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Hi and welcome to the new and hopefully to-be-updated-more-often GWS kitchen equipment recommendation thread! HOW THIS THREAD IS STRUCTURED: - The first post contains the FAQ. This is where we keep most of our product recommendations for commonly asked categories. If you're new, check the FAQ first and see if your question is answered there. If not, post a question and ask! - Everything after that is posting questions and answers. WHAT THIS THREAD IS FOR: - Asking recommendations for kitchen equipment - Giving recommendations for kitchen equipment - Posting links to sales of kitchen equipment THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND: - GWS has many cooking experts, and even they disagree about some things sometimes - There are many other resources out there, most notably Amazon.com's user reviews of many kitchen products  THE FAQ: I'M NEW TO COOKING. WHAT EQUIPMENT DO I NEED?For the typical kitchen you will probably want to start out with the following: - 8 inch chefs knife (or 8 inch gyuto or 7 inch santoku) - Paring knife - Measuring spoons - Liquid measuring cups - Dry measuring cups - Cutting board - Stainless steel skillet - Stainless steel sauce pan - Stainless steel pot - A cheap wooden utensil set (spoons and turners) - Colander or strainer - Can Opener - Grater - Mixing bowls - Oven pads or mitts Stuff you can add later that most people will use, depending on your needs: - Timers (get this and use it if you don't want to forget that you're cooking something and start a fire) - Spatulas/turners (semi-redundant with wood turners, read guide below) - Non-stick skillet (semi-redundant with steel skillet, handy for eggs and fish) - Veggie peeler (semi-redundant with paring knife but much faster, safer) - Bread/serrated knife (semi-redundant with chef knife, handier for breads and tomatoes) - Shears (semi-redundant with knife, handy for meats) - Whisk (semi-redundant with a fork or chopsticks but much more effective) - Tongs (semi-redundant with turners but handier) - Instant read thermometer (improved cooking accuracy) - Steamer basket (if you plan on steaming) - Some cheap citrus juicer (probably a glass dome reamer) - Kettle or electric kettle (semi-redundant with boiling water in pot) - Kitchen scale (for more accurate measurements than measuring cups, generally needed for baking) - Garlic press (semi-redundant with knife, depends if you like crushed garlic or not)  KNIVESWhat knives should I get? - Cheap: Victorinox Fibrox 8 inch chef knife ($33) and paring knife - Medium: Tojiro DP gyuto knife ($50) and paring knife Both of those brands are extremely solid for their price and can even serve as your permanent knives (although if appearance matters to you maybe you want to spring the extra $20-40 for the Tojiros). Once you decide if you want to get into more expensive knives, you can decide whether you want to get into the school of Western knives with their rounder curves, softer steel and heavier builds (Henckels, Wusthof, Messermeister) or Japanese knives with their straighter edges, harder steel and lighter builds (MAC, Shun, Global, Moritaka). If you want to get into more advanced stuff like that, try the Knife Thread. If you do get a western style knife, please do not get one with a finger guard:  The finger guard gets in the way when you're sharpening the knife. You won't notice it at first, but eventually as the metal gets ground away over several sharpenings, the finger guard will stick out and prevent the edge of the knife from making full contact with the cutting board. For contrast, here is one without a finger guard. You can sharpen that one all you like and the edge will always make contact with the cutting board. Generally we recommend against getting knife sets. You end up buying a bunch of knives you don't need when most people do fine with just three or four knives. Most people never need a boner, for example *cough* The most important knife (and maybe your most important piece of kitchen equipment) is the 8 inch chef knife. Second most important knife is the paring knife. What about other kinds of knives? - A santoku is mostly redundant with a chef knife, and some people will use this as their main knife instead of a chef's knife or gyuto. A santoku is generally 7 inches long instead of 8, and is thinner than most chef's knives, which is good for cutting vegetables and delicate meats. - A serrated knife is good for things that have tough skins and squishy insides (bread, tomatoes, etc). - A slicer is for long clean cuts of big roasts/hams. - Fillet or boner is for separating meat from bones or removing fish skin cleanly and with the meat intact. Knife storage - Metallic magnet bar ($6-$23) - Knife safes or knife guards ($3-$8 per knife) - Wooden magnet bars ($26-$45) - Universal Knife Blocks ($25-$40) Got a bunch of hodgepodge knives but wish you could get a knife block to hold them? Well, there's really no right or wrong answer here, it's just whatever seems convenient to you. At the very least though, don't just leave your knives sitting around loose in your drawers with a bunch of other metal utensils because being knocked around will cause them to get dings or get dull, and dull knives don't cut well and slip more often and that's how you end up with a $500 hospital bill. I will add my personal experience with metal magnet bars though, they do dull your knives if you pull them off the wrong way, and if your knives are wet when you stick them on, they might start forming rust after a while, so go with wooden magnet bars if you can. How should I sharpen my knives? - Easy and bad: Pull-through sharpener ($10) - Easy and expensive up front: buy an electric sharpener - Easy and expensive eventually: Go to a knife shop ($3-8 per knife per sharpening) - Medium: Spyderco Sharpmaker ($55) or AGPTek sharpening systems ($30) - Hard: sharpening stones About every few months to a year your knives will get dull and it's time to sharpen them. No, rubbing them on a honing steel is not sharpening, that's just straightening the edge a little. There is a lot of debate over this, but your options for beginners on the low end are A) use an Accusharp or Edge of Glory or other pull-through sharpener, which is super easy but gets kind of a rough edge, or B) go to a knife shop or key duplicator or other kind of shop that has a knife sharpening service or C) buy an electric knife sharpener. All the knife nerds will try to convince you to put in the effort to learn how to use a Spyderco or AGPTek sharpener, because you can sharpen knives like a pro with just a little bit of practice. Don't get into sharpening stones, it's hard mode sharpening and even if you're a pro it's kind of a boring rear end chore. What kind of cutting board should I get? - wood (lasts a very long time, requires some maintenance) - plastics (super easy, but doesn't last forever) First of all, do not ever ever ever use glass, acrylic, marble or granite as a cutting surface. These things will dull your knives. You want to use either wood or plastic (okay, acrylic is technically a plastic but it's super hard). Plastic cutting boards can be run through the dishwasher and resist bacteria pretty easily at first, but will need to be replaced eventually as cuts start accumulating (a good rule would be to toss them if the cuts in the plastic start getting stains that won't wash out). Wood cutting boards require some rubbing down with wood oil every couple months in order to keep from drying out and cracking, they can't be put in the dishwasher, but will resist accumulation of cut marks a lot longer than plastic boards. And theoretically you can sand them down if they get deep gashes.  COOKWAREWhat kind of cookware do I need? - A stainless steel skillet for most things, probably 10" or 12" - A 10" or 12" non-stick skillet for delicate or sticky things - A stainless steel sauce pan, probably 2-3 quarts - A 6 quart stainless steel pot, for casseroles and stews - Optional: 3 quart non-stick sauce pan if you want to make lots of cheese or other goopy things - Optional: 8-12 quart stock pot, if you want to make stocks and soups - Optional: cast iron skillet if you want to sear things with high heat - Optional: cast iron dutch oven for frying - Optional: pressure cooker That's about all you really need. Everything else is sorta redundant, but that's not necessarily a bad thing either. Sometimes you want several sauce pans and several skillets if you're cooking a multi-course dinner. So you gotta decide, are you going to buy your stainless steel cookware piecemeal, or do you want to get a stainless steel cookware set? What if I want to buy them piecemeal? Your best option is to go to a discount store like TJ Maxx, Homegoods, Ross or Marshall's. Now, there are two general categories of stainless steel cookware you'll see there: A) stainless steel with aluminum disc bottoms (obvious because they have a fat metal pancake stuck to the bottom of the cookware) and B) "tri-ply" or "multi-clad" cookware, where the entire thing is a layer of aluminum covered in another layer of steel. Tri-ply and multi-clad cookware is only slightly more expensive than disc-bottom cookware, and they provide better heat distribution (which helps avoid hot spots and burned corners), so I would recommend getting those if you can. Practically any brand of tri-ply or multi-clad cookware should work great, although beware: sometimes the label will try to fool you by calling it a "tri-ply disc bottom." If you already have disc-bottom cookware, don't fret, it will still cook great, you just need to keep a slightly more diligent eye out to make sure you don't get hot spots in