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My friends think it's funny to walk into my kitchen and make snarky comments on the rubber mallet sitting on my counter.
"Nice mallet you got there," they chuckle.
I get it; a mallet isn't the usual cooking tool you'd expect to see. But I'm going to tell you why it belongs in my kitchen, and why I think you should snap up this specific rubber mallet that just hit a 65% off Amazon Prime Day deal and now costs only $4. (While you're at it, these other awesome kitchen gadgets also have Prime Day sales.)
Imagine this: Stubborn jar lids that pop open with ease. Ice melted into icebergs shattering into usable chunks. Ginger smashing. Garlic peels flying. Meat in Zip Top bags that's gently massaged into uniform thinness and ready to be breaded for your air fryer. It turns out, many cooking tasks benefit from some gentle taps -- or whacks -- of a blunt-force instrument.
Not your typical kitchen appliance.
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In fact, I used the rubber mallet over the weekend to tap-tap-tap the vertical sides of six Costco-size jars of Rao's marinara sauce (the best!) to make a cook-ahead dish for a big birthday party I'm hosting this Saturday.
It all started one particularly grueling and soul-sapping night when I was solo in my kitchen and losing the battle against a tight lid. I had tried every safe-for-me method I could think of, including this jar-opening tool I've never had luck with, gripping the lid with a towel, holding the jar under a stream of hot water, thumping the sides and bottom to release the seal, even the ill-advised insertion of a butter knife point between the lid and jar lip.
(My colleague, Senior Editor David Watsky, uses the spines on quality kitchen shears to open jars -- I love my shears, but know I'd find a way to hurt myself in the process.)
Then I texted a dear friend with a lot of physical adaptations in his life who lives alone: "How do you open jars?" I trusted his recommendation completely and five minutes later, my purchase was confirmed. Now, when friends laugh at my kitchen mallet, I laugh right back. They have no idea what they're missing.
I don't worry about gouging myself with this rubber mallet, and I've never come close to thwacking my own thumb. With a light tap of the mallet all along the edges of a lid, it more easily twists open, vacuum released. (You still need to have dry hands for grip or else use a towel.) This mallet method is dead simple, takes seconds and works every time -- no protective eyeware needed. I gotta admit, swinging a hammer around the kitchen is a lot of fun.
The mallet head is easily covered in a clean bag or cloth whenever you're using it with meat, but mostly I cover the food at the point of contact, rather than the mallet.
Occasionally, I even use the rubber mallet for nonculinary utilitarian tasks like, you know, smacking in those pesky dowel ends when assembling furniture. But the next time a friend ribs me with a "why do you have a mallet in your kitchen?" line, I'm going to grab the tightest-lidded jar I can find for a demo -- and then send them the link above.
For even more smart Amazon Prime Day buys, my Braun do-it-all handheld immersion blender is 20% off right now, this Made In cookware I swear by is up to 25% off and here are even more curated Prime Day sales for under $100.