This Vintage Kitchen Appliance Was A Must-Have In Every 1970s Home

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From fondue sets to salad spinners to the modern ubiquity of air fryers, food gadgets ebb and flow in popularity over the years. Oftentimes, the demand for specific items relates to consumers' needs at a particular point in time. Such was the case with one old-school 70s kitchen gadget we miss: the electric frying pan.

An electric frying pan eliminates the need for a stovetop for cooking, running on electricity alone. Typically, electric frying pans include a small thermostat you can dial up and down to set the temperature. These days, it's the kind of product someone might need in a dorm room or efficiency apartment without access to an oven. However, electric frying pans became popular in the '60s and '70s, even among families with easy access to such appliances.

Why did consumers err more toward electric frying pans than their own stoves? One reason is likely due to the fact that electric stovetop units during this time tended to be slow to operate. Solid cooktops, which often came with concealed electric burners to make spills easier to clean, were known for being inconsistent in terms of heat. The electric frying pan provided a simple alternative: A plug-in device that heats up quickly and provides more uniform temperatures for cooking at home.

The electric flying pan was first introduced in the United States in 1953 and gained widespread popularity in other nations a few years later. In Australia, the prevalence of electric frying pans was in part fueled by immigration trends. An uptick in immigrants into the country had Australians trying to cook Asian recipes typically prepared in a wok, but appropriate culinary gear was not widely available at the time. Larger electric skillets worked well for certain Asian dishes and other recipes that required sautéing larger quantities of food.

So, what happened to the electric frying pan? In part, its decline in popularity was proportional to improvements in stovetops and other appliances, causing the once-popular electric frying pan to fall into obsolescence. With better functioning kitchens, the gadget began to feel like a relic that was clunky to store. Over the years, it became less like a convenience and more like a burden.

That being said, the electric frying pan never completely joined the ranks of kitchen appliances kids today have never seen. You can still buy electric frying pans, and they might come in handy if you live somewhere without easy access to a stove. Plus, if you're nostalgic for those old-school, '70s-era electric frying pans, there are plenty of eBay and Etsy listings for vintage varieties.