your food. What if I want to buy a stainless steel cookware set? - Cheap: Tramontina 8 piece set ($120 Walmart exclusive), Kirkland 13 piece set ($180 CostCo exclusive, $150 on sale), - Middle: Cuisinart MCP-12 ($240 on Amazon), Calphalon Tri-Ply ($272 at Bed Bath Beyond after 20% coupon) - Fancy: All-Clad ($600-$1600) Note that the main downside to Tramontina, Kirkland and Cuisinart sets is that they don't have a 12" skillet, which is pretty handy to have sometimes. But hey, you can probably just find a loose 12" skillet for cheap at TJ Maxx! Also note that the Calphalons have tempered glass lids, which let you see how your food is progressing but aren't safe to use in the oven over 450°F. If you have money to burn and want the best, you can get All-Clad sets, which generally run $600-1600. All-Clad also offers copper-core cookware sets, but some posters have noted that they don't see much of an advantage with them over aluminum cores. Also, if you're going to get All-Clad you might want to get one of the newer ones that say they have rolled edges/rolled lips, it helps with pouring more cleanly. Personally, I hate All-Clad's handles except for their newest TK line which is a Williams Sonoma exclusive My stainless steel cookware has all these horrible ugly stains, how do I clean them? - Use a $4 can of Bar Keeper's Friend to scrub them down once a month or so when they get too dirty. Also, a $1 steel wool scrubby helps a lot. Non-stick skillets? - cheap: any old non-stick skillet you find at a discount store should work fine for a few years - great: Calphalon Contemporary non-stick 10 inch and 12 inch two-pack ($50)is a great pair of pans and if you get it with a Bed Bath & Beyond 20% coupon it comes down to $40. - greater: Calphalon Unison 8 & 10 inch 2 pack ($56) or Calphalon Unison 10 & 12 inch 2 pack ($79) Most non-stick pans fall apart after a few years of use, but I've had my Calphalon Contemporary pans for five years and they're still working great. Not as slick as before, but still good enough to cook eggs on medium heat and have them pop off. Don't use metal utensils in non-stick cookware BTW, it will scratch up the non-stick layer and make it fall apart faster. Also, don't heat it above 500°F or else it might shorten the lifespan of the pans (and may possibly release unhealthy fumes). And don't wash non-stick cookware with green scouring pads, those will scratch them up almost instantly. The Unison line is even slicker if you don't mind paying a few more bucks. I heard teflon non-stick pans are dangerous! What about ceramic non-stick skillets! Well, supposedly they release fumes but there's some debate about how dangerous these fumes really are. At any rate, you shouldn't be heating them up past 500°F because it will cause the teflon coating to fall apart sooner. 400°F is perfectly sufficient to crisp up fish skin, sear scallops and other seafoods. If you need higher temperatures because you want to sear steaks, you should really be using a staineless steel or cast iron skillet. Ceramic non-stick cookware is promising, but as far as I know from online reviews, they don't maintain their non-stick slickness as well as teflon pans. Maybe someday they'll get better but that day doesn't seem to have come yet. Dutch ovens. Do you even need one? - Cheap: Lodge enameled, Tramontina enameled, IKEA "Senior", all $40-60 - Medium: Cuisinart ($80-100 at discount stores) - Fancy: Le Creuset, Staub ($120-$150 at discount stores) You can get by with just using the multi-clad pot from a stainless steel cookware set for most applications. Once in a while you might need a heavy cast iron dutch oven if you want to sear meat and then throw it in the oven, but even then you can just break out the skillet for searing and then move it into a stainless steel pot for the rest of the cooking. If you want to deep fry however, a dutch oven is nice because the thick, heavy walls help to smooth out temperature changes. If you decide you want one, the next question is: bare cast iron or enameled? Bare cast iron shouldn't be used often for acidic foods like tomatoes or wine, and since you can find enameled ones for roughly the same price range you might as well go with those. Lodge enameled dutch ovens can be found for $40 at Ralph's, IKEA carries their "Senior" for $50, Tramontina at Walmart for $40. If you absolutely need a fancy Le Creuset or Staub to show off to your friends, or if you just want a particular color that's only available by Le Creuset, try Home Goods or similar discount stores. Often times they'll get Le Creuset overstock for $120 or so (half price). 