The 9 kitchen towels we tested

Important features to consider

Kitchen towels may be the most underappreciated workhorse in your kitchen. We all take them for granted, but we always grab one when a saucepan handle gets too hot, or for mopping up the red wine you’ve somehow spilled onto the countertop, or protecting your rising pizza dough from drafts, or wiping smudges and dust off your best crystal. But not all kitchen towels are the same, and they often fail to do the primary reason you have them — drying dishes, glasses, and cookware — which is why they end up in the bottom of a drawer or are relegated to the rag bin.

Our testing team included a professional chef with decades of experience. He estimates that he’s gone through hundreds of kitchen towels over the years he’s been in business and advised us as to what makes a great kitchen towel. Kitchen towels can be bought everywhere, and the nine towels we tested reveal several factors you should consider when purchasing them.

Sometimes we have messes that we don’t want sitting around in the hamper, or whatever you’re cleaning up you simply don’t want to put in your washing machine, it calls for a disposable solution like paper towels. But for majority of kitchen work, read on to learn about how we selected the best kitchen towels.

Absorbency

The number one consideration is how absorbent the kitchen towel is. Except for the KitchenAid Albany towel, all the towels we tested were 100% cotton. (The Albany towel was a cotton-polyester blend.) Kitchen towels always need to be washed before their first use, because washing opens up the cotton fibers and makes them absorbent. The towels we tested were absorbent to a degree, but the thickness and weave of the Fecido and Williams-Sonoma – Striped towels made their absorbency superior to the others.

Size

All cotton towels will shrink when machine washed and dried. We measured all the towels before the first wash and then again after the second wash, and shrinkage was between 1 inch and 4 inches. The KitchenAid – Albany didn’t shrink at all because of its 6% polyester composition. Since you’ll want a kitchen towel to dry many items at one time, it’s best to start out with a larger towel to counteract the inevitable shrinkage. Pre-wash, the Fecido towel and the Williams-Sonoma Striped towel were 20″ x 28″ and 20″ x 30″, respectively, and had minimal shrinkage post-wash, which left us with generously sized towels.

Securely stiched hems

We don’t think you should spend a fortune on kitchen towels, but the less-expensive towels were cheaply made and frayed after washing. The most noticeable threads were at the corner hems where the stitching was becoming loose. Towels that had double-thick hems with strong stitching survived machine washing. Although the Bumble towels were not our favorite, they had the widest and thickest hems and did not fray. The Urban Villa towels also had wide hems with mitered corners, sewn together at 45-degree angles, which proved to be the sturdiest.

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Important features to consider

Hard-boiling eggs and poaching eggs take a bit more kitchen know-how than frying or scrambling eggs. You need to time both exactly to produce a hard-boiled egg with a jammy center or a perfectly set poached egg that explodes a runny yolk over an English muffin. An electric egg cooker takes out the guesswork of when an egg is over- or under-done. When it came to hard-boiled eggs, five of the six egg cookers we tested were pretty much “set it and forget it.” Poaching eggs was a different story; we found that it was best to check the eggs once or twice to make sure they were done.

An electric egg cooker is incredibly convenient if you want to cook a large batch of hard-boiled eggs for deviled eggs or egg salad for a party or picnic. With a double-tiered egg cooker — like the BELLA or Cuisinart models we tested — you can cook 10-12 eggs in 15 minutes, so you’ll always have a quick snack or protein bite at hand. What you should be aware of is that you’ll need to experiment with an egg cooker and be willing to sacrifice a few eggs before you’ll get them the way you like.

Our testing entailed making boiled eggs, poached eggs, and “omelets” (as all egg cookers erroneously call them) by first following the instruction manual. We believed this would be a good way to start since most people will follow the instructions if they’ve never used an egg cooker before. The only egg cookers that performed perfectly the first time were our top pick, Elite Gourmet, and our stainless-steel pick, VORBAGA. Our tests with the other egg cookers resulted in two dozen ruined eggs dumped down the garbage disposal.

The following features are what we determined to be essential for an electric egg cooker.

Calibrated heating plate

The egg cooker heating plate resembles a mini hotplate. Depending on how you want your eggs done, you’ll add water from an included measuring cup onto the heating element, load the eggs onto a plastic rack, then cover them with a plastic dome. As the heating plate heats — usually very quickly — the water boils and creates steam inside the dome. So, in effect, egg cookers steam eggs. When the water evaporates, the eggs are done. It’s important that the heating plate maintains an even temperature and doesn’t get too hot, or eggs will always overcook, as was the case with the Cuisinart model.

One note we should add about cleaning the heating plate. After each use, you’ll see white or brown spots staining the metal plate. We found that the best way to clean them off is by mixing white vinegar and Kosher salt into a paste and scrubbing the spots off with a non-abrasive sponge. Over time, the spots will remain permanently, but they don’t affect the heating plate’s effectiveness.

Automatic turn-off and alarm

One of the benefits of an egg cooker is that you don’t need to stand over it and watch to see when the eggs are done. Almost all the egg cookers we tested had an automatic turn-off when the water had evaporated and an alarm to alert us that the eggs were done. The Hamilton Beach only had an indicator light, so we had to keep an eye on it for when it went out.

Clearly marked measuring cup

Since the doneness of eggs depends on how much water is added to the heating element, it’s important that the included measuring cup is clearly marked. Many of the egg cookers had marks all over the cup indicating doneness, number of eggs, and style of eggs, and it was unnecessarily confusing, especially when they were printed in milliliters and the instructions in ounces. Elite Gourmet won out again with simplicity and clarity by having only three marks for hard, medium, and soft, no matter the number or style of eggs being cooked.

Eggshell piercing pin

When hard-boiling eggs, it’s recommended that you pierce one end of the egg before boiling, which helps the egg retain its oval shape. An egg cooker’s measuring cup has a sharp pin built into the bottom of the cup for piercing eggs.

Omelet vs steamed eggs

All egg cookers have “omelet” as an alternative to boiled and poached. Be aware that this is not a traditional omelet; it’s simply steamed eggs that puff up to double their volume. Almost all the egg cookers produced an irregularly shaped “omelet” with a weird, spongy texture that we found unappetizing. The only egg cooker that gave us an edible “omelet” was the Dash Rapid Egg Cooker; it didn’t puff as high and would be great for a breakfast sandwich.

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Types of salt and pepper shakers

Salt and pepper shakers — or salt and pepper grinders/mills — come in a wide variety of sizes and styles. The three most common are manual, electric (actually, battery-operated), and glass with stainless steel.

Manual grinders can be made from walnut, pecan, and acacia, an African tree with beautiful honey-colored, striated wood. Grind size is adjusted by loosening or tightening a top screw that attaches to the internal metal grinding mechanism that forces the salt crystals or peppercorns through two wheels with jagged edges.

Electric salt and pepper grinders are usually made with stainless steel (or stainless-steel trim) and a glass or acrylic jar for the salt crystals and peppercorns. Almost always, an electric grinder operates off of batteries — AA or AAA — while a few have a rechargeable lithium battery. Electric grinders work the same as a manual grinder, but they have a one-handed operation — pushing a button or simply tilting it — which makes them convenient when stirring a pot or turning a steak at the same time.

While manual and electric salt and pepper grinders can be used for everyday meals and dinner parties, standard salt and pepper shakers are more utilitarian, which doesn’t mean they’re unattractive. These are much cheaper than their fancier “cousins,” and are often nicely designed and can be for indoor and outdoor use.

The post The 8 Best Salt and Pepper Grinders appeared first on Your Best Digs.

To use our calculator, fill out how many cups of coffee you want to brew and how strong you prefer your coffee. Then, use our recommended measurements by weight or volume to brew the perfect cup. Once you’re ready to make a cup, make sure you’re using ground coffee at a similar grain size to table salt and quality water.

