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Cooking Equipment – Beyond Basic ToolsThere is cooking equipment today is every cooks dream, there is something for every skill level and interest. I was reminded recently as I spent nearly 20 minutes using a wire whisk to whip egg whites into stiff peaks to fold into a muffin batter. As my arm began to go numb I wondered why I had not just pulled out my hand mixer.
It is good to learn to cook using basic tools so that you know how, but once you have moved beyond the basics in cooking then what I call the special equipment out there is marvelous.
The kitchen equipment out there is great for busy cooks and those that want to fix more complicated recipes, not only do these advanced kitchen tools save time, but they bring out the best in a recipe, and let’s face it, cooking is a lot more fun for many of us, with these special tools. In addition, there are enough manufacturers out there for everyone that wants to use these advanced tools to find something that they like.
Hand mixers
These hand electronic gadgets allow you to mix large amounts of ingredients thoroughly in no time at all, and help to avoid cramping arms. These electric gadgets are also very efficient. They are good for beating stiff peaks into egg whites and for mixing other liquids that will be added to a larger amount of ingredients, good for mixing ingredients such as pancake batter, cake batter, muffin mixes and initiating the mixing of ingredients that will be folded into other ingredients and actually folding ingredients into each other.
These electric appliances can replace spoons, spatulas, and whisks. They generally have a couple of beater attachments and a whisk attachment, and more powerful models may have dough hooks. They are light weight, easy to clean and easy to store and come with instructions for operating. Hand mixers also have several operation speeds, such as low of which there are two low speeds, medium speed of which there may be three and a high speed setting of which there is generally only one for combining increasingly heavier ingredients. When choosing a hand mixer, it should be lightweight and have a comfortable handle, digital controls that are simple to use, ejection button to eject the beaters, and wire beaters. Other great cooking equipment includes:
For some great sections on cooking equipment, some great references are: • The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2010 by the editors at America’s Test Kitchen
Cooking Basics
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Just a sample of the fun specialty cooking equipment available
Crock Pot
Ice Cream Maker
Rice Cooker
Stand Mixers
Bread Making Machine
Juicer
Table Top/Counter Top Microwave Oven
Pressure Cookers
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