When I got married 3 years ago I found myself considering what things we wanted or needed to get to equip a “new” kitchen. My wife had most things needed, and I brought a few with me, but much of the equipment was hand-me-down or cheaply bought. Hand-me-downs CAN be great, but some things, like cheap knives and a few thin pots were clearly going to have to be replaced. I did a fair amount of research and thinking about what I would really use before registering. Since then, we’ve picked up a few additional things, but by and large we continue along with the items we had before marriage and the few key things we registered for.
I wanted to put this experience down in words in case it can help anyone else considering a new knife or pan, or maybe looking to equip their whole kitchen. There’s a lot to tackle and I’m not trying to write a book here, so I’ll try to be concise and organized. I’ll talk about materials and quality, pans, pots, cutlery, and a few odds and ends.
Materials and Quality:
As a general statement, if you have the money and the time to clean them get copper and be done with it. Copper is the best cookery metal for distributing heat and it looks fantastic to boot. If you don’t want to spend the money, or the cleaning time on copper your best bet is a combination of stainless steel and non-stick pans. Non-stick can’t go in the dishwasher usually, and even with the best care you’ll likely still end up replacing them eventually. Stainless steel is often dishwasher safe, and if something is really stuck on you can take some steel wool or other abrasive cleaner to it. Stainless steel is the definite winner when it comes to searing food and developing good color, just remember to use a bit of oil/butter and get the pan good and hot before putting your meat/vegetable in and then don’t move it around until it’s seared on one side.
One downsides to stainless steel is that, unlike copper, it is not great at distributing heat. Aluminum is pretty good though. My recommendation for the ultimate in strong, good searing, better than average heat distribution is to get a pan that combines aluminum and stainless steel. Sometimes this is called, “tri-ply” in that they have distinct layers of aluminum and stainless. I have the Calphalon pan which has stainless steel on the top and bottom layers, which gives it the ability to sear well and work on induction stoves, but has a layer of aluminum inside which helps with heat distribution. I love this pan. It feels good in my hand, cooks well, and when used right is actually pretty easy to clean.
In choosing WHICH stainless steel or non-stick to get, I decided to go middle of the road. I felt it was important to get dishes that were well constructed and wouldn’t have to be thrown away because the handle was getting lose/falling off. I opted for cookware that all had solid metal handles and good solid rivets. Getting solid metal handles also meant I could transfer something from the stove top to the oven…just make sure the pan/pot is listed as being oven safe. Personally, I wouldn’t spend more than $50 on a pan or pot. I’d scour the internet and T.J. Max, but would not spend
Pans:
In general, if it has a single long handle it’s a pan, even if it’s deep. A deep pan may be called a sauce pan. Skillet is another word for pan. For my cooking habits I chose the following sizes. A 10” stainless steel for general searing/frying. A 10” non-stick for omelets and other general cooking tasks. A 12” non-stick for general cooking of larger quantities. That was it. The stainless steel I got is oven safe, so I can sear something on the stove top and then transfer to the oven to slowly cook it with indirect heat.
Pots:
We already had several larger stock pots so the only item I added was a good sturdy bottom sauce pan. I’ll list it under “Pots” because most of the time I use it like a pot, boiling water or making small batches of soup. This is a 4 quart stainless steel sauce pan with a thick steel and copper bottom. For this, I ended up getting a KitchenAid that has stainless steel on the inside, and a composite bottom that has a layer of copper and a layer of stainless steel. It give the pan a good thick/solid bottom that distributes heat very evenly, which is something important especially if you’re heating something “delicate” like milk that you’re trying not to scorch. Also, the handle of this sauce pan is stainless steel with a silicone rubber grip. This means that, I can put it in a warm/hot oven to keep it warm or finish cooking something without worrying about the plastic handle melting. I have found that because the silicone is only on top and bottom, that if I have been boiling something for any amount of time the SIDE of the handle can be uncomfortably hot so I bought a removable silicone handle “hot pad” to use with this as well as taking hot skillets out of the oven.
Cutlery:
It sounds counter intuitive, but the sharper the knife, the safer it is. The idea behind this is that, a dull knife requires more cutting pressure/force than a sharp knife. Having to push harder with a dull knife means you’re more likely to slip and cut yourself. So, which knives are best for you? Unfortunately this one is very personal. Some people only want one or two knives, some want a whole set. Some want every knife serrated, some despise serrated knives. My suggestion is to pick up AT LEAST, an 8” Chef’s knife and a smaller pairing knife. Both of these should be non-serrated in my opinion. The other minimum requirement should be a sharpening steel. If you are uncomfortable using this, ask someone at the store (if it’s a kitchen store) or watch a video on youtube. The sharpening steel will NOT put a new edge on your blade, it WILL help keep the very thin cutting surface aligned and working well. Ideally you would use the steel every time or every few times you use the knife. If you are looking to get a set, the most important blades, in my opinion, are the ones that come standard with most sets anyway. I frequently use: 8” chef’s knife/santoku, pairing knife, serrated bread knife, sharpening steel, and kitchen scissors/shears. I do use the carving knife several times a year and am very glad I have it when I need it. I was fortunate enough to end up receiving a J.A. Henckels knife set for a wedding present and it’s probably one of the most used gifts in the kitchen.
Dutch Oven:
Once you get past the kitchen essentials, there are endless doodads and “others” you can consider. One of my personal favorites is the Dutch Oven. I think of it as sort of a non-powered crock pot. The best thing, in my opinion, about a dutch oven, is starting a roast or other item on the stove top by searing it and developing wonderful color/flavor and then transferring it to the oven, lid on, to continue cooking slowly and letting the item cook slowly with low heat to get tender and juicy. I chose an enameled cast iron dutch oven. The great thing about this piece of cookware is that it should pretty much last forever. You can spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on a dutch oven with someone like Le Cruset, but I found a good one at target for $49.99. One thing to look for here is a lid that really sits securely around the entire perimeter of the “pot”.
Accessories:
If equipping a kitchen from scratch, I’d recommend getting a combination of wooden, plastic, and metal spatulas and spoons. I use plastic on my non-stick, and wood//metal on my stainless steel. I like the wooden for spoons because they work great scrapping the “frond” off the bottom of a stainless steel pan when making a pan sauce or gravy. I like the stainless steel for spatulas to use with steel pans, and I like the plastic spatulas/spoons for use with the non-stick so I don’t scratch.
In addition to spoons and spatulas, you’ll want some trivets or cooling racks to set hot pans/pots/trays on when you need to put them somewhere to cool or to bring them to the table. We have both trivets and racks. Sometimes, like brunch parties, we’re using all of them, so you can’t really have enough of these.
Hot pads are essential, particularly taking things in and out of the oven. I really like the silicone ones we got. We have two kinds, the flat square kind that also work as a trivet in a pinch, and the folded “finger glove” kind that work really well for taking things out of the oven. Also, as mentioned above I got one that is shaped like a tube or sleeve that is designed specifically to slide over the handle of a pot, that makes removing skillets that have been transferred to the oven to finish, much easier.
Mixing Bowls: get ones that you like. That’s about it. Make sure you get a variety of sizes and enough that you can mix multiple things up, and use some as salad bowls. Some people like to keep one by their cooking area as a “trash bowl” so they don’t have to keep running to the trashcan if it’s inconvenient. No reason to get a specific trash bowl, really any big bowl will do.
