More gifts to consider for the cook on your list

More gifts to consider for the cook on your list
                        

Take a good, hard look at your kitchen. If you were going to change it up a bit, maybe get rid of some things and replace others, what would you do?

I’m betting that you are not saying, “I have way too much counter space, and whatever will I do with all this unused storage?”

That’s a good thing to keep in mind as you pick out Christmas gifts for the cooks on your list, especially if you have never personally seen their kitchen.

Most of us have drawers jammed with gadgets, spatulas, potato mashers, wine bottle stoppers, cheese knives and stray chopsticks. Some of the cupboard doors don’t ever seem to close all the way because there’s that one piece of Tupperware or the oversized coffee mug that just won’t fit.

The countertop is given over to the usual toaster, yes? But also a mixer, coffee maker, cereal boxes that won’t fit on a shelf, bottles of oils, buckets of wooden spoons and whisks, and probably several bags of snacks with no proper place to live.

Pay close attention to what your cook says about this situation. Unless they have specifically asked for an instant pot, you can assume storage will be an issue. Same goes for slow cookers, smoothie machines or a panini grill.

One of the things I love most in my kitchen is a Nespresso coffee maker, which was a gift last year. It makes the absolute best coffee I’ve ever tasted at the perfect temperature in no time flat. It also has a milk frother, adding to the fun. But it never gets used because the only place to get the pods for it is directly from the company online, and they’re so pricey I have less guilt going to Starbucks. Plus having to order the pods regularly requires a level of forethought and organization that is beyond me. So there it sits, taking up a chunk of valuable space, and I have to dust the thing.

I wish I could tell you more about the sous vide machines that are so popular now. I’d frankly love to have one and have been watching a particular model, but the voice in my head keeps screaming something about needing tires.

Sous vide cooking consists of sealing food up in an airtight plastic bag and submerging it in water kept at a perfect, low temperature by the sous vide. After a set amount of time, usually a few hours, you quickly finish the food on the stovetop and serve it at exactly the right temperature and level of doneness, every time.

They don’t take up as much space as most kitchen doodads, and most cooks I know who don’t already have one would love to find one under the tree. They vary widely in price from under $100 northward into several hundred dollars. Then there’s the water container and a way to vacuum seal the bags.

Anyone with a Kitchenaid mixer will start looking longingly at all the attachments from day one. There are pasta rollers, meat grinders, ice-cream makers, scales, sifters, food processors — a big assortment.

If you’re considering cookware, get the good stuff or skip it. Cheap, light, thin-walled pans, no matter what they’re coated with, will burn everything and wear right out. Some chef-branded cookware is well made but in general stick with the brands with long reputations like All-Clad, Zwilling, Calphalon or Cuisinart.

Any enameled cast iron piece by Staub or Le Creuset will get you tackle hugged, trust me, even if they already have 20.

There are small things you can get very inexpensively if you’re picking something out for a co-worker or an eighth cousin.

Metal bench scrapers are very handy, and they always seem gunked up, so having a few is a great thing. Same goes for heat-resistant rubber spatulas, high-quality whisks or a roll of kitchen twine.

You can get good ideas at a restaurant supply house as well. A local one in New Philadelphia has a retail space any cook can get lost in for hours.

Good luck shopping.


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