What is essential in a basic kitchen?

Cafe Society
41

[QUOTE=panamajack]
One piece of equipment that I really find useful (especially if you’re a single person) is a toaster oven. It’s of far more use than a simple bread toaster. Toasting any item or baking small amounts in it is easy. It will produce better results by reheating than a microwave for some dishes.
[/QUOTE]
Oh, absolutely. I made it a point to get a good toaster oven early on. On the few occasions I eat fropis these days, it’s just big enough to accomodate one, and there’s nothing like a toasted bagel or muffin. Uses less energy and generates less heat than the normal oven, too.

Oslo, adding as you need them makes sense, but I went ahead and got the lot anyway, aside from a couple spices I know I don’t like. My intent here is to be able to have a kitchen that’s stocked well enough that I can go in, look around, and find something I can throw together on the spot without needing much preparation. If I’m planning on cooking a specific meal, sure, I can get what I need at the store on the way home, but far too frequently I don’t have an idea already in mind when I go to make something. Certainly you can’t build a meal on spices alone, but knowing they’re available now is a good step forward for me. :slight_smile:

42

You’ll probably get as many different answers as the people you ask. For what it’s worth, here’s the list of what I and my wife use in our kitchen all the time:[ul][li]Major Hardware: stove, fridge, sink, combination storage cabinet/cutting board[]Minor Hardware: microwave oven, coffee maker, crock pot, toaster, blender[]Cooking vessels: large cast iron fry pan, small cast iron fry pan, large cooking pot, medium cooking pot*, large saucepan*, small saucepan*, pyrex casserole dish, cookie sheet (=with glass lids- very handy when adjusting temperature to get a slow simmer)[]Cooking utensils: colander, metal spatula, nylon spatula, extra large barbecue spatula (for getting pizzas in and out of oven), long-handled spoon, plastic two-pronged fork, ladle, butcher knife, bread knife, paring knife, cheese slicer, grater, vegetable peeler, pyrex 1-liter measuring cup, 2-3 measuring cup sets (including 2/3 and 3/4 cup measures), 2-3 measuring spoon sets (1/8 tsp- 1 tbsp)Spices, etc.: salt, black pepper, oregano, basil, chili powder, tabasco sauce, soy sauce, worchester sauce, cooking oil, lard, butter, unsweetened cocoa powder,[/ul][/li]
We’ve accumulated a lot of other stuff too, but this covers 99% of the cooking we do.

43

Hie thee to a supermarket, kitchen store supplier, WalMart, Target, or any other place that sells kitchenware and get thyself a Pan of Roasting!

Seriously, a good roasting pan cannot be overvalued. I prefer the Pyrex brand, but any of them will do the trick.

If you can afford it, get yourself a good baking dish too – say, an 8x11. These are great for making really simple, but good, pasta dishes, casseroles, rice-and-whatever meals, and so on.

A ten or twelve inch skillet (cast iron preferred; if not, get one that can go in the oven, at least), a pot that’ll hold at least 2 quarts (with lid), a good spatula – it must be thin and flexible, yet wide enough to hold most of an egg on the surface. A whisk, for mixing things and beating eggs.

Sauces and spices: Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and your hot sauce of choice (not salsa); salt, pepper (get a pepper grinder if possible, otherwise, buy coarse ground pepper), cumin, and that italian spices blend (oregano, thyme, rosemary) from Costco should cover basic seasoning needs. Most stuff only needs salt and pepper, so you can build up your spice collection slowly as you discover what you like.

A good knife is essential. I use a 9-inch chef’s knife (smooth edge only, please) for just about everything; it works for slicing meat, chopping veggies, crushing garlic, and cutting melons. Plus other things. Stop by a hardware store and pick up a knife sharpener – not a sharpening stone! – while you’re at it and you won’t have to learn how to sharpen it yourself, which is a specialized task that you won’t get right from the start. :slight_smile:

A meat thermometer. I have one that has markings for beef, chicken, and pork, showing the ‘safe’ temperature for each (as well as rare, med, and well done for beef). They’re cheap and they help you figure out when the middle of big hunks of meat are done (you’ll get a feel for thinner cuts, if you don’t have it already).

Basic food supplies that should always be on hand: a bag of flour, a bag of rice, pasta noodles of varying types, frozen peas, frozen corn, cream of mushroom soup in cans, olive oil, vegetable oil, and some cans of condensed/evaporated milk. With that and some fresh ingredients you can make just about any type of sauce, a batter for frying, thicken drippings for gravy, and so on.

