Outfitting a kitchen can be a dizzying and costly experience.
The shelves of cookware stores brim with tools for every task, from roasting game hens to slicing radishes. Pots and pans come in shapes, sizes and materials designed to satisfy all culinary whims. And the sizable knife displays can be a real sticking point for anyone shopping for one.
If you are just starting out in a new apartment (or looking for a gift for someone who is–from newlyweds to recent graduates), what do you really need?
We asked experts to suggest 10 basic tools no cook should be without. Call them the meat and potatoes of kitchen equipment. Then we asked for their favorite frivolities — the icing on the cake.
The basics
1. Cookware
Dana Benigno, a cooking teacher and owner/creator of Chicagocooks.com, a culinary resource Web site, recommended an 8-quart stockpot, a 4-quart saucepan, a 12-inch skillet with lid and a 10-inch saute pan with slanted sides.
Benigno also put ovenproof handles on her list of requirements.
“It gives you double-duty if your stove-top cookware is oven-safe,” she explained.
Theo Gilbert, a professional chef and director of operations for Windy City Pasta Works, suggested stainless-steel pots and pans: “They never wear out,” he said.
Gilbert said, if pressed, he can get along with just a 3-quart saute pan with lid. “I make everything in it from grilled cheese sandwiches to pancakes,” he ex-plained. He has even used it for cooking pasta.
As with most kitchen equipment, higher-quality, heavy cookware costs more. But it will cook more evenly and will last longer, so experts suggest it is worth the extra cost.
2. Knives
Benigno suggests a chef’s knife and a paring knife. “Those two can get you through everything,” she said.
The chef’s knife (“the one you see every TV chef using”) is the basic utility knife, used for chopping vegetables and smashing garlic. Most chefs use a 10- or 8-inch chef’s knife, though cooks with smaller hands and arms may prefer a 6-inch knife; try a few out in a kitchenware store to see which is most comfortable.
The paring knife–about 6 inches long–is for smaller jobs, like removing stems from tomatoes or coring pears.
If she could have three, Benigno would add a boning knife. “You can do anything to meat with it,” she said.
3. Sharpening steel
Experts advise using a steel before every use. “Each time I use a knife, I pass it over the steel,” Benigno said. The grooved-steel instrument, often sold with knife sets but also available separately, hones the blade but doesn’t actually sharpen it. For that you need a sharpening stone–or professional help, which is often offered free at cookware stores.
4. Silicone spatula
“I’ve melted a lot of spatulas over the years,” said Susanna Linse, media relations manager for Seattle-based Sur La Table cookware stores. “With these, you’ll never have that problem.” They are heat-resistant to 500 degrees.
A bonus: Heatproof spatulas don’t absorb stains or smells. Silicone, the material du jour, is now widely used on many other kitchen tools. The material is dishwasher-safe.
The widespread popularity of silicone has lowered prices dramatically; many spatulas cost less than $10.
5. Wooden spoons
Linse has six or seven, and uses them for any dish that requires long or fre-quent stirring.
“They feel good in the hand, and they don’t get hot like metal,” she explained.
They also don’t scratch non-stick surfaces. Linse recommended high-quality spoons with heft that “will be smooth no matter where you rub your finger” and will last for generations, but she added that cheaper models, while not as durable, will do the job for those on a tight budget. Look for spoons made from cherry, olive or boxwood.
6. Instant-read thermometer
“You just stick it in the food, and it quickly tells you the temperature from 0 to 222 degrees,” Linse explained.
The thermometers are inexpensive (about $15), simple to use and available in dial and digital readouts.
7. Measuring cups and spoons
Buy different tools to measure solid and liquid ingredients, counseled Debbie Walt, sales associate at Chef’s Catalog in Highland Park.
“You need to be able to level off dry ingredients” for accurate measuring, she explained. Thus, measuring cups for solid ingredients such as flour and sugar typically come in sets of four “cups” with straight edges 1 /4-, 1 /3-, 1 /2- and 1-cup measures. Liquid ingredients are typically measured in 2-cup or 4-cup “pitchers.”
It’s best to buy a reputable brand, because you want to make sure the mea-sures are accurate. Measuring spoons can be used to measure both liquids and solids and usually sold in sets of 1/4-, 1/3-, 1/2-teaspoon and 1-tablespoon measures.
8. Jellyroll pan
“They are so versatile,” Benigno said. Insert a rack and the pan can be used for roasting; turn it upside down, and you have a cookie sheet. Benigno prefers a commercial quality, heavy-duty sheet pan that measures 13-by-18 inches.
“That’s the size that fits into most home ovens,” she said.
9. Cutting board
Many experts prefer large wooden boards, usually made of maple, but Gilbert recommended a flexible plastic cutting surface, which can be used to shift ingredients from counter top to cooking pot.
Benigno also uses the flexible cutting surface for meats and poultry, because it can go into the dishwasher, but she prefers a wooden board for vegetables.
“Get the biggest one you can fit into your kitchen, even if you leave it out,” she said. “Then you can slice an onion on one corner and still have room to work” on the rest of the board.