Cups of coffee

1 (6 oz.) 2 (12 oz.) 3 (18 oz.) 4 (24 oz.) 5 (30 oz.) 6 (36 oz.) 7 (42 oz.) 8 (48 oz.) 9 (54 oz.) 10 (60 oz.)

Strength

strong (1:15) medium (1:16) light (1:18)

Water

By weight: 182.6 g.

By volume: 6.2 oz.

Ground coffee

By weight: 11.1 g.

By volume: 2.0 tbsp.

Tips for Perfecting Your Brewing Method

Once you the coffee-to-water ratio that suits your taste, there are a few extra steps you can take to make the perfect cup. Take an extra 2 to 3 minutes to run through the list below, and your friends and family may mistake you for a barista.

Clean your coffee maker. Nothing is worse than your coffee passing through oily build up. Run vinegar through your coffee maker once every few weeks to remove any build up, but make sure to run it with water after to remove any reminisce of vinegar.

Buy fresh beans. Recently roasted beans will make all the difference. Try to buy from trusted local roasters, or from brands that consciously packages their beans to last a while. It’s common for beans from large bins at the grocery store to be sitting for weeks, so you may want to rely on packaged beans. And, once you purchase your beans, remember to store them in an airtight container, away from light.

Perfect the ground. We recommend that you grind only enough beans just before brewing since coffee begins to lose its quality once it’s ground. Avoid blade grinders at all costs and opt for burr grinders for better grind consistency. For drip and pour-overs, you’ll want to grind the beans so that the consistency is similar to granulated table salt, and adjusting size as needed.

Use quality filtered water. Tap water can ruin the taste of coffee with its contaminants, so opt for bottled water or filtered tap water to maintain the full flavor of the coffee.

The filter makes a difference. Bargain filters can be thin, affecting the brewing process. Plus, many are bleached, which is bad for the environment and some claim it affects taste. We recommend that you select a thicker, unbleached filter.

Turn off the coffee maker when brewing is complete. If your coffee machine doesn’t shut down automatically, make sure to turn it off when brewing is complete to avoid a burnt taste.

Sources: National Coffee Association | Forbes

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Table of contents

• Compare meal-kit delivery subscriptions
• 1. Best for beginner cooks: HelloFresh
• 2. Best for experienced cooks: Martha & Marley Spoon
• 3. Blue Apron
• 4. Dinnerly
• How we tested
• The bottom line

Compare the best meal delivery services

1. HelloFresh review: Best for beginner cooks

If you’re a beginner cook, then HelloFresh’s wide variety of appetizing and easy-to-prepare recipes will make you feel like a restaurant chef. HelloFresh was the speediest of the other meal kit delivery subscriptions that we tested — even during the pandemic — delivering our first box in five days. Ordering meals is easy and fast, thanks to HelloFresh’s simple-to-navigate website. Click here to read our full review of HelloFresh.

Account setup & ordering

Like all of these subscription services, you first set up an account for the types of recipes you’d like to cook: Meat & Veggies, Veggie, Family Friendly and Low Calorie. Then you choose the number of weekly recipes for either two or four people. Then once your payment is processed, you can choose recipes from the 15 recipes that are offered each week.

At first, there seemed to be too many recipes with pasta, rice or potato, but we found other options that had more vegetables and were nutritionally balanced. The website does have an alert that because of the pandemic, some ingredients might not be available — a problem that plagues competitor Blue Apron (see below) — but HelloFresh will substitute a different ingredient. For example, in one of our recipes, a poblano chili was replaced with an Anaheim chili. (There was no real difference in taste.)

Our first box was delivered on time, and the non-perishable produce and seasonings for each of our three recipes were packaged in individual, labeled bags that we simply needed to put into the refrigerator. HelloFresh’s locally sourced meats were vacuum-sealed and sandwiched between two recyclable gel packs.

Recipes & cooking results

Each recipe has a corresponding recipe card that is illustrated with glossy photos of the ingredients and the finished dish. The recipes have six steps, also illustrated, but in reality, each step has three or four “sub-sets,” each of which is easy, like chopping an onion or slicing lemon. HelloFresh is no different from its competitors in this regard; their recipe cards are laid out the same way.

When it was time to cook, we got the bag out of the fridge and laid out the ingredients. Salt, pepper and olive oil or butter are not included, but everything else was ready to go. Our recipes were Chimi Chicken & Yellow Rice Bowls, Cheesy Beef Tostadas and, our favorite, BBQ Pork & Apple Meatloaves. Each one took about 40 minutes to make, although 10 or 15 minutes of that time was the prep.

Portions of the meats and vegetables were satisfying, though the potatoes and rice could have easily fed three people. These were not low-calorie, low-carb meals however; the beef tostadas weighed in at 950 calories per serving, which is three tostadas. We were full after eating one, so we had plenty of leftovers for the next day’s lunch. All of the elements of the tostada were tasty, but this recipe didn’t have enough vegetables to really make it a well-rounded meal. The Chimi Chicken and the Pork Meatloaves, though, we would order again.

Value

Price-wise, HelloFresh is comparable to other meal kit delivery subscriptions.

You can pause, cancel or skip a delivery week if you don’t have time to cook. The majority of HelloFresh’s recipes look delicious; our only complaint is that there are too many carb-packed items in the revolving repertoire. We signed up for the Meat & Veggies category, but the Low-Calorie category does have recipes that are lower-calorie, lower-carb. If you’re unable to shop for groceries, then HelloFresh is a terrific time-saver, and the high quality of their product, delivered conveniently to your front door, makes Hello Fresh the best meal-kit delivery subscription available.

Great for Beginner Cooks: HelloFresh

HelloFresh’s well-designed recipes are easy to follow, and you’ll make restaurant-worthy dishes at home from the high-quality meats and fresh vegetables.

See Price at HelloFresh

Key takeaways:

• HelloFresh’s website makes it easy to order a wide variety of menus for every week.
• Although some of the recipes are a bit carb-heavy, the recipes we tested were delicious and portion size was large.
• HelloFresh is comparable in price to its competitors; the more meals you order, the cost per portion (between $8.15-$10.32) decreases.

2. Martha & Marley Spoon review: Best for experienced cooks

Martha Stewart and her former Living Food editor teamed up with meal-kit company Marley Spoon in 2016, and after a bit of a bumpy road, the company has thrived, thanks to its high-end, chef-inspired recipes of their meal kit delivery subscription, Martha & Marley Spoon. You can click here to read our full review of Martha & Marley Spoon.

Account setup & ordering

Like HelloFresh, Marley Spoon has an attractive website that’s easy to navigate (once you’ve paid) and lets you build a taste profile of proteins and preferred cuisines. Marley Spoon — and its more-affordable subsidiary, Dinnerly — offer the most choices that we’ve seen from other meal-kit delivery subscriptions. However, many of the recipes are carb-heavy, so you do need to be careful about which ones you choose (unless, of course, you want to eat a lot of spuds and pasta).

Marley Spoon’s first delivery is usually five days after ordering, but because of delays caused by COVID-19, it’s now up to ten days. Packaging is very similar to HelloFresh with each recipe individually bagged and labeled. Produce is also sealed in plastic bags, and though there was a bit too much plastic used in the packaging, the vegetables we received were pristine, crunchy and very fresh. Marley Spoon has its one locally sourced meat distribution called Land & Sky, and the large portions of vacuum-sealed meats couldn’t have been better.

Recipes & cooking results

As you might expect, the recipe cards are beautiful with gorgeous photos of the completed dish. Turn the card over, however, and this is where things get a little dicey. There are six steps to the instructions, each with several sub-steps, illustrated with photos. The photos are pretty useless because they don’t really demonstrate each step.

In both recipes we cooked, there was either an omission or dead-wrong instructions. So if you don’t have some culinary knowledge, there’s a chance that the recipes won’t turn out as well.

