Updating the Kitchen Essentials

[rotuts]

my Sous Vide set-up

Big game changer.

[Fat Guy]

Mark, how has your KitchenAid stand mixer been a game-changer for you?

I actually need to start a topic on that.

[jackal10]

Digital thermometer with a probe that can be left in the oven

Digital scales

[budrichard]

Which exact Smeg did you purchase?

Does it exhaust to the outside?

I have a two fan Viking hood that does an excellent job but is large and noisy!

I'd say my Viking range with 15k burners , broiler and convection oven was a game changer along with Falk copper cookware.-Dick

[nickrey]

It is the SA550X60 retractable range hood exhausting to the outside. I needed one that would fit the space and bought the one with the best specifications.

[Darienne]

Insta-read thermometer gun was a great boon.

Trudeau silicone 9" spatulas (I have no idea why...I just love them!)

And mostly the Stove Guard which means that there is far less chance my right-brained DH will burn down the house, especially considering that we live in the middle of nowhere in the country.

[Twyst]

My sous-vide setup

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Silicone spatulas of all sizes, and silicone cake moulds. Completely changed it for me - I love the stuff now, and I used to be so leery of using it.....

[Norm Matthews]

Although I have had it for years, my KitchenAid mixer changed the way I cook the most. Now I don't even think twice about making mayonnaise, bread, cake batters, whipping cream or egg whites. I just turn on the machine and it does all the arm and elbow grease work for me.

I was surprised at how much I use a flat whisk my son gave me a few years ago. I can whisk stuff in a square sided sauce pan and use it as a spatula in a teflon skillet among other uses.

[Jmahl]

Two quart ice cream machine. Just discovered what real ice cream can be like.

[Darienne]

Two quart ice cream machine. Just discovered what real ice cream can be like.

I should have added my smaller ice cream machine. Willingly ate ice cream for the first time in about 50 years.

[gdenby]

In regard to cooking in the kitchen, a pressure cooker. It was the first appliance I bought whose use astonished me. Store bought soups and stews immediately became a thing of the past.

I regard to cooking as a whole, a ceramic cooker (BGE.) There are weeks that my kitchen range goes unused except for boiling Eggs, or making stock via the PC. Wish I lived where an outdoor kitchen was not an exercise in rigor.

[dcarch]

My sous-vide setup

Bread maker

Pasta maker

dcarch

[Chris Hennes]

Do the eG Forums count as kitchen equipment? Nothing has impacted my cooking remotely as much as the internet.

[Boilerfood]

Do the eG Forums count as kitchen equipment? Nothing has impacted my cooking remotely as much as the internet.

This.

[Jon Savage]

For me (western style) Japanese knives were a huge game changer.

[runwestierun]

My outside propane wok (65K BTU's) allowed me to properly cook Chinese food (I am saddled with an electric stove, no natural gas available here), that greatly improved my cooking.

I bought a BBQ Guru on someone's advice here for my Big Green Egg. That allowed me to control the temperature to one degree so I could really smoke well.

My 2.5mm copper sauce pans greatly improved my candymaking.

My Sous Vide Supreme opened up a whole new world of cooking.

The biggest game changer so far: you might not think of it as kitchen equipment, but Modernist Cuisine is certainly the price of a new piece of kitchen equipment and it's been a giant game changer for me. Total eye opener.

[mgaretz]

Mark, how has your KitchenAid stand mixer been a game-changer for you?

I actually need to start a topic on that.

Norm Matthews above said it pretty well. I now do things I'd never do "by hand" - bread, pasta (currently experimenting with low carb versions of these), mousse (my zero carb, zero lactose version) and many more. I love the pasta roller set.

[rotuts]

there was another thread about the KA.

cant find it. the initial poster had bad luck with hers and it 'burnt out'

i have the 6qt and use it for everything but dough

i use the cuisinart after reading and having the book "Best Bread Ever" Van Over

(out of print: check your library or get a used on well worth it!)

it uses the cuisinart to make dough in 45 seconds: very little oxygen is incorporated in the dough and it keeps 'fresh' in a brown paper bag for over a week.

I have the Beater Blade its worked fine for me

[Dakki]

Do the eG Forums count as kitchen equipment? Nothing has impacted my cooking remotely as much as the internet.

This.

I'm in.

If it has to be gear, sharpening stones, specifically the EdgePro Apex kit. I grew up with serrated supermarket knives that got used until the edges went out completely. Having a really sharp knife around - and the ability to keep it sharp - was a huge gamechanger. The gyutos came later.

[andiesenji]

Since I probably have more specialty appliances than the average bear, I simply can't pick on one that has been a total "game changer" per se.

Over the years I have changed some of the way I operate because a particular appliance made life a bit easier.

Early on my Vita Mix.

Rice cooker, for instance, I got one of the first ones to show up in the U.S. and have traded up as the new technologies became available and I wouldn't be without one (or more).

I have not gotten a sous-vide setup nor do I intend to so no changes there.

Probably I would have to nominate my Thermomix TM31 because it has profoundly changed how I do some tasks (and made them much less onerous) and saved me a lot of time.

Edited May 28, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[LindaK]

20+ years old now, my Cuisinart food processor. I still value it above all my other appliances.

But I would also add my pasta maker (hand crank) and digital scale to my list. Both simple things, but each made new culinary worlds possible and I couldn't do without them.

[pkeibel]

My wife claims the KA, for me it was upgrading to a commercial blender

[Karri]

My Thermomix - a well-designed, versatile multi-useful tool. Cooker, food processor, scale, blender, steamer....and things I am still discovering! I wouldn't like to give up the rest of my kitchen equipment but if I lived in a tiny apartment (who knows what the future holds!) I could live and eat quite happily with this one machine (well a broiler or BBQ would be nice too).

Really, you bought yourself a Thermomix? How much was it?

[qrn]

Mine is a Char GLO gas grill,that is in the kitchen on the island,Its a Restaurant type thing,with a nice sized cast grate top that really works great ,its 21000,500 BTU,with a suitable overhead hood/ exhaust ,put it in when I built the kitchen the first time,many,many years ago,and still use it for all sorts of stuff,,,

Bud