Kitchen Tool Essentials
Just the Basics...
The most basic kitchen toolkit is fire and a stick. Once you evolve beyond the "Ugh. Stick good. Fire hot. Ugh." stage of culinary delights, you're going to need some implements.
There is a never-ending array of kitchen tools and gadgets just waiting to devour your money, but with a little thought and judicious shopping, you can equip your kitchen with the essentials to make almost any dish without having to take out a loan.
This is just a partial list of the things I have found essential to creating some (all!) of the recipes on this site. You can trust that if you cook regularly, at some point you will need them all ... and probably a lot more.
Cutting Tools
Chef's Knife
The best, and most-used knife in the kitchen. This is worth spending a little more to get a high quality knife, but even a cheap knife is awesome as long as you keep it sharp and clean.
Paring Knife
Often an under-appreciated workhorse. Try to get a set with a standard paring knife, a vegetable knife and a bird's beak knife. A regular paring knife is just fine all by itself, though.
Bread Knife
Serrated and sharp. Using anything else to slice bread will just mangle the loaf.
Honing Steel
Keeping your knives sharp is critical. A dull knife is a dangerous knife. Use a honing steel every time, and a sharpening steel once a week or so, and a good whetstone every now and then, depending on how much you use your knives. I use my knives every day.
Cutting Board
A good cutting board will add longevity to the life of your blades. The trick is finding a wood that is hard enough to work with, but soft enough that it doesn't dull your knife. Maple is my board of choice, but bamboo and teak have been good boards for me, too. Be sure to get one large enough to give you some room to work.
Vegetable Peelers
Either kind of peeler is fine for any job. Swivel peelers are good for long, thin veggies like carrots, while the t-shaped peelers are better for larger veg, like potatoes and squash.
Graters
Box graters will do the heavy grating for most of your needs, but a microplane grater is the tool of choice for citrus zest, garlic and nutmeg. Both require a sacrifice of a certain amount of knuckle skin. Maybe that's just me.
Pots & Pans
Sauté Pan
An all-around pan for the stovetop. A 5-quart pan with a lid will handle most family-size meals. Adding a skillet or frying pan is fine, but this is a three-in-one. Can you overuse the word workhorse? Because that's what this is.
Saucepan
Whether you are steaming veggies or boiling up a big pot of oatmeal, your saucepan is important. A good one will last you for life...just check out the copper-bottomed Revereware we got at our wedding: you just can't beat it. With a stick, even.
Pasta Pot
Pasta, soup, seafood boil, whatever. Three pieces includes a built-in colander and a steamer basket.
Vegetable Steamer
The very best way to cook your veggies and retain all the flavor and nutrients is to steam them. Sure, your pasta pot may have a steamer basket, and that's great for a big crowd, but for everyday use get one that fits in your saucepan.
Strainers
Colander
You don't always want to dig out the pasta pot when you're cooking for two, so a good colander will help with the smaller batches.
Over-the-Sink Strainer
Colanders are great, but they don't work for smaller items, like rice. A good over-the-sink strainer is perfect for rinsing rice and washing vegetables.
Hand-held Strainers
Whether sifting flour or sprinkling cocoa powder over your latte, you will need a good set of strainers in several sizes.
Mixers & Blenders
Stand Mixer
There is no way you are going to do any serious baking without a good stand mixer. KitchenAid is really the gold standard. The optional attachments for pasta making or meat grinding make this the swiss army knife of the kitchen counter. Can I say workhorse again? No? Well then never mind. Worth every inch of counter space.
Hand Mixer
On those occasions that the stand mixer is overkill, tossing some ingredients into a mixing bowl and beating them with a hand mixer is the way to go.
Immersion Blender
Also called a stick blender. Use it to emulsify sauces right in the pan.
Food Processor
A major time-saver in the kitchen. Chop veggies, bread crumbs and nuts to a perfectly uniform cinsistency. Emulsify sauces, grate cheese, and a million more items in seconds without losing the skin of your knuckles. Another workh-- oh, sorry.
Blender
This may be the most under-utilized appliance in my kitchen, but how else are you going to make a smoothie? In the food processor, of course. Maybe the processor doesn't give quite the silky smoothness of a blender, and it's a mess trying to pour it into a glass, but ... no, wait. You do need a blender after all.
Measuring & Mixing
Mixing Bowls
Small to large. Get a full set. Personally, I don't care for metal bowls because they can react with the ingredients of my recipe. I'm so old school that Tupperware is all I use. Sad.
Measuring Cups
Do I really have to spell it out? You need a liquid measuring cup and a set of measuring cups for flour, sugar, and other dry ingredients. No discussion.
Measuring Spoons
The very best set of measuring spoons I have ever gotten is a magnetic set with all the sizes you'd ever need, and a leveler for some reason. Just kidding. Sometimes accuracy is more important than my method of eyeballing an amount that is often twice as much as it should be.
Other Important Tools
Pizza Cutter
Stop paying for delivery and make your own. Not only is it more economical, but it's LOTS healthier and WAY more delicious. Cut the slices to your taste, not the pizza parlor's.
Kitchen Shears
Strong enough to cut a chicken carcass, but handy enough to use on your pizza because you lost the pizza cutter. Look in the drawer again.
Can Opener
How else are you going to open those cans? With your teeth? Maybe that's why you only have four teeth.
Citrus Juicer
There is a huge variety of styles you can find, from electric juicers to table-mounted contraptions to wooden reamers, but the most-used juicer in my kitchen is the simple lemon press. I suppose if I needed to squeeze a quart of grapefruit juice I might need something bigger, but no.
Bench Scraper
Whether it's called bench scraper or dough cutter, mine never sees the inside of a drawer. I keep mine handy next to my prep counter to scoop up ingredients and swipe crumbs off my cutting board. I just bought a new one for the first time in 45 years. It was time.
...And Much More...
This is by no means a comprehensive list of kitchen tools (don't even get me started on toaster ovens and instant pots!), but you can consider your kitchen well-equipped with at least these few items!
