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So, ready for a history lesson? I see how many cards he has. I have We should all be I have notes. I did the research, these things are amazing, and we'll get to them by removing the fabric from number one. My God. Oho. Is this real? I think so, judging by how heavy it is. Is this a real millstone? We start from afar and travel back in time from 400 BC. until the 60s and 70s. Wow, this is the 1960s and 70s, yes. Did you say 400 BC? I thought they started grinding grain much earlier. Certainly, this dates back to 4000 BC. Moving on, the key date is 4000 BC, when grain grinders were used, and when this was invented around 400
BC, it became commercial. This brought grain grinding into the home, opening up the opportunity for families to grind their own flour. I can't even believe this was considered a gadget. Do you understand what I mean? Like, we say " gadgets" now, not inventions, but someone had to invent the wheel to make this possible This is true. And what was the most significant thing about this? This is a replica of that time. Of course, it's a copy. Oh, I understand. But that's almost exactly how it was. Well, let's start, try grinding some grain. Here's the wheat, pour it on top, fill it to the top, and then just spin, I would say, at a moderate speed. The ground grain will come out of the sides.
Wow, pretty fast. It's really fast. And when most of it comes out, you can lift the top, move everything and start again. Let's stop, James. Let's see what we have. That's it. You know what? See for yourself. If you move it a little to the side, you can see the indentations on the stone at the top and bottom There the grains are held and ground. You just have to keep going until everything starts to spill out the sides. What struck me was that if this was a domestic millstone, it was long before the advent of domestic stoves. The stove was still a public affair.
There was a baker and a communal oven where people made their own bread by carrying the dough to the communal oven. So even if they had it at home, they weren't necessarily able to cook it at home. No, that's why all this was mostly done over fire. So, boiling water in a pot on the fire. I don't know if we have any flour. Oh, there is. Yes, you're starting to get.if you take this, here's everything that's gathered in the bowl. You then collected it all, skipped it again, and repeated it over and over again. And we did this for 20 minutes. Is it Mike's 20 minutes or
Ed's 20 minutes? Because 20 minutes of grinding from Ed is probably that much, while 20 minutes of Mike is probably. That's the real truth. It was, um, a start from Mike at about 2 minutes, and then Ed took over at 18. And that's what we ended up with. We. Is this our flour, Jay? You have flour. Here, hold it. Yes, we have some flour. Here, please. We have flour. That's a lot of flour. So, this is the result of two grinds. It took 20 minutes and we separated it through a sieve. So, you have bran and white flour.
This may sound silly, but it really does smell like flour. And it smells like grain. If you open a bag of regular flour from the supermarket, it's just.it's effectively dead. Whereas this, because it's freshly ground grain, it actually smells like a bakery. What's fascinating about this method, or this style of method, is that it began around 10,000 BC and lasted until the 19th century, when mechanical mills appeared. I love how significant these changes become, and you know they're significant when you end up with a bunch of expressions in our modern language that come from there. So, returning to the millstones: to be caught between two fires, to separate the grain from the chaff. For example, all these idioms that we talk about or that we
have in our language come from such inventions. I think we'll come across this throughout the episode: once you start doing things faster and more efficiently, it leads to faster innovation. So the fact that people could do it faster and more efficiently meant that flour began to be used for other products, and new flour-based recipes began to be discovered, invented, and used at home. And of course, I have a pun question for you. Is this a million dollar idea, or does it get on your nerves? Mm, very apt, very apt. Um, I support your pun, it's a million dollar idea, but it's actually a billion trillion dollar idea, considering what it's led to and where we are now.
Yes, I agree one hundred percent. Well, let's go back to the early 1900s. God, that's such a jump. This is a really big leap. Yes, some would say-a quantum leap. Try licking. Yeah, a whisk. Rotary whisk. He also had a long life. Look at how many rings on people's fingers left scratches on it. Yes. Do you think you can determine his age from this? Like rings on a tree. That's right. So, this is a rotary whisk. One hundred percent correct. And this is an original from around 1900.
Wow. The design and concept were first patented in 1859 by J. F. and E. P. Monroe. But then in 1870, 11 years later, Turner Williams invented the first version where the two whisks rotate together. This was because at that time we were in the midst of the industrial revolution. So there were large-scale innovations in commercial and industrial spheres, the invention of the steam engine, gears and mechanisms began to penetrate household appliances and tools used in home kitchens. Well, it clearly works, but I'll still give you the eggs and the bowl just so you can try it. Beat everything else first. I don't want it to be there now.
