Fifteen Essential Tools for the Kitchen Geek: Above and Beyond the Basics
Everyone knows that you need tongs, a spatula or two, a decent knife set, yadda yadda yadda.
But what do you do when you’ve reached that intermediate stage of cooking – that no-man’s land of not a n00b but not a professional either? Such lost and wandering souls go to Williams-Sonoma and boggle over all of the slots holding items in the Tools wall, and stare vacuously at the mounted and labeled samples like one would at butterflies skewered by pins in the Natural History Museum.
Fear not! The Czarina has compiled a list of kitchen tools that you now need, you cute graduate you! Alternatively, you can “suggest” your significant other buy them for you this holiday season. And by suggest, I mean that you should buy a bunch of them for yourself and proclaim proudly to your partner, “Look what you bought me! Aren’t you nice?”
On to the goodies:
Follow up:
15. Tea ball and/or mulling spice ball: Whether you’re a tea devotee or a mulling spice addict, having an infuser means you can create your own tea or mulled cider (or wine, *hic*) to taste, instead of relying on other people to measure it out for you. The Czar and Czarina make both tea and spiced cider that could take the rust off of steel. Your mileage can happily vary.
Incidentally, make sure you try Ito En tea. They make an organic peppermint and a roobios to die for. You can order some teas online, or, when in NYC, make time to stop by their beautiful retail store and restaurant.
14. Separate pastry and basting brushes: If you both bake and cook, it is wise to separate your baking and basting brushes. Consider getting a silicone basting brush for your meat, and a traditional boar bristle brush for your pastry. Marinades never quite come out of the boar bristles, and you don’t want the taste of your pastry to be affected. The silicone basting brushes are easy to clean, and anything that’s a timesaver is welcome.
13. Ice bucket: This is one of the items that we didn’t receive off of our wedding registry. Five years later, the Palace still doesn’t have an ice bucket. If you want to chill wine or champagne as company visits in an attractive fashion, it’s a necessity.
12. Nice cheese knives and board set: Again, presentation is a significant component of taste; don’t lose taste currency on that rare and raw French cheese because it’s merely slapped on a plate. Nothing looks more beautiful than an olivewood cheese board with some dates, grapes, crackers, and an array of cheeses. To serve a range of types of cheese, knives designed for both soft and hard cheeses are important, because the knives for soft cheeses are basically like butter knives (used for spreading) and hard cheese knives are meant to break off slivers of cheese. Why not serve with a little panache and invest in a good board and knife?
11. Reamer: The Czarina has tried juicers, a juice trumpet, and squeezing lemons and limes by hand. The Williams-Sonoma juice trumpet, which gets plugged directly into the fruit, was supposed to dribble the juice into the bowl in a nice controlled flow. However, the juice trumpet was a big disappointment, and the juice ran down my wrist to the elbow. Yuck! Interestingly, it isn’t offered on their website anymore, so I wonder if it is still in stores. If so, DON’T buy it. I bought a wood reamer because I was tired of being dribbed on, and viola! A reamer is easier, less messy, and you get every last drop of available juice. You also don’t have to roll your limes or lemons to loosen up the juice before you can get at it; just cut the fruit in half and away you go.
10. Meat thermometer: If you cook meat with any regularity – especially if you are roasting whole birds or anything that needs to be raised to a specific temperature for safety or quality reasons – you need a meat thermometer. You can get one as simple or as complicated as you like; analog, laser, blinky LED lights…your choice.
9. Tomato knife: Tomatoes need to be on the business end of a serrated edge in order to be sliced nicely. The Czarina prefers the Wüsthof-Trident® Classic Tomato Knife because, in addition to the appropriate size and serrated edge, it has a fork tip that allows you to pick up your tomato slices and move them where you want them. There are several different versions of tomato knives, and you could probably just use a smaller serrated knife if that works for you. However, I can testify that this one works well with both very ripe and heirloom tomatoes in addition to the standard, sandwich style tomatoes. I know that “specific food knives” are frequently a marketing gimmick to get you to buy more knives for your matching set, but I stand by this particular one.
8. Stockpot: A huge, stainless steel pot with straight sides for making stock, potatoes, or anything large and bulky is a key kitchen item for the intermediate cook. Some of them also come with steamer inserts. Duchess J had to come over and borrow one from the Royal Family for Thanksgiving dinner to do the potatoes, so don’t be caught without one for an important occasion. The stockpot is a good example of an item that isn’t necessary when one is just starting out as a cook, because you are more likely to buy stock or soups rather than make them yourself. But when you get tired of the sodium in pre-packaged soup or stocks, venture into the land of do-it-yourself with this pot.
7. Silpat Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat
6. Silicone spatulas: The Czarina’s brother jokes every year around holiday time that he is going to buy her a spatula for a gift, implying it’s a cheap and ridiculous present. However, just yesterday while trying cooking, the Czar melted a non-silicone spatula by accident. Looking at it in surprise, he said, “This isn’t silicone?!” So, while it seems stupid and self-indulgent that all of your spatulae should be silicone, invest in a set of all shapes and sizes, because you start to take them for granted. I’ve found that they also retain fewer smells and stains. I don’t think I have any non-silicone spatulas left when I take into account the unfortunate death of the one yesterday. I don’t want to have to coddle my tools and worry about whether they’re too hot or not. Yeah, I’m a real snot that way. You’ll suck it up and like it, you wussy tool!
5. Mortar & pestle: It’s the item most recognizable as the apothecary’s signature, but it definitely belongs in your kitchen as well as in the Ye Olde Pharmacy. If you make your own guacamole or need to grind things for your recipes, the mortar and pestle is a must. Stone ones
4. Microplane Grater/Zester:
3. Set of nested mixing bowls: This set from Williams-Sonoma is the particular one gracing the Palace, but you can also get stainless steel versions. What I like about these nesting bowls is that the sizes range from a large pasta or salad serving bowl to a teeny, tiny bowl that will hold one egg yolk. I’ve given these as wedding shower gifts and it is universally appreciated. The only downside to these that I’ve found is that every time I move, I get neurotic about someone breaking one of the set, thereby making it less pretty as it lies there nesting. But I think now we’re talking about my kitchen OCD and not anything that will particularly affect your enjoyment of it. So…uh…moving on!
2. Rösle Can Opener: Since I sang the praises of the Crosswise Swivel Peeler, I won’t repeat my love-in. Instead, I’ll exhort their can opener, which opens cans in such a way that it does not leave sharp edges and allows you to be able to refit the lid if you don’t use the whole can. Awesome!
And finally…the number one “have to have” for intermediate cooks is…
1. A kitchen scale with tare function: The “tare” button or function means that you can zero out the scale with a bowl or plate on the scale, thereby measuring only what you put into the bowl. The Czarina recommends one that can toggle back and forth between grams and ounces and can hold several pounds. My scale has proven itself invaluable over and over – from a spate of dieting brought on by too much watching of The Biggest Loser, to cookbooks that randomly choose ounces or grams to measure their ingredients. It’s the least intuitive tool – the thing you are least likely to think you’ll need, but I promise you: this will be your favorite kitchen toy in no time.
Remember…it’s a thin line between mental abuse of your domestic partner and “helping them along” with buying you things. (That’s my disclaimer in case I get angry emails because you all went ballistic buying cool toys.)
Geek out baby!
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For example, Lekue makes some great silicone things, including a brioche pan and ice cube molds, and Wilton makes silicone cupcake cups for baking.
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