Let’s discuss kitchen gear. The cheap stuff.

vash · vash's Garage

(Sorry about the mask thread

)

I’m bored so I’m organizing. I have to keep things moving and in use, or my wife will donate it.

My kitchen is just about where I like it. Humble, simple, mix match, hodgepodge of stuff that just works for me.

Only deficit is a great paring knife. I think I want one with a slightly longer blade. 4.5”

I think I can distill it down to a single favorite piece of gear. My MVP of the kitchen. It’s a friggen aluminum sheet pan. I bought four of them from a restaurant supply house decades ago. I used to try to keep them clean. Now? Eff it. Total usefulness. Total multitasking tool. Lid to a big stockpot, roasting pan, oven drip tray, I put a small cutting board in one to slice drippy roast meats, cooling rack, camp skillet for bacon. I use one everyday.

My runner up: CHEAP bamboo chopsticks. I use them more than tongs. Coffee stirring stick, beating eggs, tomato plant stick supports, dip them into hot oil to check for fry temps, put 4 of them parallel to each other on a plate or utting board and use them as a cooling rack for a resting steak (keeps it out of the juices), same move for a hot plate trivet. I dip them into stews to taste for seasoning. TOTAL multitasker. I even used one as a shotgun tube magazine stick to legalize a hunting shotgun to get it to a 3-shot maximum. (It just drops into that hole in the end of a Remmy1100 magazine). Kept my friend hunting and violation free on a NM dove hunt. Knucklehead.

What yours?

masraum · 05-03-2020, 09:57 AM

I've got some chopsticks from when I lived in Japan. The kind of thing that someone would use at home or carry out to lunch, but honestly, the cheap bamboo stuff is better since it's not smooth and slick like the others. The bamboo chopsticks are so much better than the old square wooden chopsticks that used to come with Chinese takeout. Those were horrible.

I'd kind of like something like a paring knife, but 5-6" long. Sometimes a short blade is just not enough, but then a really long blade would be too much.

I recently got one of these angled, mostly flat whisks and prefer it to the usual bulbous kind.

But I don't think I've got any one particular MVP item like you've got listed.