5 quart dutch ovens will snugly fit a whole chicken. Keep in mind that once in a while an enameled cast iron dutch oven will have the enamel flake off or bubble. It's just bad luck, but raising the temperature on it gradually and not blasting the stove on high all the time might help. Pressure cooker, do I need one? - Cheap: Presto 8 quart aluminum pressure cooker - Medium: Fagor 10 quart steel pressure cooker (8qt would have been ideal but they discontinued it) - Fancy: Kuhn Rikon 8qt steel pressure cooker Pressure cookers can cook things way faster than conventional methods, something something science pressure makes things cook faster blah blah blah. A stock that would have taken 6 hours can now take 1. Also you can steam cook several things at once by stacking a bunch of metal bowls full of food inside and cooking for about 10 minutes. Keep in mind that they have a maximum fill line that's about 2/3-3/4 of the internal volume, so you can only really cook about 6 quarts of food in an 8 quart cooker, etc. If you're making stock this greatly affects your final output, which is why we recommend 8 quart cookers instead of the more popular 6 quart size. Should I get an electric pressure cooker? Well, the reviews about most electrics is that they can't actually get up to the proper pressure, and they are mostly limited to 6 quarts and use a non-stick pot inside which isn't very durable, so... probably better to get a stovetop pressure cooker instead. Baking sheets? Get some cheap aluminum baking sheets in half sheet and quarter sheet sizes! They're $10 online, but you can probably find them in a restaurant supply store for $7 or so. You can wash them in the dishwasher, but keep in mind that aluminum oxidizes and turns gray and ugly in the dishwasher. If you want one that stays beautiful through the wash, there are some steel ones. I've even seem some "tri-ply" ones which are aluminum on the inside and steel on the outside for about $10 at a outlet kitchen store. You can also get nonstick ones, but keep in mind that if they get scratched by metal utensils, they'll start flaking off.  SMALL APPLIANCESDo I want a stand mixer or a hand mixer? A hand mixer will do almost everything that a stand mixer can, it just takes twice as long. However, if you're going to do bread doughs you absolutely want a stand mixer, since it's a big burden on the motor and a hand mixer might get worn down and break faster under the strain. If you have the money however, a stand mixer is also nice because you can turn it on and do other things while it's mixing. And it can handle much larger volumes at a time. Which hand mixer? The KitchenAid 5-speed Ultra Power ($31) and the Cuisinart PowerSelect 3-speed ($30) are both well-reviewed hand mixers Which stand mixer? Strong: KitchenAid Artisan ($280) ($220 refurb can be found at kitchen outlet stores) Stronger: KitchenAid Pro 600 ($340) For bread: Bosch Universal Plus Kitchen Machine ($380) Before we used to recommend KitchenAid, Cuisinart and Breville stand mixers, but lately there have been many reviews complaining about the performance of the Cuisinart and Breville mixers when it came to bread dough, so we're only recommending the KA's as an all-around mixer. Since KitchenAid is the most popular brand it has the most accessories available to it too. SymmetryrtemmyS is sort of our resident bread expert and recommends the Bosch mixer if you're going to do a lot of bread. The "planetary" mixing motion of the KitchenAids makes it better at mixing most things thoroughly, but the Bosch's simpler orbital motion makes it stronger, which helps a lot when dealing with tough dough. Are there any cool accessories I should get for my KitchenAid mixer? - Beater Blade: If you don't want to scrape down the sides of your stand mixer's bowl every few minutes you can buy the Beater Blade ($19-$21) which has spatulas built in and scrape while it mixes (make sure to buy the correct size for your mixer). KitchenAid's official spatula beater sucks because they're perfectly vertical and this allows food to climb up the bowl. The Beater Blade is diagonally tilted, which moves the food downward. Do I want a blender or a juicer? A juicer will extract all the juice from a fruit or vegetable, and leaves the fiber behind. A blender will liquefy everything in the fruit and vegetable, including the fiber which is probably better for you. A blender can also make smoothies, blend soups and make many other foods so it seems like it's more useful. So, go for a blender first and if you find that you really want juice, get a juicer. Which blender? Cheap: Kitchen-Aid ($60) or Ninja ($80 for 1000w model) Middle: Breville Hemisphere Blender ($160 after 20$ coupon at BBB) Fancy: Vita-Mix ($380-600 new $330 refurb) or Blend-Tec ($400) Blending is a tough job requiring lots of power and strong build quality, and VitaMix has been the gold standard for a long time. Not only do they have the strongest motors, they have lifetime warranties and automatic shutoff if it detects that it might get overworked, which is why they're used professionally. Either