Apparently, before that there was only a traditional whisk. So it was designed to make aeration and whipping much easier, faster, and less dependent on your hands and wrists. And thanks to the double action-twice as fast, Yes. than doing it manually. It could also be argued that in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, kitchen gadgets were invented because of a real trend- household technologies were aimed at making I just wanted to say, we still use it today. Only now it runs on electricity. Yes. But the mechanism is the same. But, to your point, it was not created or designed for beating eggs or cream. It was borrowed from industrial practices, steam engines, huge factories, mechanisms and gears operating on a large scale. And then they
brought it home to make our lives easier. But I have a question for you: does this mechanical whisk live up to your expectations, or is it a complete pain? Oh, nice play on words. All the puns about eggs have already been used. I would lose your respect even more if I repeated any of them. Rightly. So instead I made up a bad one, but at least you heard something new. I think it all depends on how long ago it was invented. We've seen millstones thousands of times, but it was more fun to play with them because we've never done it before. And we all used that kind of whisk. So it doesn't create a wow effect. Although he
probably deserves it, because it's a part of history that changed the world. Go back 150 years. It was revolutionary. Yes, such a device was hung in a prominent place so that everyone could see that you had it This would be the iPhone of that time. This would exceed everyone's expectations. Ah, great. Egg-waiting. Great expectations. Let's do one more. I'm trying to squeeze in. You'll never guess what's under number three. He doesn't need much introduction. Because of the iconic design.
Wow. We may not, but Kenwood does. Yes. So, this is the Kenwood Chef A700, the second generation of Kenwood Chef mixers. The only reason we can find the originals is because they're all in museums. And although it's Kenwood, it's worth admitting that they were n't the first, because I believe KitchenAid came before them, and before them-Hobart, which was designed for commercial use. They were huge. And then Hobart became KitchenAid, and that was the British version, assembled in the UK. Actually built by Kenneth Woods. In 1948, they introduced the first model, the A200, which had only a double crown. But this mixer is a game changer because they radically redesigned the planetary mixing motion so it rotates around two axes. And they
designed it with different attachments to make it a complete machine for cooking at home. You can see all these devices. Surprisingly, the K- shaped nozzle remains the same as it was. I didn't know it was so old. Yes. If it works, if it's not broken-don't touch it. So, you have a meat grinder, a whisk, a dough hook, and a K- shaped attachment. This was the same set that came with this car in 1953. And that 's why it has become a standout in the UK due to its versatility. If you look at the food culture of the time, it was geared towards housewives.
Middle-class families gave up on servants and people who did cooking and housework. The entire burden of running the household fell on the shoulders of housewives. This allowed them to prepare a variety of dishes using a single tabletop appliance. Interesting, isn't it? All mechanisms and attachments work exactly the same as in modern food processors. These are exactly the attachments you need. Lever. As you say, Mike, a planetary mechanism that spins back and forth. It is attached in exactly the same way. When we showed these machines 10 years ago, we always called them "sous-chefs." They did all the hard work so you could just stand by, watch, and
receive the glory. That's exactly what they did at home. We called them sous chefs because we couldn't say KitchenAid. At that time, the love for foreign cuisine also grew dramatically, as people began to travel abroad en masse on vacation in the 50s, 60s, and 70s and returned with a desire to try something new. So let's have a quick pizza day. Want to use some of ours? I think we'll use all the flour for flavor. A little salt. It almost doesn't touch the bottom. The dial can be turned to 12. Not just to 11. You can set it to 12. I think we get the point.
Gluten begins to develop. I did a bit of research and according to Campaign Live, the original car sold at Harrods had a sort of prestige status and cost 19 pounds, 10 shillings and 10 pence. How much was that? Approximately a month's salary or two? I'm trying to calculate how much it was in real terms. After all, it's less than a 20 pound note. So, in 1950 the average wage was around £7 a week. So it turns out that this is almost a month's salary. Yes, three or four weeks' wages. For the average person, that's why it was such a dream. Mm. So, is the 1953 Kenwood Chef A700 a "Ken-good " or just some confusion? This is still "Ken-good" today.