Also, you can pick up some cans of chicken stock and beef stock cheaply, though I prefer to make my own in a big pot.

44

The only things I use a lot of that I haven’t noticed mentioned are fish sauce (aside: try roasted peaches with honey and fish sauce. Yes, sounds weird, but the Romans liked it and so do I) and metal clamshell-style tongs (I use mine all the time for turning roasting veggies, meats, tossing pasta with oil, etc. Habit I picked up from Jamie Oliver, so I’m not proud, but still…).

Also from Jamie, if you at all can, do try and grow some herbs in a window pot - Basil and oreganum are great for this. Nothing beats just reaching over the sink and grabbing a handful.

45

Pots and pans I use all the time - a big pot to boil water for pasta or make soups in, a small skillet for fried eggs, a medium saucepan, and a wok. For baking, you need an 8x8 or 9x9 square pan, an 8" or 9" cake pan or two, and a half-sheet pan or two. Add a 9"x13" pyrex pan if you pan on cooking any casseroles or anything.

Kitchen gadgets (disclaimer - I LOVE kitchen gadgets) - Can opener, microplane grater (I use it all the time for nutmeg, citrus zest, parmesan cheese, and god knows what else), a box grater, a silicone whisk (avoids the awful noise in metal bowls), wooden spoons, slotted spoons, the ice cream scoop with the antifreeze in the handle, a meat thermometer (I don’t even eat meat, but it works for oil), an oven thermometer (our oven is about 40-50 degrees too hot), a silicone spatula (way more flexible than the rubber ones I’ve tried),** tongs**, a flexible spatula (Think pancake-turner. I think mine might actually be nylon, but it hasn’t melted yet!), a colander. This is about half of the weird things in our kitchen that I use the most. We actually cleaned out our gadgets recently, and got rid of almost nothing, because I use most of them fairly often.

Appliances - I just got my stick blender, and haven’t used it much yet, but it looks like it might replace my real blender for most jobs. Skip the little spout at the bottom, and spend 40 or 50 bucks on a nice blender. I went through 3 or 4 cheap blenders before I realized that I might as well spend the bucks on a middle-range blender. Certainly no Blendtec, though. A hand mixer or a stand mixer. You’ll use it more than you think. A food processor, large one if you have room for it. My stick came with a mini-one as an attachment, but I haven’t tried it out yet. A toaster, but you probably knew that already. Electric kettles make instant oatmeal, coffee, tea way faster and with less dishes than the stovetop method. I was skeptical at first, but I’ve been won over.

Foodwise, get staples (butter, sugar, flour, eggs, milk, canned/frozen goods), that you can always craft a quick meal out of without going to the store. You can find some staple checklists online, but remember to tailor it to your tastes. I don’t cook with a lot of canned artichoke hearts, but Rachael Ray wants me to have some on hand. Same with smoked paprika. She can suck it, because I took her advice and have had each sitting in my cabinets untouched for months. However, I eat a LOT of chickpeas, and always have to pick some up when I go grocery shopping.

46

Totally disagree about going cheap on the knives. Like any tool, you should buy the highest quality you can possibly afford. Bad steel doesn’t sharpen well, or hold an edge even if you could get an acceptable one on the blade. That makes cutting into an exercise in frustration, and a half-assedly sharp knife is dangerous. Besides which, buying cheap knives is a false economy.

A good knife, like the Henckels mentioned earlier (or Wustof, other respected makers) will only cost about twice to three times what a crap blade will, but will be more comfortable and better balanced, take a much better edge and hold it longer, and last half of forever as long as you don’t abuse it. You don’t need one of those “$2,000 custom-made single diamond edge with an unobtainum back!!!” hype jobs, but don’t go cheap on the knives. The contrast between moderately-expensive quality tools and cheap does-the-job ones is truly painful if you’ve wasted months or years using the lower-quality ones.

You really only need the three mentioned earlier: general purpose (wide blade, relatively long), paring/fine cutting, and a serrated bread knife. The most important one is the general purpose chef’s knife. I use my chef’s knife much more often than the paring knife, probably about 80–90% of the time. Prioritize your purchase accordingly.

47

[QUOTE=silenus]
…Basil, oregano and other herbage is best when bought fresh. Wash, dice, and place measured amonts in an ice cube tray. Fill with water and freeze, then store in a zip-lock bag. To use, drop a cube or two into whatever you’re cooking…
[/QUOTE]

An alternate to this is filling with olive oil instead of water. I’ve found that it works very well in pasta sauces that way.