you got a lovely blender or you paid out the nose for a Vitamix. Recently Breville started filling in the gap in the middle with their Hemisphere Blenders, which don't have motors as strong but try to make up for it with a round-bottomed jar and automatic shutoff. Which juicer? - cheap: Any old $20-30 orange juicer should do - good: Any Jack Lalanne Power Juicer or Breville Juice Fountain should do - awesome: Omega Masticating juicers Do I need a stick blender? These are pretty handy for blending soups without having to transfer it from a pot to a blender and back. They won't get it as smooth as a regular blender, but sometimes you just don't care because using the blender is too much of a hassle. They're also great for making mayonnaise. Costco currently has a great Cuisinart stick blender that comes with a whisk for $30 Do I need a food processor? Well, it kinda depends. When it comes to dicing vegetables, it's very messy and the pieces are random sizes, but if you're using a spinning slicer attachment or grating/shredding attachment they do acceptably well and save a lot of work. Small ones are good for making pesto as well. Which food processor would I get then? - Small: Proctor Silex 2 cup Chopper ($13) - Big: Cuisinart 14 cup processor ($170) - Powerful: Robot Coupe R101 ($527), the consumer version of a popular restaurant workhorse Rice cooker? - Cheap: Any cheap $20 piece of poo poo - Better: Aroma 20 cup cooker ($37) - Really good: Cuckoo brand rice cookers - The Gold Standard: Zojirushi ($146) Like, any cheap $20 tinpot rice cooker should cook rice acceptably well, but if you want God's Perfect Rice, the consensus is that you should get Zojirushi. They come up with a new way of programming rice cookers which was marketed as "fuzzy logic" which gets perfect results. Zojirushi cookers can also keep rice warm for days without drying out and avoids getting browned rice stuck at the bottom of the pot like cheaper cookers will. Other companies have been following in their footsteps since, and lately Aroma and Cuckoo have been trying to fill in the gaps in the middle. Microwave? Panasonic Inverter Microwaves will bombard your food with a steady stream of radiation instead of on/off radiation cycles https://www.homedepot.com/p/Panasonic-2-2-cu-ft-Countertop-Microwave-in-Stainless-Steel-with-Sensor-Cooking-NN-SN965S/206483737  TOOLS, GADGETS AND ACCESSORIESAbout OXO In general if your question is "which brand of this tool should I get," most of the time it will be Oxo brand. Not always, but most of the time. They're generally well-designed and affordable. Even if they're not the best they'll be second best or something. Spatulas/turners? - For nonstick pans: Oxo Nylon Flexible Turner ($7) or Oxo Silicone Flexible Turner ($10) - For metal pans: Oxo Flexible Spatula ($8) or Oxo Fish Turner ($13) Metal turners and spatulas are nice and long-lasting, but will scratch non-stick pans. Plastic pans won't scratch up non-stick pans, but will eventually melt down over time and maybe even in one careless accident if your pan is above 450°F. Wood utensils work in non-stick and metal pans, are cheap and you can treat them like crap, but they're really thick and clumsy for certain things and will eventually need replacing as well. Silicone utensils will also work in both metal and nonstick pans and are heat resistant to 600°F, but are slightly thicker than plastic or metal utensils. If you want a super thin metal turner, the Oxo Good Grips Flexible Spatula is great, but kinda flimsy for heavy things. If you want a sturdier metal spatula that's still thin you can get the Oxo metal Fish Turner (yes, for general use). Oxo's thin Nylon Flexible Turner and Silicone Flexible Turner are also great in their categories. Tongs? - For metal cookware: Oxo 12 inch stainless steel tongs ($13) - For nonstick cookware: Oxo 12 inch nylon tongs ($13) Always get 12 inch tongs, 9 inches is not enough and gets your hands too close to hot splattering oil when frying. If you're grilling you want to get the 16 inch kinds. Mandoline slicers? - Cheap: Benriner ($22) - Medium: Swissmar Borner ($40) - Superfancy: Bron ($140) Slicers scare me! Is there a way to keep my hands from being slashed to ribbons? Usually they come with a hand guard, but if that's not good enough, get a cut-resistant glove! Note that you'll have to wash them every time you use them since they'll get vegetable juice on them and they'll start to stink if left overnight. If you want to keep them clean you can put a latex glove over it. Liquid measuring cups? Oxo's plastic cups with the black handles have accurate measurements. Glass ones like Pyrex or Anchor... for some reason their quality control is crap, often having their measurement lines off by as much as 1/10. Off the beaten path there are adjustable cups which are cylindrical tubes with accurate