Which kitchen tool/s...

[SherryJ]

... do you use most often? :) Is there ONE you just CAN'T live without?

For me, it's knives... I don't have lot of fancy stuff, ie food processor, etc. Maybe I'd cook/enjoy cooking more if I did, LOL! :D

What about you?

Sherry

[kevinpa]

:eek: :lol: lol This almost as bad as limiting us to 1 spice!!! Well if I have to pick only 1 .......I'll choose my new GE range...... Might as well pick a big tool :lol:

[SherryJ]

Oh, but, Kevin! I was VERY careful to say "tool/s"... and, THEN asked if there was ONE... I'm ready for ya! :p

I hope to get a new stove in the next year... what is it that you like so much about your's, Tool Man? ;)

Sherry

[realruth]

My stick blender with attatchments!!!!

Whiz, chop, beat !

[kevinpa]

... what is it that you like so much about your's

There are several things about it I like. I have alway had an electric range with coil cooktops. GE makes a highend model that still have coils. Also GE coils have twice as many coils in them as any of the others allowing much more even distribution of heat. The oven also has something called true temp which keeps the temperture of the oven to + or - 3 degrees at all times. From what I understand the nearest competitor is + or - 15 degrees. It also has a great hi-lo broiler which gives you nice control of what you are grilling........And its new :lol: I had an older range for quite a few years and it worked fine ......but it was time for an upgrade.

[Gaelen]

hmmm...favorite tools.
I'd have to agree, with a good knife (and the ceramic hones to keep it sharp), I can do anything, and it's the first thing I'd make sure I had on hand. I have a 7 inch Wusthof chef's knife--not the huge mother knife you see a TV chef wielding, but I've also got very small hands and short fingers. I think for me that #7 is the perfect size. I'm trying very hard to like my new Santoku, as I tried before to like another version of a Santoku knife, but y'know, it doesn't hold an edge nearly so well, nor is it quite as versatile as old trusty #7. ;) Maybe what I need is a Wusthof Santoku (which I think is the brand Emeril chose to make his signature set)...I just really like the balance and the quality of the steel in my chef's knife, so maybe I'd like the feel of a Wusthof version of a Santoku...
Hand in hand with those good knives is something really inexpensive that helps a lot with kitchen cleanup--a set of three flexible cutting board sheets. I can cut up a mess of vegetables, a fish fillet or a piece of chicken, and supreme a grapefruit, and have a clean 'board' for each type of food.

Tool #2 is definitely my Melitta #2 portable coffee cone. I have two (one lives in the camping box). I have a full size Melitta coffee maker (auto shutoff, fills two 16 oz. mugs or a 5-cup insulated steel carafe) that I use when I want quantity or to fill my mug first thing in the morning. But when I just want one cup in the evening, I turn on the teakettle and get out my coffee cone and direct brew into my mug the old-fashioned way. There's just something richer (IMO) about direct-brewed coffee.

#3 -- my Braun stick blender. I use it every day, frequently multiple times per day. Just don't use it to make egg custard...it leaves too many airholes in the custard and toughens it so it's not the melt-in-your-mouth consistency I wanted (learned THAT the hard way...)

#4 -- my kitchen shears. Don't know the make of them, but they're the kind that come completely apart. In that state they can be sharpened on a ceramic hone just like a knife. I use them for everything from cutting kitchen twine to tipping the ends of flower stems to opening shellfish exoskeletons to breaking down a whole raw chicken to trimming up my herbs, especially the woody stemmed ones. They have saved my hands and my knife blade more times than I can count.

#5 -- twist grinders for whole spices. I have a traditional pepper mill with steel grinder wheels, a few older or miscellaneous pepper mills that are now loaded with whole coriander, cumin and cloves, and one ceramic geared salt mill for my coarse sea salt. They are lined up along the rim of my counter, and most of them are used every day. Store-counter ground spices just don't add the same kind of punch...I keep those on hand for quantity, but for just a taste or to correct seasonings at the stove, I go to the grinders every time. Whenever I see one in good shape at a garage sale or flea market, I pick it up so that I can add another 'whole spice' to my cupboard. I also have a spare coffee grinder to grind whole spices into mixtures and blends.

