Building Your Batterie de Cuisine: Part Three

Alright, you’ve been cooking for awhile now. You’ve assembled your basic arsenal and added a few extra fun tools here and there with each new recipe you’ve tried. You’re starting to eye some fancier gadgets, and the recipe you’ve been eyeing next calls for a bundt pan. It might be time to step up your game.

This is the super special bonus list, and includes things that might pertain more to one style of cooking over another. For example, if you’re not a baker, a KitchenAid mixer might never grace your counter. But a slow cooker might be your best friend.

Many of these are things that I’ve bought over the years as I’ve needed them, rather than going out and buying them all at once. I bought baking sheets right away when I moved into my first apartment, because I consider them a kitchen essential, but muffin pans came later. Mini muffin pans came wayyy later. So don’t feel like you need or should even want all of this stuff. Just let your own culinary experiments guide you.

Just because I like to repeat myself: I’m linking out to shopping sites, and trying to link to the actual items that I own and use, when I can. Because these kinds of tools are a little more wide-ranging, and it will really depend on what kind of cooking you do, I have some sub-lists. One is for the kitchen gadgets and implements that I think are kind of universal, and another is for more specialized bakeware, if you’re into that kind of thing. And then there’s the really nice stuff.

Gadgets

This list could go on FOREVER. There are so many wondrous and sometimes perplexing tools out there. Here are some that I think are worth getting.

An immersion blender. The immersion blender is one of my absolute favorite tools in the kitchen. It is powerful, fast, easy to clean, easy to store, and fun to use. I use one that is very similar to this, but there are a ton of different brands and types out there, and I think they’re all pretty good. Many come with attachments that make them even more useful, like a whisk and a food chopper attachment. Super handy. If you buy one thing on this list, I would suggest an immersion blender.

Spice grinder. Mortars and pestles are lovely things, but for quickly grinding spices to a fine powder, you need something a little stronger. That’s where the spice grinder/coffee grinder comes in. You can use the same machine for both purposes, as long as you are very thorough about cleaning between uses. I do recommend keeping two separate, dedicated grinders though. They aren’t very expensive, and they’re relatively small. We actually use a burr grinder for our coffee, and I currently have no idea where my spice grinder is, so you can see that I don’t grind my own spices often. But if you’re a spice hound and really love things to be as fresh and flavorful as they can be, you’ll want one of these.

Slow cooker. Otherwise known as the crock pot. The working family’s time-saving wunderkind. It is an awesome, awesome thing to come home to dinner already cooked. And while people often think of the slow cooker as a winter-time cooking tool, it’s great for summer, because it doesn’t heat up your whole house and you don’t have to spend lots of time standing over a hot stove. You can get slow cookers that range from very basic and small to fancy, large, programmable bad boys. What you buy will depend on how large your family is, most likely. But our tiny cheap cooker works great for us, and I’ve cooked enough pork in that thing to feed a party of people.

Meat thermometer. There are all kinds: instant read or in-oven, wireless guys and things that use, like, radars or something. I have a pretty basic in-oven thermometer, and I love the thing. No more guessing about meat! Unless you’re a vegetarian you’ll want one of these.

A bench scraper. If you’re not a baker you’ll probably not immediately see the use for this, but trust me. This is one of the handiest tools I have. It lets me easily move chopped food from the cutting board to the hot pan. I am a small person with small hands, and the bench scraper becomes almost like an extension of my hands in the kitchen. That sounds weird, but really, it’s quite useful.

A flat whisk. If you like making sauces you might want a flat whisk. They are excellent for scraping up the delicious browned bits in the pan when you’re deglazing. I have this OXO version and I love it.

Bakeware

If you get into baking, you’ll start to buy all kinds of different bakeware. Here are a few pieces that I think are worth having.

Muffin tins. Muffin tins are great for making muffins, of course. And cupcakes, that goes without saying. But you can do other exciting things with them as well. Mini frittatas, anyone? I have a standard 12-cup and a mini muffin tin. The mini muffin tin mostly comes in handy if you entertain, because you can make all kinds of awesome appetizers and snacks with it. My brother makes something like this for Thanksgiving and we all die for them.

A loaf pan. A quick bread cannot be made without a loaf pan. Pound cakes also benefit from them. Sandwich bread takes on the proper form thanks to the loaf pan. I love to use them for making casual, no-frills cakes. They come in glass, metal, and ceramic, and in a variety of sizes. I think I just fell in love with this red one, but you don’t need anything fancy.

Pie plates. Much like loaf pans, pie tins come in all kinds of materials. I use a very standard nine and a half inch glass pie plate. But there are pretty, decorative versions as well. Most of them are nine inches but you can find larger and smaller. These are great for pie (duh) but also pretty useful for quiche. And I’ve used mine for random things like small enchiladas, too.

Cake pans. If you think you might bake a cake at some point, you’ll probably want some cakes pans. They usually come in either eight inch or nine inch sizes. You’ll definitely want more than one if you want to make layer cakes. If you want to get really creative you can by them in all kinds of molded shapes so you can make cakes that look like lambs or race cars. These seem odd to me now, but when I was little I really wanted one of these weird doll cakes.

Bundt cake pans. I love making bundt cakes. Love it. And I know I’m not alone. I also love that bundt cakes come in so many awesome different shapes and sizes. If you’re also the kind of person who likes bundt cakes, you’ll end up with one (or two, or three) of these some day. It’s a good thing.

Really Extra Super Special

There are a few things in my kitchen that have become indispensable to me. But I consider these extra special because, well, largely because they’re kind of spendy. If you discover that you have a real passion for cooking, consider investing in some of these shiny toys.

A KitchenAid Mixer. Yes. Yes. I really love my mixer. Every time I use it I say a quiet thank you to my parents who gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago. It is a workhorse. It makes so many tasks in my kitchen so much easier. It makes me happy when I look at it. We might have an unhealthy relationship. If you have the opportunity to pick up one of these guys, especially if you are a person who love to bake, please do it. You won’t be sorry.

A food processor. I have standard Cuisinart model. The best thing about it, in my opinion, are the grating and slicing plates. I can grate up some carrots, potatoes, and beets in seconds. Seconds! It’s amazing.

The list of fun kitchen gear could go on and on and on. Depending on what kinds of things you do in the kitchen, you’ll find a different set of tools useful. For example, I got really into baking pizza awhile ago. So I have a pizza stone, and a pizza peel, and a pizza cutter. But I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that someone else get these things if they weren’t into pizza. I tried to highlight the things that I think are the most universally useful with this list. Are there things that I missed? What are some of your favorite specialty tools?