measurements and a plunger/pusher that's ideal for gooey ingredients like honey or peanut butter. Dry measuring cups? Any of Oxo's dry measuring cups should work well, they're very accurate and ergonomically designed. Should I get a garlic press? There is plenty of debate over whether you should even use a garlic press in the first place. For some people it's a huge time saver and gets maximum aromatic effect, for others the pungency of crushed garlic is too powerful. It's a matter of personal preference. If you decide you do want a press the Trudeau garlic press works great for $20. I've bought and tried a dozen different brands and they're all annoying in comparison, either their hoppers are too small or they squirt garlic out the edges or they're hard to clean. What kind of thermometer should I get? You should get lots of thermometers! First of all, get an instant-read thermometer. If you want to fry, get a fry/candy thermometer. If you want to roast huge chunks of meat in the oven, get a meat probe thermometer. If you want to have fun and go pew pew, get a laser thermometer. Instant-read thermometers? - Cheap: Thermoworks Thermopop ($30) - Fancy: Thermoworks Thermapen v.4 ($99) although they go on sale often Thermapen is roughly $99 and amazingly accurate, and gets readings in about 3 seconds. You can wait for a $20 off sale or a clearance of older models every couple of months from ThermoWorks' website or if you want to save more than that you can get one of Thermoworks' Thermopops for $30. These take about 6 seconds to get a reading but are otherwise just as good. What am I looking for in a laser thermometer? It seems like the only thing differentiating the different laser thermometers is the range of temperatures they can measure. If you want to measure if your pan is hot enough to sear, you want a laser thermometer that can read above 500°F. If you want to measure if your tandoor is hot enough to make naan or if your wood-fired oven is ready to make pizza, you want a laser thermometer that can measure 900°F. Keep in mind that this only reads surface temperatures, so it's not going to be very useful to measure the outside temperature of a roast (you should be using an instant-read thermometer to measure the inside) but it can tell you if your skillet is at the right temperature or if a pot is cool enough to touch. Spice grinders? - Automatic: A coffee grinder - Manual: A mortar and pestle That's right, you can use a coffee grinder to grind spices and they'll come out pretty good! Just make sure to have one for coffee and one for spices, unless you want your coffee to taste like cumin and cardamom. Later on down the line if you want to take it to the next level, consider getting a mortar and pestle. The mashing of spices together helps to blend them more thoroughly and gets a pleasing "home-made" texture in things like pesto and chili paste. Our resident Indian cuisine expert Dino recommends using a porcelain one because of its texture being able to provide traction while mashing ingredients. Graters? - fine zesting: the Microplane zester ($13) works pretty awesome on citrus peels and is also great for light, snowy chocolate or cheese. - coarse grating: Microplane ultra-coarse grater that's great for coarse shredded cheese and vegetables Mixing bowls? A) Get metal bowls because you can beat them up and not worry about them cracking, and B) get ones that are relatively deep cause you don't want to accidentally mix too hard one day and have your food fly out of a shallow bowl. Oven pads or mitts? Get the kind that use both fabric and silicone, they provides the best heat protection and comfort. Oxo makes a really good pad ($10) and mitt ($15) Can opener? Get this Ez-Duz-It ($9) can opener. It used to be that Swing-Away was the standard everyone trusted, but ever since they moved manufacturing from the USA to China, people noticed quality went downhill. The Ez-Duz-It is made in the USA and seems to work like the old Swing-Away. Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Mar 15, 2021 |
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Nov 3, 2015 01:46
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As I understand it, most restaurants actually use simple aluminum pans, which you will only find at restaurant supply stores.
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Nov 3, 2015 06:59
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whoredog posted:So much great info! Keep in mind that the laser thermometer only measures surface temperatures. This is fine for water and thin soups, because water distributes heat throughout itself pretty quickly, but when you're dealing with thicker things like heating up a custard to make ice cream or making thick soups or whatever, the surface temperature can be 20°F to 40°F lower than the temperature at the bottom of the pot.