For example, in the Chicken Francese, the breaded chicken is deep-fried in oil, and then a sauce is made in the same frying pan. It’s a time-saver, but there is no instruction to pour off most of the oil, which, had we not done so, would have made the sauce inedible. For the Hoisin-Glazed Tenderloin, the recipe card instructed us to “boil rice (like pasta),” which would have resulted in a sticky, burnt mess. Fortunately, we’ve cooked enough to know what not to do with these two recipes.

Both recipes were easy to prepare, and though the chicken’s texture could have been crunchier, it was still delicious, especially with the addition of the Caesar Salad and Homemade Croutons. The pork tenderloin was tender, and we really enjoyed its Pineapple Fried Rice side dish. Calories for the pork tenderloin was 670 per serving with 19 grams of fat — not terrible. But the Chicken Francese had 870 calories with a whopping 47 grams of fat.

Value

The two-person box is Marley Spoon’s most popular subscription, but if you factor in the $8.99 shipping fee, it averages out to $12.49 per portion, one of the most expensive among its competitors. However, the more recipes you order, the more the price per portion decreases.

Overall, Martha & Marley Spoon is one of the better meal kit delivery subscriptions. But because of the sometimes inaccurate recipe instructions, you would need to be an experienced cook to get the recipes to turn out as intended.

Best for Experienced Cooks: Martha & Marley Spoon

You’ll get beautiful and fresh meats and produce in your weekly box, but the recipes do require that you have some experience in the kitchen.

See Price at MarleySpoon

Key takeaways:

• Martha & Marley Spoon has the most choices of weekly recipes.
• Their fresh and beautiful meats and produce are locally sourced.
• You’ll need to have some culinary knowledge or be an experienced cook to make sure the sometimes inaccurate recipes will turn out right.

3. Blue Apron

Blue Apron is one of the most recognized and popular of the meal-kit-delivery subscriptions. They have delicious, high-quality food that’s relatively easy to prepare. But their tricky website, poor customer service and glacially paced delivery schedule make Blue Apron not as convenient as HelloFresh or Martha & Marley Spoon. See our full Blue Apron review here.

Account setup & ordering

Blue Apron is the only subscription that we found that had a great introductory offer: $30 off the first box, which is approximately a 50% discount. They have a fuss-free website with simple graphics, and once you’ve paid, you can choose the types of cuisine you prefer. Based on your responses, three recipes are recommended. If you don’t like them, you can choose from their nine other recipes.

And that’s where the problems begin. Of the 12 recipes, four were sold out or discontinued because Blue Apron couldn’t get the ingredients. (We questioned why these options were even still on the website.) Next, when we chose the suggested delivery date, the website kept canceling the order, until finally, we were assigned a delivery date a month away. We contacted customer service and were told that we weren’t allowed to do what the website automatically did. Thereafter, we received no further communication from Blue Apron until the day before our delivery.

The box arrived as promised, four weeks after ordering it, and we were surprised that its packaging was haphazard. Seasonings were packed in individual cellophane bags, but produce was piled on top. So we had to take considerable time to consult the recipe cards and organize the ingredients for the recipes ourselves.

Blue Apron has its own meat and fish distribution companies, and we had no complaints with the salmon and chicken we received. Vegetables were also fresh, although a few had bruises, perhaps from the way they had been packed.

Recipes & cooking results

The recipes were easy to follow, and we liked their recipe cards the best because instructions are set up like checklists, so you can mark off where you are in the recipe. The Crispy Curry-Roasted Salmon with roasted sweet potatoes and snap peas was delicious. The Garlic Caper Chicken with sauteed zucchini was also big in flavor and easy to prepare, but the orzo that went with the dish was bland. The portions for the salmon and chicken were decent for two people, but the chicken for the Tahini-Balsamic Chicken Bowls was paltry. The recipe relied too heavily on filling you up with the bland barley side dish.

Value

You can cancel the subscription at any time; however, Blue Apron makes you go through the additional step of requesting a “how-to-cancel” email rather than letting you do so manually on their website. This is the only meal-kit-delivery subscription that does this, and considering how bad their customer service was from the start, it was frustrating and annoying to have to wait for their reply.

4. Dinnerly

Dinnerly is the low-cost subsidiary of Marley Spoon and is marketed to budget-conscious couples and families. It’s a great concept, particularly since per-portion prices range from $4.66-$6.48, including shipping. But in providing inexpensive meals, Dinnerly eliminates convenience and, more importantly, nutrition in their recipes. See more details in our full Dinnerly review.

Account setup & ordering

Their website is focused to be family-friendly, and the majority of their recipes are geared for kids’ tastes. Among their 16 weekly offerings, there are a lot of pasta dishes and sugar-glazed meats (like Caramel Chicken Stir Fry) and sugary treats, which is unclear whether these are add-ons or actually count as a weekly recipe.

Delivery was timely, but when we opened the box, everything had been piled in helter-skelter. Like Blue Apron, we had to take considerable time sorting through the ingredients and organizing them into three recipes. Dinnerly also saves money by not providing recipe cards; they’re available online, and though this cost-saving measure can be admired for being ecologically sound, it was inconvenient to refer to the website while we were unpacking the box and cooking the meals.

Recipes & cooking results

Meats and produce come from Marley Spoon’s distributors, so quality was similar. What was noticeable is how much smaller were the portions of meats and vegetables and how much larger were the portions of potatoes and pasta.

The Everything Bagel-Spiced Chicken was easy and delicious, as were the scallion and cream cheese mashed potatoes, but 4 ounces of broccoli for two people was paltry. The Pollo Asada Tacos can best be described as bare bones. The black bean salsa consisted of a can of black beans mixed with a little onion, garlic, oil and vinegar. The provided chicken was enough for two tacos, yet the suggested per portion serving was six tortillas, meaning we had 12 tortillas; we had plenty of beans though. The Beef Bulgogi Stir Fry had a minuscule portion of beef strips with two ounces of broccoli and a potful of cellophane noodles to make up for the lack of protein and vegetables.

Value

All of the recipes were missing an ingredient that was expected you would provide to make the meals better and more nutritious. So how much time are you really saving by sorting and organizing the ingredients and then go grocery shopping anyway? In the end, Dinnerly is not as convenient or cost-saving as its competitors.

How we tested

Depending on what each subscription offered, we ordered two-to-three recipes for two people. Except for Blue Apron, we were able to schedule the other three plans over a two-week period, three to four days apart. We rated each subscription using the following criteria.

Website and ordering meals: The websites for all of the subscriptions were attractive and easy to navigate once payment was made. HelloFresh and Martha & Marley Spoon were the most user-friendly and allowed us to change the week’s recommended recipes without any hassle. Both had appealing recipes, and we selected recipes that didn’t require a lot of skill.

Dinnerly had an odd system for changing recipes; we needed to change the number of meals of the recommended recipes to 0 before we could add a new recipe. Blue Apron had the least workable website, and we struggled to choose recipes that had not been discontinued or sold out. As noted earlier, the website kept canceling our delivery date before we could finally secure a date for four weeks later.

Packaging: All of the subscriptions come in large recyclable cardboard boxes. All of the meats were sandwiched between two recyclable gel packs. Some of the produce was sealed in plastic bags. HelloFresh and Martha & Marley Spoon had the ingredients for each recipe in separate paper bags; Dinnerly and Blue Apron did not. We had to sort through the ingredients and separate themselves, a process that was less than convenient.

Recipe results: We followed the recipe instructions precisely as written and timed how long it took to prepare each one, comparing the actual time to the recipe’s estimated time. We noted if we needed to make any changes to the recipe for steps that weren’t included. For example, in Blue Apron’s recipe for the Tahini-Balsamic Chicken Bowls, a green pear needed to be sliced. This was one of the first steps in the recipe, and by the time it came to combine the sliced pear with the barley, it had turned brown. Either this step should come near the end of the recipe, or the pear could have been spritzed with lemon juice to prevent it from turning brown.

We also attempted to plate each finished recipe as suggested by its photo. If we had problems with the recipe instructions, the most important thing was whether the meal tasted good. All of the subscriptions had top-quality meats and vegetables, but they all had a lot of carbs. Even though most of the recipes were delicious, the combination of high calories and high carbs made us think twice about ordering the recipes again.

