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Cooking @lemmy.world
rutrum @lm.paradisus.day

What's your favorite kitchen utilities?

My first is this silicon spatula. It's construction isnt just a silicon tip with wooden handle. Its the red silicon for much more of the handle, which I've felt makes it easier to clean and last longer, since gunk isnt getting wedged between the handle and tip. I like it so much I have two.

The second is probably just a spray bottle with water and dish soap. I clean up messes and the stove and countertops with it, and it's incredibly convenient.

93 comments

  • Hands down.... the vinegar bottle. cheap, white vinegar.

    For getting baked-on-cruft off pans and such. 50/50 mix with water, heated up to steaming (or boiling, if you're a nutter.) Poor in and let sit. Boom. if it's a pan or pot that can go on the stove; even easier.

    for appliances.... coffee pot. definitely. i may be an addict.

    • While I agree that vinegar is excellent for most applications, you have to be careful with it because it's very acidic. So you can't use it on things like cast iron, marble or other easily etched stone, or anything non-stick. But it's damn excellent for everything else!

      • Can't use vinegar on cast iron?

        sure you can. I do it regularly. if your pan is well seasoned to begin with, all it does is removes a slight amount of the seasoning. Which is restored the next time you cook by simply adding oil to the pan (like you should be doing anyhow.) If you let it sit or use it too strong, the worst case is generally that you've stirpped off the seasoning. with the food-grade white vinegar, it's going to take quite a lot to actually etch the pan (never mind cause pitting.) (like, Full strength full-roil boil. Salt added.)

        And assuming your talking about PTFE ("Teflon") coatings.... Yeah. Noo. PTFE is nonreactive with vinegar, you can use it on things that are nonstick. Pretty sure ceramics are safe too. (they work by releasing silicone oils into the food. eyah. that's going to end well.)

  • Probably my mixers. I've got a spiral dough mixer and a KitchenAid mixer. That spiral mixer is a beast!

  • As far as an inexpensive item I use every day, kitchen scale.

    It has a lot of functions and can make you a better cook and a healthier person if you choose to use it for such reasons. My main uses for it are weighing coffee and water to brew a really dialed in and consistent coffee brew for me, and one for my girlfriend. No using volumetric scoops that give you different amount of different coffee brands or grind sizes, no eyeballing the amount of water you're using to brew and extract. Find a recipe that works, and you can repeat it every time and get the same great result.

    Same for any other recipe. I make a seasoning mix to make killer taco sauce. Add the spice to an empty cup, add x grams ketchup, x grams water, and x grams vinegar...perfect sauce every time. Bread recipe calibrated for my special bread pan. x grams flour, water, salt, and yeast. No guessing, no multiple dirty measuring scoops and cups and spoons, just toss it in one bowl on the scale. Need x amount of honey, but lose half getting it stuck to the spoon or cup? Look at the serving label to get the grams per tsp and just squeeze that amount right into what you're making. You can also do the reverse. Bowl too big to read the scale? Set the bowl aside, tare the scale with the flour container, and scoop out the amount you need.

    Want even portions? I make a ball of dough, tare the bowl and toss the dough in. Divide by the number of portions I want. If I want 50g rolls, pull off a ball, adjust so scale reads -50g, tare and repeat. Want to measure out servings to stay healthy? How much is a cup of something lumpy like Brussell sprouts? Look up the serving weight and dish out that much.

    If you want something more upscale, I also use my Barratza Encore coffee grinder and Breville Smart Oven every day. Both give very consistent results and have brought real quality of life improvements. The grinder lets me try new single origin fresh coffees every month, and the Smart Oven heats very quickly and cooks more evenly than my standalone oven while using much less electric and not heating the whole house up, plus it rises dough nicely and the air fryer function reheats leftovers wonderfully and toasts bagels more on one side than the other and a bunch of other stuff.

  • I will second the good quality spatula as a top tier kitchen utensil. I also have a favorite flat spatula, a favorite whisk, and a set of wood utensils all of which I use on a nearly daily basis. I'm still looking for the perfect knife, but I do have some decent ones at the moment so I can't complain.

  • I have this silicone lid I got from Aldi. It's just a giant flat circle of silicone with an indented lid in the middle. I bought it for my giant soup pot as I didn't have a lid for it, but it's so much more than a lid. It's amazing as a splash guard, it seals via vacuum to pots so you can lift from two points instead of just the handle, it's good for covering food and keeping it warm... I love it more than I ever thought I would. And it's super easy to clean!

  • If you make bread, a Danish whisk. Is so much easier to stir a dough together.

    If you make anything that requires pitted cherries, get a cherry pitter. It's a single use tool, but it makes a terrible task much faster and easier than any stupid youtube hack

  • An old wooden spoon of my moms. It has a circular handle, which makes it infinitely better than the other wooden spoons for just about everything.

  • Knife, obv. My second favourite is also a knife. My third favourite is another knife. My fourth favourite is an ancient wooden spatula which has become exactly the right shape for my fifth favourite enamelled Dutch oven.

  • Pressure cooker. Not electric or anything fancy. Just a simple 6 at pressure cooker. I use it 3-4 times a week.

93 comments