What are the essential tools every kitchen needs?
While I’m attempting to beautify my home room by room I’m also deep cleaning, decluttering and making sure I have everything I need for that room to be useful. Which means the kitchen has been a huge undertaking. I know they say start with your biggest project first. I flaunted the general consensus and did my pantry and laundry room first. It gave me a little confidence and helped me along my path.
As I watch my kitchen makeover gradually come to fruition I knew what my next project would be. Using my kitchen. So what do I need to make sure my kitchen is useful?
“Get people back in the kitchen and combat the trend toward processed food and fast food.” Andrew Weil
Here is a good list for all things kitchen essentials. I needed a few more things than listed here, but it gave me a good start.
Katie at Wellness Mama has a wonderful list with several things I hadn’t thought to “need”. She is a fount of knowledge and my go to for so much. She speed reads medical dictionaries for fun, for heaven’s sake. I highly suggest you take a moment and visit her blog. If you don’t learn something new, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.
Although both these lists are good, what I really need is a paired down list for a small kitchen and even smaller budget.
My List of the Top 65 Kitchen Essentials
Cookware
- Cast Iron Skillet
- 2 large Pots for Pasta etc.
- Sauce Pan
- 2 Large 9×12 Glass Lasagna Pan
- 2 Glass Casserole Dishes
- Cast Iron Bread Pan
- Cast Iron 9×9 brownie pan
- Cast Iron Cookie Sheet
- Cast Iron Muffin Pan
- 2 Cake Pans
- Glass containers with Lids for leftovers
- Mixing bowls
Kitchen Gadgets and Tools
- can opener
- cheese Grater
- nutmeg Grater
- bread Knife
- chef’s Knife
- paring knife
- knife sharpener
- vegetable peeler
- meat thermometer
- candy thermometer
- whisk
- slotted spoon
- rubber spatula
- large spoon
- large ladle
- small ladle
- slotted spatula
- flat spatula
- wooden fork
- wooden spoons
- wooden spatula
- steamer basket
- potato masher
- salt and pepper grinder
- salad spinner
- colander
- cutting board
- measuring spoons and cups
- glass measuring cup for liquids
- rolling pin
Linens and Dishes
- dish towels
- cheese cloth
- oven mitts
- oven pads
- french press
- mugs
- glasses
- dishes
- silverware
Appliances
- crock pot
- blender
- mixer
- toaster or toaster oven
- electric tea kettle (stove top would be just fine)
Canning
- canning jars
- large stock pot
- water bath canner
- Pressure canner (I’m still scarred by the volcanic explosion of canned beans I witnessed as a child, so I don’t have one, but to each their own.)
- jar rings
- canning lids
- magnetic lid lifter
- jar lifter
- funnel
Non Essential Appliances One Might Want
- food processor
- electric grill
- hand mixer
- dehydrator
- juicer
- immersion blender
- coffee pot
- rice cooker
- bread machine
Click Here for Printable List of the Top 65 Kitchen Essentials
I realize this list of 65 Kitchen Essentials doesn’t cover everything you could possibly want. This list is for my family’s needs and our small kitchen. I wanted a clear concise list that I could print out, walk through my kitchen and check off. That way next time I’m puttering around the thrift store I’ll have a better idea of what we need and I can drop off the things we don’t.
This list would be a sad thing in my house as it does not have any sort of rice cooker or bread maker on it… Which to us are important for making eating our starches a little easier! And a food processor can be a boon. We CAN get by without them… But we’d take them over things like a nutmeg grinder or a coffee press any day!
You are so right. I didn’t even think about a rice cooker and I do love a bread machine. I’ve got the counter space of a large RV so I’m trying to get to basics. I’m also doing my best to eliminate some plastic, so I’m planning on trading in my coffeemaker for a coffee press. Ah, but when I use nutmeg I like it fresh grated. I’m going to update my list. Thanks!
Beautiful blog, Deidre. Love cast iron but I’ve been hard pressed to find one not seasoned with the soybean oil that would promise to be GMO. :/
Thank you!
There really isn’t unseasoned cast iron that I’ve found either. There are some crazy methods out there to strip your pan, electrolysis bath using a car battery, sand blaster, oven cleaner (although I stay far away from that stuff, not at fan) or putting it in the oven on the self cleaning cycle. But now your oven is heating up it’s teflon coating to 500+ degrees making any small animals in the home sick or even killing them, and no one knows the effects on anyone else in the house, all to get rid of GMO soy. *sigh*
I am a big believer in buying preowned. So many chemicals can be avoided by just buying things that have already had the nastiness cooked off, washed out and off gassed. I love Ebay, Etsy, garage sales and thrift stores for this very reason. It is an environmental help and gives money to people and not corporations. Well Ebay and Etsy get a cut, but what ya gonna do.
I have a new Lodge cookie sheet still sitting in it’s box for this very reason. I think I’m gonna burn in our bonfire this Summer and see if that breaks up the seasoning. I have bought all my other cast iron used.
I don’t do teflon. Know Craigslist?
We have so much in common.
Diana
In case this interests, Deidre. Natural Remedies, Homeopathics:
http://holisticwayfarer.com/2013/07/01/first-aid-from-my-apothecary-bumps-bugs-cuts-poison-sun/
Our local paper sponsors a classifieds that is extensive. Most people here use it instead of Craiglist. But before I moved here I bought and sold just about everything on Craigslist.
And yes, I think we do.