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Essential modern kitchen equipment includes the following: a stove, or range; sink; work surface; various knives, pots and pans; such utensils as spatulas, whisks, specialized spoons, and rolling pins; and a more highly specialized array of gear for producing pastries and other baked goods. In recent years such sophisticated equipment as blenders, food processors, and microwave ovens have become common. Although such tools do save considerable preparation and cooking time, none of them has improved on the results to be achieved by more traditional techniques.
Setting Up a Kitchen
By Mark Bittman
You can spend thousands of dollars on kitchen equipment, or you can spend a couple of hundred bucks and be done with it. If you’ve been lucky enough to inherit hand-me-downs from friends or relatives, you may already have most of what you need.
In any case, it’s worth cooking for a while with minimal equipment so that you can determine your priorities. If you bake bread, you will need different equipment than you do for baking cookies; if you make stews, you’ll need different equipment than you will for grilling.
If you cook a lot, ultimately you’ll want a lot of equipment, but when you begin there’s no way to know that. Think of a beginning artist, who doesn’t rush out and buy oils, an easel, brushes, watercolors, pastels, pencils, and so on, but takes it a few things at a time.
With that in mind, here’s what I think it’s best to start with.
Knives
Knives are the most important cooking expenditure, although not the largest. Buy knives with blades of a high carbon-stainless steel alloy for hardness and durability. A plastic handle is probably preferable to wood, because it isn’t damaged by soaking. If you’re careful not to let the knife bang around, you can put it in the dishwasher. And if you keep your knives sharp (you’ll need a sharpening steel), they’ll keep you happy for the rest of your life.
An 8-in (20-cm) chef’s knife is the all-purpose blade for chopping and slicing. You can use it even for carving, until you buy a carving knife. It needn’t cost more than $30, although you can spend more if you like. Buy one that feels good in your hand, and move to a six-inch or ten-inch knife if your hands are small or large.
A couple of paring knives are necessary for peeling and trimming. Again, buy those that feel good in your hand, but don’t spend more than a few dollars on each. And unless you only eat presliced bread, buy a long, sturdy bread knife with a serrated (notched) edge.
That should hold you for a while. When you get a chance, buy a sharpening steel, a boning knife (to remove bones from chicken), and a carving knife (for roasts). You’ll never need more than that.
Be aware that dull knives are dangerous. They slip off the food you’re cutting and right onto the closest surface, which may be your finger. Although you must be extremely careful with sharp knives—casual contact with the blade cuts—at least they go where you want them to. Respect your knives: Start with good ones, keep them sharp, and they will become your friends.
Pots and pans
Many people are overwhelmed by the choices in pots and pans: cast-iron, nonstick, aluminum, stainless steel, enameled, and copper. But even when money is no object, the most expensive pans are not the best. Many kinds of pans work well, and many of these don’t cost much.
Cast iron or heavy-duty steel (a more contemporary equivalent of cast iron) are the best you can do, if you’re strong of wrist and don’t mind a little heavy lifting. Both are excellent at heat distribution and retention. Clean them correctly—with very little soap—and these pans become virtually nonstick in a short while.
Enamel-coated cast-iron cookware has many of the qualities of heavy-duty steel or plain cast iron. Many people find the coated cookware more attractive, however, although the enamel eventually discolors, wears, and even chips. Even so, these pots have a classic look and are highly functional.
Nonstick pans are a marvel, and inexpensive cast-aluminum pans with nonstick surfaces are the best bargain in cookware. All restaurants use them simply because they work. They are not especially attractive, but they enable you to cook with no fat if you choose to do so, they clean up in a second, and they’re extremely light in weight. Their disadvantage: Nonstick surfaces don’t last long. Cooks wind up replacing these pans every few years.
Stainless steel is highly functional and good looking, although its name is misleading. Stainless steel does in fact stain and it isn’t especially easy to retain its high-gloss, chromelike look through the life of the pan. But stainless steel is a good compromise: It’s generally not super-expensive, it distributes and retains heat well, and it isn’t as heavy as cast iron. And stainless steel with a nonstick surface is, for many people, the best pan of all: Though more expensive than cast aluminum, it’s far better looking.
