Kitchen Tools

I don't have expensive cookware and I don't have sophisticated appliances. I do have a big Garland commercial range just like Julia Child had, but I no longer have room to use it. Alas. Perhaps one day.

Nevertheless I find I can cook well with less expensive equipment. This page is my personal list of inexpensive or improvised kitchen tools that will serve you well. Here is an excellent and more extensive list

Cooks Magazine review of tools is very helpful. Check your public library.

Plastic cutting or chopping mats are inexpensive, ubiquitous and essential. About a dollar each.

This is an inexpensive easy to use knife sharpener. Easy to find online. Works well! Less than ten dollars.

Carefully rinsed towels that have the residual detergent rinsed out. Use them in colanders for fine straining and moistened for wrapping and storing vegetables.

A citrus zester tool is very handy. About five dollars.

Heavy tiles laid on the rack of your oven will make your oven much better. Unglazed are best. They are also handy for setting hot pans on. Less than a dollar each.

A good garlic press is essential. The Zyliss Susi ones from Switzerland are best. Ten to twenty dollars.

My hand grinder. Ten to twenty dollars. More versatile than a food processor.

A digital timer/thermometer with a rapid reading oven safe temperature probe and extension cable. Mine is old and battered but still works fine. About fifteen dollars.

An oven thermometer - most ovens do not produce the temperature indicated on the oven control. Most ovens run cool. About five dollars.

A piece of 2x4 for a mallet and tamper. Less than a dollar.

A mortar & pestle. Very useful. Five to ten dollars.

A small electric fan can speed up reductions and help you to see what you are doing: set a fan on the counter next to your cook top and direct the stream of air across the pan you are using. The moving air will carry water vapor and mist away so you can see better and the rate of reduction will improve markedly.

Microwave ovens heat water, or things containing water, and almost nothing else. The water is heated directly: the container does not have to be heated and then transfer heat into the food. These properties make microwaves the most efficient and fastest way to get some kitchen tasks done. They can't sautée, they can't roast, they do a poor job of many things and thus are not thought by some to be useful in serious cooking. However, they are the fastest, easiest and best way to do some things. I use mine all the time. For example: as a substitute for sautéeing or sweating onions, provided that you don't want them browned, chop the onions into a glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap (the wrap must not touch the onions) and microwave until the onions are limp. Another example: if you have undercooked fish or chicken and already have it on the serving plate you can remedy this with a few seconds in the microwave oven. Zap it for 10 seconds and check. Repeat if needed. Don't tell and no-one will ever know.

A pastry cutter makes cutting in fast and easy. Six to ten dollars.

A steamer I improvised using a twelve inch (30cm) sautée pan, its glass cover and a metal steamer basket that lays flat and is then about ten inches (25cm) in diameter. The pan was cheap and is too thin-walled to use as a sautée pan but it makes a nice steamer that works very well. Note the central wire ring of the basket. If it is tipped upright before steaming things it is much easier to remove the basket when the steaming is done.