Okay...I'll stop at 5. ;)

[LisaS]

1 - stick/immersion blender
2 - electric kettle
3 - shears
4 - grater(s) - 4 sided & rasp
5 - foreman grill
6 - outdoor grill

i need new knives so won't even name the old ones

[Mitra]

A good knife is the first priority, and with a few saucepans (cast iron frying pans, 12" stainless steel sauté pan and a couple of different sizes of sauce/stock pans), wooden spoons, plenty of mixing bowls (I use mainly stainless steel) and a cooker you can do most things. My wire whisk seems to go in the dishwasher most nights, too, along with the lemon juicer and a grater or two.

Although I'm a bit of a gadget-hound :o , for some reason, in the kitchen I don't really like them. I have a kitchenaid mixer, but I use the mincing attachment more than the actual mixer. I have a stick mixer, and it does get used a few times a week, but I really prefer to mix by hand whenever it's feasible (though the little chopper bowl with it is great for recipes that call for grated onion - no tears doing it this way :D ). I used to have a bread machine, and I really hated it. In the end I gave it away. I didn't like a machine deciding when my bread was sufficiently kneaded, or risen. I like to be more directly involved in the food preparation - to feel the textures, to see the changes. I'm not claiming that doing it by hand gives you a better result, just that for me, cooking is a pleasure and a relaxation, and I enjoy it more doing things by hand.

Like Gaelen, I only buy whole spices (except for chilli, ginger, mustard, turmeric). I have a small electric mill, and three different sizes of mortar & pestle.

Again, like Gaelen, I have a set of plastic chopping sheets that I can put over the wooden chopping board whenever I'm doing anything messy - like chopping oily olives, or raw meat. I also have a huge wooden carving board that I love, and use when we have a roast - which also needs a roasting pan.

[Gaelen]

LOL...okay, it's morning...can I add more? I mean, except for the stick blender and the coffeemaker, I didn't even mention the electrics...;)

Like Mitra, I also like to be very 'hands on' with my cooking...unfortunately, I also have carpal tunnel (15 years of doing thousands of repetitive small motor tasks every day will do that...) and arthritis, and for awhile I had chemo-induced neuropathy (which was very scary--I didn't trust myself to handle a knife.) The carpal tunnel has gone into remission since I'm no longer doing daily microsurgeries and animal handling; the neuropathy recovered completely, but it took awhile; but the arthritis I will have forever. Bottom line, whisking and mixing by hand and long or heavy kneading and sometimes even knifework like mincing and chopping can be painful (days a cold front is moving in are the worst!) That's led me to appreciation of certain things that take a lot of the pressure off my hands.

I've got a really low level electric hand mixer, a rotary hand mixer from my grandma's kitchen (that I love and still use), a crank-by-hand food processor they used to sell as a 'salsa maker', the immersion blender, a 7-cup Cuisinart Pro from the early 90s that I use for heavy or big jobs, and a Magic Bullet. I don't use the salsa maker much anymore, since I got the MB, which I admit I bought in an unrelenting fit of gadget envy. I DO like it for chopping and mixing on the days when my hands hurt, though, and for doing small batches of jobs I'd usually save for the Cuisinart. The MB is a lot easier to clean. ;)

The other electrics are pretty simple...

2 qt. crockpot with removeable liner
Foreman grill (the 3-burger 'Champ' size)
miniature toaster oven (seriously, it's the size of a conventional cheapie toaster...smallest one I could find!)
Salton yogurt maker from the 70s that I use every week (still works fine!)


For crowds, pot lucks and camping, I have an older 3 1/2 qt. crockpot where the crock doesn't come out, a Nesco 6 qt. roaster and a 30-cup coffemaker--but they all live upstairs on a set of shelves in my spare room reserved for stuff I only break out once in awhile. :)

Truly, some of my favorite gadgets and tools are non-electric things. I have a garlic mushroom--a piece of hardwood carved into a mushroom that you use to smash garlic cloves, and that looks cute on top of the toaster oven. I have three Swing-Away non-electric can openers; they are so easy on the hands. I've got one for home, one in my desk at work, and the oldest one lives in the camping box. I have a pair of 12" stainless steel tongs, and they are used as often as my wooden spoons. I also just bought a hard silicone spoon that's heat-safe to 500 degrees F.; it's got the feel of a wooden spoon but a nice bowl almost as deep as a ladle, and I may need more of these. I love my wooden spoons; some are hand carved and some are prizes from winning cooking contests. I have a really good kitchen balance (scale) that switches from ounces to grams and can be calibrated. And I've got a set of Pyrex (glass) measuring cups that nest together--1 cup, 2 cup, 4 cup and 8 cup. I use the 8-cupper as my main mixing bowl, although I've also got a set of Pyrex mixing bowls and some really large plastic bowls that I use for big batches of stuff. I have 3 or 4 ten-inch Pyrex pie plates that I use all the time because they're such a versatile size. I used to have a great big ceramic bread bowl that broke; it's something I'll replace if I find a good one at a flea market or thrift store. I like metal baking pans, but I do own mostly Pyrex baking and measuring/mixing stuff...CNY is near the factory.

