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Episode 10: Essential Cooking Tools
Stocking up your kitchen for the very first time? Or just sick and tired of your cruddy old culinary tools, like that sad-looking plastic spatula with the melted front edge? Well, it’s time to level up!
Having the right cooking implements on hand can mean the difference between having dinner ready in a flash and being frustrated and defeated in the kitchen. In this episode we tell you all about our favorite culinary essentials. And don’t you worry your pretty little head—we won’t recommend anything crazy-expensive or any one-trick ponies that’ll clutter your countertop. We won’t even suggest any items that need to be plugged into an electrical socket. So listen in, and I’ll let you know which kitchen tools this luddite can’t live without!
Show Notes & Links for Episode 10:
What We Ate:
After returning home from our Maui vacation, one of the first things on my to-do list was to stock up our fridge and pantry. I started by heading over to Belcampo Meat Company—our local butcher shop—to stock up on meat.
My order included short ribs, a big pork butt, pastured eggs, and lots of ground beef. Although well-raised meat can be expensive, I try to stick to stuff that costs less than ten bucks a pound. Cheap cuts and ground beef definitely help to stretch our food budget. And after splurging on a lot of restaurant meals while on vacation, we definitely scaled back this week.
Because I was just getting back into the groove of things, I cooked a lot of garbage stir fries this week with the ground beef from Belcampo. In fact, for four days in a row, I made garbage stir fry for our garbage-loving family. Yes, I know that the name of the dish sounds grody and terrible, but the kids can attest that it’s trash-tastically delicious. Besides, isn’t it always better to under-promise with a yucky name, and then over-deliver with a yummy dinner?
My favorite local butcher shop is Belcampo Meat Co.
There are tons of different ways to make a garbage stir fry, and here’s a version my family loves to eat.
Check out Podcast Episode 5: Desperation Dinners to see what I keep stocked in my pantry so I can make meals in a flash.
Main Course:
For years, I was a kitchen gadget hoarder. If you have our cookbook or read my old Paleo Eats posts, you probably know that I often use a number of appliances and tools to get dinner ready, including an Instant Pot, a slow cooker, a food processor, a super-charged Vitamix blender, a stick blender, and even our trusty countertop toaster oven. Sometimes, I use all of those things to prep a single meal.
But then two things happened that changed my perspective on what was truly essential: Our house was flooded, and I read a fantastic book about tidying up.
Longtime blog readers know that several years ago, in the middle of the night, a pipe burst under the kitchen sink and covered the entire house with a couple of inches of water. While the water damage was being repaired, we were displaced to a cramped residence inn for several months and I learned that we could get by in life with much, much less. And this includes kitchen tools. I won’t lie – there are plenty of “nice-to-have” items that greatly streamline and enhance my cooking. I’ll admit it: they’re great time-savers. But when push comes to shove, people only need a few items to cook up nourishing and tasty meals.
More recently, I started reading Marie Kondo’s bestselling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up—and it’s totally reinforced the need to purge stuff I don’t really need or that don’t spark joy anymore. With this in mind, I consulted my favorite review sites and came up with a pared down list of indispensible cooking tools.
Chef’s Knife: The best rated inexpensive one is the Victorinox Forschner Fibrox, which costs under $40. If you’re considering a carbon-steel chef’s knife and money is no object, this $300 one by J.A. Henckels designed by Bob Kramer, an American Master Bladesmith, is considered one of the best. America’s Test Kitchen also recommends a $100 Japanese knife by Togiharu that is considered a best-buy. But if you’re going to spend this kind of money, you should really try out these knives yourself. If you’re in NYC, go visit Korin in Lower Manhattan, which is home to one of the most amazing and extensive collection of Japanese chef’s knives (a.k.a. gyuto) in the world.
Paring Knife: The one I use at home is the J.A. Henckels International Classic 4-inch paring knife, but Cook’s Illustrated recommends one from Victorinox that only costs about $7.
Knife Sharpener: The best manual sharpener is a cheap-o Accu-Sharp Knife & Tool Sharpener. For less than ten dollars, you can sharpen your own knives in just a few strokes. Recently, I’ve been tempted to buy an electric knife sharpener, and the one recommended by everybody is The Chef’s Choice Trizor XV ($160). It sharpens European, American, and Japanese knives—both serrated and straight!—and it can convert a 20 degree factory edge to a 15 degree edge, which means you’re getting an even sharper edge.
Peelers: I keep three vegetable peelers in the kitchen: One with a regular blade (an OXO Good Grips Pro Swivel Peeler), one with a serrated edge for grabbing onto smooth-skinned ripe fruits and vegetables (a Kuhn Rikon Piranha Serrated Peeler), and one that makes quick work of julienning zucchini into “zoodles” (a Kuhn Rikon Julienne Peeler).
