Everyone Had One In The '90s — The Iconic Kitchen Gadget That Still Brings Instant Nostalgia

We've all probably internalized Alton Brown's warning against "unitaskers" — that is, any small kitchen appliance or gadget that can only really do one thing. None of us want our kitchen cluttered with a bunch of silly tools that can only barely accomplish the single task they were put on this Earth to do. And yet, what else can we do when faced with the wonders of the Salad Shooter? Truly, we are weak to the siren song of '90s nostalgia. (We really wish we could drink Squeezits one more time, by the way.)

"Why would anyone want to shoot a harmless salad?" you may be asking yourself. Well, the goal isn't to shoot the salad but to shoot salad at something else: a bowl, preferably. It's essentially a handheld food processor, with a feed tube that allows you to shred the ingredients for salad into bite-sized pieces.

But the utility doesn't end there. As the very fast-talking narrator of a 1994 Salad Shooter commercial says, "How about some cheese for your pizza or perfect Salad Shooter hash browns for breakfast vegetables sliced or shredded and nothing tops a salad like Salad Shooter?" (There should probably be punctuation in that sentence, but the narrator apparently disagreed.)

Though we discussed "unitaskers" earlier, it's clear by now that the Salad Shooter doesn't really count as one. There are plenty of things you can shred, after all, and if being able to aim those shreds helps your cooking process in any way, it may be worth it. But still, food processors can do everything a Salad Shooter does and more — Julia Child didn't call this kitchen tool "revolutionary" for no reason.

With that said, however, food processors and their multitude of gadgets and attachments can sometimes be a little intimidating to inexperienced cooks, and the full-sized ones certainly take up a good amount of counter space. A Salad Shooter, then, is a good way to get the benefits of a food processor without the extra bells and whistles, which you may not want or need in the first place. It's also not too big and can easily be stored in a cabinet. On top of everything else, the good folks at Presto (who manufacture the Salad Shooter) evidently build these babies to last — a commenter on the r/BuyItForLife subreddit reported their grandmother's Salad Shooter lasted over 30 years. Sounds like planned obsolescence just got shredded!