Basic Kitchen Equipment

These are the items you must have in your kitchen at a bare minimum in order to cook. I have no substitutes for these. Many other things can be improvised, such as using folded dry towels as a trivet for a hot pot, but actual pot holders are safer than dishtowels for the average cook! You can use a coffee cup as a ladle, and a dinner fork works to whisk and to cut butter into flour. If you don’t have lids, you can make some out of aluminum foil that will work just fine. While a set of dry measuring cups is nice to have, I have been able to use the glass ones just as well.

Appliances - You need a surface burner, an oven, and a refrigerator with a freezer. A typical American kitchen has a cook top with one or two large burners and two or three smaller ones, and an oven with a broiler. It is possible to “get by” with a single burner such as a hotplate and a toaster oven but that will require a good bit more juggling of pots and pans. If you are not living on an iceberg, you need a refrigerator to keep food cold at a safe temperature. While not absolutely necessary, a freezer compartment will allow you to stock up on meat when it is on sale, and to store extra meal portions for another time. The freezer must keep things frozen solid - 0 degrees F - and the refrigerator must maintain a temperature below 40 degrees F and above 34 degrees F so that food stays very cold but does not start to develop ice crystals.

 TIP – make sure that nothing in the freezer blocks the flow of air into the refrigerator, as this could keep the refrigerated section from getting as cold as it should be.

Essential Kitchen Tools - I have consulted several cookbooks written over the past 100 years, and I found that I can cook without most of the “essentials” that these authors insist are necessary. Here is a list of the items that I found myself purchasing immediately for my first apartment.

3” paring knife

8” slicing knife with a flat edge that can also be used to cut vegetables

Serrated bread knife

Large spoon for stirring – long enough to stick out of the Dutch oven or stockpot

Large slotted spoon for straining

Metal spatula

Flexible scraper or "spoonula"

Measuring spoon set (1/8 teaspoon through 1 tablespoon)

2 2-cup measuring cups for liquids, glass or plastic

Wire mesh colander or strainer, about 10”

10” frying pan

2 sauce pans, 1 quart and 2 quarts, with lids

Dutch oven or stock pot that holds at least 5 quarts – with lid

Jelly roll pan, which is a cookie sheet with sides

Oven safe 8” square pan

Oven safe casserole dish 13” x 9”

At least one extra dinner fork

Large (gallon or larger) mixing bowl

Small (quart) mixing bowl

Tongs

2 potholders

Potato masher

Washable cutting board

Can opener - manual

"Church key" - bottle opener, punch type on one end with beer bottle cap remover on the other

Whisk or eggbeater