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Essential items to hand when you cook?


Wilfrid

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I stir my mashed tatties (once they've been through the ricer)  and sauces too with my spurtles. Mine are the thin, round stick type. I'm not much of a porridge person, but people use them for stirring that. There is, I recently  learned, another sort of spurtle which is flat-bladed and used to turn oatcakes. I just love the word. Spurtle grup = sudden pain.  Spurtle leggit=having skinny legs that resemble porridge sticks.

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I just like the word spurtle. Spurtle spurtle spurtle. My new life goal is to use this word while playing Scrabble or Quiddler.

Thanks for the black pepper info. I had heard of black pepper on strawberries, but haven't tried it because of my unfortunate allergy to strawberries. I wonder how it would taste on raspberries? Perhaps tomorrow I will try a little on top of my raspberry-jammed toast and see what I think.

The inventory of our tool bin includes:

several spatulae

a few large nylon spoons

a couple large nylon ladles

two wooden spatulas

about 10 assorted wooden spoons

nylon tongs

the aforementioned wooden tongs

a silicon whisk

Most of our pans and pots are nonstick, and we can't be trusted to avoid the metal utensils when we're cooking. So we store them in a drawer, and keep only all-surface tools in the crock on the counter. That silicon whisk sucks, so if I'm making a sauce I try to make it in one of the regular pans. Which also sucks because the regular pans we have are thinner and cheapish, and sauces can scorch easily in them.  :angry:

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Many of us mention tongs as a staple item--which do people prefer, wood or metal, or does it just depend on the task?  I have metal ones that I really like, but I regret I didn't buy the type that lock in the closed position.  Those of you who use wooden ones, do they have some sort of joint for reinforcement in the "elbow" section, or are they just molded wood?  Do you use wooden ones for all the same tasks as metal?

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Quiddler is indeed a word game. It's a set of cards with one or two letters on each of them; each card is assigned a point value. You deal out the cards to all players and then players have to form words with them...you draw a card and discard a card each time it's your turn, and you can draw the last discarded card if you like...sorta like gin type games combined with Scrabble in the mechanics of play. The goal is to accumulate the most points possible by using as many of your cards as possible in words, and by manipulating your hand through drawing and discarding to get the highest point values available. Sorry, I'm not particularly skilled at describing games.

The two letter cards make things particularly interesting...there's a "QU" card, which gets you less points than the "Q" card alone does since the "Q" alone is far less likely to be usable (unless you're lucky enough to draw a "U"). There's also CL, TH, and a few others. If you've played Set, it's the same manufacturer. www.setgame.com ...or buy it from our acquaintances the Looneys at Contagious Dreams, www.contagiousdreams.com. This game rapidly became a favorite in our household since both my partner and our housemate were given copies as gifts in December. We're not total game geeks but we all like to play games every so often, and we have a small but growing collection.

Tongs: I use wooden ones for cold things like salads, and sometimes for pulling hot things out of or putting things into pans. I use the nylon ones for manipulating hot things while they're in the pan usually. There's not much of a division of labor between the nylon and wooden tongs. I keep a set of metal ones for use on my little tabletop gas grill...I store them in the grill when not in use, since this is the only place I use them.

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Many of us mention tongs as a staple item--which do people prefer, wood or metal, or does it just depend on the task?  I have metal ones that I really like, but I regret I didn't buy the type that lock in the closed position.  Those of you who use wooden ones, do they have some sort of joint for reinforcement in the "elbow" section, or are they just molded wood?  Do you use wooden ones for all the same tasks as metal?

The wooden tongs I have are glued at the joint and look like this: Toaster Tongs  only mine are 8" x 1/2", and I just use them to retreive items from the toaster.  I use my metal tongs (that can lock in closed position) for my other tong tasks.  I also have some super long tongs for the grill, but  don't really use them as I have better control with my other ones.

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I use the OXO rubber and stainless steel tongs. You just tap the tab at the end against the counter or your thigh and they pop open. Pull the tab and they're locked. Nice length, nice balance.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Regarding the black pepper icecream, I'm hoping Sir Klc will weigh in here with a better description, but he and I shared a dessert at db moderne - pear tart with a peppery caramel sauce. It was a lovely shock to the taste buds - seemingly sweet to look at, then surprisingly brisk on the palate.

(And need I remind anyone of the squid ink icecream on the squid challenge episode of Iron Chef? Cue ingenue, "Oh! I'm getting hooked on this!)

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The lock on my metal tongs which holds them closed has been broken for ages, but that just means they take up more space than necessary in the drawer.  Unlike the wooden tongs Blue Heron displayed, my metal tongues have like little hands at each end which are great for gripping things.

I got another one.  I bought an implement from Williams and Sonoma which I thougt was a large fish slice,  Turns out it was actually designed to flip burgers.  It has a wooden handle, is about four inches wide, maybe eight inches long, and has quite sharp edges.  It is a terrific fish slice.  You can get a whole fillet, and many whole fish too, completely supported as you lift it from the pan.

