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[QUESTION] What are your favorite spices to use in soups?
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My first is this silicon spatula. It's construction isnt just a silicon tip with wooden handle. Its the red silicon for much more of the handle, which I've felt makes it easier to clean and last longer, since gunk isnt getting wedged between the handle and tip. I like it so much I have two.
The second is probably just a spray bottle with water and dish soap. I clean up messes and the stove and countertops with it, and it's incredibly convenient.
America's Test Kitchen has a bunch of reviews for different categories. I saw someone post a comment about trying all the top recommendations in every category during the pandemic.
Swiss Classic Tomato and Table Knife That I use as a "sandwich knife" every day for slicing buns or baguettes, butter, anything you'd put on toast or a sandwich gets cut with this knife. I use it over any specialized bread or tomato knife.
Tongs, obviously.
click, click
spin spin
Silicone spatula, instant read digital probe thermometer, and a Le Creuset dutch oven/pot.
We have an electric stove and even our good quality pans tend to bow at the bottom a little and reduce even contact with the stove surface. The Creuset lays flat every time, the thicker construction heats more evenly, has high sides to catch spatter from boiling or searing. Instant read thermometers are a game changer for the proper cooking of foods. No overcooking, the correct donness can be checked quickly. It’s a must-have to properly cook food from proteins to bread to custard. The silicone spatula is flexible yet sturdy enough to scrape, fold, or even flip, cleans quickly and easily, and the heat resistance is great.
Next time, take it one step further lol:
I don't think I have a favourite, but I'm definitely with you - when it comes to food prep I'll always choose an item that is one solid piece over one that has joins (and other unnecessary grooves and crevices, or that is porous) where crap accumulates and is hard or even impossible to remove.
microplane (much, much more than a "zester") - relatively under-known, but a true godsend
edited: added 'uses' image
What do you do with this other than zesting? I tried searching and I see something about grating hard cheese but that's it.
Grinding garlic instead of finely chopping it. You don't even have to peel it first. The peel is tougher and will just come off instead of being grated.
I have several silicon spatulas and absolutely love them. Still have some wooden spoons around though, to help break up things that the silicone is too soft for. An example is heating frozen chili on the stove top, using a wooden spoon to break up the frozen bits as they thaw. However, the silicone spatulas are far more versatile. Plus you can scrap every last drop of sauce out of a pan with them.
Longer tongs. I have a gas top stove and using shorter handled tongs can get uncomfortable if I'm cooking something for a long period of time.
Flat strainer. Essentially a spider, except the mesh is the same as a fine mesh strainer. This was a purchase that my wife made that I thought was totally useless and indeed, it sat in the drawer for months. Until I needed just one more strainer, as all the others were used already. Turned out that it is very useful and easier to use than a full strainer in a lot of circumstances. It also doubles as a spider and it is really great at cleaning up hot oil in between batches.
Spray bottle with 50/50 white vinegar and water. Great for cleaning and disinfecting the counter top, also spray it on my cutting boards after washing them to keep them from smelling like what I last cut on them.
Lastly, a really good set of thermometers. I love the Thermoworks thermometers and have the Dot, Thermopen IR, and the 4 probe Smoke for BBQ. Along with multiple types of probes for various applications. They were expensive, but have proven themselves time and time again.
Lastly my absolute favorite kitchen item and by far the most expensive is my Wolf DF304 stove. I found one on Craigslist several years ago that was being sold by a couple who were retiring and did not want to move it to their new condo. It's a heavy SOB. So I bought it for a song and it really is a serious cooking tool. It is by far the most even cooking oven and the stove top is extremely flexible. It also is standing up to me cooking on it every single day. A lot of people buy Wolf/Sub Zero products as a status item, which is a crying shame. They are well built, they are designed to be used in a commercial kitchen, and they cook spectacularly well.
I have a can opener that cuts through the sides of the can instead of the top, so you can just pull off the entire top of the can without cutting yourself with a sharp edge. Makes me feel more sophisticated.
Wouldn't that leave a sharp edge either way?
