Many people have old appliances stored in a dusty drawer. One useful use I found for an old tablet is as a dedicated kitchen hub. This simple thing really improved my culinary experience.
There are several interesting things you can do with tablets, computers and old phones. Focusing on a single-use purpose is a great way to get some functionality out of an outdated device that is probably low on power.
Why a Kitchen Tablet?
The internet is an incredible resource for recipes, which makes your phone the best cookbook in the world. However, a phone is not as practical as a physical cookbook. You are constantly navigating between the ingredients and the instructions, and the screen turns off while you are cutting onions.
There are, of course, many ways to improve this experience, but the one that I found to be the one that changed my life the most is to use an old tablet as a cookbook connected to the Internet. The screen is a good size for reading recipes, and mounting under the cabinet makes it even better.
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Start with a clean plate
The best thing about it is that it is very open. You can use almost any type of tablet out there: an old iPad, a cheap Kindle Fire tablet – even an old Microsoft Surface RT.
I am using an Asus Transformer Book T100TA, which was released almost a decade ago during the renaissance of Windows 8 2 in 1. The tablet cost about $ 400 new, which means that it is very low consumption by current standards. It is a perfect candidate for a project like this.
Once you have an old tablet in hand, I recommend doing a factory reset or deleting all non-essential applications and files. The idea is to make this a simplified single-use device. I removed basically everything except Microsoft Edge.
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Sprinkle on apps and recipe sites
The next thing to do is to customize the device for cooking. You may only need a web browser to search for recipes, or you may have a favorite meal planning application.
If you are using an old iPad or Android tablet, this is very simple. Go to the app stores and download the apps you use. Once you get the apps, it’s a good idea to clear your home screen of everything else so that cooking apps are easy to find.
I’m using a Windows tablet, so the idea of “apps” and a “home screen” is a little bit different. I put Windows 10 in tablet mode to have a more touch-friendly interface. Next, I fixed web bookmarks for the recipe organizer and meal kit service we used.
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The key here is to remove everything and place the kitchen utensils in the front and in the center. Really think of the tablet as a glorified cookbook.
Extra credit
A dedicated recipe device is already great to have in the kitchen, but there are a few things you can do to further elevate the experience.
For me, what turned it from a cool concept into a genuinely useful tool was an assembly under the cabinet. Taking the tablet off the counter and placing it in an easier-to-read position makes all the difference.
There are tons of tablet stands available online. This is what I bought and can also be used as a stand on the counter. It has a lot of fit and can fold when you’re not using it.
Another tip is to turn off the lock screen or login screen. Ideally, there is nothing particular about the tablet to worry about, so you can also facilitate access. This is especially good if several people cook in your home.
In the same vein, you must prevent the screen from turning off or set the screen timeout for a longer period. There is nothing more annoying than having to turn the screen on again when you have your hands messed up in the middle of cooking. You can do this on Windows, iPad and Android tablets.
Start cooking
You are ready to start cooking! I really love having this tablet in my kitchen. It is much easier to have a dedicated device for all my recipes. I don’t need to browse a complete list of apps on my phone and having it set up keeps the meter clean.
If you have an old tablet out there, I highly recommend you try it out!