Most people learn how to cook from their parents, starting at an early age. We pick up the habits our father and mother developed, which were passed down from their parents. Sometimes this knowledge exists in the form of secret family recipes, while other times, it exists in how you crack open an egg to put it into some cake batter. No matter how much you learn, there will inevitably be some gaps in your knowledge, things you can pick up and improve upon.
One of the biggest blind spots that amateur cooks have is in the area of kitchen equipment. Some people rely on a single tool for everything, and most tools do jobs that can be replaced by using knives and whisks, even if it takes a lot more effort to accomplish them. Therefore, you can learn how to incorporate a few new tools into your culinary arsenal and begin immediately saving time and getting better results. Continue reading below to find out our picks for the top 12 kitchen gadgets you didn’t know you needed in your kitchen.
The Top Six Manual Tools You Should Use
Even in the 2020s, there are still a lot of kitchen jobs that are best served without any electricity. These six tools will help you get the freshest and best tastes without breaking a sweat in the process.
Egg Slicer
If you’re making salads, an egg slicer can help you bring your presentation to the next level. Egg slicers cut hard-boiled eggs into evenly sized slices, which you can then lay atop a bed of greens. You can also use it for other soft foods, such as strawberries, and get the same result. Despite the name, egg slicers are multi-purpose.
AeroPress
The AeroPress lets you produce intensely flavored coffee without the particularity of a pour-over or the mess of a french press. Simply put the coffee grinds in the tube, add hot water, stir it, flip it, and press the coffee into your mug of choice. You can get espresso-strength, smooth coffee in less than 60 seconds using one of these.
Garlic Press
It’s no secret that fresh garlic is far better tasting and more aromatic than dried or pre-diced forms. The one downside to fresh garlic is the difficulty in getting equally sized pieces that cook at the same rate. A garlic press eliminates that problem by pressing out smaller pieces in a uniform size with much less effort than cutting them by hand.
Dusting Wand
Bakers around the world know the difficulty of getting the right amount of flour onto a surface. Especially if you’ve already been working with dough or ingredients, the flour can stick to your fingers or clump up, leaving parts of the surface without any flour. If you regularly bake using dough that needs to be spread by hand or with a roller, then a dusting wand can help you get an even coating of flour on the surface to avoid tears and stickiness or too much flour that impacts the taste.
Press Food Chopper
This takes the slices of an egg slicer to the next level and lets you easily dice fruit and vegetables in a safe container. It has a pressable handle that enables you to control how finely chopped you’d like your ingredients, even down to a fine dice. Save many minutes per recipe by quickly chopping onions into big chunks, then putting them in the chopper and pressing it a few times. It’s remarkably easy and produces excellent results.
Lazy Susan Storage
This helpful device makes things much more organized in your kitchen by allowing you to store your spices and other small-bottle ingredients within your cabinets while keeping them accessible. Install one in a corner cabinet to save time and hassle by making it a matter of just rotating the lazy susan to get to what you need.
Six Helpful Power Tools to Improve Your Kitchen
Many of the best tools in the kitchen will require a bit more than elbow grease. The following six tools are electric devices that will save you time, get better results, and simplify your cleanup process.
Electric Kettle
Boiling water on the stove is a hassle and takes a long time. Electric kettles simplify the process by letting you heat water to a boil with nothing more than an outlet, and then you can easily pour the heated water from the kettle. Look for a kettle with temperature settings so you can bring water to the exact heat for tea, coffee, or regular boiling.
Food Processor
Food processors are essential if you want to make anything with puréed ingredients, such as sauces and soups that don’t work with a chunky texture. A few seconds to a minute in the food processor will bring anything down to a fine consistency that is ideal for cooking.
Instant Pot
This kind of pressure cooker often comes with several settings that are ideal for cooking up everything from slow-cooked chicken to rice. It has precise temperature and time controls that will produce perfect results every time while eliminating the need for another pan on the stove.
Coffee Grinder
If you’ve ever made a cup of coffee with fresh grinds, you know the difference that it makes compared to buying pre-ground coffee from the store. A simple burr grinder will last a lifetime and grind your coffee to the exact setting you desire for the perfect cup.
Immersion Blender
This tool is a lifesaver in restaurants and one you can bring to your home to make excellent soups and sauces in larger quantities. It does much the same work as a food processor but for buckets or bowls of liquid. You can put larger pieces or whole vegetables in the soup, then blend it all until it’s a fine consistency with an immersion blender.
Ice Maker
A cube tray for ice is fairly standard for most people, but if you’re ever hosting a party or would simply like to have a few mixed drinks, you might find that the cubes are larger and chunkier than you’d like. An ice maker is ideal for creating smaller pieces or larger quantities of ice whenever you need it.