Basic kitchen cooking utensils

To be able to efficiently cook in your kitchen you will certainly need some basic cooking equipment essentials such as an oven, a stove, refrigerator and also a microwave if affordable. I would like to discuss essentials for cooking these meals. I would like to call these small items kitchen utensils. These are used for measuring, mixing, cutting, and also cooking in the oven or on top of the stove and also for storing food. Below I will discuss these utensils for your kitchen.

You will need utensils for measuring and the most important is a liquid measuring cup. This is usually made of clear glass or plastic, even stainless steel and have lines on the outside so you can measure an entire cup or portions of a cup. These also come in pint and quart sizes and make it easier to measure larger quantities of liquids. Some prefer to have these liquid measuring cups in sizes of l/4, l/2, 3/4, etc. I would suggest a dry measuring cup and these are also made of clear plastic or glass, even stainless steel. These come in nested sets of l/4, l/2, l/2, and l cup sizes and in metric sets of 50, 125 and 250 milliliters. These are used for measuring flour sugar and shortening, etc. These are filled to the top edge and then leveled off with the flat edge of a knife or spatula.

I would suggest a kitchen scale to be able to weigh ingredients, such as meat. Lots of recipes call for a weight measurement. A timer is useful

also as you can set the timer to the amount of time the recipe calls for and have an accurate cooking time for each dish. Thermometers are very useful also to check the internal temperature of meats and poultry, check the temperature of fat when frying and lots of other uses.

You will need mixing equipment such as mixing bowls that come in all sorts of sizes and I much prefer bowls with slanted sides. Mixing spoons are used to combine ingredients by mixing, beating, or stirring and come in a variety of sizes. A slotted spoon is helpful especially when frying foods or removing vegetables from liquids.

A wire whisk is useful for beating egg whites and blending foods such as sauces or gravies till smooth. A floor sifter is used to sift flour and other dry ingredients and also a metal strainer with a small mesh for sifting. A rotary beater is useful for small jobs that don't require an electric mixer. A rubber scraper or spatula is one of the most helpful of kitchen utensils. I also like to have a metal spatula for packing ingredients into dry measuring cups and leveling them off and many other uses. A pastry blender is used to blender cut shortening into flour for making pie crusts or biscuits.

You will also need preparation equipment such as I will discuss. A colander is similar to a strainer and designed for draining food. Pastry brushes are very useful to "paint" liquids or glazes onto pies, breads, or pastries. I also use a separate basting brush for applying fat or other liquid to meat and poultry during roasting or broiling. A vegetable brush is used to clean vegetables that have tough skins. Kitchen shears are just heavy-duty scissors and can be very useful. Tongs are needed to lift hot foods or to turn meats, etc. A rolling pin usually made of heavy wood is used for rolling out dough.

I would also recommend having a food mill and a food juicer to squeeze juice and to puree foods.

Knives are very necessary and I would think the bare essentials in knives would be a paring knife, a French knife, a bread knife, a roast slices and also a grapefruit or citrus knife for sectioning citrus fruit. A fork with a long handle and two sharp ends is used for meats, etc.

A turner is used for turning foods, cooking eggs or pancakes, while they are cooking. A strainer and a masher are also necessary items. I would also suggest your having a cutting board so you will have a surface for cutting and slicing and also a vegetable parer for paring the fruit or vegetables surface. A grater/shredder with a variety of cutting edges is most helpful. A can opener is needed for opening cans.

You will need bakeware also such as the following pans; round cake pan, square cake pan, rectangular pan, tube cake pan, pie pan, muffin pan, cookie and a baking sheet. I would also suggest having some casserole dishes in various sizes for those great oven recipes and some custard cups.