Tools of the Trade
You probably have most of the gear you need, but don’t handicap yourself by skimping on the right
equipment. Of course if you are self catering at university or otherwise ‘recently single’ and short of cash,
you can get by with a wok, 2 saucepans, 2 knives and a few wooden spoons. But it’s easier with the right
gear.
Knives
My favourite is an 8 inch cook’s knife of medium thickness with a slightly curved edge. This is used for almost
everything-slicing vegetables, crushing garlic, cutting meat into dice (cubes), lifting chopped onions from the
chopping board to the frying pan. I have a few smaller cook’s knives too. A comfortable handle is important.
You also need a 4 inch thin serrated blade knife, very handy too for slicing tomatoes and other fiddly
vegetable jobs. A small paring knife with a 2 to 3 inch blade is good for fiddly jobs like getting the meat off a
cooked chicken.
A cleaver is handy for pumpkins and cracking chicken bones for stock. A fish filleting knife with a long, thin,
flexible very sharp blade will fillet a plaice or mackerel with almost no waste and is also good for boning out
chickens and lamb shoulders. You can get these from fishing tackle shops or mail order, Normark® and
Gerber® are good makes, I use a birch wood handled Marttiini® with a nice leather sheath which keeps the
blade safe.
Keep your knives sharp with an occasional session with a whetstone or diamond hone and a few strokes
from a kitchen steel immediately before use. I keep my knives in a home made wooden rack on the wall over
the sink; knife blocks are OK, don’t store sharp knives loose in a draw with other stuff or you may cut yourself.
We have several wooden and polythene chopping boards. Cheese and vegetables may be chopped on
wood, raw meat and fish should go on polythene boards. Thorough cooking destroys all germs, but poor
kitchen hygiene may transfer bacteria from raw meat to salad etc, so take care.
Pots and pans
Saucepans with lids from 500ml to 3 litres are best bought as a set, stainless steel is best. You need a fairly
heavy frying pan, ideally 3, (small, medium and large). I like cast iron frying pans, these, like woks, can rust
slightly but a quick rub with a scourer before use and they are fine. Being heavy, they hold and distribute
heat better. Non-stick pans are lighter, and nice to use until the non-stick coating wears out- use wood or
polythene spatulas (not metal) to avoid scratching the non-stick coating off.
Get a plain steel wok for stir fries, roasting whole spices, etc. A steamer and lid and a curved metal wok
spatula are extremely helpful. 2 woks are useful at times.
Stainless steel roasting tins, medium and large, should be heavy or they may buckle and bend in use. Good
ones will last a lifetime. Bun trays for making individual Yorkshire puddings and bread rolls are handy.
Earthenware casseroles are ideal for slow oven cooked food like shin beef stew but are expensive and break
if dropped. Enameled cast iron is an alternative which can be used over heat or in the oven, the French
brand Le Creuset® is loved by aficionados but expensive.
Odds and ends
Pyrex® heatproof glass pouring jugs are ideal for making gravy (see roast beef entry) and batter, the
500ml/1 pint size is most useful. You also need a potato peeler, and things like melon ballers can be handy
for making fruit punches etc. A range of wooden spoons and spatulas is handy, and if you don’t have a
potato masher you will want one if, for example, you are going to mash potatoes. Steak knives are likewise
good for steak, chopsticks for Chinese food, etc. A grater or mandolin (not the musical instrument but a
contraption with a fixed blade you run across the flat surface of vegetables to get thin slices) helps with
salads or Dauphinois potatoes. I don’t use electric blenders and processors but you may wish to. You will
pick up a few gadgets along the way, but above all get the right knives and keep them sharp. A metal slotted
spoon is essential when deep frying.
My favourite kitchen shop is Dinghams at 4 The Square in Winchester between the Cathedral and High
Street. If you are looking for melon ballers, pizza cutters, lemon squeezers, coffee/spice grinders, skewers,
really large (or small) wooden spoons and an excellent range of knives and roasting tins etc, this is where to
go. You are bound to see something there you didn’t realise you needed.
If a piece of kitchen equipment you want seems expensive, ask yourself how long it will last, will it make you
feel happy and successful in your kitchen, and set the cost against the price of take-away food. Left handed
kitchen gear is available from anythingleft-handed.co.uk.
Opinions vary about ‘chip pans’. I say, have one, but don’t use it every day. Discard the oil when it starts to
get stale, you can use it to light bonfires.
Gadgets can be very useful, but as with music, I’d rather listen to a master play a basic instrument than a
duffer on the master’s instrument. They say that during the years of the ‘Space Race’ when the USA and
USSR were vying to outdo one another, the Americans spent millions of dollars making a ballpoint pen that
would work in zero gravity.
The Russians found that a pencil worked just fine.
Not everything new is good, not everything old is rubbish. And vice versa. This is as true for food fashions as
anything else, don’t try to be too clever.
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