Chef’s knife
Chopping block
12" cast iron pan ('tis my life)
One very handy little thing is my stick blender. As I’m trying to get the hang of sauces and failing fairly often, this has saved me.
You may pry my under counter mounted black & decker coffee maker out of my cold dead hands. No, not the new ones, the older style.
I have this neat little probably aluminum pot, it’s maybe 5" around, but it is also a double boiler. It’s perfect for a ton of stuff, not too big, not too small and has a tight fitting lid.
My Beloved Deep Fryer. (No, I don’t care about my heart and yes, I’m trying to gain weight)
Restaurant quality half sheet pan. Fits perfectly in my oven, it is also handy for flash freezing, drip catching, husband beating…it is indestructable. It is in constant use, either in the oven or the freezer.
I’m a chef. I cook a lot. That said, far and away, the #1 tool I use is my 10" chef’s knife. I have a Sentaku that gets used every now and again, mostly for mincing and dicing, but the chef’s knife gets daily use and weekly shaping. I’m looking to upgrade to a 12" soon, but the chef’s knife is the best tool a cook can have.
After that, tongs of varying sizes. Tongs are great for prying stuff off the grill taking hot things out of an oven, grabbing food, and just general extenda-fingers for when you need to mess with something.
Then I guess it’s the sautee pan, followed by any number of pots.
Silicone scrapers. Both the flat kind and the spoon ones. I use them all the time.
Silicone whisk
Tongs. I use them to turn meats and such, so I don’t have to use a fork.
Mixing bowl with a non-slip bottom and a spout.
I probably use my mesh strainer more then anything else in the kitchen. I use it almost every day. I use it for pasta, sifting flour, mixing dry ingredients, washing small things (peas, beans, etc) and straining (of course).
I use rubber spatulas all the time as well. They are just great for getting every last drop.
Cuisinart electric kettle – I use it several times a day, every day, and it’s holding up well
tea pots. The everyday one is from the Czech Republic, made of lab glass coated iridescent blue. It’s inexpensive, beautiful and utilitarian, and I love it. I also have a dragon yi xing pot for oolong tea, a Japanese cast iron tetsubin, a clear pot for flowering teas, and a pale jade green pot just cause someone gave it to me.
The Garlic Twist. Absolutely the very best garlic device ever invented. Easy to use, easy to clean.
A non-stick wok. I do most of my cooking in it during the summer.
Saute pan.
Dutch oven/casserole type pots in the winter. My most beloved ones are from Finland, Kokki by Arabia, and are good for stovetop, oven, microwave, and can be frozen, and are easy to clean, too. Alas, I broke the size I used the most, and that size is no longer being made. I’m contemplating a trip to Finland just to go to flea markets to try to find another one.
A big non-stick pot for making soups – I always have some homemade chicken soup on hand. I use the same non-stick pot for popping popcorn. (It tastes better than microwave, okay, and no factory workers are getting lung disease to make my popcorn, and only takes about three minutes to pop a batch.)
I’m gradually upgrading my knives. What a difference a good knife makes.
Note: bamboo cutting boards are vastly overrated. I don’t use them for cutting anymore, since they started to splinter after only a couple uses.
Mmm, a tea fanatic with a line on a cool garlic gadget - I may have found my soulmate! I’m so getting a Garlic Twist!
And that also reminds me that I use my single-cup tea infuser baskets about every day as well.
And of course I forgot about the Microplane, and tongs, how could I foget tongs! Not only are they good for all the stuff **ForumBot **mentioned, but they are great for retrieving items from the tall shelves where your 6’4" husband has stowed them.
Oh, and regarding the wine glass issue, I think you can go in two directions. One, buy inexpensive stuff and expect it will get broken, oh well. Or, make a major investment in heavy duty lead crystal, and expect it to last forever. I’ll never forget going to a Waterford demo for brides. The lady hauled off and whaled a goblet against the edge of a table, WHAM! And it was totally unscathed. (Though you do have to wash them by hand if you want to avoid tiny scratches the DW leaves, making them less shiny and clear.)
Unless you’re seduced by the delicateness and 5 million shapes of Riedel. I know they’re dumb to buy. I’ve broken many of them. But like a lemming, I keep buying them, because it’s like drinking wine out of air. Plus they make the wine smell good.
Um, we put our Reidel in the dishwasher. Not broken one yet.
When I was a kid we had Stuart crystal glasses at home, and I was forever breaking them washing and drying by hand.
Dishwasher for me.
In fact, when we renovated our last house and had no usable kitchen for months, we did all our cooking in a microwave and electric frypan, but we had the dishwasher attached to the outside yard tap for the duration.
Can’t bear rubber spatulas as I can taste the rubber. Silicon ones are great. Silicon gloves are also a must have. Am in the process of replacing all our non-stick bakewear with silicon.
We have a fluctuating collection of the oldfashioned bakelite handled butter knives. Best thing ever - not only for bread, antipasto, cheese, but I have used one to remove a ceiling, and another today to open a pump.
Cleaning a cast iron skillet is an absolute breeze and they’re very versatile. I’d recommend getting one (or a couple in varying sizes). I have my great-grandmother’s cast iron griddle (well over 100 years old) and I use it all the time. NOTHING makes a better grilled cheese sandwich.
I think all these garlic devices are a waste of time, money, and most importantly, garlic. You can never get all the garlicy goodness out of the infernal contraption and into the food where it belongs. Here’s how to properly prepare garlic:
Go buy a good chef’s knife.
Slice the end off the clove.
Mash the clove with the flat of the blade.
Peel the clove. It should be pretty easy. If not, repeat step 3.
Give the peeled clove a good, solid whack with the flat of the blade for coarse garlic pieces. If you want them finer, just rock your good chef’s knife back and forth a few times over the garlic. What’s that, the pieces are skittering off the edge and not getting any smaller? Yeah, I said get a good knife. You know, one that holds an edge for more than 5 seconds and isn’t serrated.
I use my rice cooker almost daily. Sometimes when I’m putting it back in the pantry I wonder why when I’ll be using it again in no time.
I am also addicted to my pastry scraper. When the Mr bought it I thought it’d never get used. But once I got the hang of it I was hooked. A year later I saw Rachel Ray singing it’s praises on the TV. It is the bomb for cleaning up crumbs or flour or any kitchen countertop mess really. Now I’m a devotee.
And an Asian slotted spoon, I threw the others all away once I used it. It’s not as spoon shaped more a complete circle, and not slotted so much as perforated with holes. They have them at the Asian grocery and now I’m starting to see them in other places too. Once you try it you’ll never go back.
But most used might be my kettle, hmmm, think I’ll have a cup, ta ta.
Yeah, so, I’ve posted about rice and garlic several hundred thousand times over the course of my SDMB career, so I’ve decide to make them into a sig. Here ya go. You don’t need a rice cooker.
Mixing bowls and measuring cups. We have about 6 measuring cups of different sizes and there still never seems to be enough. I can eyeball some measurements using mugs because I’ve had no readily available ones.
Also I use my square brownie pan almost every week. For a while a friend would come over every Tuesday and we would make brownies together. Tuesdays are still sometimes called “Brownieday” or “Houseday”. (House was the original reason for the brownies, so that tradition will have to start again as soon as I get to the store.)
I also think you can never have too many knives. You never know when you will need a different size or type. Knives can be used for anything.
