Tomato and Cucumber Salad

June 2013

Best Kitchen Tools

Ask experienced cooks to name the kitchen tools they can’t do without and they’ll probably mention knives and cutting boards. But for most of us it’s not that simple. We rely on dozens of gadgets and utensils to help make mealtime prep easier.

Which ones are the most important?

Whether you are a newbie going solo in your own place for the first time or newly-married and setting up your kitchen, here’s our list of the non-electric kitchen tools we think most worthy and valuable to buy or list on your wedding registry. All are designed to help you accomplish the tasks most of us will face as we prepare meals. Long-time home cooks can take a look and fill in too:

xe "utensils:measuring"xe "measuring:devices"Measuring spoons. Experienced cooks might know what a half-teaspoon of ground cinnamon or baking soda looks like on the palm of their hand, but most of us don’t. And sometimes being exact doesn’t matter, but measuring spoons are a must when it does, particularly when it comes to recipes for baked goods. You can’t use the teaspoon of your flatware set; it isn’t the same volume/quantity as the teaspoon measurement called for in a recipe.

Measuring cups, for dry ingredients (1/4, 1/3, 1/2 and 1 cup size with handles) and liquid (a pitcher with a spout and lines indicating quantity). Here too, there are occasions when accuracy isn’t essential – like most recipes for soup and stew. But other recipes (cakes, for example) are not as forgiving. As with measuring spoons, a measuring cup is not the same in weight or volume as your dinnerware tea or coffee cup. You can use the handled measuring cups for both dry and liquid ingredients, but you won’t get an accurate measurement of dry ingredients (such as flour or sugar) using the measuring pitcher meant for liquids.

Three mixing bowls. These are useful for unlimited tasks from whisking vinaigrette dressing to beating eggs to mixing cookie dough. Although bowls are available in several materials, stainless steel is the most versatile, lightweight and easy to clean and store.

Thermometers: regular and instant-read. Certain recipes depend on accurate temperature readings to be safe and/or successful – chicken to 165 degrees or rare roast beef to 120 degrees, for example. Do you really want to slice into a chicken thigh to see if the juices are red? Do you have the know-how to press a steak to feel whether it’s rare or medium? Why guess? A regular food thermometer lets you continuously monitor the internal temperature of the food (good for large items such as roast beef); to use the instant-read type you must remove the item from the heat, place the thermometer probe in the center and wait a few seconds for a reading (best for smaller foods such as steak or chicken breasts).

Digital scale. Measuring by weight is more accurate than measuring by volume or number. Some recipes require a pound of this ingredient or 6 ounces of that ingredient. Would you know how many cups of chopped meat you’d need for a recipe that called for 12 ounces? Let a good scale do the work for you. The most versatile models let you convert from pounds to kilograms, ounces to grams.

Microplanes. You can try an old fashioned grater (and do your best to keep from shredding your knuckles along with the carrots or cheese), but microplanes are safer and more efficient. Several types are available for different kinds of shredding: ribbon grater (for chocolate, coconut and salad vegetables such as zucchini); extra coarse grater (for onions, carrots and other root vegetables as well as soft cheeses such as Mozzarella), coarse grater (for firm cheese such as cheddar and fruits/vegetables such as apples, pears and potatoes); and fine grater (for zesting citrus peel, hard cheeses such as aged Parmesan and items like fresh ginger and shallot).

Vegetable peeler for fruits and vegetables. Yes, you can use a knife, but a vegetable peeler is faster and easier to use. Buy one with a thick, comfortable handle. Peeler blades become dull after a couple of years. There is no way to sharpen them, but fortunately this item is relatively inexpensive and easily replaced.

Tongs, for turning all sorts of food in a hot pan, a marinade, on the grill and so on. Some chefs will only use a spatula to turn food, but tongs give you a sure, steady, firm grip on an ingredient, so you won’t have to worry about dropping food -- such as a sizzling cutlet into a frying pan that sends up grease spatter to your face.

Spatulas, flexible and rigid and in several sizes. Flexible, silicone-topped spatulas are unsurpassed for tasks such as scraping batter from a bowl and folding in ingredients such as melted chocolate and beaten egg whites. The small, narrow ones can be money savers because they let you scrape the last bit of mustard or jelly from the jar. Because of the silicone top, these spatulas can withstand high heat so you can use them to mix hot, bubbling liquid foods as you cook them. When you wash spatulas be sure to remove the wooden handle from the top. You’ll need rigid spatulas for flipping and turning foods such as pancakes, eggs and delicate items like fish.

Long-handled spoons. These are useful when you’re working with thick or sturdy mixtures such as cookie dough and mixing (and tasting) hot foods (like chili or tomato sauce). Wooden spoons don’t conduct heat so they’re the practical choice for hot mixtures. Look for hardwood; cheaper pine spoons absorb flavor, discolor and splinter too easily. In addition to wood, other heat-resistant spoons include stainless steel, silicone, nylon and bamboo. Be sure to get one slotted spoon for lifting solid ingredients (such as a boiled potato) out of hot water.

Whisk. These wiry-topped utensils are the most efficient for mixing foods such as sauces, batter, eggs and vinaigrette dressings. Many cake recipes tell you to mix flour with spices, salt and leavening – a whisk is best for that too. A small whisk can help you emulsify ingredients without incorporating too much air; but if you’ll be aerating cream or egg whites (for whipped cream or meringue), buy a large balloon whisk too. For most purposes a medium size one (about 10-inches) will do.

Salad spinner. If you’ve ever watched salad greens go limp quickly or seen lettuce rot too fast in the crisper drawer, it probably had to do with too much moisture. Greens need to be dry before you store them or place them in a salad. You can use towels and paper towels but a salad spinner is the simplest and most practical way to keep greens as dry as they need to be.

Pepper Mill. This is a must, because black pepper is an essential seasoning and once you grind it, it loses flavor and fragrance quickly. Store-bought pre-ground pepper is almost useless, without any of peppercorn’s characteristic piquancy. Choose a hand-operated peppermill rather than an electric model, and one in which you can change the size of the grind from coarse to fine.

Manual Can Opener. Need we say more after the last few years of hurricanes, blizzards and other various and assorted power outages?

Enjoy these summer recipes in which many of the tools suggested would help you speed up the prep.