What is it?

[dlabrie]

My wife cleaned out the cupboards in the kitchen the other day and came across this gizmo. She asked me what it was. I said I thought it might be a melon ball cutter. We had fruit salad that day and it was not its intended purpose. It has a lever you push to expel whatever you put into it. Here is a picture. Any Ideas out there?Thanks, David

 

[knucklehead]

Looks like some sort of coring device - you could also use it make lovely petite fours.

The usefulness of a kitchen device is rated thusly:

Primary device: Used to put food in your mouth.

Secondary device: Used to make stuff too dirty/big/hard/raw so you can put it your mouth.

All other things are accessories. We have a couple drawers full of them. And we cook a lot.

 

[Inspector507]

Looks like it could be used to core apples, but doesn't look like any I've ever seen.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

That's what I first thought until I saw the angled blade at the bottom near the quarter. It almost looks like it's supposed to be turned through whatever you're cutting. Is that blade adjustable or removeable?

 

[bgott]

I don't think it's a blade. I think it connects to the tab sticking through the slot on the handle and you use it to push out whatever you core or stamp with it. That thing would be the perfect size for those Florida boys to use to make scallops out of stingray wings. They usually use a joint of 3/4 " pipe sharpened on the end.

 

[knucklehead]

I always heard about that - does that skate wing thing really happen? O.K., go ahead and mess with gullible boy, fellas.

 

[Von]

You bet it does, and they use shark as well. Always be suspect of the big ones, if perfectly round its most likly a plug. stick with the smaller ones to be safe.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

If that's not a blade, I'm definitely going to say it's a fruit coring device. I'm guessing you could try it on an apple and would be very pleased at the results.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

DUMPLING CUTTER
Look for evidence of green paint around the handle. If green paint is there it might be a Good Housekeeping from around 1930.
Roll dough out on board, flour cutter and push thru dough, place cutter with dough over boiling soup and employ trigger to eject dough into boiling soup.

 

[njrqs]

David

The scary thing is that this thing was in YOUR kitchen and you have no idea what it is??

Twilight zone here we come .......................................

 

[dlabrie]

Well there are a couple of good ideas here. My mom use to make a lot of apple pies, so maybe an apple corer, but why the point on the blade? Now cutting dumplings sounds good, but why the size of a quarter? There is no green paint on it either.
David

 

[bgott]

When I was gill netting in Louisiana there was a five star restaurant, that will remain nameless, that we sold black drum to on a regular basis. Black drum was a buck and a half cheaper than Redfish and looks the same skinned and tastes the same, too! When you're dealing with fish there is a whole lot that isn't really what it seems. If you buy shelled crab these days it's more than likely surimi (sp?) which is basically ground up white meat fish formed and colored. They used to make crabmeat by skinning a fish called a sheepshead and wrapping it in cheesecloth and boiling it.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Yup, dumpling cutter. The richer folks are the smaller the dumplings are. The soup is pretty crappy too when they are rich.

 

[Bird]

Aah, you're talking my kind of eating now. And yes, I'd just as soon catch and/or eat black drum as red drum (Redfish), and I'd just as soon have sheepshead as either of the drums. In fact, most of my fishing at the coast was going after sheepshead and then would catch an occasional red or black drum. I love'em all; fried, smoked, broiled, blackened, or in Cajun stews.

 

[PitbullMidwest]

You really eat sheepshead? Are we talking about those prehistoric looking things? Up here they're considered junk fish and farmers do everything they can to get them out of their ponds. If caught we toss 'em on the bank for the 'coons.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

That can't be the sheephead they're talking about. Saltwater sheephead are a trick to catch. And their meat is like all rock fish, delicious.

The first time we hit a bunch of sheephead we were drift fishing off the western Whitehouse outside San Clemente. I was on the bow when something hit my pole and that was that. I was talking about how big and how mean it had to be. A bud at the stern had the same thing happen to him. We eventually cut the lines cause we were tired of the razzing about our rock fish.

The next one that hit my line I instantly turned and fought it to the top. Well fight ain't really appropriate. There was a tussle and then it was like I'd hooked a tire. When we got it to the top and saw what it was one of the guys told us we were in sheephead and the secret to catching them was to not let them get back into the rocks or they'd wedge themselves forever or the line broke, whichever came first.

They are good eating. Physically they look like a buck toothed codfish or rockfish as they call them on the left coast.

 

[Bird]

Like Harv said, you must be talking about a different fish if you find them in fresh water. You can see what we're talking about <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.landbigfish.com/fish/fish.cfm?ID=26>here</A>. Incidentally, I agree with nearly everything on that page, except he prefers a 7' rod with 50# line and I used an 8' rod with 30# line. All my fishing for sheepshead has been around Port Aransas, TX, and we either use live shrimp or fiddler craps for bait, let it down right alongside pier pilings, along the rocks on the jetties, or at the bottom over rocky bottom areas. Heavy bodied fish that pull hard; lots of fun. Great bait thieves; if you catch one for every 5 baits you're probably doing good.

And when I first started going to Port Aransas almost 30 years ago, almost no one fished for sheepshead, they were not considered a game fish so there were no restrictions, etc. And now we have a 12" minimum size and 5 fish bag limit./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif Dad and I used to have no problem putting 20-40 a day in the freezer and now you're lucky to catch your 5 fish limit. Biggest one I've caught was 7.5# and Dad's biggest was 8.5#.

 

[PitbullMidwest]

Different fish altogether. What they call sheepshead around here are, like I said, very pre-historic looking, the head actually looks like the face of a sheep and are very boney. Since I've never heard them called anything but sheepshead, I can't post a picture or even suggest an alternative name. I'll ask around and see if any buddies have a different name for them.

 

[ronjhall]

PitbullMidwest

Here is a <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.sarep.cornell.edu/Sarep/fish/Sciaenidae/sciaenidae.html>Link</A> to a Freshwater Drum or Sheephead. Do you think we can get the guys from down south to come up here and take some of them away. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[bgott]

I had to move to Florida with that clear water they have down there to figure out why they like those pilings so much. Sheepshead just love eating barnicles. I got out on a pier down there and could see the bottom twelve feet down. There were sheepshead stacked up and down the pilings. I would drop a hook baited with crab down and hit them in the head with it, drop it in between the fish and the piling. They would just nose it out of the way and go back to the barnicles. Being I was between jobs and that was dinner made it just a little frustrating.