Modern kitchens are incomplete without all the different tools and utensils that we can find in the market these days. They don’t just help prepare different kinds of food in the kitchen, but also make our life easy and save us time.
Not everything we need in the kitchen are expensive or high-tech; there are some simple utensils and tools that can make your time in the kitchen much more productive. Whether you are an occasional cook or a regular one, you can never have too many things in the kitchen. Everything has their uses; the more you know about the necessary tools and utensils, the easier time you’ll have in the kitchen.
This is a list of everything that all cooks should have in their kitchen: tools, utensils and gadgets.
- A Set of Good Knives. Not all sets of kitchen knives are expensive or manufactured to cut everything in sight. There are brands with mediocre-level knives that every cook should keep in their kitchen for all sorts of tasks.
Knives usually come in sets, with more than 8 to 10 different types of knives in each set. However, the most important one in the set happen to be the Chef’s knife, which is an 8-inch or a 10-inch knife, bigger than the other ones in the set. Other knives are also important, including a bread knife, a paring knife and a butcher’s knife. With these four kinds of knife, you can do anything in the kitchen.
- A Knife Sharpener. A great way to keep your knives sharp and useful for a long time is to get yourself a knife sharpener. These are handy little electrical or mechanical devices that you can use to sharpen your knife from time to time. If you keep on sharpening your knives when they get dull, your knives would last a long time.
- A Cutting Board. Usually,two types of cutting boards are available in the market: the regular ones that are made from plastic and the premium ones made from wood, glass, marble or stone. It is the chopping boards made from plastic and wood that are most popular in kitchens around the world.
While the plastic boards are perfectly acceptable for chopping fruits, vegetables and herbs, chefs recommend using a wooden board for all kinds of meats and fishes. Also, chopping boards should be replaced every year.
- Set of Non-Stick Pans. Most people prefer doing their cooking in non-stick pans for the obvious reason: food doesn’t stick to non-stick pans. It is much easier to cook in and clean these pans than regular metal pans; they are available in different sizes and shapes to pick from. A total of 5 or 6 non-stick cooking pans should be enough for any kitchen.
- A Pair of Cast-Iron Pans. Cast iron pans are required if you want to cook steaks, stir-fry your vegetables or give your food a good sear. No kitchen needs more than two of these pans, as they can be used for a number of purposes.
- Stainless Steel Pans. Most cooking is done is stainless steel pans all over the world, from soups and stews, to curries and sauces. They are a little harder to clean properly but affordable and long lasting.
- A Dutch Oven. This is a pot used in making stews, soup or pasta in a large batch; they are extremely useful for cooking and serving as they go in both inside the oven and on the stove.
- A Slow Cooker. A slow cooker is extremely useful if you want to start cooking and then forget all about it. This is used by people who turn on the stove in the morning when they leave for work to come home to a fully-cooked ready meal.
- Mixing Bowls. You’ll need mixing bowls in your kitchen whether you are an avid baker or not. They come individually and in sets, and used for mixing your salads, marinating your vegetables, meat and fish, mixing batter for cakes and cookies, pancake and waffles batter, and everything else.
- Spoons and Spatulas. Any kitchen is incomplete without a mixed batch of wooden spoons, silicone spatulas and metal tongs. They are what you used to move your food about when cooking, mix your ingredients together, and lift deep-fried food.
- Kitchen Scissors and Shears. The scissors used in a kitchen are different than the ones we use in everything else. Kitchen shears, too, are a different type of scissors; you’ll need one of each in the kitchen to open packets, cut your herbs and green leafy vegetables, and even cutting open meat and fish occasionally.
- Measuring Cups and Spoons. You’ll definitely need more than a set of these measuring cup and spoon sets when measuring your ingredients. They are available in both plastic and stainless steel.
- A Kitchen Scale. Some recipes, especially while baking, requires an exact measurement of ingredients, which is when you need the help of a kitchen scale.
- A hand Mixer/Stand Mixer. In truth, both a stand mixer and a hand mixer has the same functions; however, if you are a regular baker and spend a lot of time using this tool, it is better to invest in a stand mixer so that you don’t tire out your arms.
- A Blender. You’ll need a blender for pretty much everything in a kitchen, from making fresh juice and smoothies to blending your herbs, make sauce or even mix baking ingredients together.
- An immersion Blender. This is also a type of blender used in directly making sauces and soups while the ingredients are cooking on the stove. They take up much less space than a regular blender in the kitchen but are extremely handy.
- A Coffee Maker. Of course, no modern kitchen is complete without a state-of-the-art coffee machine to serve you freshly brewed coffee all through the day.
- A Vegetable Peeler. Without the help of a peeler, it will take you hours to simply remove the skin from certain vegetables like potatoes and cucumbers.
- A Can Openers. A simple tool, it is quite impossible to use anything as a substitute of a can opener. This is one thing that every single kitchen needs.
- Garlic Press. If you don’t want your fingers to smell like garlics for hours, you definitely need a garlic press in the kitchen.
- A Large Trash Bin. The kitchen alone produces more trash than the rest of the house combined, which means you need a large sized garbage bin for your kitchen. Of course, this also requires bin liners and large trash bags unless you want to scrape garbage from inside the bins every day.
- A Mandolin. This is a stainless steel device for slicing and cutting your fruits and vegetables in perfect shapes and sizes. With the same mechanism as a cheese grater, these tools come with several attachments for giving your ingredients different looks.
- A Cheese Grater. Of course, you’ll need a cheese grater for grating and sprinkling cheese on pizzas, pasta and other baked items.
- A Whisk. This is an extremely important tool if you bake cakes, cookies or bread. Nothing will mix your dry and wet ingredients together than a good pair of whisks.
- Kitchen Thermometers. This is not a tool used regularly, but a kitchen thermometer is still a very important part of every kitchen. This tool is used to take the exact temperature of your food, while or after cooking.
- Baking Pans and Molds. With the right set of pans and molds suitable for the oven, you can make anything: cakes, breads, cookies, lasagnas, pizzas or baked pastas.
- Storage Boxes. For leftover food or ingredients, at least half a dozen air-tight storage boxes are extremely important for every kitchen.
- Cleaning Supplies. To clean everything – pans and pots, plates, cooking and baking utensils and tools – every kitchen requires a good dish detergent or soap, brushes and sponges.
Of course, there is no end to the things we can buy for our kitchen, but the items mentioned here are some of the most important ones. Without any of these, your time in the kitchen would become hard and long; investing in the right tools and utensils in the kitchen means being more productive while preparing, cooking and baking your meals.