Whatever pans you choose, make sure the handle is ovenproof. Many dishes begin on top of the stove and finish in the oven, and plastic handles can’t withstand the heat. For size, start with a pot big enough to cook a pound of pasta (6 qt [6 liters] or larger) and a skillet that can sauté a small, cut-up chicken (about 12 in [30cm] in diameter).
Baking equipment
With two exceptions, baking equipment is unlikely to be essential in your daily cooking. But it’s critical when you need it. The exceptions are bowls and a baking sheet.
Bowls are incredibly important, not only for baking but for general cooking. Stainless steel bowls are cheap and durable, if not particularly attractive, but the material is mostly a matter of personal choice. Get a variety of sizes to begin with, and add as you need them.
Tiny ramekins (or custard cups) are really useful for setting aside small amounts of chopped or measured ingredients as you prepare them.
A cookie sheet, best thought of as a baking sheet, is also great for broiling, especially if it has a small lip. Go with aluminum. For most purposes, uncoated will be okay here, but nonstick coating never hurts.
A pie plate or two is something you might want after that; begin with one, 9-in (23-cm) across, made of ovenproof glass. A 10-in (25-cm) springform pan with a removable rim is great for cheesecake. A tart pan with a removable bottom should be an early acquisition if you intend to do serious baking.
Two loaf pans (or none), depending on whether you bake bread, measuring 9 by 5 in (23 by 13 cm) or thereabouts. Nonstick aluminum is best here. Muffin tins of the same material are useful for cupcakes as well as muffins.
I recommend buying cake pans as you need them; otherwise you’ll never have the right size. Or pick them up at tag sales as you see them.
Handheld equipment
A cutting board is a must; whether it’s of plastic or wood is your choice. Plastic can go in the dishwasher, but wood is more attractive. Because you need more than one, try one of each until you determine your preference. Extremely heavy wood cutting boards are the best, but they also are costly.
To keep your cutting board from sliding around on the counter (annoying, isn’t it?), place a damp towel under it.
Wooden spoons are best for cooking; metal ones are best for serving. You can add spatulas, ladles, slotted spoons, and the like as you go along or as you see them.
Metal tongs are the most useful tool for turning food as it cooks, and for removing it from the pan. Get the spring-loaded kind.
A set of measuring spoons and cups, maybe two, is essential. A scale is useful, but most beginners will find it superfluous.
Strainers and colanders can be added as necessary, if you start with a big strainer, which you can use to drain pasta.
Graters are handy, though you can skip a manual grater if you have a food processor. The classic box grater is best among manual graters.
A vegetable peeler, with a u-shape, should be among your first purchases.
A salad spinner is the best tool invented since the food processor. Useful whenever you want to wash and dry almost anything.
Electric appliances
People ask about stoves all the time, but most don’t have the money or the time to remodel their kitchen, which is what replacing a stove is usually about. If you have a choice, go with a gas range and an electric oven; if you don’t have a choice, don’t worry about it; heat is heat.
These are the most important electric appliances:
A food processor is invaluable. It can grate massive amounts of almost anything in seconds; it can make bread dough, pie dough, even some cookie batters in a minute; it can grind meat, make mayonnaise and bread crumbs, puree vegetables, and slice potatoes or almost anything else. Start with a large one, a model that can handle at least 6 cups of batter or dough; you might want a small one as well. Some models come with both large and small bowls and blades, and that’s a good idea.
An electric mixer is important if you bake a lot. You may even want two: a powerful standing mixer and a small, handheld mixer. If you don’t bake much, get a wire whisk and save both money and counter space.
A blender is an inexpensive and underrated but extremely useful tool, especially if you want to make creamy soups or blended drinks. In a pinch, it can perform many of the functions of a food processor, too. (The converse is not true.)
A coffee grinder is something to think about if you don’t have one. For $10 you’ll have the ability to grind spices fresh, which makes a real difference.
A microwave is the most overrated appliance of all time. For heating and warming, and the occasional vegetable, it’s not bad. But unless you have a big kitchen, reheat your coffee frequently, or are too lazy to make real popcorn, it takes up more counter space than it’s worth. (And as for the bread machine, you’ve probably already discovered the limits of that!)
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