Useful Tools and Favorite Gadgets

This is not an exhaustive list of all of my favorite kitchen tools but a handy reference to all of the things mentioned in the recipes on the site.

Invaluable when pitting lots of cherries and also good for olives:

For blending flour and fat for pie crust:

My favorite rolling pin:

This is what I bought to grind my own meat:

For bread making and more:

Cook’s Illustrated rated this the best thermometer for accuracy and speeed.  I’ve had mine for years and it has changed the way I cook in ways I could never have predicted.  An accurate thermometer will allow you to cook your poultry just to the point where it’s done and not beyond.  It will ensure that the water you’re proofing your yeast in is in the right range.  It will tell you if your steak is rare or medium rare. It is not cheap but I wouldn’t recommend spending this much on something if I wasn’t crazy about it.

If someone every really forced me to chose ONE pot or pan this would be the one. Again, not cheap. But meant to last well beyond any one person’s lifetime. My friend Anne once got such a deal on this exact pot at Zabar’s that we still talk about it to this day. I use mine for deep-fryng (it makes it possible to maintain an even temperature), chili, soups, stews, braises, etc. I don’t even put it away because I think it’s so cute. I might ask to be buried with it. Or in it.

Talk about a cheap thrill, I absolutely love this little thing. I am not the most disciplined cook when it comes to mise en place but when I do actually get organized and measure out all my ingredients before I start cooking I always use this. It’s so great to just measure 3 tablespoons of olive oil and have it sit and wait for you to call on it and only dirty one thing vs. two. Just spend the $4 and buy one and you’ll see what I mean. One warning: do NOT put it in the dishwasher; the markings will wear off quickly.

Another thing you didn’t know you needed until you got it and found yourself reaching for it every day. Although its original and primary purpose is to help you get dough off of your countertops (and it works great for that) I find it to be more useful for things like getting a bunch of chopped shallots from cutting board to pan. I also use mine for cleaning — it liberates some of the stuck-on stuff (like dough) from your countertops and gets all the little bits of minced garlic off of the cutting board.