Basic Kitchen Equipment

What I have found in my own kitchen is that if you have the proper selection of quality equipment, you can tackle just about any recipe.

If you are new to cooking, you may not have the things you need. If you already cook frequently, you could have too much - it might be the time to weed out what you've got. Since quality seems to make more of a difference than quantity, it's worth spending your money on a few good items and dontaing the items that aren't going to work as well to the thrift store.

There are millions of kitchen gadgets out there designed to help the cook do less work, but what I've found is that whatever you save in work time you make up for in cleaning time. There are a few gadgets worth having around, but those are few and far between. In reality the basic equipment we already know and love is all you really need to be a fantastic cook. Getting back to basics may well be the best way to master kitchen skills.

A basic kitchen includes the following:

• quality, non-aluminum pots and pans without a non-stick coating
• wood, rubber, bamboo, silicon or metal utensils compatible with your pots and pans
• metal or glass mixing bowlsin 3 sizes
• a set of 2 or 3 quality chef knives
• a large non-plastic cutting board (I recommend bamboo)
• Glass Measuring Cupfor liquid measurements
• Stainless Steel Measuring Cupsfor dry measurements
• Metal Measuring Spoon Set
• Metal Perforated Colander
• glass storage bowls with tight-fitting lids
• an uncoated roasting pan or pizza pan
• a metal grater (any kind will do)
• 2-Quart Glass Baking Dish
• Glass Citrus Juicer
• Fruit and Vegetable Peeler
  

You'll notice I don't include any plastic in the list above. Why? Plastic was not meant to be a part of the human diet. No matter the quality, plastic utensils leave trace amounts of plastic in our food. Additionally some common kitchen plastics are porous - they can stain easily, absorb food particles or even leech chemicals into food. (Plastic lids that don't come in contact with food are OK.)

Sure, we're told plastics are safe and for many people they are. For others thousands of nameless toxins collect in the body from exposure to plastics and other chemicals that over time wreak havoc on the delicate human system. However we live in a time that provides us with so many better choices there is no need to take a chance. Personally I prefer the feel of wood/bamboo for most of my utensils anyway. Utensils made of natural materials are readily available in almost every kitchen shop and supermarket these days. There isn't really a good reason to use plastic.

Additionally all utensils wear out over time. Throwing out useless plastic items contributes to a greater problem modern societies are facing - storage space for trash that doesn't biodegrade. If you use wood, you can toss your worn out utensils in with your yard waste.

The other thing you probably noticed is that I prefer to use pans without a non-stick coating. Again, Teflon (the major component of non-stick coatings) and its ilk are not meant for human consumption. Yet non-stick coatings wind up in food all the time. This means it also winds up in our bodies. A 2008 study of 45 nursing mothers in Amherst, Massachusetts revealed perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, a type of PFC) as the second most frequent contaminant in breast milk, present in every single one of the study's participants. While the amount of this chemical ingested by babies from breastfeeding is considered 'safe', what does that say about what is inside the mother's body?

Incidentally if you own parrots, burning up a non-stick pan could be fatal to your birds. You've heard of a canary in a coal mine, right? Well animals as sensitive as birds can die from exposure to those chemicals found in your cookware. If it can kill birds, why take chances with your own health?

Most people opposed to non-coated cookware are concerned that cleanup can be a pain. Honestly, I am terribly lazy and I haven't really had much trouble cleaning up mine. The other argument is that non-stick pans allow you to use less fat when cooking and people don't want to add more fat. It's true that more fat is used in traditional cookware, but I'm not really positive that using less fat to cook is as beneficial as many people claim. I'll write more about that later.

Lastly all aluminum cookware should be avoided as long term exposure to aluminum has been linked to Alzheimer's disease. Additionally aluminum and copper cookware are considered to be 'reactive' cookware, meaning that in some circumstances the cookware could discolor soups or sauces and impart a metallic taste.

Ultimately the choice of what to use in your own kitchen is yours alone. However if you are making a big effort to work on your health, starting with cookware seems like a logical choice.