Toast

Basic Kitchen : Equipment, Part I: Appliances, Stove-top Pots and Pans

I have been trying to sort out my kitchen- to remove those things I don't use very often, and are non essential. I am finding it difficult, as I am very lazy, a packrat, and sentimental to boot.I can spend most of an afternoon on this project, hauling what feels like enormous loads of stuff to the basement (for a hypothetical yard sale), or in some cases to the trash, and find that my kitchen appears unchanged, as crowded and messy as ever.

I thought I would try this different approach. I'm going to list what I believe to be the bare essentials for a working kitchen, and then get rid of everything else for which I cannot give a convincing excuse. I discussed this post with reader/friend Lynn D., way back when. Her son was setting up his first kitchen, and she suggested this topic. I said then that I planned to do it soon.

How often have I said I would post about something, fully intending to do so, and then just failed to follow through? When, for example, am I going to make the damn rootbeer? You may well despise me for a liar, but I swear I was sure I would do it- at the time. Lynn's son has probably cooked Thanksgiving dinner for his grandchildren by now. But I see another benefit here: I just love to make lists.

I thought I would divide this into sections on equipment, and on pantry. We begin with disclaimers and admissions, followed by appliances, and then, pots and pans. I invite you to point out items unmentioned, which you would not dream of living without. Later, I am going to add links for many of these items. But I have not shopped for the best deals-I just want you to see what they look like. Internet prices are always changing- so if you decide to get something- I'd google around. I believe if you buy something from Amazon, after linking, I get a pittance level reward.I ain't in this for the teensy money- I'd rather you look around and get yourself a bargain.

These will be low-tech lists. Though I have a Luddite side, I thought I'd better admit to the technology I have acquired over the years. Because I have been around for some time, I have accumulated the following items, from which I will not be parted. None of them are needed, but I love them, use them often, and am very fond of them. I cooked for many years without any of them- you don't need them, but they do the job well. The low tech substitute for each is indicated:

Non-essential Appliances dear to me:

Toaster oven: These are really great, and much more versatile than a toaster.If I could have only one small electric, this would be it. You can, of course, use a toaster instead, and your regular oven.

Bunn coffee machine: The kind that diners have, home version. A tank of hot water is always at the ready; it makes a full pot of extremely hot coffee in 4 minutes. You can use a french press, or an italian espresso pot.

Kitchenaid mixer: Mine is British racing green. I think this color is generally no longer available. I love it to bits. You can use a wooden spoon, fork, and whisk.

Food Processor: When my inherited Cuisinart died- I got a Kitchenaid. And it is very good. You can use a grater and a food mill or chinois.

Kitchenaid coffee/spice grinder, with removeable top part, so you can wash it out, and your coffee doesn't taste like cumin. You can use a mortar and pestle (though not for coffee- better buy your coffee preground.)

Crockpot with plain white removable ceramic liner and glass lid. Well, you can just slow cook on or in the stove. But you can leave the house all day with your slowcooker on "low", and be sure it will not burn the place down. Also they are very cheap.

Refurbished vintage waffle iron-just because.

On the borderline: My little icecream maker. I don't use it that often, but itis great to be able to make proper icecream. You need to have a freezer section that works well to freeze the cannister sufficiently. It takes a good 8 hours to freeze, but is too bulky to leave in the freezer, unless you have something beyond a fridge top space. It is a pain, but I'm not going to be getting rid of it.

Non-essential Appliances not dear to me:

Microwave which came with the apartment-used mainly for reheating stuff. I can't chuck it- it's not mine.

Electric tea kettle- a gift. I kept it and use it because it is fast, and frees up a burner. Obviously, you can boil water in anything.

Essential appliances:

A stove:
If you have a choice, gas burners all the way. They are more responsive, and you can see how much heat you've got. Gas or electric ovens are both fine.

A fridge: This probably came with your kitchen, too.

And, thanks to Julie's comment, an item I can't believe I forgot- the immersion blender. Maybe it's not strictly necessary, but it's close. I don't have a regular blender- between this one and the food processor and chinois, I'm covered.

Pots and Pans/ Top of Stove:

A large stainless steel pasta pot (8 qts) with strainer insert: This can be used for a stockpot, too. If you are making stock with bones from a chicken or roast- leave the strainer in, and pull up the mess of bones at the end to discard. You can make soup in here , too, as long as you do not need to brown anything in the pot- as is very lightweight, and not good for that sort of thing. Also you can steam stuff-especially if your pot comes with a short steamer accessory.

