Kitchen Essentials

This is what I would want to find in any kitchen.

Knives. 0) a good quality sharpening steel. 1) An 8-10" cook’s knife, with sharpening steel, and some form of storage, is the bare minimum. Most people don’t take enough care with their knives, and keep them blunt - that needs fixing. I can do most things comfortably with a 10" cooks knife, including peeling vegetables (by scraping, which works better than paring if the knife is sharp). 2) A small (4-6") vegetable knife may be useful as well.

Pans. 1) A 12" sauté pan - this is wide enough to hold all the components of a whole jointed chicken, and about 4-6" deep, with metal handle so that it can go into the oven. 2) A medium sized saucepan, 2 litre+ capacity, for blanching and boiling vegetables, cooking rice, and making sauces. 3) A large pan, several gallons capacity, for cooking pasta and steaming puddings. 4) Frying pan, non-stick or cast iron, 8"; works for omelettes, pancakes, and frying meat. 5) A griddle pan - can use the frying pan, but a separate one is better and can have a patterned bottom. Cast iron preferred, but most are thick aluminium.

Oven equipment. 1) Thermometer - ovens lie. 2) Roasting tin. 3-4" depth, just large enough for whatever is to be roasted; it makes better gravy if it is a close fit (and optionally a second, larger one, for big joints/turkey/goose). Doubles as a cake tin for gingerbread, etc. 3) Baking sheet, at least 12", can be non-stick, for cookies. 4) 2 lb loaf tin. 5) 2 x 8" cake tin, removable base (springform).

Implements. 1) A wooden spatula. Optional silcone one as well; this is mainly for scraping clean cake mix bowls. 2) Balloon whisk; the wire sort, but not the fancy spiral type. 3) Set of measuring items: spoons and cups plus a narrow (for accuracy) graduated measuring jug, at least 500 ml. 4) Scales marked in grams and ounces, able to weigh accurately 1g - 1 kg. 5) Rolling pin - as long as possible; the sort with no handles and slightly tapered is idea. 6) Large wooden block. Can’t be large enough. 7) Can opener. 8) Scissors (for poultry as well as plastic bags). 9) Mixing bowl - stainless steel preferred; large. 10) Grater; one of the modern sort with several different sized surfaces, all very sharp - flat preferred, not a round sort. Required large size for cheese and vegetables, small for nutmeg, etc. A mouli-legumes is supposed to be a decent and more flexible substitute, but as I have never owned one, I can’t comment. 11) Sieve. 12) Tongs for handling food while grilling/frying.

US Conversions.

125g / 4.5 oz self raising flour = 1 cup plain flour + 1.5 tsp baking powder + 0.5 tsp salt.