Do these look like ordinary tongs? I would think so too, but they aren’t.
These are stainless steel tongs which don’t have an external locking system and rely on whether you hold them upright or downard to open or close.
Most tongs either have a metal piece that slides up and down to keep the arms from opening too wide or too narrow.
Slide the metal piece up and the tongs stay shut, drop it down and the tongs are open real wide.
The other kind I’ve used is where you pull a knob (for lack of better word) at the end which locks the tongs shut. Pull it out and they open. Push it in and they stay closed.
These are fine, but there’s a problem – it requires two hands and when you’re in the middle of cooking (or grilling) using both hands to just open a pair of tongs is sometimes annoying.
Perfect example, you’ve flipped the chicken over in the pan using the tongs, you want to put them aside and lay them on a spoon rest, but SNAP – the tongs fly open and food and juice splatters.
The Solution?
As infomercial as this sounds, the Norpro Stainless Steel Deluxe 12 Inch Locking Tong is the answer. When you hold the tongs down they open, hold them upright and they close. The locking mechanism is inside at the end of the handles where they join.
You only need to flip your wrist and the tongs do whatever you want them to. I guess you could call them self-locking.
So, did they really work when I used them? The answer is yes! I was cooking chicken cutlets and closing the tongs to set aside was a breeze. If I wanted to close them I just held them upright and when it was time to use them, I just held them downward and voila – they were ready to grab the chicken.
I love these tongs. They feel sturdy and appear to be heavy duty quality, much unlike the cheap ones we had (note past tense).
If you’re looking for a good kitchen utensil – this is it! At the time of this post they were just less than $14 and worth every penny! You can read more about them at Amazon
(where we ordered them from) – and they’ll ship them out to you. If you bump up your order to over $25 you’ll get free shipping.
Here’s to easier cooking!