It’s not actually cutting anything, it’s un-joining the seam where the lid was added to the can. You pull it off and it sometimes has little glue/sealant strings attached still. It’s all smooth edges.
Woah. I want one!
Makes the can much safer to clean for recycling as well!
My partner got one of these! I was skeptical at first but now I don't feel like I'm trying to pry up a disc of doom when I open a can.
Definitely stainless steel pans! They take a bit to get used to, but they're so much more convenient because you don't have to baby them like teflon pans. Cleaning is also much easier, I just scrape them down with a metal spatula and throw them in the dishwasher.
Bamboo pot scraper
Whetstone for keeping blades sharp. Makes everything so much quicker and safer (dulled blades slip).
Or perhaps a ceramic coated cast iron pot and lid. You can practically cook any meal in the thing, switch it in and out of the oven, put it on the burners, fry in it, deglaze and make a quick sauce with the caramelisation on it. Chefkiss.
Also I think you meant *utensil
Wooden kitchen utensils.
Use all the time:
silicon spatula
strainer spoon
ss measuring cups with little pour spouts - The things are so solid they could probably stop a bullet. lol
ss rectangular measuring spoons - Don't get round ones, get rectangular ones, that way they actually fit into the mouths of spice bottles.
Less used but glad I have them:
thermopen - It greatly improved my meat cooking. no more guesswork
zester - I have a zester that goes on a finger and you palm it. works great and holds the shavings in a plastic cup until you pop it off and empty it. I've never found one that works as nicely as this.
box grater - I've ignored this for too long and I'm realizing it is better than 99% of the gizmos out there for cheese and such.
I have graters in two sizes: the lesser grater and the greater grater.
Integrate them
Hands down.... the vinegar bottle. cheap, white vinegar.
For getting baked-on-cruft off pans and such. 50/50 mix with water, heated up to steaming (or boiling, if you're a nutter.) Poor in and let sit. Boom. if it's a pan or pot that can go on the stove; even easier.
for appliances.... coffee pot. definitely. i may be an addict.
While I agree that vinegar is excellent for most applications, you have to be careful with it because it's very acidic. So you can't use it on things like cast iron, marble or other easily etched stone, or anything non-stick. But it's damn excellent for everything else!
My toaster oven. It's got an air fryer function on it as well. I use mine several times a day for snacks, sides, and sometimes my main entree.
The runners up...
My silicone kitchen utensils are pretty high up there, though. Spoonula, spoon, straight spatula, and fish spatula all work hard in my kitchen. So easy to clean. New silicone tools keep coming out and improving too. Rated for higher temps. I don't like it when I need to replace something, but at least when I do, it's a welcome upgrade.
My enameled dutch oven does a lot for me. I have made so many soups and entrees. I deglaze it pretty much every meal so cleaning it isn't too much of a pain. I don't like taking care of raw cast iron, but something about the enamel doesn't register as much of a pain to me.
I like my measuring tools with no seams. I got the Sur La Table ones.
My silicone mats for my oven are great. Since getting them, my biscuits don't stick. They're perfect every time.
My Vitamix is another small appliance I use often. It's really good for when I am having texture issues and I need some fruits and veggies. (I love green smoothies!)
Ok I gotta stop, I just want to write about everything in my kitchen... Except for my knives. I need to get better ones but I keep getting decision fatigue so I keep using the ones I have. I want to learn how to sharpen them better too before I ruin a good one.
Lmao I have you tagged as "cream cheese slut" and I have no recollection why
Squirt bottle for (olive) oil. It is a lot more precise than simply pouring oil out of the bottle the oil comes in.
Electric kettle. No fancy features, just a switch to start water boiling, which shuts off once it's at a rolling boil
Multishelf airfryer. It's great for roasting small batches of vegetables (baby carrots, potatoes, cauliflower etc) without the guilt of firing up the big oven. It's also great in the summer because it doesn't heat up my apartment
1.5qt sauce pan. It's great for heating up small batches of soups, bbq beans etc. This is what I used to heat the water for my tea prior to purchasing the electric kettle
I pretty much use all of these on a daily basis
Probably my mixers. I've got a spiral dough mixer and a KitchenAid mixer. That spiral mixer is a beast!