This is a huge help in the kitchen. Interestingly, all three gadgets we reviewed mostly helped home cooks bake. It's really the baking passion we've been so desperate to bring into the home, and it's the same inner desire that made the Great British Bake Off and all its iterations so popular- we still love the idea of baking. Because it is not a necessity, but it is something that can be given as a gift; and love and a kind of passion for creating something delicious and sweet that can be given as a gift is something that is still very close to our hearts. Well, let's move away from that completely for number four.
Damn it. The last one, and we will travel to 1955 This looks older than 55. Really. But 55th-is that still how many? 45 years old? No, it's much older. That's the problem. It seems you are right. problem. It's a simple on-off button, very old original rice cooker. And you see these marks on the side, they show the grain cups. She's been through a lot, hasn't she? Undoubtedly. Look at these signs of wear. So, I'll give you a little history lesson. In 1952, Toshiba asked Yoshitada Minami to develop an automatic electric rice cooker I recognized her because I like that kind of thing.
And after 3 years of experiments, the technology was completed in 1955. So, the original model, the ER-4, was considered the world's first automatic rice cooker for home use with breakthrough thermostat technology that could detect when the water had completely boiled away and therefore turn off. So, that was the key to discovering the possibility of cooking rice this way. Most of those original models are now in museums, but this 1959 model, one of the oldest rice cookers available, gives us a real sense of the original model. And we're going to try it and test it. We will talk about the impact that this range of machines has had on the entire world. Should I be worried about cable wear?
Fortunately, we checked it out. And part of the reason why we're filming this in 3 weeks, unfortunately Ebers and I didn't shower or change clothes in that time, and Jamie did, is because we actually ordered a special transformer to convert the 240V of British electricity to the 100V that Japan runs on. And here is rice and water, right? And then the lid on top. Yes. Hold the steam. And let 's begin. And now it probably connects to Wi-Fi via an app so I can monitor it from somewhere else in the house so I don't have to stand there and watch it. It would be very interesting. That is very true. So, it's been running for 20 minutes. He turned off. Let's see if he's still cooking rice. Does Toshiba still live up to its name? This is the smell of
cooked rice. Yes. The appearance of cooked rice. You know the saying: behind every great achievement there is a woman. Yes. This would never have happened if it weren't for Yoshitada Minami's wife, Fumiko. So while her husband, Yoshitada, had all the electrical and mechanical knowledge, it was Fumiko, his wife, who had the practical culinary experience and effectively single-handedly managed the 5-year testing process; from everything from testing prototypes in harsh conditions, including summer heat on a rooftop, to minus 10°C cold in winter. She cooked thousands of servings of rice, over 10,000 test batches,
to determine the exact ratio of water to rice. And in fact, it was so intense that her health began to deteriorate, and her children took it upon themselves to monitor her temperature and test her rice before and after school. if it weren't for Fumiko, this would never have been created. This is impressive. This is devotion. This is truly dedication. He cooked rice. And this is boiled rice. I wouldn't say it's a very good trait, but I don't know if it's us or him. We didn't do 10,000 tests. No, we didn't. To get the perfect rice to water ratio.
No. So, after the release, the result was huge. For example, Toshiba claims that within 4 years of its launch in 1955, automatic rice cookers were in about half of all Japanese households. This is a pretty powerful breakthrough. But it works, essentially, using a piece of bent wire that, when heated to 100°C, when there is no longer any water to cool the device, bends, contacts the switch, and turns off the power. Which again, at the time, was revolutionary for such a product. This is great. All good ideas have to start somewhere, and it seems like she took the time to test and released something that worked from day one. But the interesting thing is, you look at this rice cooker from 1959, and you
look at the rice cooker you buy today- they're very similar. It's not much different. The thermostat is probably digital. Yes. And it probably switches between other temperatures, one of which can be used to make tofu, or cook different types of milk, cheeses, and so on, not just rice. And today they are often also magnetic. M-hm. But also look at other appliances that use similar heat, like a sandwich toaster, things that don't have switches. Yes. You just turn it on and it works, but there's no. Yeah, it actually paved the way for all those gadgets that we now take for granted.
Converting the price in the UK at the time, it sold for 30 guineas, which is equivalent to £31.50 in today's terms. But my question to you is: is this trait appropriate, or does it limit your enjoyment? I didn't write this. You're limiting my enjoyment with this pun. Sorry. It is still, like the very first one, appropriate. He fits the occasion. Well, if you enjoyed it, please let us know by giving it a like, and if you want to see more, let us know in the comments. And if you can think of any other kitchen gadgets that changed the course of history, let us know. We'll see if we can get them and do
another episode about them.
