No matter how little cooking you can do, there are still some essential tools that should be in every person’s kitchen. Even cooking an omelet, boiling some potatoes or heating some soup requires certain pieces of equipment. This article gives an overview of some of the tools that should be in every kitchen to ensure the best results for your food.
A wooden spoon
Even if you are not mixing and baking cakes and pastries, you still need a wooden spoon to stir soup or to make gravy. Most people will use a wooden spoon in preference to metal spoons because it will not scratch the kitchenware and metal spoons are extremely likely to get hot from the heat from the pan, so investing in a few wooden spoons is essential.
Passer
If you cook any kind of vegetables, pasta or want to wash salad vegetables, the best way to do it is with the help of a metal strainer, or colander as they used to be called.
Steamer
If you want to make sure you keep all the vitamins and goodness in your vegetables then you should cook them in a steamer rather than drown them in water and boil the vitamins.
Knives
In addition to your everyday knives and forks, you need some sharp chef’s knives, preferably one of the sets sold in butcher block containers since you’ll need them for a variety of cooking tasks.
Cutting board
You need a cutting or chopping board if you are going to chop vegetables or slice your meat or fish. A good quality board will set you back several dollars but will last you for years. If you want to go one better, you can even invest in a pack of colored cutting boards so you don’t use the same board for cutting meat and raw vegetables.
Bowls and kitchenware
You need a set of different sized bowls to serve, mix and soak food. Along with your bowls you will need a set of different size saucepans, a heavy pan, a wok if you like Chinese food and at least one baking dish and one casserole dish. Buy the type of casserole dish that can be used on the hob as well as in the oven.
Tweezers and spatulas
If you’ve ever tried to pull something out of a hot pan with your fingers, you’ll recognize the need for kitchen tongs. A spatula is incredibly useful for getting under things and flipping them so they are cooked evenly on both sides.
Grater
Even if you don’t follow the recipes you will need a grater for your cheese and for everything else where a grater is needed for the recipe.
Small kitchen utensils
Try to remember that a good can opener is a non-cook’s best friend. If you intend to fry eggs at some point or cook yourself some fish, you will need a fish slicer to turn things and lift them from the pan. It’s a good idea to have a slotted spoon, even if you only use it to scoop your hard-boiled egg out of a pan.
Peel the potatoes and whisk
You need a peeler to peel the potatoes and to peel the apples if you don’t like the skin. Using a peeler is much easier and better than using a knife as the blade is thin so you don’t lose half of the ingredients when you peel them. You don’t have to be a great cook to need a whisk, even if you only resort to packet sauces, you will need a whisk to remove the inevitable lumps from those and your gravy.