As far as an inexpensive item I use every day, kitchen scale.
It has a lot of functions and can make you a better cook and a healthier person if you choose to use it for such reasons. My main uses for it are weighing coffee and water to brew a really dialed in and consistent coffee brew for me, and one for my girlfriend. No using volumetric scoops that give you different amount of different coffee brands or grind sizes, no eyeballing the amount of water you're using to brew and extract. Find a recipe that works, and you can repeat it every time and get the same great result.
Same for any other recipe. I make a seasoning mix to make killer taco sauce. Add the spice to an empty cup, add x grams ketchup, x grams water, and x grams vinegar...perfect sauce every time. Bread recipe calibrated for my special bread pan. x grams flour, water, salt, and yeast. No guessing, no multiple dirty measuring scoops and cups and spoons, just toss it in one bowl on the scale. Need x amount of honey, but lose half getting it stuck to the spoon or cup? Look at the serving label to get the grams per tsp and just squeeze that amount right into what you're making. You can also do the reverse. Bowl too big to read the scale? Set the bowl aside, tare the scale with the flour container, and scoop out the amount you need.
Want even portions? I make a ball of dough, tare the bowl and toss the dough in. Divide by the number of portions I want. If I want 50g rolls, pull off a ball, adjust so scale reads -50g, tare and repeat. Want to measure out servings to stay healthy? How much is a cup of something lumpy like Brussell sprouts? Look up the serving weight and dish out that much.
If you want something more upscale, I also use my Barratza Encore coffee grinder and Breville Smart Oven every day. Both give very consistent results and have brought real quality of life improvements. The grinder lets me try new single origin fresh coffees every month, and the Smart Oven heats very quickly and cooks more evenly than my standalone oven while using much less electric and not heating the whole house up, plus it rises dough nicely and the air fryer function reheats leftovers wonderfully and toasts bagels more on one side than the other and a bunch of other stuff.
If you're looking for a cheap good one, get those super cheap ones from AliExpress/etc. Imho these are soo much better than anything else you can get in the consumer space, and even some commercial ones because they are super responsive. The only downsides are that they're relatively small so reading the display with a large bowl on top is a bit difficult and they're probably not super accurate, especially with low loading. But that's not really an issue for cooking. They take regular AAA batteries that last for ages and the thing costs like under 5€. I've had mine for like 8 yrs now and aside from a bit of liquid that got into the display it still works completely fine.
Here's the type I'm talking about:
spoiler
Hands down my wooden chopsticks, wooden spoon or wooden spatula. I use at least one of these guys for everything I cook. I also don't want anything plastic in my kitchen - the packaging is bad enough as is.
Dreamfarm stuff is the best in my experience, I love it!
I will second the good quality spatula as a top tier kitchen utensil. I also have a favorite flat spatula, a favorite whisk, and a set of wood utensils all of which I use on a nearly daily basis. I'm still looking for the perfect knife, but I do have some decent ones at the moment so I can't complain.
I bought this big fancy $30 metal spatula and saw a mini one for $8 rust I added on impulse . Turns out the mini one is the best for most applications so I use it every day and almost never use the big one.
Edit: this is the one, 2.5*4 https://www.webstaurantstore.com/dexter-russell-19720-traditional-4-x-2-1-2-solid-pancake-turner-rosewood-handle/21019720.html
When you gotta chop up that ground beef real good:
I have this silicone lid I got from Aldi. It's just a giant flat circle of silicone with an indented lid in the middle. I bought it for my giant soup pot as I didn't have a lid for it, but it's so much more than a lid. It's amazing as a splash guard, it seals via vacuum to pots so you can lift from two points instead of just the handle, it's good for covering food and keeping it warm... I love it more than I ever thought I would. And it's super easy to clean!
My knife, it's not only a work of art itself, but so so good to use
My electric kettle. It's so convenient for tea.
My Sunbeam egg cooker. Not sure it qualifies as a utensil?
I just stick two eggs in, plus the amount of water indicated for two eggs, and soon two soft boiled eggs are ready. No fuss, no guesswork.
Do you meant utensil?
