If your food has been tasting a bit bland lately, maybe you need a new spice. Have you considered Cheetos dust?
The people behind the famously orange snack food are now suggesting that a sprinkling of ground-up Cheetos can be a flavor enhancer for everything from ice cream to Brussels sprouts to lobster tails.
They've even introduced a new mini kitchen appliance to promote the idea. The Cheetos Duster is basically a Cheetos-branded, cordless mini-food processor designed to grind Cheetos into a fine powder.
As described by Food & Wine magazine, the new condiment/spice/garnish even has a name — Cheetle — and a page devoted to recipes using Cheetos dust, ranging from Cheetos crusted fried pickles to Cheetos Flamin' Hot doughnuts.
When the device was put on sale for $19.95 on Amazon.com on Black Friday, it sold out in minutes. It's since shown up on the secondary market at sites like eBay where sellers have been asking up to $100 for the Cheetos Duster.
We managed to snag one for a test drive.
We can report that the Cheetos Duster — with its traffic-cone-orange paint job, chrome accents and Cheetos dust fingerprint decals — is a triumph of form. If you could find one, it would make a good stocking stuffer for that special snack-food foodie who already has an electric s'mores maker, a countertop dog treat cooker, or a Millennium Falcon waffle maker.
As far as function goes, well, you could probably get the same results or better by whizzing your Cheetos through a food processor, kneading a bagful of the snacks with your hands or smashing them with a frying pan.
As far as taste? Pulverized Cheetos can add a salty, crunchy accent to soft foods like mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese. But we wouldn't recommend sprinkling ground-up Flamin' Hot Cheetos on lime Jell-O again. That did not work at all.
