Updating the Kitchen Essentials

[liuzhou]

One essential in my kitchen which I don't think anyone has mentioned is a simple, small pair of scissors bought from the local stationery shop. They get used every day for everything from opening packets, cutting trussing string, snipping herbs, etc.

 

 

I do have a hefty pair of 'kitchen scissors'. They are seldom used.

[lindag]

I guess my first love would be my LeCreuset pots, I could never part with them they add so much to  my joy of cooking.

Next I love all my baking equlipment; from bread pans, sheet pans, muffin pans, cooling racks, to the small appliances I use.  I especially love my Zojirushi bread maker, KA (Hobart made) mixer and bread proofer.

I have a kitchen full of winners as well as a garage full of losers.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I guess my first love would be my LeCreuset pots, I could never part with them they add so much to  my joy of cooking.

Next I love all my baking equlipment; from bread pans, sheet pans, muffin pans, cooling racks, to the small appliances I use.  I especially love my Zojirushi bread maker, KA (Hobart made) mixer and bread proofer.

I have a kitchen full of winners as well as a garage full of losers.

 

My Zojurushi I use frequently, yet I confess I sometimes question my Le Creust fetish.  (Volcanic.)  But then, after what perhaps had been a year, last night I needed my second largest (28 cm) pot for a Paula Wolfert recipe.

[andiesenji]

I love my heavy iron stuff also. However, since I can no longer lift my huge Staub oval oven (no longer sold in the U.S.) when it is empty, much less loaded with meat or ???,  it is going on eaby soon. 

 

I have some LeCreuset but mostly I have the older Descoware (Belgium) which I think is better - I certainly like the handles better - and some Copco and some Dru and even the ancient Griswold cast iron, which has been in constant use for a century.

 

I was thinking about what I would take with me if threated with eviction - my simple answer is, if I can't take it, I ain't going.

 

As I can bake in the big cast iron skillets (the only way to bake cornbread), I could leave most of the baking pans - heck, I have a #10 (12 inch) cast iron skillet that I use for pineapple upside-down cake anyway - it also handles sticky buns without complaint.  So those things are versatile.  And I have used my old cast iron Dutch oven to bake bread in a campfire, so that too could double up. 

 

Being old and becoming rather infirm, I do have to part with some of the extremely heavy stuff - if I can no longer move it around easily, I don't need it. 

I am making a list - my lovely 3-head Hamilton Beach malt mixer - which is so handy for buzzing sauce mixes, blending flour and water or other thickening agents with absolutely no clumping - and unlike using the immersion blenders, it leaves both hands free as the "foot" holds the malt cup in place.   I tried to move it to clean the counter recently and could barely budge it.  I will need help packing it, but it is going, which will free up a considerable amoutn of counter space in that corner.

 

My copper omelet pan - absolutely indispensible so it will stay to the bitter end - along with my crepe pans and the cast iron griddle that was my great grandmother's. 

 

More later.

[Smithy]

In the "cheap thrills" department, behold my new favorite spatula:

 

 

iSi Basics Slim Spatula.  All silicone.  Skinny, with two different edges.  Heat resistant (it says) to 600^oF (315^oC), although I've had no cause to try it that high. Rigid enough that I can mix bread dough with it.  Flat enough that I don't have to dig stuff out of a cupped surface, as I'd have to with a standard spoon.  Skinny enough to get down through most bottlenecks for that last bit of squeezable mustard.

 

Until now, my preferred bread-dough-mixing implement - other than hands, or sometimes my mixer - has been one of my several silicone spatulas with wooden handles.  The wooden handles have been a problem when it came to cleanup.  By comparison, very little sticks to this nifty spatula, and the little that sticks comes off easily.

 

Best 8 bucks I've spent in a while.  I liked the first one so much, I got a second for the trailer kitchen.

 

 

[pbear]

That's a great spatula.  In fact, I got a spare for the inevitable day it finally wears out and, Murphy's law being what it is, has been discontinued.

 

BTW, another great spatula, of standard width, is the HIC 10.5 inch.  Have a spare for that one too.

[daveb]

In keeping with the "cheap thrills" theme may I submit the humble pair of wooden chopsticks.  They can be used to determine if oil is hot enough to fry with, gauge a reduction, hold the oven door open "a crack" and of course gently manipulate food.  Not bad for eating with either.  

[blue_dolphin]

I keep a spare sewing gauge in my knife drawer:

 

I find it very handy for measuring the thickness of a piece of fish or meat and as a sense-check when slicing and dicing. I have a plain old ruler and a variety of implements with a ruler etched or printed on them but I find the little slider on this gadget and the mm/inch markings useful to gauge things.

Indispensible?  I dunno.  But very handy!

[lindag]

I think that little ruler is a great idea.  I have several of those in my sewing room and I shall march over there and get one for my kitchen drawer!