My paring knife. Seriously, that little blade does so much work.
Otherwise it is the food processing board I use to slice up veggies. Cutting carrots, celery, zucchini, etc into thin strips for my soups and pot pies would be so bad without it. Just set it to 1/8" and go.
@Nesrie I have all of those but the nonstick stuff, which I slowly got rid of as mine went bad (marred and cut.) But I feel really bad I’ve used my Kitchenaid one time only. :( I just don’t make baked breads that often, and I don’t know what else to use it for.
And @CraigM, I love my knives too, not sure how I could forget them. For paring I have three, a ceramic, a Wusthof, and a Victorinox. I use the first two when I need seriously sharp, and the last one for, “I don’t care if it bangs up my knife,” kind of stuff.
I’m having a hard time undersanding what a food processing board is thought? Like slap-chop kind of thing?
It’s baking: cookies, cakes, quick breads, pies as well as dips. I don’t do a lot of yeast breads because it’s only a 300 watt motor which struggles with large balls of dough on the hook. Almost all those recipes though I make for hosting, and due to game nights, I host monthly at the very least. I also have the sausage add on but finding the casings has been troublesome.
I have the same stand mixer my dad gave me when i was in my twenties, going on almost 16 years now i think. I know some women who fly off the handle, like really freak out when their loved one gets them a nice kitchen item instead of jewelry. Nice household things, electronics or gaming stuff for me over jewelry any day.
I also love my knives too, the santoku knife is my staple.
Is the food processing board like a mandolin?
That’s the word! Was not coming up with it assuming you all knew what it was.
One very similar to this
You should just call that the finger slicer, then people will know what it is.
Haha. I’ve heard the same thing, and not just the tip like from the last knuckle on. I have been tempted by one for a long time though. My food processor has lots of blades but it does take a bit of time to clean when you’re done. If I had a Rosie to clean-up after me, I’d be cooking a lot more often than I do today.
I may or may not currently have the tip of my ring finger scabbed over from making turkey noodle soup and slicing carrots.
You people are crazy using mandolines without protection. Get some gloves to wear when you’re using it. Here’s the ones I got but there are a million of them so just pick one.
Essentials IMO (but depends on what you make and how):
A decent paring knife
A decent chefs knife
A cutting board
Stainless cookware. At least a medium pot for boiling, a frying pan, and a high sided and wide pot. These will be expensive, but good ones last forever.
A decent sheet pan or two for baking / roasting
A set of nesting bowls for prep tasks
A slotted spatula
Wooden spoons
Stainless measuring spoons
A few more cheap items can make things easier / faster:
A peeler
A garlic press
A grater
A zester
A rolling pin
Tongs
Whisk
Think that’d take you through 80% or 90% of tasks with a little creativity and fewer expensive trips to the store,
Diego
Diego, that reminds me to mention I LOVE my microplanes. I have everything from the fine plane to normal grating and love every one of them. Very worth having.
I love this place. Thanks Tim!
My big wide fry pan, baking sheets (I have like 6 lol), knives (5" Wustoff Santoku and 8" Victorinox Chef’s knife), giant wooden cutting board, huge stainless steel stockpot, wooden wedge-spoon, heavy-duty steel-handled spatula, and a couple of sets of mixing bowls (two stacking ones with pour spouts and a new set of Pyrex sealables) probably see the heaviest use and I daresay all of them are used basically every week.
In terms of less-obvious ones, though. . .
Citrus Juicer - Some moderate RSI from my desk job means squeezing citrus well is tough. Lifesaver
Microplane - I probably use it more than my box grater now, between citrus zest, parmesan, nutmeg, and ginger.
Deep Fryer - Cheapo $25 GE dealio, but I fry a lot of stuff, surprisingly
Slow Cooker - I don’t rely on it as much as some people, but for a few recipes, it’s essential
Food Processor - I use it for hummus, falafels, gyro meat, some doughs, rapidly grating carrots and similar (I often need to grate a couple of pounds of carrots at a time for an Indian dessert I like making), and a few other things
Blender - I actually use this in cooking a lot, particularly for prepping liquid cooking sauces for stuff like chili and Chicken Tinga
Wet-Dry Mixer-Grinder - The Preethi Eco Twin my gf got me for Xmas a couple of years ago is mandatory for Indian cooking. Making chutneys, idly batters, ginger-garlic paste, etc. would suuuuuck without it
I just gave up on mine. I find between sous vide and the pressure cooker there is zero reason to use it, unless I want to ruin some meat.
I am very much a follower of the Alton Brown school of ‘no single use instruments in the kitchen, if possible’. The exceptions to this are the interesting ones. My garlic press because damn, I use a lot of garlic.
Silicon lid covers, which I got as a gift, are one of the big surprises this year for me. I use them all the time. So much nicer than getting out the plastic wrap, and I am including the otherwise easy to use commercial rolls with of the stuff with the nice sliding cutter. I can pick up my biggest glass bowl filled with heavy bread dough after slapping it on.
What in the world is this?
For a long time I fought off getting one, but I use too much garlic to avoid one forever. Finally broke down and got one last year.
Ultimate tool in my kitchen that I can’t do without:
J.A.Henckels 5-star chef knife
Pretty much use it for everything. I’ve had it for maybe… 18 years now? Rock solid. They actually stopped making the 5-star line for a while, but then recently started it up again. The handle is really nice. I can’t vouch for the new ones, if they’re made of the same materials/quality/etc. But the old ones were awesome knives.
(oh, also, don’t get the “international” series from Henckels. They’re cheap ass chinese knives. That’s why they’re way cheaper.)
Other things I love:
The enameled cast iron dutch oven from Lodge we’ve talked about here. Probably my most used piece of cookware, despite its weight.
Microwave popcorn bowl from Nordicware. Best 8 bucks you can spend if you like popcorn.
Here’s a funny thing, for folks who are college students:
The Pizza Pizzaz. I got one of these as a gift in college, and I still have the thing (although it’s stuffed in a cabinet these days). The thing absolutely rules for frozen pizza. And for the original price of, I’d guess, $30? I’ve had the thing for coming up on 20 years and it still works. It’s hilarious saying that, given that it’s not some really hefty piece of hardware.
Man, maybe I’m just anal, but I’ve gotten two of these now, both really well reviewed, and I hate 'em. It seems like 1/2 the clove just splits into sheets and slides up the chamber around the actual press part instead of going down the holes. By the time I’ve manually mushed all the un-pressed garlic chunks and done more than even a couple of cloves, the whole thing is a sticky, garlicky mess, and I’ve got a puddle of garlicky ooze that i’m pretty sure I could have produced with my knife in about the same amount of time with way less frustration.
Ya, I’ve never found a garlic press to be useful… always seems like it’s way more of a hassle than just using my knife. I kind of figure that I’m just doing it wrong with the press.
I am pretty quick with my garlic press - no way you could beat me with a knife and achieve consistent results. It’s the consistency that’s important.
Note press,mince, slice, and smash all produce different results. A good mince is annoying to do with garlic and it’s really what you want the press for (though still a slightly different result). Slice and smash are different techniques that you don’t want to use the press for.
Even given the above I still use the press a lot. Nearly every recipe + double the garlic = lots of garlic.
Generally, my technique is to smash a clove and then slice it… which essentially results in the same effect as mincing it.
I guess there’s some slight difference, but I can’t imagine it’s gonna be noticable in a cooked dish.