Cooking Utensils

Knowing your microwave's wattage is useful when it comes to determining the load on your household circuits or figuring out whether your microwave is powerful enough to cook a particular microwave...

Food thermometers help keep food safe by giving us information about food temperatures. Different types of foods need to be cooked to specific temperatures--usually at least 145 degrees...

J.A. Henckels International manufactures several series of high-quality cutlery. In order to use these knives safely and effectively, you need to keep the blades sharpened. The cutting edge of a...

In his popular cooking show "Good Eats," Alton Brown describes how to jury-rig a home meat smoker to make homemade bacon. Although he puts it together using humorously improvised parts, his plan...

Cutting boards are available in several materials, including plastic, wood and bamboo. The most popular types are butcher-block and plastic boards. Whether you prefer plastic or wooden boards, the...

Electric fillet knives make smooth, precise slices through even the most tender foods. The two serrated blades of the electric fillet knife quickly move back and forth to leave a cleanly cut edge....

It's imperative to have clean cut-resistant gloves when working in any area, especially the kitchen. Dirty gloves can transfer bacteria and other germs to your work area, which can lead to these...

Eat more apples! Some people avoid fresh apples because they hate peeling, coring and cutting the fruit, but if you use a Norpro Apple Master, you no longer have this excuse. Quickly prepare...

Kyocera salt mills have an adjustable ceramic grinding mechanism that allows you to set the granule size to your liking for every task. Raising and lowering the level of the grind wheel within the...

Evaluating chef's knives for your own use is, above all, a highly personal process. It's important to find a knife that feels well-balanced, maintains a sharp edge and cuts food as nicely as...

A plastic cutting or chopping board has a non-porous surface that is safer to use and easier to clean. Plastic cutting boards are less likely to trap harmful bacteria than wooden cutting boards.

In just a few seconds you can construct a hamburger press from a large empty mayonnaise jar and its lid. Kitchen tools that only have one purpose are rarely used and spending the extra money to...

The Titan Peeler is a popular "As Seen on TV" fruit and vegetable peeler. Using the peeler is simple; it can reduce preparation time for meals. The Titan Peeler uses "microblade technology,"...

French kitchenware manufacturer Bron-Coucke has long been the professional kitchen standard for mandolines throughout the world. While some people may find them intimidating and difficult to use,...

Making crinkle cut fries with your mandoline is quite easy and fast. Frozen fries are convenient, but using your mandoline makes the incomparable taste of fresh ones available almost as quickly....

Ripe juicy tomatoes are one of the most difficult food items to slice without making a mess. Tomato knives are specially designed to break through the tough outer skin and slide cleanly into the...

A quality chef's knife is a versatile kitchen tool capable. Rating chef's knives requires a series of decisions to evaluate the significance you personally put on performance, price, comfort and...

Cherry pitters are one of those obscure kitchen utensils that you'll never miss until the day you're faced with the prospect of pitting a couple hundred cherries. When that day comes, you'll want...

Cooks who enjoy preparing vegetables, dumplings or other savory foods with steam often appreciate having a bamboo steamer. A bamboo steamer has separate trays to hold the ingredients for steaming....

Making your own personalized metal skewers adds flair to your grill and table. It provides a conversation starter at large holiday gatherings and reunions. You can design your skewers for a...

The stove was left on too long, the food was ruined and that heirloom cast-iron pot, the one that your grandmother received from her grandmother, is black, burnt and foul smelling. Dinner is gone...

A cutting board, also known as a chopping board, is used for cutting or chopping vegetables, herbs, meats and other foods. A cutting board is usually made out of wood and should be conditioned...

All fine cutlery requires maintenance and sharpening. Have your knives professionally sharpened every one to two years depending on how often you use them. At home you can use the honing steel...

Canning juicers, also known as steam juicers, are an easy way to make juice concentrate from fresh fruit. A steam juicer has three parts: a bottom section that holds water, a top steamer that...

Preparing delicious whole poultry is uncomplicated with the Ronco Rotisserie. Ron Popeil, founder of Ronco, simplified the instructions to five words, "Set it and forget it!" The rotisserie has...

