Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker

The Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker is a bizarre combination of shameless marketing rubbish, and really good idea. I would compare it to the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine, except that our little purple grill hasn't broken and been replaced three times since we bought it. I am not a fan of Mr Oliver, but I have tried not to let that cloud my judgement.

What is the Flavour Shaker?

Well, it's a pestle and mortar. Simple as that. It's for crushing up seeds to make tasty herby spicy paste things. The pestle is replaced by a heavy ceramic ball and the mortar is replaced by a plastic container. This means that you can just shake the container - your spices get crushed with less effort, and any oils or liquids you put in can't spill out. In theory.

Jamie's website says that he invented this because nothing in the shops was "close to a good pestle and mortar" and "it's probably the time factor that puts most of you off making a nice marinade or rub to go over your meat or fish for supper". So basically he's saying that his flavour shaker is less time consuming and less messy than a regular pestle and mortar. I think not, Jamie.

The Design

The mortar piece comes in two sections. A bottom half with a flat bottom that closely resembles a bowl. It attaches to the top half by four screw threads and the join is sealed by a rubber gasket type sealing ring. There are lines to tell you when it is properly lined up. The top half is a bit like the top of a ten pin bowling pin - and the whole thing has a rubber grip pattern around it to help stop you hurling it across your kitchen. To use it you simply put everything you want to crush together into the shaker along with the ceramic ball, join the two halves together, ensuring that they are properly attached, then shake until you've achieved the consistency you require.

I've got the classic version. Grey plastic with a black grip - it's not very exciting to look at. It also now comes in "funky" colours and comes with a matching spoon ("no more sticky fingers"). There is also a special edition stainless steel version.

Does it Work?

Well, yes. It does. It works pretty well. You will look like a total fool prancing around your kitchen in an attempt to get everything crushed, but you will eventually get there. However, unlike a pestle and mortar, you can't see how crushed things are, so you have to keep opening the thing to check. And if you're just crushing dry ingredients, they will inevitably become airborne and you will end up inhaling a good quantity of them each time you open it. If you are using liquids in it as well then the liquid on the top half will ooze down onto the join when you open it so that if you need to shut it again you will fling liquid all over yourself.

Perhaps it is only me that needs to check the consistency more than looking through the plastic permits - maybe if you have stronger arms the shaking is more efficient. (I've just looked at the video on the flavour shaker website and noticed that the one Jamie uses on there is much clearer than mine - lesson: go for the clearest plastic you can [of course you can't taste through any plastic.])

The flavour shaker's great claim to fame is that it can crush whole garlic cloves. My husband assures me this is possible, I must admit I haven't really tried it myself. The things that always cause the trouble for me are the little but hard seeds like mustard or coriander seeds. They seem to take hours of shaking and usually result in leaping up and down and shouting as well.

In theory you can use it to make dressings, pastes, rubs, marinades, sauces…. I suppose anything you like, as long as it can be crushed and mushed.

How Easy is it to Clean?

You can put the whole thing on the top shelf of a dishwasher, if you have one. If you don't you will face the challenge of getting your sponge right into the thin end of it, but it isn't too bad to clean. To clean up the mess it creates on you and the kitchen is harder… Ours does also have that odd smell of something that loads of spices have been put in - I can never seem to get rid of that.

Does it Last?

Here we come to the real problem with the flavour shaker. I bought one for my husband quite soon after they first came out - I think it must have been Christmas 2005, but I could be wrong. Fairly soon after we got it, some of the plastic screw thread that holds the two halves together snapped. They snapped from basic flavour shaking use. Fortunately I had bought it from John Lewis, and they simply replaced it for me. A few months later the rubber seal started to get twisted in the screw part. We continued pushing it back into its correct place for a while, but then it stretched and stopped functioning entirely. John Lewis to the rescue again.

After this, the whole thing stayed in the cupboard for a while and then got put in a box when we moved house. It has finally made it out again. It is currently severely disabled as all but one tiny section of the screw has now dropped off. This means that it doesn't really seal and it has really sharp bits sticking out of it when open. It is currently sitting on the counter waiting for my husband to decide what he wants to do about it.

The dilemma being that we do actually like it - it's just badly made. I will investigate the stainless steel version to see if the crucial breaking bits are still brittle plastic or if they are part of the steel upgrade.

In Conclusion

Despite my reservations about the idiocy of a cocktail shaker masquerading as a pestle and mortar, and my reservations about its inventor, the flavour shaker is a very good idea. But beyond that it falls well short of being good - possibly not even mediocre. If you've got a pestle and mortar, then I'd stick to that if I were you. If you don't have a pestle and mortar then you've got to ask yourself: are you really ever going to use this?

Still want one?

You can get a flavour shaker, in the colour of your choice (within reason) from most major department stores and online retailers. Today on Amazon one will set you back less than £10. I seem to remember mine cost £16, but I could be imagining it. The colourful ones will cost you around £5 more, and the stainless steel version up to £30.