Equipping the Kintsugi Kitchen: Starting from Nothing (Equipment edition)

Has anyone said can opener yet?

 

if you can, find a can opener that has a hook on the end - great for punching holes in cans (i.e. pineapple juice etc) and also for levering the can-lid out after you've opened it!

 

I don't think so, I was about to mention that myself. I have an electric one because I'm spoiled - my little brother got it for me. My other kitchen electronics are my crock pot and electric kettle.

 

Added! (can't believe I forgot that one)

 

Grater. (combination with a slicer and rasp)

 

Is a grater that basic though? A person can just buy shredded cheese and breadcrumbs already, which is all I've ever used a grater for.

 

I often find it easier to grate ingredients instead of dicing them or finely chopping them. I guess it's a matter of preference.

 

Okay, everyone seems to have covered utensils fine, so I'm going to talk about spices.

The ones I use most often are:

- basil (or Italian seasoning, depending on what happens to be cheaper at the store)
- dried onion bits (Easier than trying to chop up a quarter of an onion or so for a small recipe.)
- garlic powder (Likewise.)
- pepper, in whole peppercorn form so that one can fresh-grind it as needed (I spent a couple months trying to grind my pepper in a mortar and pestle, so I can tell you with certainty that you should really get one of those pepper mills that grinds the pepper as you turn the top. Don't get the kind that is pre-ground, that stuff tastes like dust.)
- chili powder
- cumin (which I use mostly to make shitty Mexican food tbh)
- bay leaves
- Dried vegetable-soup mix - Magic, seriously. Throw this in with cheap ramen and get something roughly equivalent to fancy ramen. Toss this in with the rice in your rice cooker and get vegetable-rice. If you're organized enough to let them rehydrate for about ten minutes in some hot water (I use the electric kettle), you can use them in scrambled eggs or microwave quesadillas. Presumably there are more uses I haven't tried yet. The price for this specific bottle I linked is admittedly a bit steep, but I haven't been able to find it in many other places.

Other things that I do not use as often, but that are still worth considering:

- oregano
- rosemary
- curry powder

If you do much baking/sweet cooking, you may also want to add cinnamon to that list.

You will also want salt and some sort of cooking oil. (I stock extra-virgin olive oil, because I do almost no frying - EVOO doesn't cope well with high temperatures - and olive oil is great for using as drizzles and stuff. I put it on my pasta when I can't brain a proper sauce. I hold a grudge against "light" olive oil for not mentioning that it leaves out most of the olive-oil taste that I actually like, but you may want to use that first if you haven't had an olive oil before.)

Almost everything here doubles as kitchen-witchery supply, so you can spiritually charge your cooking if you like. (Well, okay. Dried vegetable soup mix doesn't have a spiritual correspondence. Yet.)

(... I declare that dried vegetable soup mix is for recognizing that doing a little bit of something is better than doing nothing. There's that fixed.)

 

I was gonna do "Basic Food Ingredients" as a separate thread.

 

Oh. Whoops. Sorry. If you want me to quote the post over in that thread when you start it, let me know.

 

I'd say grater is a basic tool, and i'd also add a wire whisk. You should be able to get either of those for around $5.00, and you will use them frequently.

 

I third the grater since pre-shredded cheese is expensive, but can't you pretty much use a fork for all the things a whisk does?

 

You can get a wire whisk in the dollar stores - for a dollar. And it works a lot better than a fork.

 

May i recommend for those like me who have hand sensory issues some really nice long gloves to be used for dishwashing. I keep a nice set of plastic/latex gloves that go up close to my elbows so my hands dont get wet and dont smell of dish soap; i dont have to deal with dry, ashy hands nor the smell of dishsoap on them after im done washing.

 

That would have to be a conditional thing - is not a bare-minimum for most kitchens, but yeah, for some people it is.

 

I come from a very long-established Italian-American kitchen, with four generations of tools to pick through. We keep sugar in a pickle bucket older than I am. Some of my suggestions are probably not basic to anyone other than me...

Trivets to protect your surfaces from heat damage and spills. Good potholders can go double duty, but something rigid and plate-sized is best for larger pots and pans. Skip the serving dishes and plunk your pot right on the table.

Microwave and/or freezer safe food storage, in glass and plastic. Extra twist ties and rubber bands. Masking tape for sealing and labels. Glass jars.

Metal tongs. Ladle. Spider skimmer. Wooden spoons and forks. Colander, sieve, funnel.

Matches, toothpicks, skewers, butcher twine.

 

Second the metal tongs and a strainer! And masking tape, we need to label dates on things in this house. We have so much shit in the fridge from idk when, none of us can even remember when we made things, mostly due to just, not remembering.

 

To add on to what @Lissa Lysik'an said about dollar stores, you can get quite a lot of basic cooking tools there (also, as for whisks, I actually prefer the silicone ones, but it's a matter of opinion). Look for the Betty Crocker line. They're rather good, particularly for the price, and if something happens to it, well, no great heartbreak. The double-ended spatula especially is something I use for almost everything.

Silverware can also be had, look for solid items (v. with a handle), as well as tin foil, silicone oven mitts, wax paper, paring knives (but don't buy other knives here - paring knives are basically throwaway items), baggies, storage containers (disposable and reusable), paper plates and cups for those zero spoon days, ceramic and glass plates, plastic and glass cups (which may be adorable!), measuring cups, basic spices, flour, dish soap (generic not recommended, but they have good sized brand name bottles), sponges, cleaning supplies, and other essentials. Sometimes the deal will not be as good per ounce/inch, but if all you've got is a dollar or a bigger container was going to go to waste anyway...

Edit: Also, small whiteboards and dry-eraser markers. Though not everyone needs these in their kitchen, if you need to track food, what needs to be used, and when things were bought, these are super handy.

Another edit: Unsung hero - Spoon rest. Prevent melted tools!

 

Camping in this thread. I move into first real apartment tomorrow, and I have some of the things I need but not all of them.

For knives, I find I really need about three: 10" chef knife (bought from a restaurant supply store for like $20-30, very functional), 10" serrated knife, and small paring knife. Might not need the serrated one if I could tolerate pre-sliced bread.

 

@Vierran if you eat tomatoes you'll want a serrated knife anyway...