Every cook has their go-to gadgets and tools that make life easier and more efficient (or more fun) in the kitchen.  My friend and cooking partner Cyndy and I did a quick inventory of our favorite small kitchen gadgets and tools to share with you.  No pots and large equipment on this post, just the small stuff.  Do you have favorites?  We’d love to hear (and see).  Here are a few favorites from two different home cooks, maybe you’ll see something that makes sense for your kitchen, or even better, maybe you have a better idea to share.

favorite small gadgets for kitchen

Dorothy’s Picks:

1. Cuisinart Hand Blender:  easy, quick & effective.  I use this for everything except when baking (have to pull out the big guns for that one).  I use these for making fruit butters and have tried several different makes.  The Viking hand blender was the most expensive, but it required too much effort to hold the button in for any length of time.  The Cuisinart is perfect; powerful enough, yet easy on the wrist and hands;  You can find them in most department stores or find here: Cuisinart CSB-76BC SmartStick 200-Watt Immersion Hand Blender, Brushed Chrome
2. Salt Grinders: I have gone through so many salt and pepper grinders over the years, and have come up frustrated with their lack of ability to grind different crystal sizes or grinding peppercorns unevenly.  Finally I found one that works perfectly every time on all different sizes of salt or pepper, and will grind from fine to coarse:  the OXO adjustable grinders (bought at Target);
3. Cutting board holder:  I like to work with small cutting boards that are easy to wash and store.  A mesh office file holder from Target holds my cutting boards perfectly and lets them drain after rinsing at the same time (no putting them wet inside drawers);
4. Long-handled bamboo slotted spoon:  This probably isn’t for everyone, but I frequently cook in large deep pots and love that I don’t have to get burned by steam with this long spoon.  The holes allow me to cook and stir thicker concoctions also.  I got this from a kitchen auction and don’t know where they are available.
5. Home Soda Maker: I’ve posted about my love of the Soda Stream before and it hasn’t changed.  Inexpensive, healthy, and great tasting drinks…what could be better?  Find it at Macy’s or here: Sodastream Fountain Jet Soda Maker Starter Kit
   

   more favorite kitchen smalls

6. Slotted spoons:  I’m a big fan of slotted spoons of all sizes, but my absolute favorite is this silly red Koolaid spoon, with the happy face as the slots.  The reason I like it is because it is so sturdy and the handle is straight up and down which you don’t find often.  It’s great for using a little more force, it’s indestructible, and I seem to always reach for it whether I’m making coffee, soup or whatever.
7. Silicon baster:  pretty basic, but inexpensive and I use it a lot.
8. Rolling pin:  This long slender rolling pin is one I picked up at a sale and it is so much more efficient than the shorter fatter common ones.
9. Strawberry huller:  I don’t really like a lot of specialty tools, but this little “joie” strawberry huller is really sharp with tiny serrations, and a perfectly beveled edge to quickly core strawberries, tomatoes, etc.  Found it at Kowalskis Grocery, but I’m sure it’s widely available.
   

   Faucet touch-on

10. Touch-sensitive faucet:  When we got our kitchen remodeled I wanted to try a faucet I had heard of that you could turn off and on by touch on the stem, so that you didn’t have to get your dirty (or raw-meat covered) hands on the faucet to turn it off and on.  Always seemed like you washed your hands and then got the germs right back on them when you turned the faucet back off.  It was on the expensive side for a faucet, but I do love it and it was worth the splurge.  The Delta is the only one I found when shopping around, but we have been very happy with it so far.  Here is a link: Delta 980T-SSSD-DST Pilar Single Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with Touch2O Technology and Soap Dispenser, Stainless

Well those are some of my favorite little gadgets that I love and use consistently.  I didn’t include knives as I talked about them in an earlier post (knife post), but Cyndy does mention her favorite knives below.  Hope these are helpful.  We would really love to hear your favorites!

 Cyndy’s Picks:

(by Cyndy Crist)

I’m sure every cook has them – tools that they can’t imagine being without in the kitchen.  In the past few years, I’ve found myself paying particular attention to this in advance of summer vacations in rental properties whose kitchens may not provide what I have come to expect to have at the ready when I cook.  More than once, I’ve been frustrated by a simultaneous lack of a tool and of a place where I could easily pick one up (a challenge for the urban dweller who is spoiled by having ready access to just about anything).

As a result, I am now much more likely to pack a few things just to be certain I’ll have what I need, even going so far as to buy a couple of individual knife cases to keep blades and hands safe from damage.  And thinking about what I rely on and, more to the point, actually use on a regular basis has had an added benefit – it has helped me weed out of my always-crowded kitchen drawers things that I thought would be handy but which, in fact, I never use.  So, with a nod to David Letterman but, alas, none of his humor, here’s my top ten list of kitchen tools.  I’ll write a future post on slightly larger tools and equipment that I’d hate to be without for cooking, but I’m going to start small, low-tech, and basic.

Spatulas & Tongs

Kitchen Tongs.  Early in my cooking career, I recall turning my nose up at the ubiquitous tongs that somehow seemed old-fashioned.  Now I can’t imagine cooking without them. One of my favorite uses is for turning pieces of meat and chicken, a task for which tongs offer more control than a spatula and don’t cause the loss of juices that result from sticking in a fork.  I have a number of them, some that I let do double-duty as cooking and serving instruments and others that are seldom far from the stove.  My favorite, and also the most basic in my kitchen, are Edlund 9” Scalloped Locking Tongs. Their large surfaces let me pick up just about anything, and the locking function reduces the amount of space they take up in a drawer. I have some longer tongs, too, but I find the 9” fits well in my hand and is easy to maneuver.  I think if I could only choose three tools in the kitchen, these would still make the list.