The bottom line

The best meal-kit delivery subscriptions give you the opportunity to cook chef-quality meals at home with pre-proportioned ingredients, fresh meats and produce and easy-to-follow recipes, all delivered to your doorstep. These services are relatively new and have caught on because they’re convenient and save time since you don’t have to shop as often for groceries.

Of the four meal kits we tested, HelloFresh stood out as the best. Their user-friendly website lets you order and change recipes easily, and the excellent quality of their ingredients and simple recipes will help you turn out delicious meals, even if you’re a beginner cook.

Martha & Marley Spoon is another very good subscription. As might be expected from a Martha-Stewart product, the ingredients are high quality. The recipes, though, are really more geared for the home cook who has some culinary experience. But if you know your way around the kitchen, then Martha & Marley Spoon is the one to try.

The success of HelloFresh and Blue Apron launched other meal-kit delivery services. We researched many of them, and although they didn’t make it to our list of services to test, they’re definitely worth trying.

Home Chef offers a big selection of interesting restaurant-style meals in calorie- and carb-conscious categories; Gobble has recipes with everything prepped and chopped so that meals can be cooked in as little as 15 minutes; Green Chef is one of the few services that designs organic recipes for the Keto and Paleo diets; and if you don’t feel like cooking, Freshly has pre-cooked, complete meals that just need to be heated up.

Best Meal-Kit Delivery Subscription: HelloFresh

If you’re a beginner or advanced cook, HelloFresh’s easy recipes and fresh ingredients, delivered to your doorstep, is a convenient, time-saving and economical way to cook restaurant-quality meals at home.

See Price at HelloFresh

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Table of contents

• Website and ordering experience
• What’s in the box?
• Recipe results
• Subscription cost and value
• Continuing the subscription? Blue Apron’s Website

Blue Apron is a U.S.-based company incorporated in 2012 by Matt Salzberg, Ilia Papas and Matt Wadiak in New York City. Originally Blue Apron (under a different name) was a mail-order company for upscale kitchen utensils and wine (which they still sell on their website). When the company began to have requests for meal delivery, the founders cooked them in a commercial kitchen and delivered the meals themselves.

Realizing this was a fast-growing business, they raised the needed capital and modeled their company off of Hello Fresh, which we also tested and reviewed. Blue Apron opened fulfillment centers in New Jersey, Texas and California, launched Blue Apron Wine (a direct-to-consumer delivery service), and in 2017, went public, being the first meal-kit subscription service to do so.

However, poor earnings resulted in Wall Street cutting Blue Apron’s stock price in half. Blue Apron continues to attempt to expand its business (selling meal kits at Costco, for example), but the company loses 25% of subscribers each year, due to its problems with fulfilling the high demand, which has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Website and ordering meals

Blue Apron has a fuss-free website with simple graphics for signing up and choosing plans. We were surprised at how limited their plans are: two or three meals for two people or two, three or four meals for four people. Blue Apron plan offerings are on par with Hello Fresh but fewer than Martha & Marley Spoon and the low-budget Dinnerly. There’s also a vegetarian plan for two people with two or three recipes per week.

We signed up for the three-recipe plan for two people, priced at $59.94 per week. But we found an online coupon for $30 — of the four services we tested, Blue Apron was the only one that had an introductory offer. As it is with all meal-kit subscriptions, you need to pay up front before you can choose your weekly recipes.

Once you’ve paid, you’re brought to several screens for choosing a protein, your level of cooking competence, whether you enjoy cooking — or just want to get it over with quickly — and taste preferences (adventurous, traditional), including international cuisines, such as Vietnamese, Thai, Mediterranean and Korean.

Based on your responses, Blue Apron selects three meals for you. We weren’t crazy about the choices — too much rice and pasta — so we checked out the other recipes for the week. There were 12 in total (less than other services), but four of them were discontinued or sold out. This is a problem that seems to plague only Blue Apron. We researched online critiques, and before the COVID-19 pandemic, discontinued and sold-out items were frequently reported, which contributed to Blue Apron’s loss of subscriptions.

We found three recipes we preferred over the pre-chosen recipes, but it was difficult to go back and actually make the changes. After a couple of attempts, the system automatically skipped the shipment that had been scheduled in 10 days’ time. We tried choosing meals for the following week, and each time the system automatically skipped that week. In the end, we had to settle for four weeks before the first delivery, the longest wait of any meal-kit subscription.

We contacted customer service about what we experienced and were told that skipping shipments wasn’t allowed, even though it’s clearly stated on Blue Apron’s website that it actually is. We received a confirmation email that the subscription had begun, but we never received a receipt for the purchase. Over the next four weeks, we got a couple of emails letting us know that certain items had been discontinued.

Bar none, Blue Apron had the most frustrating website and meal-ordering system.

What’s in the box?

Packaging

In keeping with the poor email communications, we heard nothing from Blue Apron until the day before delivery, when we were informed that our box was packed and shipped from its San Francisco-area fulfillment center. It was delivered the next evening at 6:45 pm (the other subscriptions were delivered in the morning), and we were concerned about perishable items. Blue Apron had the smallest box — a good thing, since there is so much packaging wastefulness with all other subscription services — and it was well-insulated with foil-lined bubble wrap.

One of the best elements of Hello Fresh and Martha & Marley Spoon is that each recipe is packaged in a separate paper bag that’s labeled. You simply pull out each bag and refrigerate or cook. We were surprised to find that Blue Apron only separated each recipe’s spices and sauces (called Knick Knacks); produce had been haphazardly packed with no organization. This was exactly how we received our box from the much-cheaper Dinnerly, but since Blue Apron is the same price as Hello Fresh and Martha & Marley Spoon, we were expecting packaged recipes.

Once we pawed through the vegetables, the meats were sandwiched between two large recyclable gel packs. Everything looked fresh and appetizing, although we noticed a few pits and bruises on a couple of the vegetables. We organized the meats and produce into individual meals and refrigerated them until we were ready to cook.

Recipe cards

As with most meal-kit delivery subscriptions, an 8.5”x11” recipe card is included for each recipe. Blue Apron’s cards are sturdy and attractive with photos of the ingredients and the completed dish on the front and four-to-six photos of important steps in the recipe’s preparation. We actually found the photos to be helpful and illustrative for prepping the ingredients and for how they should appear when cooked.

Another thoughtful feature is that the instructions have a checklist for each step, so you can mark off what you’ve completed. Oddly, Blue Apron does not list what ingredients you need to provide, like olive oil, egg or butter. So we appreciated the checklist to refer to when we had to grab something from the refrigerator or pantry that wasn’t included in the box.

We also liked that the recipe cards had helpful hints for converting the meal to be diabetes-friendly and using a digital meat thermometer to ensure that the chicken is properly cooked. Some recipes have Weight Watcher Smart Points and a barcode for the Smart Points app.

Recipe results

Crispy Curry-Roasted Salmon

This recipe was the most successful and delicious of the three we cooked. The two generous portions of very fresh salmon were slathered with mayonnaise mixed with a spicy and savory Thai yellow curry paste. After pressing Panko bread crumbs on top, we roasted the salmon until golden brown.

The side dish for this recipe was diced sweet potatoes roasted with sugar snap peas and then finished with a ponzu dressing. The recipe left out peeling the sweet potatoes before dicing them, even though the recipe photo clearly shows it. We also felt that 1 tablespoon of sugar was too much to add to the ponzu dressing, so we simply sprinkled in about ½ teaspoon, which gave the dressing a slightly sweet tang.

This was a very easy recipe to make, and though roasting the fish and vegetables totaled about 30 minutes, prep was only about 10 minutes. The mayo-curry topping on the fish browned beautifully and tasted like something you’d enjoy in a restaurant. We would definitely order this recipe again.

