What's your most useful modern kitchen appliance, something your grandmother didn't have?

The microwave (yes, I’m old enough that Grandma didn’t have one of those).

Runner-up would be the digital scale, especially for baking.

^^ I have to agree with you about it being the microwave. When I think of my grandmother’s convenience, I think of the day they got running water in the kitchen. It was an indoor pump! They no longer had to go to the outdoor pump. My mom got to go from an ice box to a refrigerator. I’ve got a freezer/refrigerator, but that’s not recent.

Yeah, my grandma never even had a water pump. She actually had to haul a bucket up from the well. Hardcore hillbilly.

I’m especially fond of the microwave I bought last year. Most microwaves, when you set them at less than full power, don’t actually diminish the power of the radiation; they just alternate full-power shots with periods of nothing. So when you ask for, say, 50% power, it runs half the time at full power, half at no power. But my new one actually varies the power of the radiation, and runs it all through the cycle. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it makes all the difference when you’re using it to soften cold butter or hard ice cream, or melt chocolate.

Me, as an adult…great cook that I am.

I would also say the microwave, although my Grandma ultimately did have one of those in her 70’s.

Right now I’ve been enjoying the ease of pureeing soup with the use of my new immersion blender.

The thing that would have made my Grandma’s life a little easier, especially at Thanksgiving, would have been a double oven. She made everything from scratch for a big crowd and how she got everything done at the same time still boggles my mind.

Now officially dreaming of and craving Grandma’s Thanksgiving delights.

The microwave of course!!

Microwave, followed closely by my $16 Foreman grill and instant boil electric kettle.

My immersion blender and food processor.

A dishwasher.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room Is the Foreman grill hard to clean?
@Blondesjon What’s an immersion blender?

Immersion Blender.

Immersion Blenders.

i love ‘em. they’re the most.

^^ Yes, they are wonderful, aren’t they? Saves you the trouble, and potential burns, from having to dump hot soup from a dutch oven into a blender or food processor.

I HAVE one of those! I just didn’t know its name!. Thank you for introducing me. I’ll have to explore other uses for it than making cream soups.
Thanks.

I’m not sure my grandmother had a refrigerator for much of her life, I’d put that at the top of my list for all around convenience and utility.

@Sunny2, you can’t submerge it in water but the one i have, the smallest version, is pretty easy to clean with soapy water and a sponge with one abrasive side. I love mine.

Thank you. I would think it would get very greasy.

Microwave for sure! I don’t think there is much else I have that people haven’t had for at least 5 decades.

Definitely a microwave. Although all my appliances would have been amazing to my maternal grandmother. She died in the early 1960s and never even had electricity or running water in her home.