Wooden or Bamboo Spatula.  I suspect most cooks have an array of wooden, and recently the more environmentally correct bamboo, spoons and other tools.  I’m no different and would guess that my count stands at something like 20, including different shapes of spoons; paddles for gnocchi, polenta, and rice; and a well-worn mallet-like potato masher.  My go-to tool from this stable, though, is a flat spatula.  I have two that I use interchangeably, one made of wood and one of bamboo. The wooden one is old enough that any claim of its maker long ago disappeared; the other is a Bambu Give It a Rest Spatula.  I love these because they offer all the benefits of wooden spoons (they won’t scratch non-stick surfaces and can be used in any kind of food) but also fit into the bottom edges and along the sides of pans in a way that round spoons don’t. And although they don’t have as fine an edge as most spatulas, they do work for removing things like scrambled eggs from a skillet.

Rubber Scraper.  Nothing works to get every last bit of batter, dressing, or sauce out of a bowl like a rubber scraper.  Again, I have a variety, and I use several regularly (for example, I have one with a long handle and narrow scraper blade that’s great in jars), but once more my favorite is one of the most basic – Rubbermaid’s 9 ½ “ white scraper.  It has enough strength to do any job but also enough flexibility to easily fit the contour of any bowl or container.  I’ve bought some pretty silicone scrapers, but they lack the flexibility that makes the Rubbermaid my go-to choice. There’s nothing fancy about this Plain Jane, but it always does the job.

Baking Tools

Whisk.  Because I cook more than I bake, I probably don’t use whisks as often as some cooks, but I do use them enough to earn them a place on my list.  I’ll sound like a broken record when I say I have a half-dozen or more in different sizes and materials (including silicone that is quite nice when I don’t want to risk scratching copper pots and pans).  Variety in sizes is helpful, since small ones are great for whisking up a small batch of vinaigrette while larger whisks can handle bigger batches of thicker batters.  I generally prefer the classic wire whisks; the one I use most is similar to the Kuhn Rikon 8” balloon wire whisk.  Meanwhile, I’m on the prowl for one of the really big balloon whisks with which I’ve seen Jacques Pepin and Laura Calder turn bowls of cream and egg whites into lovely, frothy delights in no time at all.

Cookie Spatula. The winner that has emerged from the array of spatulas and flippers in my drawer is the thinnest, a stainless steel cookie spatula that is labeled Endurance but is identical to the Ateco Stainless Steel Cookie Spatula.  I love this one because it has a very thin and flexible blade that can easily be maneuvered under pancakes and cookies.  Overall, I may use larger, traditional spatulas more often, but this one is so perfect for certain uses that it has won a special place in my culinary heart.

Grater & Slicer

Microplane. This is another indispensible tool if you frequently add finely grated citrus peel or cheese to your dishes.  I’ve never quite gotten the hang of zesters (the ones that look kind of like vegetable peelers), but microplanes are always easy to use. I have three, including a long, narrow rasp-type grater and a wider grater designed to yield larger shreds. But the one I use most is the Microplane 35002 Fine Grater. I like its large grating surface, very sturdy “build” (I never worry about how hard I’m grating something against its surface), plastic-covered edges, and comfortable handle.  Since so many dishes are improved with a teaspoon or two of finely grated lemon or orange peel, mine is often out of the drawer.

Hand-held Mandoline.  I have a “real” mandoline, but I seldom use it because my hand-held Kyocera Double-Edged Mandoline Slicer is so quick and easy to use.  It has a notched edge that fits over the edge of a bowl and helps hold it in place when I’m slicing cucumbers (for which I use it most, since my husband and I love cucumber salad) or other vegetables into a bowl.  Its super-sharp blade makes it possible to get very thin and even slices of just about anything, and since it has a double-edge, you can work vegetables back and forth across the blade cutting the time needed.   Mine didn’t come with a hand guard, as they now all seem to do, so I have to be careful not to slice off the tips of my fingers when I use it, and it’s hard to slice small edibles. But as long as I remain conscious of the need for caution, I’m fine.  To my mind, this one beats the Cuisinart for slicing.

Knives

Knives.  I’m not going to try to reduce my list to just one knife, but that’s not really cheating, since I’m using my last three slots for three different knives (with one little cheat of a fourth knife that isn’t essential, but that I really like).  To my way of thinking, every cook needs three knives at a minimum: a serrated bread knife, a chef’s knife, and a paring knife.  I’m particularly fond of Wusthof knives, so they get pride of place on this list.

I still regularly use the Wusthof Classic 8” bread knife we got as a wedding gift 25 years ago; it’s a great size and always works well.  I love bread knives because they can slice delicate Angel food cakes as well as crusty loaves of artisan bread. My favorite chef-type knife is the Wusthof Gourmet 7-Inch Hollow-Cut Santoku Knife. It’s easy to handle and I like the size, shape, and weight of the blade, as well as its overall balance.  I’m not sure why, but more often than not, I reach for this one when I might otherwise grab a traditional chef’s knife.

On a smaller scale, my go-to paring knife is a bright green Kuhn Rikon 4” Paring Knife with Sheath that fits my hand nicely and stays very sharp.  As well as being a work horse, it’s color makes me smile, and there’s nothing wrong with satisfying more than one of my senses!  My “extra credit” knife is the Deglon 8” Tomato Knife with Wood Handle. Although it doesn’t do anything that a well-sharpened chef’s knife can’t do, I find its smaller size and toothed edge very effective when slicing tomatoes for a BLT, salad, or pasta dish.  I could cook without it, but I’m glad I don’t have to!

And that’s my list – a pretty basic set of tools that get used over and over again and never let me down.  Most are very affordable and, with a little care, they’ll probably all last as long as I do.  What more could I ask for?