Garlic-Caper Chicken

The chicken was the star of this Italian-style recipe. Blue Apron has its own meat distribution division called Tradesman Premium Cuts, and the two chicken breasts we were sent were fresh, firm and evenly trimmed. This was another easy recipe with the chicken sauteed with salt, pepper and oregano, and the topping made from capers, garlic and lemon juice added brininess and bright flavor.

The side dish is Creamy Calabrian Zucchini and Orzo, and it was tasty, but it lacked zing. The preparation of the zucchini — a simple saute with garlic and chili paste — is excellent, and we’ll be trying it with other vegetables. The orzo, though, was bland, even with the addition of creme fraiche, and in mixing the zucchini and orzo together, as the recipe instructs, the orzo actually took away from the zucchini’s flavor.

But a hefty sprinkle of the provided grated romano cheese pulled the whole dish together, and in the end, we were pleased with the results.

Tahini-Balsamic Chicken Bowls

There was nothing wrong with this Weight-Watchers-approved recipe, other than it was a bit dull. For some reason, the portion of chicken tenders was half the amount of chicken in the Garlic-Caper Chicken recipe. This recipe gets bulked up with barley; roasted fennel and red onion are tasty additions, but they don’t do enough to elevate the barley past bland.

The plentiful salad consists of crisp arugula and sliced green pear with a tahini-based dressing. From the photo, you’ll see we had some trouble in presenting this recipe in an appetizing way. Other than the bright green salad, it’s all just too brown, especially when, as instructed, the dressing is drizzled on top. We think this recipe could be improved by adding more chicken and decreasing the barley so the roasted fennel and red onion have more impact.

Subscription cost and value

Blue Apron is one of the only meal-kit delivery subscriptions that has free shipping, except for the two person-two meal option, which has $7.99 added for shipping. At $11.98 per portion, the two person-two meal plan is one of the more expensive plans of the subscriptions we tested. But the other plans — with free shipping — are comparable to Hello Fresh and Martha & Marley Spoon. As with those plans, the cost decreases with the number of people and recipes.

Although a few of the vegetables had a couple of bumps and bruises, we were impressed by the quality of both produce and meats. We’d like to have more plan options and recipe choices, but overall, at less than $10 per serving, Blue Apron is a good value for what’s delivered.

Continue with subscription?

Blue Apron allows you to skip a week if you don’t find the recipes appealing or you don’t have the time to cook. If you do choose to skip, you have one day after delivery to make the change to your subscription; otherwise, you’ll be charged, and the box will be shipped to you.

Another frustrating factor is that if you choose to cancel — and you are supposed to be able to cancel at any time — you cannot cancel manually from your account page; you need to actually email Blue Apron and request instructions for cancellation. This is the only meal-kit-delivery subscription that adds this additional step. Considering their terrible communication during our subscription period, we were annoyed we had to wait for a reply.

Blue Apron’s product is very good, and the recipes are easy enough that a beginner cook could learn to be a master chef. But the website is challenging, recipe selection is minimal, their account setup and first delivery are glacially paced, and the haphazard packaging is too inconvenient. Their competitors, Hello Fresh and Martha & Marley Spoon, do a much better job, so we can understand why Blue Apron continues to lose subscribers at a fast rate.

The post Blue Apron Review appeared first on Your Best Digs.

It’s not hard to do, but the process has several steps that take a bit of time. Read on to learn how to clean a deep fryer using the boil out method.

How often should you change cooking oil?

After each use of your deep fryer, run a skimmer across the surface of the oil to filter out burnt bits. If you use your fryer on a regular basis, you should change the oil once a week. If you’re an occasional fryer, then once every two weeks is fine. A few indicators that you should change your deep fryer’s oil are:

• Burnt odor
• Burnt taste to fried food
• Darker color of fried food

If it’s time to change the oil, then you should clean your deep fryer at the same time. Drain the cooled oil into a disposable container — never pour it down your kitchen sink since the oil will solidify and clog pipes — and discard in your trash. Some communities recycle cooking oil, and you can use Earth911’s search engine to find a location near you.

How to clean a deep fryer

The most common way to clean a deep fryer — in both home and commercial kitchens — is the boil-out method:

1. When the oil has cooled, drain it into a container for reuse, disposal or recycle.
2. Remove the basket, and let it soak in the sink or a large container with a few drops of grease-cutting dishwashing liquid.
3. Scrape the inner sides of the deep fryer to remove built-up residue.
4. Fill the deep fryer with water to the same fill level for oil. Don’t submerge the deep fryer in water. Use a measuring cup or some other vessel to pour water into the deep fryer.
5. Stir four or five drops of dishwashing liquid into the water.
6. Turn on the deep fryer, and bring the water to a boil. (Boiling point is 212 ℉ or 100 ℃, which you can monitor with an instant-read thermometer.)
7. Keep the water boiling for 10 minutes.
8. Shut down the fryer, and let the water cool completely.
9. Using a tough scrubber or scraper and a 50-50 mixture of dishwashing liquid and water, remove any grease residue that didn’t boil off. For stubborn bits, don’t scrub with an abrasive or oven cleaner; instead make a paste of baking soda and water.
10. Rinse with water, then rinse the deep fryer with white vinegar to neutralize the dish soap.
11. Rinse the fryer with water, and dry thoroughly with paper towels.
12. Use a scrubbing brush or toothbrush to remove food particles from the fry basket. Rinse and dry.
13. Make sure your deep fryer and fry basket are completely dry before adding new oil.

The post How to Clean A Deep Fryer (Boil Out Method) appeared first on Your Best Digs.

Also, the actual shape of the roast and how much it’s marbled with fat and connective tissue will affect how long it should cook to desired doneness. A recipe’s cooking time should really be considered an approximation, and the only reliable method for knowing when meat and poultry are done is by using one of our recommended meat thermometers.

USDA recommended temperatures

The USDA recommends internal temperatures for cooked meat and poultry that ensure food safety. These high temperatures, however, will almost always give you dry, overcooked and tasteless meat. The chance of meat-borne pathogens in steaks and roast is low since only the surface of the meat could come in contact with bacteria.

However, ground meats — especially store-bought — carry a higher risk of contamination, since they are composed of trimmings and fat from many cuts of meat that have been exposed to air-borne bacteria in different areas of the processing plant.

The USDA’s temperature recommendation for burgers is 160℉ (71 ℃), which will give you a safe-to-eat but well-done burger. If you enjoy burgers cooked on your charcoal or gas grill, it’s best to grind the meat yourself (easy in a food processor) from a chuck roast or brisket, so you can cook the freshly ground burger to your preferred doneness.

Resting meat & carryover cooking

Remember that any meat should rest when it’s removed from the oven or grill to allow juices to be reabsorbed into the meat. During this resting time, the meat will continue to cook — known as “carryover cooking” — and its internal temperature will rise.

Resting time can range from 10–45 minutes — or even 1 hour for a roast turkey — and depends on the meat’s cut and weight. While the meat is resting, you should measure its temperature with your meat thermometer two or three times so you’ll know exactly when it hits the temperature for your preferred doneness.

The following chart gives you the internal temperatures of stages of doneness for meats and poultry.

Meat temperature chart

The post Meat Temperature Guide & Chart appeared first on Your Best Digs.

• EHM – Ultra II (not recommended)
• Other finalists we tested
• Are there alkaline water benefits?
• How we selected finalists to test
• Important features to consider
• Alkaline vs. conventional filters
• How we tested
• The bottom line

EHM – Ultra II (not recommended)

We don’t recommend alkaline water. Not from a cheap filter pitcher, not from an expensive machine, and certainly not from a bottle that costs triple what regular bottled spring water costs. Alkaline water is in almost every way just a marketing ploy, and the only benefit we can find is that some prefer the taste of it.

If you’re really convinced that you want to add minerals to your water this way, the best alkaline water filter is the EHM – Ultra II, since it at least gives you control over the rate of water flowing through the filter, which adjusts how much it changes.

