Blame Alton Brown or perhaps even Marie Kondo for the backlash against kitchen tools that have only one use - unitaskers, as Brown calls them. The argument against them boils down to this: why take up valuable kitchen space for a tool that does only one thing? Sometimes, however, the item does that one thing so well that it becomes indispensable. So says Gray Chapman, who says that a butter dish is one such object.

Chapman says that even though a butter dish does not save her time or money, but it provides her with something that nothing else can, which is the promise of never having to "settle for a rock-hard, bread-mauling slab of butter-colored granite." It's also aesthetically pleasing.

While a butter dish doesn't rise to the level of absurdity of some unitasking items such as a selfie spoon, most people would not consider it an essential item. I share Chapman's love for the butter dish and have for years (when asked by my high school newspaper what my 'pet peeve' was, I immediately replied with 'cold butter').

However, I have a different unitasker that I just adore. It's the strawberry coring tool pictured above. After hauling home boxes of strawberries from the local U-pick farm, I immediately reach for this handy device as I prep the berries for jam making. I find it much quicker to use than a paring knife, as one flick does the job of removing all of the white part of the berry without lopping off any of the good stuff.

You probably have a tool or two lying in your kitchen cabinets or drawers that isn't practical but that you couldn't bear to part with. What is your favorite unitasking device?