Tools are an essential part of any well-functioning kitchen. Unlike most tools for essential things in life, respectable kitchen tools are easy to come by and can be reasonably inexpensive. Below you’ll find a fairly comprehensive guide to what should be in every respectable kitchen. Please let me know if you think I’ve missed anything.
- Knives: File this under the “no shit” column, but it’s worth mentioning and talking about. After all, your knife can, and very well should, become an extension of your hand. A good knife can make a world of difference in how you prep food and whether or not you end up in the hospital getting things stitched back together. My chef’s knife is the most expensive and most used piece of equipment in my entire kitchen, and with good reason: your knife should be the tool that you’re the most comfortable with. Therefore, choosing a knife is a task that should not be taken lightly.
- Choose a knife you can afford, feels natural in your hand, and that fits your needs. In our kitchen, I primarily use my nice (another word for expensive) Miyabi chef’s knife. I’ve also lived with someone who preferred a $20 Kitchen aide knife. I blame this on her being left handed, but it proves a good point: you don’t have to spend a lot on something you’re comfortable with.
- Not counting steak knives, I have managed to survive in my kitchen for the better part of my life with a good chef’s knife or santoku knife (or both), a paring knife, and a serrated bread knife.
- Buy a good knife honing steel, NOT one of those shitty knife sharpeners that runs on batteries or promises to help you cut through tin cans after a couple of passes. A good honing steel refines the edge between proper sharpenings and is essential to maintain your knives. If you aren’t comfortable sharpening your knives on your own with a wet stone, I would recommend getting them professionally sharpened every 6 months or sooner, depending on how often they get used. But seriously, learn how to sharpen your knives.
- Respect your knives. Never put them in the dishwasher or sit in the sink to get banged around. Wash and dry them after use and store them on a magnetic wall strip. That way everyone will know that you have cool, expensive knives that they aren’t allowed to touch.
- Pots & Pans: Again, a definite no-brainer. Those cheap starter kits at big box stores like Target are a pretty okay place to start. Not ideal, but okay. Ideally, if you are blessed enough to live somewhere with a restaurant supply store, go there. Get pots and pans that are designed to COOK, a lot. Get stainless steel. Always. And you really only need one or two non-stick pans, which sums up my distaste for the starter kits. At the end of the day, you know best what and how much and how often you’ll be cooking, so stock pots and pans based on that. The only thing I do recommend is getting a pot that is bigger than a saucepan but smaller than a Dutch oven or stock pot. It makes doing the dishes easier. Be sure to get some sheet pans (called half sheet pans) and a ceramic baking pan so you can roast things.
Speaking of doing the dishes, NEVER put a hot pan or pot in cold water. You can really warp the hell out of them, creating hot spots and a generally wabbly waste of money that is really only good for chasing people around the house with or smashing garlic. Let them cool for about 5-10 minutes first and don’t let them sit over night without soaking them.
- Citrus Press: It doesn’t matter if it’s bright green or yellow, what matters is that you get one. This is one of those seemingly novel items that make the kitchen a more enjoyable place to be. You can just squeeze halves of citrus fruits through cheesecloth, but for how little you can pick one of these up for, it really makes no sense not to have one.
- Glass Measuring Cup: The glass part is the important part here. It allows you to measure really hot liquids should the need arise. Plastic works too, but I’ve always liked the heft of a glass measuring cup. Keep in mind that this should not be used to measure dry ingredients like flour or rat poison. You should get dry measuring cups for those.
- Wooden Spoon: After my knives, this is the most prized tool in my kitchen arsenal. When I had to replace my last one, I was grumpy for about two weeks. I felt like I was driving someone else’s car and was unable to figure out how to move the seat back. You’ll also want one with a fairly long handle. Oh, and rub some olive oil on it occasionally to keep it from splitting.
- Tongs: Another long-handled friend in the kitchen is a good set of tongs. Ever try flipping a fat steak or bone-in pork chop with a spatula? I don’t usually like to endorse brands, but OXO makes a great set with non-metal tips (that, yes, will melt) so that you can use them on your non-stick pans.
- Cutting Boards: People can (and will) debate between wood and plastic on this. Get wood. Plastic looks like shit after it’s been used too long and it dulls your knives faster. Get more than one so you can cut meat on one and produce on the other. Get more than one size so you don’t have break out a giant cutting board to cut up an apple. Do some research on this subject and see what works for you. Invest in a silicone slip mat for under your cutting boards. You’ll thank me for this.
- Towels: I can’t stress this one enough. Towels serve so many purposes in your kitchen. Do you wash your hands after handling meat? You should. Do you use your hands to wash produce? Yeah, you do. Do you wash your hands? Yeah, that’s right. Make a couple of towels and some nice hand soap the most accessible things in your kitchen.
- Spatula: Plastic ones are cheap. Silicone ones don’t cost much more. I generally like the silicone ones because they hold up, don’t melt easily, and can be used on non-stick. Get more than one because you’ll probably use these a lot.