EHM doesn’t tell us exactly what’s inside these filters, and that’s the biggest problem. Dr Tanis Fenton is a Canadian nutritionist who has studied alkaline water, and she says the health claims from manufacturers are a trick at best. See our interview below for more info on the science behind alkaline water.

There are actually some risks that come along with using filters like the EHM. Dr Fenton warns: “Since we don’t know what they are adding to the water or what method they are using to change the pH, we can’t evaluate it.” In contrast, bottled mineral water often includes a comprehensive assay of the minerals included.

One of the Amazon listings for the EHM filter cartridges claims the use of “maifan stone,” a naturally occurring mineral-rich rock formation that can contain everything from magnesium to iron to trace amounts of lead. A 2011 research paper often cited as proof that maifan stone is an effective filter media for removing lead was retracted by the publisher. There’s no reason for us to think using this filter is any more dangerous than drinking well water, but there’s little indication EHM even knows exactly what their filters take out or put back in.

The EHM is, to be fair, a well-designed pitcher, with a flip-up filling hole cover to keep out dust and a sealed reservoir that doesn’t leak unfiltered water (or fall out) the way some pitcher reservoirs do. This pitcher has a hole molded into the lid that looks like it was designed to work with an electronic timer to indicate filter life like premium Brita and PUR pitchers have, but it’s just covered with a sticker.

The one case where this pitcher makes sense is if the following all apply:

• You don’t like the taste of the chlorine or other treatments added to your tap water
• You’re not worried about filtering out any other compounds specifically
• Your local tap water source has low mineral content
• You specifically prefer the taste that extra minerals add to water
• You don’t worry about trace amounts of poisonous minerals that may be included in these filters by accident

With a filter cost of around 25 cents per gallon of filtered water, this is definitely cheaper than buying bottled mineral water.

Key takeaways:

• Alkaline water is a scam, don’t buy this for health reasons.
• The EHM – Ultra II adds minerals — supposedly including calcium, magnesium and potassium — at a rate you can control.
• If you like the taste of mineral water, you might prefer this to a standard filter.
• Don’t count on this filter to remove anything harmful.

Other finalists we tested

We tested three other pitchers with alkaline-mineral-adding filters, and they weren’t much different than the EHM. They all change the pH of water the same way, using mineral clumps or beads mixed in with the other.

Hskyhan (not recommended)

The Hskyhan – Alkaline Water Filter Pitcher is like the EHM, but it lacks some of the refinements like variable flow rate. The replacement filters cost about double what the EHM filters do, almost as much as a premium PUR or ZeroWater cartridge. Aside from the awkward name, this pitcher is one of the better designs overall. If this pitcher had NSF-certified lead-removing filters, it would be worth looking into, but the filter design it ships with is just a scam.

Seychelle – pH2O Pure (not recommended)

The pH2O Pure water filter from Seychelle Environmental Technologies is the pitcher we’re most ambivalent about. This pitcher uses a more advanced filter design than the others. It should, if the claims are true, be competitive with the best filters from Brita and PUR. Seychelle shows copies of test results in marketing materials, but these aren’t independently verified and they don’t even list the model number of the filter that was tested. The fact that the test shows a “99.00% reduction in total suspended solids” almost definitely means the test was for a different filter than this one, since our test and tests we’ve seen in customer reviews show that dissolved solids are the same or higher.

The fact that tipped the scales against Seychelle is the other promotional material. While the marketing claims on their Amazon listing and webpage were no less worrisome than any other alkaline water purveyor, a pamphlet included with the pitcher features a long list of decades-old, thoroughly debunked claims about water quality and the purported importance of “healthy” alkaline water. Worse, they include a testimonial from a former NASA engineer, who claims that he is “living proof” that Seychelle’s “pH water filtration system will reduce the illness such as cancer as well as other conditions.[sic]”

The Seychelle filter is supposed to remove fluoride, but in our test with 4 parts per million of fluoride in the challenge solution (about four times the amount you’d expect to see in city water), the reduction was only 75%.

OXA (not recommended)

The OXA – Alkaline Water Filter Pitcher is the smallest we found, which means it’s a bit easier to pour from and keep in a refrigerator. That said, it also had the quickest flow-through rate, and as a result the filter made the least difference in our tests. It can still remove chlorine, but it doesn’t even add very much in the way of alkaline minerals.

Are there alkaline water benefits?

We looked for the source of the claims about alkaline water and traced most back to two base claims: the “alkaline diet” hypothesis and a study testing hydration for athletes.

We asked a certified personal trainer, Lucas Enge of Mosaic Health, what he knows about the trend and its traction in the “biohacking” community. He says the alkaline diet and the water fit together closely.

“Drinking alkaline water is founded on the principle that high acidic water consumption is going to cause oxidative stress and potentially cause disease,” Lucas says. “[According to this theory] alkaline water consumption ought to help prevent high acidity. Most advocates of alkaline water would likely (not necessarily) follow an alkaline diet simultaneously.”

Does he think it’s a sound theory? “I’m not convinced alkaline water is the solution,” he says. “Find yourself a high-quality water-filtration system.”

To get a research-based assessment of the alkaline diet claims, we reached out to Dr. Tanis Fenton, a nutritionist who has spent considerable time reviewing research and educating the public about claims made by diet promoters. In 2016 she co-wrote a systematic review of claims about alkaline water and cancer specifically.

Dr. Fenton gave us her findings in simple, unambiguous terms: “We have looked for evidence that the alkaline diet [benefits] bone health, cancer prevention and treatment, weight loss and heart disease and have found no evidence to support that it makes any difference at all.”

She notes that the hypothesis about dietary pH is based on century-old data, and that more recent studies totally disprove the old acid–ash hypothesis. “The body, and specifically the lungs and kidneys, work to maintain a normal blood pH. If something goes wrong with this process: for example, if one has a lung or kidney disease, or they are poisoned, then the body may not be able to maintain the normal blood pH. People who have a blood pH outside of the normal range are very sick and generally need to be hospitalized in an ICU to keep them alive.”

We asked if there could be anyone who would benefit from drinking alkaline water, even in special cases, and she said “No, other than the companies that are using it as a marketing strategy.”

One popular claim about alkaline water is that it can hydrate your body differently than normal purified water. This claim has been tested in one study: In 2016, the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition published “Effect of electrolyzed high-pH alkaline water on blood viscosity in healthy adults.” Dr. Fenton notes that while the study looks at four different markers for the effectiveness of hydration, only one showed a different result with alkaline water, and she calls the validity of this one measurement of hydration “very questionable.”

Dr. Fenton doesn’t deny that you could get good results from switching to an alkaline diet, but that all depends on what you’re eating now. “If someone wants to try the alkaline diet, I would tell them that are some desirable aspects of the diet including the encouragement to eat plenty of vegetables and fruit, to eat less sugar and less processed foods. I would caution them that the alkaline diet promoters sometimes say that protein is not important for health, which is not true.” Do note, drinking alkaline water doesn’t have anything to do with those positive aspects of the alkaline diet.

How we selected finalists to test

When we searched the web for reviews of alkaline water products, we discovered a minefield of hype and vague claims. Top-ranked review pages show little if any testing, and do nothing to temper the enthusiasm of marketing pitches for “vital” and “balanced” water. We didn’t find any reviews that actually include consultation with experts.

The pitchers all use standard approaches to filtering water, with cartridges containing granules of activated carbon. Some also use ion-exchange resin to grab minerals, and some add layers of “KDF” (made from brass shavings) to speed up chlorine reduction. (KDF media is more popular in high-flow dechlorinators like the shower water filters we’ve reviewed.) All are using some form of compressed mineral powder (similar to what’s in an antacid tablet) to boost pH.

Most are also including red “tourmaline” (quartz or possibly hematite) ceramic beads, which manufacturers claim will add “far-IR radiation” (better known simply as “heat energy”) but don’t do anything beneficial for your water. We’ve tested products that use tourmaline ceramic plates to reduce static cling in our hair dryer review and flat iron review, but those products use heat and pressure to release ions from the tourmaline.

