KitchenPatterns

In The Well Appointed Kitchen I presented a list of items and gadgets specifically tailored to a small kitchen or a small budget. The more I thought about it though and the more I pared things down, the more apparent it became that I was going to need, in several cases to defend my choices. Below is my reasoning - it’s mine. Disagree all you want, when it comes to outfitting your kitchen you should make the choices that reflect your lifestyle.

Pots and Pans

When all the non-stick hype started I bought ‘em and bought ‘em and just about the time I started to love one, it got all scratchy and flaky on me and had to be replaced. I hated that. Every year or so I was plunking down $32.95 for a new non-stick skillet of one size or another and tossing the old one in the trash. It was maddening. For all intents and purposes I was throwing away perfectly fine skillets - good size, good shape, good handle, if only it weren’t for the semi-poisonous flaky stuff coming off the cooking surface. Let’s don’t get into the math behind how much space in the landfill is required to house 330 million trashed skillets every year.

Today, I own only stainless steel or cast iron skillets and pots. Best are the old ones; the ones with stories; the ones that know recipes I don’t and have already had one life preparing meals for other hungry folk. I received both of my skillets as gifts and hand-me-downs from one Tante Liesel and a dear friend. After all the years those skillets and I will have cooked together, I sure hope one of the young people want them because they will still be great skillets.

Mixing Bowls

If you are buying, consider hardened glass or, even prettier; pottery or ceramic.

The bowls of hardened glass actually are damned difficult to break. I know this because breaking things is a specialty of mine. I have six harden glass bowls in four different sizes beginning with nearly-too-heavy-to-lift and ending with pancakes-for-two. The duplicates are the two smaller sizes.

If you buy lovely ceramic ones you will do your kitchen decor a favor every time you leave one on the counter. This is important if you have chosen the dishwasher-optional version of the KP kitchen. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter what you want to make, either glass or pottery will be the right choice. You won’t be able to ferment vegetables in stainless-steel.

If you already have a kitchen full of plastic, for heaven’s sakes, don’t throw it away because I said to prefer hardened glass or ceramic! What I want to say about that is if you’re on a budget, you don’t need to duplicate sizes and it’s always smart to wait and see where it hurts. Then go out and buy another bowl in that size. When your plastic is all worn out (good luck living that long) and you get ready to replace it, then choose hardened glass or ceramic.

Knives and Cutting Boards

Now here is topic that raises hackles and you can really throw endless money at this category. I’m going to take the high road and say you need ‘em, buy the best you can afford and take very good care of them.

Other Sharp Items Like a Cheese Grater

Mine is stainless-steel and I’ve had it for twenty-three years. Are you getting tired of reading that yet? Because I’m not getting tired of saying it…

Canning Jars and Storage Boxes

Love canning jars for storing everything. See’em on sale? Buy a few and notice how quickly you need more.

With regard to plastic storage boxes, just be sure they are BSG free wherever possible.

Cake and Loaf Pans

Bah. I have collected a bunch of these over the years. Here is what I actually use:

• a 9x13 rectangle and a small springform which I have just learned won’t leak all over my oven if I line it first with parchment paper.
• Maybe a loaf pan from time to time and
• a pie tin at the holidays.

All the rest of them could really go in a holding-pen bag in the basement.

Baking Sheet / Cookie Sheets

Yep. I have one baking sheet and it has sides. Back in the day my grandmother’s cookbooks called it a jellyroll pan and don’t let’s get in to the story about how I accidentally destroyed the accidental work of art that had formed on mine, while attempting to teach myself how to bake sour-dough bread. It’ll only make me cry.

Sometimes, I wish I had two baking sheets. But I don’t.

Kitchen Towels

I used to think you could never have too many of these, until I met a girl who had an entire laundry basket of lovely linen towels (folded and ironed ) in her tiny kitchen and I realised that, on this point at least, I was wrong.

Quality linen towels hold up really well and don’t leave fuzz on the chicken breasts. Ok, you will think of this yourself, but send it to the washer post-haste after you use a clean kitchen towel for drying off meat. Wash kitchen towels hot (at least 60° C) and just look at all the money you save not buying paper towels you don’t need after all. Once your linens get old, you can give’em a second life as cheesecloth replacements and for cleaning mirrors and paint brushes.

Colander / Sieve

I have a plastic colander that someone gave me as a present and I use it mostly when I make soup stock/bone broth. The stainless-steel sieve with a handle is the one I use the rest of the time.

Meat Thermometer

At Christmas and Thanksgiving you’ll be glad you have a meat thermometer. Maybe once or twice in between - it’s one of those things I am really happy to have; but not very often. If you are just starting out, put this on your list to buy when you have a little extra cash or you can’t borrow one from the neighbor or your mom.

When you do get one, get a good one. If you don’t lose it in the miscellaneous drawer^[1] you should only have to buy one in this lifetime.

Garlic Press

If you define “need” as those essentials without which you can not live or cook, you don’t need a garlic press. You can also chop your clove of garlic very fine and squish it with the blade of your knife, or grate it on the fine setting of your grater or microplane. Both of these methods will get you where you are going with a multi-use gadget. The only thing I know that a garlic press can do is press garlic.

A Microplane

Nothing in the world could make me say you need a microplane. But I love mine. It’s grate. Ha. Ha. Never mind.

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Footnotes

[1] The miscellaneous drawer I mean is the one where you also store your lemon zester, battery operated can-opener, bits of string and ceiling wax, umpteen chopsticks, ketchup and soy sauce packages from the takeout joint down the corner. Of miscellaneous drawers other than this one, I have no knowledge. ahem cough. cough.