48

[QUOTE=Bosstone]
My intent here is to be able to have a kitchen that’s stocked well enough that I can go in, look around, and find something I can throw together on the spot without needing much preparation.
[/QUOTE]
I have a question and a word of encouragement. First, when you’re not cooking, what do you like to eat? I’ve seen lots of “pantry staples” lists that just don’t apply to the way I eat. Tell us what you like, and we can be even more helpful.

Second, don’t be too frustrated if you have a hard time throwing things together spontaneously. The Man and I are both foodies, and pretty good cooks, but we both still cook from recipes more than we improvise, and our improvisations run the gamut from spectacular to wouldn’t-feed-it-to-the-dog. Keep trying, and if you’re frustrated, come back for more advice.

49

“What I like” is sort of a nebulous thing to answer, but I’m typically a meat person. I keep a bag of chicken in the freezer at all times, and since steak’s been on sale recently I’ve been enjoying that every few nights as well. I am consciously attempting to expand the range of food I eat, though. Last night I made garlic chicken with baked potato; my first experience with chopping raw garlic. Didn’t get it quite fine enough, I’m afraid, and the butter-like substance in my kitchen apparently does not make for good garlic butter either.

I tend toward meals with rice when I can, since I have a superb rice cooker (my dad insisted that I need to cut carbs and avoid breads, rice, pasta, etc. and seemed dubious when I pointed out the entirety of Japan lives on rice three meals a day and doesn’t have a weight problem :D). Stirfry, teriyaki, things like that. I suppose I’d better get good with chopping, come to think of it.

The main reason it’s taken me this long to get around to cooking regularly is the amount of work and prep time that seems to go into it. Even a simple meal of chicken and rice requires significant effort and eats up my free time at night. Add to that the chaos that comes with being an inexperienced cook and trying to juggle three different parts of a dinner (in last night’s case, cooking the chicken, nuking the potatos, and prepping the garlic butter, and trying to time them so they’re all finished at about the same time), and it’s a ton of work for what winds up being moderately edible food.

50

My family and I prefer the Better than Buillion flavor bases. They are pastes that come in little jars, and must be refrigerated after opening. I find them to be much more flavorful and much less salty than most canned broths.

51

OK…last night’s dinner, with the garlic butter? Cut the top 1/2 inch off of a HEAD of garlic, drizzle some olive oil over it, and roast for about an hour at 350. Squeeze the paste out of the cloves, and mash it with butter or olive oil. Or just spread the paste onto bread by itself, it will have a mild but yummy flavor. The more finely you mince or chop the garlic, the stronger the flavor will be.

You can buy frozen chopped onions and bell peppers. This might cut down on your prep time, depending on how quickly you chop.

52

[QUOTE=Bosstone]
“What I like” is sort of a nebulous thing to answer, but I’m typically a meat person. I keep a bag of chicken in the freezer at all times, and since steak’s been on sale recently I’ve been enjoying that every few nights as well. I am consciously attempting to expand the range of food I eat, though. Last night I made garlic chicken with baked potato; my first experience with chopping raw garlic. Didn’t get it quite fine enough, I’m afraid, and the butter-like substance in my kitchen apparently does not make for good garlic butter either.

I tend toward meals with rice when I can, since I have a superb rice cooker (my dad insisted that I need to cut carbs and avoid breads, rice, pasta, etc. and seemed dubious when I pointed out the entirety of Japan lives on rice three meals a day and doesn’t have a weight problem :D). Stirfry, teriyaki, things like that. I suppose I’d better get good with chopping, come to think of it.

The main reason it’s taken me this long to get around to cooking regularly is the amount of work and prep time that seems to go into it. Even a simple meal of chicken and rice requires significant effort and eats up my free time at night. Add to that the chaos that comes with being an inexperienced cook and trying to juggle three different parts of a dinner (in last night’s case, cooking the chicken, nuking the potatos, and prepping the garlic butter, and trying to time them so they’re all finished at about the same time), and it’s a ton of work for what winds up being moderately edible food.
[/QUOTE]

Since you have an interest in things like stir fry, teriyaki, and other Asian (and Asian-inspired) dishes, I would expand your kitchen tools and spices to things that suit that. Acid Lamp and I love food and love cooking and tend toward simple stir fries and such, so we have Thai curry pastes (red and green), fish sauce, hoisin sauce, ponzu, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, five spice powder, and a handful of other “Asian” spices on hand most of the time. Since I’m a bit of a food geek and we’re interested in eventually expanding out to foods more Japanese than “generic Asian,” I got us a ginger grater. It works a bit like a microplane, but I can’t hurt myself and shred up my fingers with it, which is a bonus. It also makes turning garlic cloves into paste an easy and quick task, and can generally grate lots of root vegetables into paste. (It’s how they make wasabi, ginger paste, carrot paste, and daikon paste.)

