Corndog | Boneyard

Cookbooks and blogs will tell you that there are essential tools and gear for the kitchen. They are right. Authors will give you their best guess as to what you need to make their recipes. Every cuisine is different, every dish requires a different level of knowledge, I would wager that most recipes require fewer essentials than are usually advertised, which is great news for you and me. My guess is that you already have most of them. 

Don’t get me wrong, I could spent thousands on kitchen gear, but few of those dollars would make me any better of a cook. If you have the money, and want to spend it on brand new pans, by all means, it might even make your cooking easier, but if you think that preparing a good meal costs too much to try cooking, then consider this permission to not spend. 

No matter what cuisine you are making, they probably all call for a sharp knife, a cutting board, mixing bowl, and a pot or pan. Luckily these things are cheap! Publications like Wirecutter and America’s Test Kitchen routinely rate the cheapest items for basic kitchen gear as the best option across most categories. 

All my cast iron and most of my stainless steel pans, along with a few sauce pots came from thrift stores. Lots of my other kitchen essentials are from restaurant supply stores, which are a great option for durable and affordable basics like spatulas and mixing bowls. Knowing what to look for is half the battle, the other half is always time.

The biggest difference in where you can spend your money to improve your cooking is on cookbooks and in the grocery store. Everything else is extra, and usually for fun.

I am of the mind that the best bane for kitchen utensils is an old can of Cafe Du Monde or Scalfani crushed tomatoes. You can always buy something form forward and shiny, but if it doesn’t make you feel something and more importantly it doesn’t WORK, then leave it.