- Potato Ricer: I first found out about this tool when I moved in with my wife. After using one for the first time, I felt like I had spent the last decade making mashed potatoes with a club. I’m constantly fighting with it for dominance in my tool drawer, shifting its unwieldy design as I search for the cheesecloth that I swear I bought six months ago, but we make up every time I make mashed anything. The gloriously fluffy mashed things it provides more than makes up for how much it gets in the way.
- Fine Mesh Strainer and Colander: You’ll need both of these eventually. A colander is something you probably already have if you make ready-made mac and cheese. It’s probably plastic and cheap and all you need. Feel free to get another fine mesh strainer made of metal for things like stock and other fine-strained things. Like clamps in a wood shop, one can never have too many strainers.
- Steaming Basket: This is one of those tools that you’ve probably passed by in the grocery story dozens of times. I honestly don’t know how I survived so long without one. It’s a must for steaming vegetables and the secret to poaching chicken breasts that aren’t dry and lifeless. It collapses in on itself and costs around $5. Win. Win.
- Immersion Blender: While this is not a necessity for most, I find it to be a tool that I dig out of the tool drawer at least once a week. Ya see, I like salads. Scratch that, I like a well-made salad and part of a salad that doesn’t taste like a punishment for bad eating behavior is salad dressing. A classic vinaigrette is a versatile and delicious thing and an immersion blender makes salad dressing mindless. It’s also fantastic for making mayonnaise and other things that require an insane amount of whisking. Immersion blenders can usually be found for $30 or less and in a bunch of ridiculous colors.
- Microplane or Hand Grater: The hand grater rarely gets used for anything other than grating cheese, as if that wasn’t an important enough job to warrant its existence in my kitchen. A microplane is a little more versatile in that you can use it for taking the zest off citrus fruit without removing the bitter pith. Or you can use it to grate nutmeg or cinnamon and never have to use that awful powdered stuff for anything but baking. I’ve seen box graters that are costlier than a microplane and unless you’re grating something large, it should be your go-to more often than not.
- Deli Cups: These get used for food storage, holding prepped vegetables, building forts, holding small toys and everything in between. Deli cups are a staple in commercial kitchens and are often used to portion out food, deliver food, or as drink cups. Get both 16 oz. and 32 oz. sizes and spring for the nice BPA-free ones. Seriously, I can’t recommend these enough. Fuck your Tupperware; these things are what you need.
- Slow Cooker: Okay, this is really only on here because of its ease of use and the fact that you can usually get a 6-quart slow cooker for under or around $30. My mother used to throw a roast and vegetables in the slow cooker on the way to work some mornings and we would have dinner on the table when she got home with little effort.
- Kitchen Shears: These are basically scissors that you can take apart and wash, which is great when you use them to open beautiful packages of raw meat.
- Meat Thermometer: Ever had food poisoning? Sucks doesn’t it? This helps avoid that. It also helps you avoid having to slice into that magazine cover perfect-looking roast chicken that’s 20 minutes underdone. Right here is a quick article about what to look for in a thermometer and how to use it.
- Instant Pot: Okay, okay, I know this is a little out there, but if you have the space and can afford a big one, these things are gold. They don’t make your food faster, but they make food that takes a long time easier to make. It was worth the price of admission for one of these things just so I could make a boatload of chicken stock without having to watch the stove for half the day. Shredded chicken and cooking tough meats are awesome in these things. Just don’t make things like pasta sauce or chili in them. Those things need to let some moisture evaporate to be good.
- So, about Air Fryers: Look, these things are the latest food fad, but some of them can be pretty great. I have one (a Ninja Foodie) that’s basically a good-sized convection oven and it saves me a mountain of time in the kitchen. I got rid of my toaster and use it to make some stuff that would require the oven and heat up my already hot apartment in the summer. It definitely makes things easier and if you have the space and the budget, I would suggest getting one.
- Cooks Illustrated: Lastly, get a subscription to this magazine. It’s not only a great source of recipes, but these people tell you WHY something works the way it does. Imagine having the time to see how fat reacts in, say, chocolate chip cookies. Their notes are meticulous and the hand-drawn artwork is welcome change from the food magazine photos that take place in rooms that no one ever uses, featuring people whose lives are always better and more organized than yours.
While this seems like an overwhelming list, sure to send you in to bankruptcy, most of these items you can get for under thirty bucks. The only things you really need to worry about spending money on is the cookware, knives, and cutting boards. Those are the few things where spending a little more for quality will help you out in the long run. The rest of this is a minimal investment in an activity that pays nothing but dividends throughout your entire life. Cooking is something necessary, no matter how many people or shitty fast food joints try to tell us otherwise. There is nothing that compares to serving someone you care about something you’ve made on your own. There’s no pride in a microwave, no pride in pre-made food.