What don't I own? A Kitchen-Aid--love the idea, but there is just no room in my kitchen for something that big that wouldn't see daily use. I also don't own a conventional blender...always hated cleaning the one I had, so when it burned out, I didn't replace it. Or maybe I replaced it with the more versatile immersion blender and the MB. ;)

I own a breadmaker that was a Christmas present. I started baking bread in college and used to make 3-5 loaves per week when I had roommates, and 1-2 small loaves every week just me. But the bread machine was really overkill for one person and I never found a decent low carb bread recipe that worked in the machine. I really should have a garage sale. ;) Now that the carpal tunnel is in remission, I can manage any kneading by hand--on my 24 x 36 hand-made bread board, which covers the sink when I need extra counter space, and lives in an artist's hard poly 'sleeve' in the space between the 'fridge and the end of the counters when I don't need it for extra counter space.

Now...what do I still want? Hmmm :D

non-battery operated thermometer that goes up to 400 degrees F.
hand pastry blender/cutter
5 qt. cast iron enameled dutch oven
new paring knife
metal strainer with fine mesh--when I made chicken stock last night, I noticed my old one was looking pretty sad
one of those enameled colanders; my old aluminum one is getting pretty beat up
microplane grater...saw one in the kitchen supply store a few days ago that combined both ultra-fine and medium fine holes with a cool slide-on blade guard--may have to save up for that one ;)
mandoline...I've always wanted one, but always made do with good knife skills.
some of that Polish stoneware, especially the deep pie plate. It's just so beautiful, and functional, and in all my favorite colores.

[ladydoc442]

The things I absolutely couldn't live without are: my French press and burr grinder (nothing better than freshly ground/brewed coffee!), my 8" Wusthof chef's knife, my huge (24" x 36") 2" thick Boos cutting board and my Weber grills (I have both a gas and a charcoal Weber). They get daily use! Oh, and I almost forgot my pepper mills! A friend of mine is into woodworking and he makes the most gorgeous pepper mills out of exotic hardwoods. I have about 10 of them and they contain different types of pepper and whole spices. He also made me a gorgeous salt cellar for my coarse sea salt.

As for electronics, the only item that gets almost daily use is my Waring bar blender, which I use for protein shakes. It comes apart really easily for cleaning purposes.

I also own a commercial immersion blender, but find that I only use it a couple times a year (I live alone and only cook for myself). Same for my food processor - I only drag it out when I want to make a big batch of something, or for tapenade (I hate chopping all those olives by hand). It's also great for shredding cheese (but I admit I cheat and buy the pre-shredded kind mostly).

Deb

[gitfiddle]

I have a cast iron frypan with deep, angled sides and it's good at stovetop cooking and baking. I have several sizes of hardwood angled spatulas and my favorites are the 2-inchers. I also have a floppy black nylon spatula that is wonderful for getting under anything delicate. I didn't think I'd like it, but now I wouldn't trade it.

My Back-To-Basics smoothie blender is very handy and easier to clean up than the big guy.

[Always]

Gaelen...I'm thinkin' you should open a kitchen store with all that equipment.

I, on the other hand, can never have too many spatulas (Michael thinks I'm nuts for spatuals!!). I couldn't live without my Waring blender for my icey protein shakes. My Kitchen Aid mixer is probably 30 years old and going strong. I wish I had a food processor, but no room (although if I had one, I'd make room). My rasp (???) for grating parmesan. My non-stick skillets...must always have on hand. Oh...and can't forget the slow cooker or dutch ovens. You can never have too many knives. Oh and my measuring cups and spoons (of which I have triples). And those pancake flipper thingees...have several. And the adjustable clamping thingee that clamps onto the cover of a jar to help open it that my aunt gave me after my carpal tunnel surgery years ago. Michael couldn't live without his coffee maker. Luv the steamer and a multitude of different shaped spoons. Hmmmm....that's all I can thing of for now. If I was a home and not at the store, I could see it all.

Is Tupperware a kitchen tool????? Maybe that should be the next thread...