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Nov 3, 2015 23:29
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Okay I expanded a little more Is there a go-to cheap santoku that is universally recommended like the Victorinox or Tojiro DP? Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Nov 5, 2015 |
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Nov 5, 2015 03:30
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No reason why you can't post kitchen equipment regrets in here, or still make a whole thread about it. I have plenty of kitchen equipment regrets!
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Nov 5, 2015 19:15
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mindphlux posted:mini food processor, for dressings, sauces, garlic, whatever (http://www.amazon.com/Proctor-Silex...words=mini+prep) I use this 10x more often than my actual food processor or blender Is this comparable to like a magic bullet or does it chop differently?
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Nov 5, 2015 23:49
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You put your dirty aerolatte in the next cup too?
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Nov 7, 2015 02:30
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8 oz or 4 oz mason jars, they're actually 100% airtight, something most spice jars can't claim.
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Nov 7, 2015 19:53
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Yeah it's not like the 5 inch serrated knife and 6 inch utility knife and other stupid poo poo they include is ever going to be useful. Better to have multiple chef knives, multiple paring knives and maybe a santoku and an 8 inch serrated for bread. I don't think a pull-through will cause permanent damage. I would personally use the Williams Sonoma coupon on something else and get the AGPTek for $30 on Amazon, but if you really want to use the coupon, get an electric sharpener by Chef's Choice Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Nov 9, 2015 |
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Nov 9, 2015 04:12
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Added rice cookers, food processors and some other things and removed the bit about stand mixers having plastic gears based on Chef's info
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Nov 9, 2015 09:29
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In the faq in the op we recommend the Bron slicer, restaurants have been using this workhorse for decades and it's $140: http://www.amazon.com/Original-Stainless-Steel-Mandolin-Slicer/dp/B0001BMZ38
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Nov 11, 2015 09:27
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Okay, updated the non-stick section
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Nov 12, 2015 22:13
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Unison definitely uses a better type of PTFE. I made the Contemporary the recommendation because you get a 10 inch and 12 inch, instead of an 8 and 10 inch set, I think the 12 inch might be more useful to someone who's a new cook, but now that I noticed that they have a 2-pack of 10 and 12 inch Unisons, I'll add them as a higher end option
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Nov 13, 2015 09:44
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Ugh, so recently Cook's Illustrated did a review of carbon steel skillets. Their favorite one was the Matfer Bourgeat, which is also one of the cheapest ones at $44. I guess nobody heard of this brand and then in the span of two weeks now they're sold out everywhere and retailers are price gouging the hell out of it by offering them for $300. Mauviel, Turk, DeBuyer and Paderno all get good reviews and cost $80, except for the Paderno which is $42. Anyone have a Lodge and have an opinion on it? CI said they were a little on the thin side and browned unevenly.
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Nov 13, 2015 21:57
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Their wood ones are also super cheap and work well
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Nov 14, 2015 22:14
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mcstanb posted:Since I'm not a sperglord when it comes to knife sharpening, I gave the Chef's Choice electric knife sharpener a go. Got my knives pretty sharp. For some reason, their sharpeners that are designed for Japanese knives are twice the price, for some ungodly reason. Japanese knives tend to be made of harder steel, so it probably needs more expensive grinders. Not twice as much though, that's kinda weird.
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Nov 19, 2015 19:10
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I feel there's a point where the advantages of one method over another are not going to be noticeable.