Mainstream manufacturers like Brita and PUR all use extensive tests by third-party agencies like NSF international to show off how effective their filters are at removing harmful or taste-altering chemicals. We were surprised at how little information was provided about the filter performance for alkaline water pitchers. Given how effective activated carbon is at removing chlorine, we thought we’d see at least some test results to show that they can deal with easy filtration tasks.

Only one filter pitcher manufacturer from the alkaline crowd, Seychelle Environmental Technologies Inc, provided documentation of testing. The test results are comparable to results from other popular filters, and it was reassuring to see some evidence to back up claims about “improved” water. That said, the documentation doesn’t show clearly which of their products (the line includes three different types of filters) was tested by the labs.

In addition to the one pitcher that offered some filter performance proof, we picked the four best-selling filter pitchers with good customer reviews on Amazon and with good availability of replacement filters at a price comparable to conventional filters.

Important features to consider

Certified filter performance: If you’re depending on a filter to make your water cleaner, and not just trying to improve the taste, it’s important to look for actual certified test results. NSF International provides the most complete testing we’ve seen, running the filter well beyond its rated lifespan to ensure the filter can actually live up to its claims. None of the alkaline water filters we found are actually certified by an agency like NSF, though Seychelle does provide a copy of a lab result for an unspecified filter.

Adjustable flow rate: If you really want to add alkaline minerals to your water, it’s nice to be able to dial in the amount of change by adjusting the flow rate — Slower flow through the mineral layer will increase the amount of dissolved solids.

A sealed-reservoir design: If you want to pour a glass of water right away when you fill up the pitcher, you need a design with a top reservoir that doesn’t allow unfiltered water to leak into your glass.

Space-efficient pitcher size: If you’re chilling your water, you’ll need to figure out what shape of pitcher will fit your refrigerator best. A narrow oval shape will fit better on most shelves, while a tall cylinder might be better for some fridge doors.

Easy-clean design: The minerals added by the filters in these pitchers will eventually lead to build-up in your pitcher, so a design that has fewer nooks and crannies will collect less of that sediment and be easier to clean. Vinegar or any cleaner designed to help with hard-water scale should be effective.

Ionizers vs alkaline minerals: We didn’t test any water ionizers, since they are very expensive to purchase and operate. Ionizers don’t provide the taste benefits of extra minerals, either. Ionizers use electricity to split your water into hydroxide-rich alkaline water and acidic water, but there’s no reason for most people to do this. (You could use an electrolyser with salt and water to make lye and chlorine disinfectants, but it’s an expensive way to do that, too.)

Alkaline vs. conventional filters

There are a few important differences between the pitchers we recommend in our water filter pitcher review and the pitchers that advertise “alkaline water” as a feature.

First and foremost, the water filter pitchers we recommend are tested by an independent laboratory and independently certified to remove specific contaminants. It used to be that people weren’t especially worried about any one specific contaminant, but the Flint water crisis helped shine a light on the problems caused by lead pipes in older houses. More and more people are now realizing that they have low levels of lead coming out of their taps, even if the water supply is totally lead-free.

Only one of the alkaline-water filters, the Seychelle, has any manufacturer claims about tests for lead removal, but the test results provided have some problems, since they don’t tell us which of Seychelle’s filters was tested and don’t even show the expected added mineral content.

Our Favorite Water Filter: Brita - Longlast

Brita's filters are tested and certified, and the new Longlast design will filter 100 gallons.

See Price at Amazon

Secondly, availability of filters for these alkaline water pitchers could be unreliable. Brita, ZeroWater and PUR filters can be purchased at local retailers, and you can still use your oldest Brita pitcher with the newest filters.

Finally, there’s price. Many alkaline water filters are insanely expensive given what’s inside — granular activated carbon with mineral tablets mixed in. In contrast, the certified-lead-removing Brita – Longlast filters are actually less expensive per gallon than many generic replacements.

How we tested

After using each of these water filters for daily drinking in a household of four, we checked the advertising claims with laboratory equipment in controlled tests.

Changes to pH

We tested a sample of water from each pitcher for pH using a Hanna Instruments HI98103, calibrated immediately before the test and rinsed in cleaning solution between samples.

Results from this test showed that each of the filters was successfully adding some dissolved minerals, but repeated tests showed that the results varied from fill to fill. As predicted, quicker-flowing filters didn’t change pH as much as filters that took a long time. The EHM – Ultra II is the only pitcher that allows you to control this flow rate. In its middle setting, though, the EHM only gave us a slight bump from 7.5 to 7.9; we had to slow it down to a dribble to see a notable bump up to the claimed pH 8–9 range.

If you don’t have a calibrated electronic pH meter, it’s difficult to know what the actual water pH would be, but at least adjustment is possible. You could also use a tester for dissolved solids (which measures the electrolytic properties of added minerals) to calibrate the flow rate, if you’re not worried about hitting a specific pH and you just want the flavor.

The fast-flowing OXA pitcher made barely any difference, but the variability of the rate these minerals will dissolve in your water is one of the biggest problems with this type of filter. Without control over flow rate, you’re relying on the consistency of the mineral clumps or beads to ensure that the pH stays consistent — the manufacturers offer no guarantees.

Chlorine removal

Each of the filters removed the 2 parts-per-million of chlorine added by our local water treatment facility, down to a level that wasn’t detectable with a Hatch CN-66T test kit. This isn’t a surprising result, since even a well-used generic carbon filter can remove chlorine.

Fluoride removal

Sodium fluoride is a difficult mineral to remove from water. Typically, slow-acting activated alumina filters are used if you need to remove fluoride, unless it makes sense to use more expensive systems to get completely pure water. The only pitcher-based system we’ve tested thus far that’s effective at fluoride removal is the ZeroWater ion-exchange system.

We tested each filter with a 4 parts-per-million (ppm) fluoride challenge solution, and we only saw a final reading below 1 ppm with one filter – the EHM. Ironically, this is one of the pitchers that did not claim any effectiveness at removing fluoride. Our tester speculates that the result is because of a chemical reaction between the indicator chemical or the fluoride and the alkaline minerals, rather than the presence of some component in the filter successfully removing fluoride.

Taste

Testers in our test group had strong reactions to the minerals in the samples. Some thought they tasted better than chlorinated tap water, but all prefered water from a Brita pitcher, and in this test group the ZeroWater pitcher won the most votes with its tangy zero-mineral taste.

The alkaline water got adjectives like “silty,” “musty,” “sandy” and “dirty.” When we tried making coffee and tea with the alkaline water, some testers liked the taste, but not most.

The bottom line

Put simply, alkaline water is a marketing ploy used to get people to buy devices or bottled water that they don’t need at a premium price. If you like the taste of the minerals these filters add, they probably won’t hurt you, but the complete lack of information provided by the manufacturers should give you pause.

While the EHM – Ultra II pitcher has more going for it than the others, you still shouldn’t buy it for any reason other than to add a mystery mix of minerals to your water because you like how that tastes. There’s likely to be as much harmful as helpful in the rocks that EHM puts in the filter, but not enough either way to make any difference.

In our review of the best water filter pitchers, we picked the Brita – Longlast series as best overall, since it’s certified to remove lead, and the filter lasts for about six months of daily use. If you’re looking for a new water filter pitcher, that’s our first choice, though some of our taste-test participants like the no-mineral flavor of ZeroWater better.

A Certified Water Filter Pitcher: Brita - Longlast

While it doesn't change the pH of your water, Brita's Longlast filter is certified to give you 100 gallons of lead-free, chlorine-free water. It's the least-expensive way to improve most city water for drinking.

See Price at Amazon

The post The Best Alkaline Water Filter Pitchers appeared first on Your Best Digs.