A 5qt heavy dutch oven or "cocotte", with nonreactive interior and a lid. There are topnotch, heirloom quality ones (Staub, Le Creuset, AllClad) but many lesser sorts are also fine, longlasting, and easier on the budget . This is perfect for small batch soups, and stews, and braises, and can fill in as an extra saute pan. You can bake your no-knead bread in here, too, and boil a mess of potatoes for mashing- and more.

A 2 or 3 quart heavy nonreactive saucepan with lid. Use it to cook rice, vegetables, casseroles. The little ones are cheaper than the big ones, and the fancy kind are often on sale- good place to splurge and see if the fancy pots are worth it to you. I love my little Staub one.

A wok- plain steel or thin cast iron, with a flat bottom and a handle. You've got to work at seasoning it. The Wokshop sells preseasoned ones- I imagine they are good, as the shop is totally classy, utterly reliable, and friendly. My personal favorite wok, however, is now the Vollrath one I got at a restaurant supply shop. It is the bomb-if you haven't got one, buy this one! Not only good for Chinese and Indian cooking...a wok is excellent for deep frying, too. A lid is good.

Cast iron frying pans, 9" and a 12" chicken fryer/saute pan with glass lid. Gotta season these, which is time consuming but worth it. Very cheap to buy, and when properly cared for, cannot be beat for all sorts of things, and virtually nonstick. Lodge now makes preseasoned cast iron. I have no personal experience with these, but hope they work, because the idea is brilliant. I would be nice to have a big fancy lidded saute pan of stainless steel lined copper or any All Clad variety. They cost the earth, however, so I haven't got one yet.

This is really all you need for stovetop cooking, though I also have a big old 12 qt pasta pot with strainer and steamer; it lives in the basement, but comes up for turkey carcass soup,steaming a whole stuffed cabbage, and canning ventures. And a copper jam pan- which is beautiful, and lives in the dining room when not in use. These stay too- but you obviously don't need them. Everything else must go here. Next will be pans for the oven and or utensils...coming soon.

Photo from Fanny Farmer Cookbook, 1936 edition.

Seeking Hermits

If there were to be a national cookie election in the United States,most people would probably vote for the tollhouse, a/k/a chocolate chip cookie. The tollhouse cookie originated here, everyone loves it, and it was invented not all that long ago, by a known person. Another contender, though, is a much older cookie, "thought to be the first American bar cookie- possibly the ancestor of the brownie and blondie."* That cookie is the endearingly homey hermit-still popular today, especially in New England, in a number of interesting variations.

Those you see here were made from Judith Jones' Tenth Muse recipe, and are like a kind of half-biscotti- baked in loaves, and sliced, but not given a second biscotti-esque baking. A generally held view is that a hermit should be not too dry, but rather must be chewy in the middle, which would be consistent with this approach. J.J. did say that she rather likes them stale, with coffee. I would have to agree that aging improves them- the intense spiciness grows mellow and rich. As they are also yummy fresh and chewy, this gives them two lives, if they last long enough. Very comforting fall food, like gingerbread, but with crunch and chew. These are super with cider, or hot tea.

Though many of the old hermit recipes are done as bars, some are drop cookies. What they all seem to have in common are lots of christmas-y, minemeat-ish spices, butter, brown sugar, walnuts, raisins and molasses. Although a Nick Maligieri recipe on the Food Network website is molasses-free, and has coffee in it.

If you click on the book photo here, you will see two variants from my 1936's Fanny Farmer Cookbook, one of which frugally incorporates stale cake crumbs. I usually use the one on the left. Any general American or New England cookbook will have a hermit recipe or two. If you want to try the JJ method, make mounds of the dough about 10" X 3" on parchment lined cookie sheets, and then cut each mound into 9 cookies, while still warm after baking. Any hermit recipe is improved by toasting your walnuts before adding to the mixture.

I would be very interested to learn of your hermit recipes, as well as any hermit lore you may know. Richard Perry, in The Good Home Cookbook. says that, "It is thought that seamen took these sweet-spiced cookies with them on long voyages, because the raisins kept them soft." No one seems to know where the name "hermit" came from. The two most frequent speculations are: 1) They are brown, and hence look like monk's robes (yeah, so what cookie isn't brown?), and 2) Moravians were called "herrnhutter" in German or Dutch, and were known for spicy cookies. Supposedly "hermit" sounds like "herrnhutter." To me- not so much. Also, Moravian cookies are generally crispy, rather than chewy. Both of these theories strike yrs. truly as a tad weak? On the other hand, I have no alternate explanation to offer. Perhaps you do?
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*Or so says The New England Cookbook, 350 Recipes From Land and Sea, Hearth and Home, quoting Eleanor Early, "New England historian." Ms. Early books, which I have not read, seem from their titles to be history of an anecdotal sort. They might be fun to check out.