Before the invention of food processors, cooks used manual food mills to puree and separate foods from skins, seeds and bones. Today, most food mills make homemade baby food, but keep one in your...

Holidays and large family dinners are murder on your oven racks. Grease and overflow can bake onto your racks so firmly that you might think even a jackhammer wouldn't dislodge it. Kitchen sinks...

A water dispenser is a unit whose purpose is to provide heated and/or cooled water on demand. This saves time that would be spent waiting for a refrigerator or jug to prepare the water. A water...

All fine edge cutlery requires maintenance and sharpening. Even everyday use dulls your blade over time. Over the course of your knives' lives, you should have them sharpened professionally every...

All knives require maintenance and occasional sharpening to maintain their usefulness. There are a few rules for maintaining your blade; always cut on a wood or plastic board because other hard...

Shucking your own oysters is the freshest way to enjoy them at home. It is simple as long as you have the right tools. A New Haven oyster knife is one of the best you can find. It has a large...

Rice is one of the most popular and healthy kitchen staples consumed on a daily basis all over the world. There are more than 40,000 varieties of rice, which is grown on every continent except...

A clove press---more commonly called a garlic press---is a useful device for crushing individual cloves of garlic. It extrudes the meat of the clove through small holes, forming tiny pieces that,...

Making your own sauces is rewarding, but it can often become time consuming. Cooking a large batch of sauce and then vacuum-sealing some of it will allow you save it for later use while also...

Using unsanitized jars for canning foods such as butter, jams, pickles and preserves can put you at risk for food-borne infections such as botulism, a muscle-paralyzing affliction caused by a...

Having an airtight seal for your food products can make a difference in quality, taste and shelf life. The air is food's worst enemy as it breaks down the food and can make it go bad faster. There...

Cast iron skillets are an indispensable kitchen tool for many uses. Whether you are browning or braising, making an omelet or frying chicken, cast iron's unmatched heat retention makes it the...

A spork is an eating utensil that is the combination of a spoon and a fork. It has the curved dip of a spoon with prongs on the end like a fork and is often used to consolidate dinnerware.

A strop is a leather strap used for making the final edge when sharpening a knife. After using a sharpening stone, the blade of the knife is jagged--not smooth--on a microscopic level. A leather...

The outer part, or peel, of a lemon provides most of the lemons flavor, this is where the essential oils are located. Lemon peel is used in many dishes, from desserts to main courses, in...

The celebrated chef James Beard wrote that next to your hands, the most important tools in a kitchen are good knives. Even if your culinary talent doesn't extend far beyond macaroni and cheese,...

Fried chicken is a quintessentially American dish. It is a picnic standard and a regular on dining tables, especially in the South. Cooking it in a cast iron skillet makes it better--and even more...

The KitchenAid Immersion Blender is a nifty hand blender that blends food efficiently and conveniently. It is designed to puree food in the same container in which it is being prepared. It can...

Pancakes are a breakfast favorite that can be both easy and fast to prepare. One of the few challenges to making perfect pancakes is uniformity of size. Spooning out batter onto a griddle can be...

Kitchen Aid Stainless steel knives (like all brands) are rust resistant if given proper care. Stainless steel kitchen knives should be promptly washed and dried to avoid pitting or corrosion to...

It is important to sharpen your carving knives often in order to keep them sharp, durable and ready for every use. Using a sharpening steel is a simple and effective way of getting your blade as...

Invented by John L. Mason in 1858, the Mason jar revolutionized food preservation. His design was copied by many others, including the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, which began in...

Electric smokers are built for people who do not want to sit for hours and maintain a fire. You simply have to place your wood, fill your water pan, put the meat inside the smoker and walk away. ...

The Santoku knife that is the workhorse in a Japanese kitchen is now the go-to knife in many American kitchens. It is a combination of a chef's knife and a meat cleaver. Santoku means "three...

Immersion blenders sold in mass market and kitchen stores conveniently blend foods in any deep container without dirtying an extra dish. Some immersion blenders come with accessories to chop or...