Five kitchen must-haves
Certain kitchen tools are musthaves: chef’s knives, wooden cutting boards and sheet pans. Then there is a kind of secondary level of equipment that makes your life easier and neater. If you are looking for some small upgrades to your kitchen arsenal, these five are worth their cheap price tag. Bench scraper: This bladestyle tool can sweep away messes on your counter – flour for pizza dough or, uh, spilled couscous. It is also handy for scooping up and moving chopped-up ingredients. Mine gets a good workout cutting dough for bagels or scones.
Cake tester: If you bake at all, a cake tester is worth having around. They’re also useful for brownies and muffins. Toothpicks are commonly used the same way, but I hated going through so many and never remembering where I stashed the box. Moreover, thin metal testers can help you determine if your vegetables, and even meat or fish, are cooked through.
Splatter screen: A splatter screen is especially handy for pan-frying food such as chicken cutlets or tomato sauce. When set over a bowl, you can use it in lieu of a strainer, as in when you have made broth and need to remove the solids. Or use it to smooth out vegetable purees and even spuds for mashed potatoes.
Spoon rest: For years, I would stick my dirty, in-use spoons and spatulas on wadded-up paper towels, plates, the counter, the stove top or, precariously, the edge of the pot. Then we were passed along a beautiful ceramic spoon rest from Italy, and I was immediately sold. It earned a permanent place on the counter adjacent to the big burner on our stove. It eventually cracked, but now I treasure its replacement, a blue-and-white one we picked up in London. Some spoon rests are just big enough for the end of the spoon or spatula, but I am messy, so I prefer a full-length version that can also hold dirty handles.
Brushes: A firm scrubber brush is perfect for cleaning produce, especially fruit and vegetables you don’t plan on peeling. You can also use it for general cleaning tasks such as removing burned-on stuff from your stovetop. A bottle brush with a long handle makes cleaning flasks, tall glasses and water bottles a breeze. –