I have a $10 rice cooker, and my only complaint is that the bottom of the pan is always getting covered in stuck bits of rice that have to be soaked away; is this something that I would expect in a higher end rice cooker, or does it magically go away with more expensive (and better) technology? (I’m thinking of registering for a Zojirushi rice cooker.)

I feel your pain on the “prep time” with foods, but, as someone who honed her knife skills by doing food service prep, the only advice I have to give you is to keep cooking and practicing and you’ll get better. Additionally, there are some foods that you can cut up and “prep” for cooking later in the week, so if you’re into doing all the work on grocery day, that may make the drudgery involved in cooking a bit less boring for you.

53

As for the prep time issue, see the previous suggestions about a Crock-Pot. The chicken cooks while you are work. You can come, home, whip up a sauce while the rice cooks, and you’re done.

54

[QUOTE=nashiitashii]
Since you have an interest in things like stir fry, teriyaki, and other Asian (and Asian-inspired) dishes […]
[/quote]
Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll keep them in mind.

I have a Zojirushi (this one), and I absolutely love it. It is expensive, but I tried to cook rice using a pot on the stove. Lord, how I tried. After all, two cups of rice is, like, 10 cents, so I certainly felt inclined to try again…and again…and again. Could not get it right. Might’ve been my tools, might’ve been my habits (I tried to follow all the cautions, including never taking the lid off the pot), but whatever it was, I just could not make edible rice. This? I throw a cup or two of rice in, fill the cooking bowl up to a line on the side, close the lid, and press Cook. 40-50 minutes later, I have perfect rice. I’ve seen discussions here where people sneer at what is essentially a highly expensive uni-tasker when a pot should serve just as well, but if you eat rice more than once a week, it’s a bloody miracle-worker. As a staple side dish, rice really shouldn’t be an adventure every time you make it. That’s for the main dish.

ETA: Oh, and cleaning the bowl is a snap, too. I don’t even bother washing it most of the time, just brush out the leavings once they’ve dried.

Yeah, that’s why I started this thread, really. I realized being able to cook (and in the process, shop wisely and cheaply) was a skill I couldn’t afford to ignore any more and I had best buckle down and start learning.

55

The other great timesaver we use is a Seal-A-Meal bagger. Works great. We make large quantities of a dish, package in 2-serving bags, seal and freeze. When it’s time for dinner, drop the bag in a pot of boiling water. This works for all sorts of dishes, up to and including soup. Especially soup. Just thaw, dump into a pot, and a handful of either broken spaghetti or rice, cook a bit and you have a very filling one-pot dish.

56

That sounds like a plan. Thanks!

57

One thing that seems like an affectation, but really isn’t, is pre-measuring ingredients. When you watch the cooking shows and they’re dumping in a quarter cup of this and two tablespoons of that from little crystal bowls it all seems too precious for words, but it really speeds things up by letting you multi-task. While the garlic and onion are sauteeing in the olive oil you can measure the rest of your ingredients, and then add them as they are needed. The crystal bowls part, all right, that’s a little silly, but the pre-measuring is not.

58

:smiley: Actually, I just bought a few tiny cheap bowls today with that idea in mind. Silly, sure, but hopefully it’ll help me keep organized and prepared so I’m not scrambling during the cooking process, especially if I’ve got a recipe with 5 or 6 half cups of this and that and the like.

59

You can find bowls like that at any cheap kitchen place. We have a half dozen of them. Perfectly sized for pudding/custard, they get the most usage as ingredient holders. Bill is right…they look twee but they are oh so handy.

60

[QUOTE=Bosstone]
:smiley: Actually, I just bought a few tiny cheap bowls today with that idea in mind. Silly, sure, but hopefully it’ll help me keep organized and prepared so I’m not scrambling during the cooking process, especially if I’ve got a recipe with 5 or 6 half cups of this and that and the like.
[/QUOTE]

I have at least eight of the tiny glass bowls that you see a lot of tv cooking show hosts use; not only are they good for measuring out ingredients, but they’re great if you want to use them for dips and other side condiments without putting it on the plate/in the bowl next to the dish. I use it all the time for dipping olive oil in bread or for making spicy mayonnaise. I found all of mine in the dollar store, and I’m sure you can find them elsewhere, but they’re really, really cheap at the dollar store.