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Nov 25, 2015 10:42
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Bitchkrieg posted:This thread is great, thanks OP. I'm moving and setting up a new kitchen and the advice / recommendations are invaluable. Get a cheap stainless set if you need, go for a set with disc bottoms if you can find one for significantly cheaper than tri-ply/multiclads, but don't get a nonstick set. edit: Walmart's 8 piece Tramontana set got another price cut and is now down to $109: http://www.walmart.com/ip/19581112?...9063152&veh=sem Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Nov 26, 2015 |
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Nov 26, 2015 13:27
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AFAIK, no cookware company makes their own Teflon, they all outsource it to third parties, which means they basically get similar market rates on all the same stuff. Some Teflon costs more than others, depending on the quality. It's basically the more expensive the better, but also keep in mind that they all degrade eventually. Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Nov 29, 2015 |
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Nov 29, 2015 01:44
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Well, to be fair thoht is working in a restaurant. Having enough time to use a low enough temp to not need oil is kind of a luxury edit: and it looks like they used oil in the video anyways Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Nov 30, 2015 |
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Nov 30, 2015 23:27
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Plan Z posted:1) Soaking: Take the molcajete and tejolote (the pestle part) and soak them fully in a container of water for 12-24 hours. When they're out, immediately start hitting them with some kind of metal brush (I use my small copper brush from my workbench). Just run it over the food-touching parts (bowl, bottom of the tejolote) until there's a relative smoothness. You don't need to go nuts, especially on the non-food-touching parts. Two or three quick strokes against any surface is fine enough. Can I use steel wool for the scrubbing step?
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Dec 12, 2015 00:08
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The technology seems to be improving, but not quite there yet. Ceramic is effective as nonstick cookware at first, and then loses its nonstick capability faster than teflon. But then there's the question of whether you need a wok in the first place. Real woks kind of require a superhot heat source like a jet burner since they're thin and don't retain heat very well. Are you using this on a regular stove? If so you might be better off just using a cast iron skillet for high temp stir-frying.
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Dec 12, 2015 02:10
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What muffin tins should I get? Plain aluminum or nonstick? I also noticed that among "regular size" muffin tins, some are significantly smaller and some bigger:  Is there one size I should lean towards?
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Dec 13, 2015 01:03
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I guess that's alright because I'm not aware of baking recipes that go above 400F
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Dec 13, 2015 04:21
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I'm kind of skeptical of multiple dies, it seems like it provides more books and crannies that get annoying to clean Chef'N makes a nice one with double lever action Edit: or try a mill like everyone else says Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Dec 15, 2015 |
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Dec 15, 2015 00:23
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I wonder if a tamis/drum sieve would be useful for something like that https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamis
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Dec 15, 2015 16:38
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Shopping for a molcajete. Which one should I get? Imusa. Spiral grooves.  No-name. Pockmarks big enough to disappear whole peppercorns.
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Dec 17, 2015 06:07
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Every consumer vacuum sealer pretty much works the same at their most basic job: sucking out air and sealing bags. You can get a $40 Rival Seal-A-Meal and it will do the same job as a $150 top end Foodsaver. The question is what bells and whistles you want. If you want to marinate, I recommend one with a built in retractable accessory hose and getting one of those marinating containers along with your sealer.
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Dec 17, 2015 18:34
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Steve Yun posted:Shopping for a molcajete. Which one should I get? I still need an answer for this
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Dec 17, 2015 22:22
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There appear to be several posts scattered around the internet about smoking turkeys in Masterbuilts A Sportsman Elite 30" will fit a 20 lb turkey, get a 15 lb turkey and you should be fine with whatever extra bulk the -ducken brings
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Dec 21, 2015 21:32
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Dr. Gitmo Moneyson posted:(where do I even go to find whole ducks?). I think I've seen whole ducks at Whole Foods.
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Dec 21, 2015 21:37
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Yeah that's the one
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Dec 21, 2015 23:37
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Iron Tusk posted:Has anyone used a Breville Boss Blender? I've got XMas gift cards and I'm thinking of getting a for real blender. http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/12/high-end-blender-test-equipment-breville-vitamix-blendtec-review.html
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Dec 30, 2015 22:32
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1/4 to 1/3 off, not bad
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Dec 31, 2015 09:49
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I want your cornbread waffle recipe because I used a muffin batter and my waffles came out floppy
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Jan 2, 2016 01:14
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Anybody wanna recommend a French fry cutter? I have a 20 lb bag of them I bought for the holidays and forgot about.
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Jan 3, 2016 08:11
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Kenji's stuffing waffles are a revelation
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Jan 4, 2016 18:02
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You can use the cast iron for eggs, just turn the heat down and use a little oil or butter
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Jan 9, 2016 00:54
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Get a commercial cutter After some deliberation I think I'll just get a bron mandoline instead
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Jan 9, 2016 01:22
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 16:40 |
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If not cast iron, get another teflon pan. I finally threw out my Calphalon nonstick, it lasted me almost exactly 5 years.
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Jan 9, 2016 02:03
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