Tools of the Trade

Let’s start with the fundamentals. The kitchen is the room in your house without a toilet or shower. Other rooms have appliances, but only a kitchen will have an oven and a spice rack. Now that we have you situated…

Kitchen gadgets, tools and appliances are like wedding presents. You will never take most of them out of the box. So if you already have closets full of hanger queens, think about regifting. The tools required for home cooking are few in number but specific in kind. In a pinch you can find everything you need at a flea market or second hand store, even the stove and oven.

Stove

The Stove is arguably the most important tool, not any stove, a gas stove. No serious chef or cook, amateur or professional, uses an electric stove. At a minimum, you need a gas range; you could get by with an electric oven. Even if you don’t have gas utilities in your neighborhood, a propane tank with a line just for your stove would do the trick. The problem with all electric ranges is that they don’t heat or cool fast enough. The trick to efficient cooking is not just heat but heat control. With electric, you are not in control.

Pots and Pans

You don’t need to get carried away with pots and pans, but here again, you need to be particular; stainless, cast iron and glass. No substitutes. Actually, cooper is the best conductor of heat, but it can be a maintenance nightmare. You can not use cooper or tin clad cooper on an electric stove under any circumstances. If you must have something to polish, cooper clad stainless represents a compromise. In any case, your restaurant quality set of stainless should include a large stock pot for lobster, corn and such. You will need two omelet pans, one steel and one cast iron and a crepe pan which has many uses other than crepes.

Cast Iron

Your cast iron suite should include a small deep fryer up through a three or four quart stock pot. Modern cast iron is awful, too porous. Fortunately, cast iron is pretty much indestructible and therefore excellent American made cast is available on the secondary market; flea markets and thrift shops. Look for the Griswald or Wagner trade marks; they owned this market at one time. You will seldom find tops for old cast, glass tops are a great substitute. Cast iron has many virtues not the least of which is that it is indispensable for many traditional dishes such as authentic fried chicken, soup and all manner of stew.

Have you ever wondered why eggs, home fries, burgers and pancakes at a greasy spoon have a flavor edge that you can’t replicate at home? The answer is that cast iron grill. All food cooked on a diner grill has a little flavor of every thing that has gone before. The health bonus is trace elements of iron. The down side of cast iron is care. You can’t put acidic food in or on cast; tomatoes and lemon are examples; if you do, your dinner will taste like rusty nails. Further, you can not wash cast with soap, it will remove the cure. Cast iron must be washed with a plastic scrunchie and hot water only. If you’re overly concerned about microbes, dry your cast iron in the oven. From time to time you must rub cast iron with a very thin coat of bacon fat, lard or oil to maintain the cure – the quality that stops stuff from sticking to the pot.

Oven Proof Glass

The final type of cookware you need in the pantry is glass, ovenproof glass. Her again the class act is American made types such as Corning (Pyrex). I look for vintage pieces in the secondary markets. Pick up a variety of shapes and sizes with tops if possible. There’s no better apparatus for going from stovetop to table top. Food artfully cooked in clear glass looks great. Oven proof is indispensable for things like casseroles, cassoulet, macaroni and cheese or anything that needs to be baked, covered or slow cooked. If you have a timer on your oven and some covered glass cookware, stand by for some idiot proof comestibles.

Other Gizmos

Microwaves and toasters are handy in the kitchen but not indispensable. You can’t really cook in a micro but it is good for boiling water, popping corn and reheating certain dishes. What can be done with toasters and toaster ovens is fairly self-evident. Blenders and mix sticks are another story. A blender is a must if you never use it for anything other than margaritas and bread crumbs. A stick or hand immersion blender is also mandatory. This gadget may be the most useful kitchen aid since fire. We call it the magic wand in our house. It can be used for chopping, whipping, mixing, blending and cutting nose hair in a pinch. Speaking of mixing, every kitchen needs a nested set of stainless or glass (oven proof) mixing bowls.

The rice cooker is almost as important as the magic wand. This device allows you to cook perfect rice every time, without watching. Think about it as idiot proof starch or carbohydrates. Pilaf, sushi, beans and you know what, stir fried or whatever. A rice cooker is like a third hand in the pantry.

Knives

Buy a good set of knives and you will have something to pass down to your kids. If you can live without a ‘matched set’, think about finding them piece meal in the secondary market. Also pick up a good steel. This is nothing more than a fine round file. A vintage steel often combines art and function. First choice for blades, however, should be a set of Japanese Sushi knives with cleaver. Today, as always, the best cutting blades come from Japan.

Second choice would be a selection of different sized vintage carbon steel knives from Sabatier. New French stainless knives are not much different than any other stainless knives on the market – only more expensive. The virtue of old carbon steel is that you can easily sharpen it at home and it keeps a better edge. As anyone who has ever dated a politician knows, there is nothing more dangerous than a dull knife.

The classic Sabatier is otherwise known as a ‘chef’s knife’; you will find them in six, eight, or ten inch blades. I have five knives, three with ebony handles; I never paid more than a few bucks for any of them. All knives, especially carbon steel, must be washed by hand. No machines – ever!

Grills

The origins of bar-b-que are shrouded by the mist of time. The best guess is that the practice as we know it originated with pirates and buccaneers. In their heyday, these lusty chaps would secrete a pair of breeding pigs, sheep or goats on an island along the sea lanes and let nature take its course. Upon their return, they would find a ready stock of protein which then would be cooked over an open wood fire. Oddly enough, these fellows never thought to use gas grills.

Cooking on a gas grill just to say you cooked outside is a little silly. Why not just use your oven? Indeed, expensive outdoor gas grills are a waste of time and money. And they don’t make for authentic bar-b-que. Traditional outdoor cooking is done over a wood or charcoal fire – real charcoal not briquettes. Pillow briquettes (charcoal dust, paste and kerosene) are to cooking what scoreless soccer is to real football. It literally and figuratively stinks.

Why would you want a good rack of lamb, a Delmonico or your chicken wings to smell like your tailpipe? No serious cook, amateur or professional uses a gas grill or briquettes to bar-b-que. Authentic bar-b-que requires real hard wood or hard wood charcoal - from deciduous trees not conifers. If you try and cook meat over a fire made from evergreens, your meat will taste like turpentine. Preferred woods are oak, mesquite, maple or apple. If you don’t cut your own wood, real hardwood charcoal is now available at most retailers.

Meat, fowl or fish cooked over an open wood fire summons all your recessive primal genetic memories. We did it that way since the discovery of fire. Don’t sneer; it’s never too late to conjure up your hidden buccaneer.