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Malawry, Quiddler I must get. I love most word games, though funnily enough I’m not a Scrabble fan. Bizarre I know. I know this is off topic but since we’re at it, have you tried the game “Ex Libris”? In this game, where you need at least 3 people, the leader takes a card and on it are the opening and closing lines from works of literature. The leader reading from the card tells the name of the book, and a brief summary of the plot. All players write down what they think would be an apt opening or closing (this is chosen in advance) sentence to the work. The leader of course writes down on piece of paper what is on the card, the original sentence. All pieces of paper are collected and the leader reads all of them out. Then each player votes on what sounds the most convincing line. If you choose the original you get extra points, and the winner is the person who receives most votes for his/her entry. Interestingly, often the original line does not get the most votes. Yes, games are difficult to describe succinctly.

Back to tongs. I like the nonstick ones. Nice and light. I used our microplane again last night. It has the word “Mircroplane” written on the black handle. Duh….never saw it before. Our one must be the version with the smallest holes, as the Parmesan comes out all airy, almost dust. I think we’ll get the next size up.

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My pepper grinder is called, I think, Pepper Mate.  This is possibly the most practical purchase I have made for my kitchen, and I buy them as b-day gifts for all of my friends.  They are ridiculously overpriced at $50 (mine was $20, 15 years ago).  They are rectangular shaped, with a chamber for catching the grounds, a butterfly knob on the side for grinding, and the top pops open to pour in maybe 2 oz of peppercorns.  You can adjust the grind with an easy hand-turn of a screw inside the chamber.  It will grind 1 tablespoon of ground pepper in, like, 4 seconds.  Mine hasn't broken in 15 years, and will never break.

The other essentials in my kitchen have already been mentioned:  Microplane, tongs (mine are metal, and again, they are a dozen years old and will never break), wooden spoons, a lemon reamer, but because I have only a four burner stovetop, I also use cast-iron trivets to park hot pots for freeing up a burner or two.

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vengroff, yes they are great. I have a yoke ceramic peeler from Kyocera. But I find it best for cheeses.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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  • 9 years later...

Ditto (again) on the board scraper!!!

I also use 2 of those square plastic graduated buckets. One for holding tools I'm using while cooking instead of scattering them around like I used to do.

I use it like a gigantic spoon rest. Everything goes in there. Spatulas, tongs, ... The kitchen counter is far cleaner and more organized during cooking.

The other one I use for holding things I'll be composting later.

Edited by MrDelicious (log)
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If I think about the most essential items for cooking those would definitely be my Chefs Knife (Global G4), my Tongs and my Rubber Spatula. Going from there most likely my skillets. There are some Tools that I like to have handy though, like salt box, pepper grinder etc. All along the lines of tools you mentioned.

But I think one of the most underrated tools is a good cheese slicer (yes I know that modern people buy cheese pre-sliced). I absolutely love a good piece of bread (crackly crust!) with a little bit of butter and a few (a few more) slices of cheese on them, preferrably with a little bit of (freshly) ground pepper.

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I hate to say this but Walmart had a set of Paula Dean pots/pans, high heat stuff, and knives on super sale which I bought for camping in the RV (well RV is kinda camping). I figured the price was right and wouldn't worry about ruining them on camp fires and such......they have held up remarkable well. The iron skillet gets a lot of use when camping as well.

My wife worked at Pottery Barn Kids part time and we got a 40% discount at Williams Sonoma so we loaded up the home with the top end stuff there thinking they would last for decades.

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Ditto (again) on the board scraper!!!

I also use 2 of those square plastic graduated buckets. One for holding tools I'm using while cooking instead of scattering them around like I used to do.

I use it like a gigantic spoon rest. Everything goes in there. Spatulas, tongs, ... The kitchen counter is far cleaner and more organized during cooking.

The other one I use for holding things I'll be composting later.

Now that's a brilliant idea. Never thought of that. I am a very disorganized cook in some strange fashion, unlike the rest of my life. (I am an engineer's daughter.)

I think I would like to get brightly colored buckets or something like that. For the joy of it.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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A person with whom I had stayed intrduced me to the pastry scraper called a Bash and Chop. I love it. Saves the hassle of making a fine chop of celery, onions, etc. for salads like Macaroni or Potato, and also serves as a dough scraper. You just cut the desired veg in smallish pieces on a flexable plastic cutting board, apply Bash and Chop with a chopping motion, scraping material being chopped into the pile, until the pieces are as small as you'd like, then pick up flexable mat and funnel into the bowl of mixed ingredients. Leaves counters clean and cutting board goes int the dishwasher's top rack, or just give it a rinse, if all it held was veggies. The Bash and Chop does not have a sharpened edge, so is safe for little 'helpers', too!

"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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