it will create a foam with larger bubbles. This is good for the coffee fan that’s not too picky but likes a little somethin’ on their morning brew.
Coffee enthusiasts usually prefer whole bean, and that means they’ll need a way to grind those beans at home. While blade coffee grinders tend to be cheaper, I recommend the conical burr grinders for a more uniform result. They can usually handle more coffee at once, and they’re adjustable to allow for both a fine espresso or something more coarse for French pressed coffee. Conical burr grinders are usually well over $50 but this one from Hamilton Beach has a small footprint and keeps the cost low.
A rice cooker is a downright helpful appliance even if you don’t make a ton of rice. This small electric appliance will perfectly cook oatmeal, steam grains, or even hard cook a half dozen eggs. While you can get expensive ones with all the bells and whistles—digital screens, pre-cook settings, and spring loaded lids—a simple two-setting rice cooker will do all the same things. Load up the inner container, flip the switch to “cook,” and when it’s done the rice cooker will automatically flip to “warm.”
A slow cooker is a great gift for someone who likes a variety of cuisine, but maybe doesn’t love spending hours in the kitchen. You can make anything from soups and stews to cakes and casseroles by adding the ingredients, setting the time, and letting it do its thing. Though some of the other appliances in this list are smaller models to accommodate a smaller budget, you can easily get a large slow cooker for under $50.
One of my most used cold weather kitchen accessories is my electric mug warmer. It’s an electric hot plate with preset temperatures that not only keeps your drinks hot, but you can even use it to proof bread. This is a great example of a simple device that someone probably wouldn’t treat themselves to. But that’s where you swoop in with a mug warmer that allows them to keep their tea hot at their desk, on the porch, or in the kitchen while they get ready for work.
This is a great gift for folks that love fresh fruit and veggie juices but hate the cost. I’m a sometimes-juice-drinker and it makes more sense for me to throw some fruit halves in the juicer than to buy a whole liter of OJ that will likely go to waste. Masticating juicers are pricey, but centrifugal ones, like this one from Hamilton Beach, are far more affordable.