10. Balloon whisk
“It has flexible wires and a large, open head, so it’s terrific for aerating,” said pastry chef Melina Kelson-Podolsky, an instructor at Kendall College and a caterer with The Edible Complex, a Skokie-based catering firm.
“If you want to whip cream or whip a vinaigrette into an emulsion, it does it.”
It also removes lumps from sauces or gravies. Kelson-Podolsky uses stainless-steel whisks because she uses stainless-steel mixing bowls and the whisks don’t scratch the bowls. She prefers stainless-steel bowls because the material is non-reactive and non-porous, so there is less sticking.
The extras
These tools also are nice to have, according to our experts.
1. Serrated peeler
“You can use it for almost everything you can use a regular peeler for,” said Susanna Linse of Sur La Table, “and it works on fruits and vegetables that standard peelers can’t handle.”
2. Strainers
Theo Gilbert of Windy City Pasta Works uses his “constantly for draining fruits and vegetables.” Cooking teacher Dana Benigno finds hers indispensable for sauces and gravies.
“Everybody gets lumps,” she said. “If you strain all your sauces, you don’t have to worry. You’ll never have a lump again. It’s a great rescuer.”
On the same note, a colander also is useful for straining pasta, washing lettuces and large quantities of produce.
3. A scale
To use in baking, especially. It’s best to have a scale that measures in grams and ounces and can be used for liquids and solids. It’s far more reliable than standard measuring cups, said pastry instructor Melina Kelson-Podolsky. “If you are dealing with accurate measures, your success rate is going to be much higher,” she said.
She prefers the more expensive digital scales for even greater accuracy.
4. Grater/zester
A rasplike grater “gives you a very fine, shallow cut of zest, so you don’t get any of the astringent pith,” Kelson-Podolsky said. “And it’s quick and easy to use.”
Benigno owns two sizes by Micro-plane: a small one for citrus and a larger one for cheese. “Lemon and lime zest come out like lace, so they just melt in your sauces,” she said. This type of grater also can be used for grating fresh nutmeg and makes quick work of a garlic clove. (Just be sure to stop before reaching the end of the clove; discard the remaining piece, or throw it into the pan.) A box grater is useful for larger foods.
5. Oven thermometer
“People would be shocked at how far off their ovens can be,” Linse said. She recommended a sensor thermometer, which gives both the temperature of the oven and the internal temperature of the food inside it.
“You won’t need a meat thermometer,” she pointed out. “You get two for one.” The sensors have built-in timers that let you know when the food is ready.
Still, reliable oven thermometers can be purchased for as little as $6 at department stores and supermarkets.
6. Covered Dutch oven
Look for a heavy Dutch oven. Enameled cast iron is good; it is handsome enough to go from the stove top or oven directly to the table. Debbie Walt of Chef’s Catalog recommended a 7-quart size because “you can always put less in it, but you can’t put more in a small pot.”
7. Cast-iron grill pan
“You don’t have to use as much fat in your cooking,” Walt explained. And you can almost duplicate outdoor grilling, she said.
8. Electric mixer
Hand or stand mixers both make a cook’s life easier by mixing batters, bread doughs and beating egg whites.
–Virginia Gerst
Color it bright
Today’s basic kitchen contains tools and gadgets that would have made Granny’s jaw drop.
Forget boring white and bland beige. Color is big news on the kitchen scene.
Salad spinners come in translucent red, blue and green. Vibrant turquoise, lime, orange and pink cutting boards are on the market. And anyone who wants to flip a pancake can do it with a bright yellow spatula.
“People have gone neutral for so long in their kitchen, these color pops are very nice,” said Debbie Walt, sales associate at Chef’s Catalog.
Gadgets aren’t just colorful, they are more versatile, thanks to silicone, a material long used by professional chefs but now found in home kitchens in products that include baking sheet liners, cake pans, basting brushes and rolling pins.
“These products are stain- and odor-resistant, and they’re flexible, so they are easy to unmold,” said Susanna Linse, media relations manager for Sur La Table. “They don’t take up much space, and they’re heat-resistant and dishwasher-safe.”
Several items on the basic 10 tool list are available in silicone–and probably in shades of pink and green too.
Granny would have loved them.
–V.G.
Toddy-sticks and more
“Kitchen Utensils: Names, Origins and Definitions Through the Ages”
By Phillips V. Brooks
Palgrave MacMillan, $19.95
The lowdown on the likes of firlots and toddy-sticks can be found in this spare historical inventory of 375 American kitchen tools, covering cutlery, cooking vessels, serving dishes, drinking receptacles and measuring terms. After five short chapters you’re into the main material, which is presented in a no-nonsense chart format with notes on usage, linguistic origins and an occasional small photo.
Judging by the length of the bibliography, the author has done his homework. To wit: A firlot (ferlot, feirtot, furlet, ferthelett) is a measure of capacity for corn cited in text as early as 1264; a toddy-stick (tarrie, tary, tarea, toddey) is the term for a spatula used to stir beverages composed of spirits with hot water and sugar, mentioned in 1840.
–The Washington Post
