SUCCESSFUL COOKING MADE EASY WITH THESE FEW ITEMS

JD

September 26, 2019

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cooking-tips

If you want to cook every recipe in this book successfully, you’ll need a few extra items. Most of these aren’t things you’ll use every day, but when you need them, you’ll be glad to have them. That’s especially true of the small appliances listed here—in particular, the food processor, which we use for everything from
pureeing vegetables to kneading bread and pasta dough.

Blender

A blender is the only tool that can bring foods (hot or cold) to a uniformly smooth texture, whether you’re making milkshakes and frozen drinks or pureeing soups and sauces. You might also consider an immersion
blender, which is useful for small jobs like blending salad dressings and pureeing soup right in the pot.

Electric Mixer

A handheld mixer is lightweight, easy to use, and great for most basic tasks, like whipping cream or egg whites, creaming butter and sugar, and making a batter; the only thing it can’t handle is kneading dough. But
that’s no problem for a stand mixer. If you are a serious cook or baker, a stand mixer is simply something you need. If you bake only occasionally, a handheld mixer is fine. Either will work with the recipes in this book.

Electric Spice/Coffee Grinder

Freshly ground whole spices have a superior aroma and roundness of flavor versus preground spices. The test kitchen standard for grinding spices is a blade-type electric coffee grinder.

Food Processor

If you are investing in one big-ticket appliance, it should be a food processor. It can chop foods that blenders can’t handle, as well as slice and shred and mix up batters and doughs.

Roasting Pan

This is our go-to for tackling large cuts of meat; its ample size can even accommodate both a roast and side dish. Measure your oven before shopping to ensure a large, tall pan will fit, and make sure the pan has a
V-rack.

Stockpot

Pick an all-purpose 12-quart pot that can handle a variety of tasks, from steaming lobsters to canning to making huge batches of homemade stock. We prefer a tall, narrow pot with a thick bottom to prevent
scorching.

Muffin Tin

Darker pans produce darker baked goods; lighter pans produce lighter ones. We gravitate to gold-colored muffin tins (and many other pans) for browning that’s right in the middle.Round Cake Pans (9-Inch) To bake perfect cake layers, look for light-colored pans at least 2 inches tall. Eight-inch pans are also popular.

Baking Pans

We use an 8-inch square baking pan in this book for brownies and bars. A 13 by 9-inch pan is also quite useful.

Loaf Pan

Size matters with loaf pans. We use an 8½ by 4½-inch pan. If yours is 9 by 5 inches, you’ll need to adjust the baking time as the recipe indicates.

Bundt Pan

This decorative pan produces cakes that require little adornment. Make sure it’s heavy and nonstick.
Springform Pan (9-Inch). A springform pan’s sides release, allowing you to unmold delicate cakes without having to invert them.

Pie Plate

We don’t get into pies in this book but do use pie plates in other ways, such as dredging food in bread crumbs and pressing tortillas.