And, for more historic hermit recipes (Some call for rolling out the cookies, "but not too thick, because of the raisins." You won't catch me rolling them-they need to be lumpy, IMO.), check out this collection.

Gotta Love 'Em: Two Practical Theoreticians on Home Cooking and More

Well, y'know, is this my favorite thing, or what? I have been enjoying two books by very smart women who have written, edited and thought about food and cooking for many years. Both have cooked beautiful food, for family and friends, and sometimes customers, all to excellent effect and exerting great influence. In their newest books they have explained, interpreted, expounded and provided recipes.

You cannot help but know something of Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse, author-with-others of influential cookbooks, organizer of school food and gardening programs, patroness of eating local movements, and general world symbol of the "New American Cuisine".

But unless you explore the publishing history of the cookbooks you cherish, you may or may not have heard of Judith Jones. Jones, with Knopf since 1957, has edited many of the food classics-and known their writers- from Edna Lewis, to Mastering the Art of French Cooking with Julia Child, to Lidia Bastianich, Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, Marcella Hazan, Marion Cunningham, Irene Kao, et al, along with her impressive purely literary editing work. She been author, and co-author too- of the LL. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook, among others. Her fascination with good food developed during her post war stint, as a young woman in Paris, a time and place to which every reading food lover wishes to teleport.

Jones has a unique voice and has had an interesting life. Eager to try new things and cook real food, she is a believer in mastering the fundamental techniques of a cuisine, and adapting them to the best and freshest and most interesting local food available. She takes trouble with her food, but does not confuse care and effort with the sort of chef-y cooking which demands exotic ingredients and special, costly purchases for one-time use. And though she is widowed and lives alone, sets her table most every night, and cooks real food for herself. Among the recipes at the end of her excellent The Tenth Muse is a group of recipes for one.

One recipe I especially love is her Sauce Gribiche, for lamb or other cold meats. You see my own here, not beautiful, but delicious. This sauce validates my long held view that vinegar and/or capers are just the thing to brighten up such leftovers, and make a treat out of necessity. It seems a nearly perfect application of that idea, and I can tell you that, as a bonus, it is also very good on cauliflower, and asparagus. You just mix the ingredients together: 1/2 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp dijon mustard,1 Tbsp wine vinegar, 3 Tbsps olive oil, 2 cornichons, 1 tbsp parsley and 1 hardboiled egg- all chopped small, and freshly ground black pepper.

Ms. Waters needs no introduction. I have enjoyed all her previous cookbooks, but I admit, more in the nature of inspiration than in recipe-following. I don't live in California, so many of the specific, wonderful, fresh local ingredients in those recipes have been unavailable to me, here in Western Pennsylvania. I think she would probably have advised me to use what is good and beautiful locally, and in that way, I do think I've taken many of her ideas to heart.

Her newest book The Art of Simple Food seems to me to be her most personal , and it also deals with the basic techniques with which to make use of those good local ingredients. There are chapters for the fundamentals of various sorts of food preparation, with sample, teaching recipes, and a back section with many more recipes- all very do-able, and alluring. Like all Water's prior books, it is nicely designed, and pleasant to touch. The jacket-less cover is a lovely, silky creamy sort of cardboard- very nice to handle. I have admired the various covers for her previous books, done by David Lance Goines, and his beautiful Chez Panisse anniversary posters. This book- not his work- is also attractive, as you can see. I love the typography.

Some folks have said that Ms. Waters is not really so much about cooking, as about shopping. Shopping for the perfect organically grown, rosy plum, the incredibly fresh micro-greens, the free-range, heritage farm-bred game bird, and so on. Pretty much any one who wants to can do this sort of shopping in their own way, though it cannot be denied that the wealthy, and people who live in certain climates do have a certain advantage. There is, of course, much more to it than that. This lovely food should , she demonstrates, be cooked in a way which enhances and does not ruin it. This is a tightrope well worth walking, and requires care, experience, and attention.

Much as I admire, and generally agree with these tenets, I do think that Ms. Waters and some other folks with similar points to make, sometimes seem to neglect, a bit, an important aspect of the tradition of good home cooking. This principle has resulted in some of the greatest culinary classics, and informs the work of the everyday, inspired home cook. I mean the genius of making something out of nothing...the use of that which is available, if non-ideal... the slightly soft carrot in the bottom of the bin, the left-over cooked vegetables, or the boiled beef from the soup. With the application of imagination and experience, our mothers and grandmothers made stupendously good food this way, and we should not forget how to do it. Sure, shop for the best, the local, the perfect when you can. But "Waste not, want not" is an environmentally sound adage, too. I'm just saying.