Table of contents

• Website and ordering experience
• What’s in the box?
• Recipe results
• Subscription cost and value
• Continuing the subscription? Dinnerly’s Website

Germany-based Marley Spoon had some trouble marketing its meal-kit delivery subscription, until its Founder and CEO Fabian Siegel teamed up with Martha Stewart to create high-end recipes for the home cook in a subscription service, Martha & Marley Spoon, which we’ve also tested and reviewed.

With its success, Marley Spoon launched Dinnerly in 2017, marketing it as “the cheapest meal kit in America,” offering a weekly subscription of $4.99 per portion (not including the $8.99 shipping fee). To keep prices low, Dinnerly eliminates a couple of important elements that other meal-kit delivery subscriptions have, which we think makes Dinnerly a less-attractive option.

Website and ordering experience

Dinnerly has an attractive website with a focus on family-friendly meals. Before purchasing the plan, you’re able to view current and upcoming recipes, which revolve on a monthly basis. The pastel-hued photos show huge portions with tags describing what type of meal it is; for example, “under 30 minutes” or “one-pot meal.”

All recipes are tagged as “kid-friendly,” and so there’s a lot of pasta and sugared meat glazes (like Caramel Chicken Stir Fry). A couple of odd recipe options are cinnamon-sugar twists and coconut key lime smoothies. It’s unclear whether these count as a meal choice or are considered an add-on for an extra cost.

Setting up an account is easy — similar to the other meal kit subscriptions, you can’t explore any options until you’ve paid with a credit card — but you do need to set up your taste profile and preferences, or it will be automatically set at a default that you’ll eat basically anything.

The website also automatically selects your week’s recipes from its 16 recipes that are offered each week. If they’re not appealing, you need to navigate to the recipes page and change the assigned recipe portion to zero before you can select a different recipe.

A delivery date is then assigned to you, which you can change, and normally, it’s four or five days when you’ll receive your first delivery. However, due to issues with COVID-19, the first delivery is a little delayed and can take up to 10 days. Thereafter, a box is delivered on the day of the week you’ve selected.

The subscription can be paused or canceled at any time, but you need to do it within one day of your most recent delivery, or the box for the week(s) you want to skip will be delivered anyway. (We had the same problem with Martha & Marley Spoon.)

What’s in the box?

Packaging

The box is insulated with a thick, recyclable paper, and the meats are sandwiched between two frozen gel packs. Other meal-kit subscriptions, like competitor Hello Fresh, package the ingredients for each recipe into individual, labeled paper bags that can be stored in the refrigerator with everything you’ll need packaged together. Not so with Dinnerly. The press materials state that they’re able to reduce costs by eliminating excess packaging.

We’re not quite sure how much the company is saving by not grouping together ingredients into separate paper bags, but it was pretty inconvenient to sort through the haphazardly packed box to find what we needed for each recipe. Another cost savings is Dinnerly doesn’t include recipe cards, so you’ll need to access your recipes on their website, which is what we did to organize the ingredients. The photo below shows our attempt.

Dinnerly does package some of the produce in the same plastic bags as Martha & Marley Spoon, and the vacuum-sealed meats come from the same distributor, Land & Sky. The chicken and beef we ordered were very good quality, but what was immediately noticeable were the smaller portions: two 8-ounce packages of chicken breasts and one 8-ounce package of beef strips. This translates to a quarter pound per person, 2 ounces less than the other meal-kit subscriptions we tested.

Produce had a few minor bruises and brown spots, but again, portions for vegetables were too small. But there were plenty of potatoes, noodles and tortillas; not really our idea of a well-balanced meal.

Recipe results

Everything Bagel-Spiced Chicken

This recipe, which also included mashed Yukon potatoes with cream cheese and scallions and sauteed broccoli, was the most successful. Like other meal-kit subscriptions, there are six steps in the instructions, although, in reality, each step has several steps. However, the instructions were clear and easy to follow. Adding chopped scallions and cream cheese (about 2 tablespoons) to the mashed potatoes really boosted flavor. The Everything Bagel seasoning (1 tablespoon) included poppy seeds, sesame seeds, onion powder and garlic powder, and although it didn’t really taste like an everything bagel, it made a savory and slightly crunchy crust on the sauteed chicken.

From the photo, you’ll notice how much broccoli was included: only 4 ounces for two people. Compare that to the 12 ounces of potato in this meal; there was enough for three people. No sauce or ingredients for a sauce was included. However, the sixth step of the recipe card instructs you to make a pan sauce by “throw [ing] in some butter, shallot, lemon and a splash of water into the skillet.” For a beginner cook, you’d have to wing it. Also, it would have been nice had a shallot and lemon were included in the box.

Pollo Asada Tacos

This meal can best be described as bare bones. The “black bean salsa” consisted of nothing but a can of drained black beans, mixed together with chopped red onion, garlic, oil and vinegar. The Mexican seasoning was pungent with cumin and chili powder, and when mixed with olive oil, it made a heavy paste for the chicken, which was sautéed.

In this recipe and the Everything Bagel-Spiced Chicken, the recipe instructed to pound the chicken to a half-inch thickness; amusing, since the chicken breast was already the thinnest we’d ever seen. Twelve tortillas were included (six tortillas is considered a single portion), but when the small portion of chicken was sliced, we got four tacos out of it. A 2-ounce packet of guacamole was supposed to be “dolloped” onto each taco; but it was more like a teaspoon to stretch it out.

The most annoying thing about this recipe was the sixth step of stuffing the tacos with chopped tomato, shredded cheese and lettuce. None of these were included, and if you don’t happen to have them in your refrigerator, you’re out of luck in trying to round out this carb-heavy meal.

Beef Bulgogi Stir Fry

The photo for this recipe shows a plate brimming with steak, broccoli and carrots posed atop a nest of cellophane noodles. Ingredients include two packages of cellophane noodles, which, when cooked, could easily feed four hungry people. But the tiny amount of steak strips would leave two people hungry.

The large carrot that’s provided was sufficient, but the meager 4 ounces of broccoli was not enough for a well-balanced dinner. (In our photograph, you’ll see most of the broccoli on one plate, so it wasn’t an unappetizing brown.) As with all of the Dinnerly recipes, you’ll need to add more vegetables, especially if you’re trying to feed your family.

Subscription cost and value

Dinnerly originally advertised their meals in press releases and online marketing as $4.99 per portion, but now they’re advertising a per portion cost of $4.49. This is misleading. If you don’t factor in the $8.99 shipping, the only meal plan that works out to $4.49 per portion is the four-person or “family box” for five meals per week ($98.79 total). The six-meal family box is even cheaper at $4.29 per portion ($111.95). The two-person boxes start at $4.99 per portion and then decrease by $.10 for each additional meal added.

A Dinnerly subscription is about 50% less expensive than either Martha & Marley Spoon and Hello Fresh. (See the chart below for the breakdown of each meal plan.) But you will need to spend more money for additional groceries to compensate for the ingredients that are not included or too carb-heavy in many Dinnerly recipes.

Continuing the subscription?

Dinnerly is a great idea — providing couples and small families with affordable meals — but you would probably get more value by buying the groceries yourself. It’s true that you wouldn’t have to worry about planning a menu for the week’s meals, and of course, you can mostly avoid going to the grocery store for what you’ll need.

Each of the recipes we tested was missing an ingredient that would have made the meals better and more nutritious. The weekly emails that Dinnerly sends about the recipes you’ve selected inform you what ingredients you’ll need to buy. But in our mind, this defeats the purpose of a meal-kit delivery subscription, meaning, you should have everything included in the box.

And how much time are you really saving when you have to sort through the ingredients and organize them yourself? All of Dinnerly’s more-expensive competitors do it for you. In the end, Dinnerly is not as convenient as it’s marketed to be.

Dinnerly Meal Kit Delivery

This subscription service for budget-conscious couples and families cuts costs with smaller portions of proteins and larger portions of carbs. Some bare-bones recipes don't have all the ingredients so you'll have to go grocery shopping anyway.

See Price at Dinnerly

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