Kitchen Shears: To be perfectly honest, you don’t really need shears if you’ve got a great knife, but a sharp pair of scissors can help handle a host of tasks in the kitchen, from trimming herbs to spatchcocking a chicken. I’ve tried a bunch of shears and my new favorite pair is the Kershaw Taskmaster, which I learned about from America’s Test Kitchen. I’ve used them to debone my Cracklin’ Chicken for a couple of years now, and they haven’t dulled on me yet!
Cutting Board: If you want a great wooden board, a John Boos Maple Cutting Board is a fantastic option. Plastic is also a much more cost-friendly option, and some folks like it better because you can toss plastic cutting boards in the dishwasher. The Oxo Good Grips Cutting Board is a polypropylene board with rubber strips on both sides. It’s lightweight, non-slip, and fabulous.
Cast iron skillets: In our kitchen, I have a Lodge Logic pre-seasoned 12-inch cast iron skillet, as well as an 8-inch version (the one I use to fry crispy eggs). I love ‘em, but don’t presume that the company’s “pre-seasoning” is sufficient. You’ll still need to season the skillets, so follow the instructions in this post. To maintain your cast iron skillets, just make sure you clean them after each use, wipe them dry and also put them on a hot burner to dry, before rubbing a bit of melted fat onto all surfaces. I used to think you couldn’t use soap to clean them, but J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of Serious Eats debunked this myth a few months ago in an article titled, “The Truth About Cast Iron: 7 Myths That Need to Go Away.
Heat-Resistant Oven Mitts: Choose a glove made of Kevlar or Nomex – they’ll allow you to handle items that are hundreds of degrees in temperature. I used to have Ove Glove branded gloves, but a lot of reviewers on Amazon say that the new ones don’t work as well. As a result, I’ve done some digging, and my newest recommendation is to buy gloves from the brand Grill Heat Aid. They’ve gotten over A THOUSAND great reviews on Amazon, and it has a no-hassle 100% money back guarantee.
Tongs: You don’t need anything fancy here; just get a basic pair of locking tongs with wide-scalloped pincers, and you’ll be all set. I have a few pairs of OXO Good Grips locking tongs of differing lengths in the kitchen, but when we’re doing high-heat grilling in the backyard, we use a set of 16-inch tongs by Progressive International. And yes, I am aware that many famous chefs (e.g. David Chang and Thomas Keller) hate tongs with a searing passion, but who cares? (Not this home cook.)
Instant-Read, In-Oven Thermometer: These thermometers aren’t super pricey, so don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish: Invest in a good one so you don’t screw up your expensive meat. I have a ChefAlarm by ThermoWorks and it works like a charm. I also have a Thermapen which is super accurate, but more expensive and you have to keep opening the oven to check the temperature.
Rimmed Baking Sheet: Even though most people use them as cookie sheets, you don’t have to use them to bake cookies. I use them instead to roast meats and vegetables or to crisp up batches of kale chips. A kitchen supply store is a great place to stock up on rimmed baking sheets, but you can also find them online. Personally, I recommend getting sheets that are no smaller than 13” by 18” — otherwise known as half-sheets. You might be tempted to get a full baking sheet, but they’re too big for most home ovens.
Wire Cooling Racks: I use wire racks to keep my roasted meats from sitting in a puddle of grease in the oven, to elevate the proteins I’m about to set ablaze with my kitchen torch, or to keep my crispy sweet potato fries from going limp and soggy. Trust me – wire racks will come in handy in a number of kitchen situations. My favorite racks are made of stainless steel ‘cause they’re practically indestructible, unlike the chrome-lined ones that can flake off with use.
(If you’re curious about how I came up with my recommendations, I pored over these trusted resources: The Cook’s Illustrated website, Consumer Search, and The Sweet Home. I also have an older post about my essential cooking tools that you can read here.)
Crush of the Week:
I chat about how much I love Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Big-O tells us how toothpicks aren’t just for stabbing food, and Lil-O fills us in on the awesomness of stainless steel drinking straws.
(FYI: The other books on my nightstand include a review copy of Tess Masters’s The Blender Girl Smoothies, Jenny Castaneda’s One-Pot Paleo, and Russ Crandall’s Paleo Takeout.)
Question of the week:
Cynthia asked in an email: I have to ask you if you can talk about cheat days when you do Paleo. I eat Paleo-, Whole30-approved foods everyday, but sometimes I schedule a cheat day on the weekend. I would appreciate it if you can have an episode about cheat days. Is it healthy?
If you want to know my answer, you’ll have to listen to my podcast!
That’s it for this week! If you have questions for future podcasts, please leave them in the comments below. Like what you heard? Subscribe to our podcast and leave us a review by clicking here! And don’t forget, you can get 2 months free membership and 20% off your first order at Thrive Market by clicking here!
Looking for more recipes? Head on over to my Recipe Index! You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPad® app, and in my New York Times_ bestselling cookbook, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel 2013)._
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