A good cook treats their tools with the utmost respect. You don’t need heaven knows how many types of knives and pans. A basic set handled with proper care will be perfectly enough and will look professional in the kitchen!
Since you’re looking for basics, you want to get the cookware and tools of excellent quality. Look for the best chef knives, the best cast iron skillets and pots of steel, electric cooking utensils like, e.g. mixer or blender.
Have you already provided your kitchen artillery with needed tools? Wonderful! Now learn how to preserve them so they can serve you well for years. We prepared a few quick tips for you!
Knives
Sharp them delicately with a piece of flint or a knife sharpener.
Don’t wash them under warm water after cutting acidic food, e.g. fruits or tomatoes — that will dull the blade.
Hang a solid magnetic stripe for metal tools above the kitchen counter rather than putting a bunch of knives into a drawer. This way you’ll protect the blades from damage and keep them sharp longer.
Pans
Don’t you ever put a warm pan under a cold stream! Such a sudden change of temperature causes thermal shock and ruins pan’s non-stick coating.
Remember to season your pans after every use. This method of cookware preservation is exceptionally essential, e.g. in the case of traditional stone and iron pans. Such pans were a must at our grandparents’.
To take care of this kind of cookware you don’t even need any dish soap (that may be useful only right after unboxing a brand new tool). Use warm water to remove old oil and dirt from a pan. Dry it out with a paper towel. Grease the pan with, e.g. olive oil and heat it (up to 1 minute). After cooling down, wipe the pan once again — et voila! Pan care treatment is done.
Chopping boards
Here you can follow a simple rule — different board for different kinds of products. You don’t want to risk using the same cutting board for raw meat and vegetables for a salad. Especially when it comes to wooden boards.
It’s good to take proper care of wooden cutting boards, as well. Let’s have some respect for the natural material they were made of and try to make them last as long as possible.
Usually, warm water and a drop of dish soap are enough to clean chopping board. Although when we’re using a board for cutting meat, greasy products or food of strong smell, it’s good to add a salt scrub with a half of a lemon to the cleaning process — salt will remove particles of food and kill bacteria, while lemon will eliminate the odour. At the end sprinkle the board with, e.g. flaxseed oil and wipe it with a paper towel.
You don’t need any extensive toolkit in your kitchen to cook like a professional. Being a fantastic cook isn’t about the amount of fancy cookware. It may sound a little philosophical, but in cooking, it’s important to respect food products and your tools equally. After all, they are what you actually need to create all the wonders on your guests’ plates.
