The best, I mean the very best and most useful kitchen tools, are almost always the simplest. Yes, you've got the kitchen workhorse, the standing mixer, the food processor (I almost never use mine), the hand blender (my favorite small appliance). But really what I love most?
Two really sharp knives. A thick flat hard surface that gets really hot. A heavy wood cutting board.
And these: Rocks and sticks.
Point is: fewer rather than more, simple rather than complex.
(One clarification in the video that I failed to make clear at the time. For testing the temperature of frying oil, I use the chopsticks I save from Chinese take out, not really nice ones.)
Once again, many thanks to Todd Porter and Diane Cu. I called them saints among us in the last "something to say" video. That was wrong. They're angels. Stay here!
If you liked this post on I Had Something to Say, check out these other links:
- My post on how to make guacamole.
- Here's the mortar and pestle I use, at OpenSky—as far as I'm concerned, it's the best mortar pestle on the market.
- Chef Daniel Patterson writes how important it is for people to use their hands to connect to the food they are preparing.
- How to Butcher a Chicken, a blog by Herrick Kimball.
© 2011 Michael Ruhlman. Photo © 2012 Donna Turner-Ruhlman. All rights reserved
My favorites are a couple of very good knifes, cast iron skillet, Viking stand mixer, nesting CIA stainless bowls, flat edged bamboo spoon, and my hands.
I love my Forschner workhorse chef's knife and a couple of cast iron pans that I use for everything. I even upgraded the Forschner to a Wusthof a few years ago, but can't seem to stop using my old favorite. And the hand blender? Best invention since the bread slicer.
Your open sky listing for the m & p says the depth of the bowl is 5 inches. Is that right? Looks to be about half that from the photos. Maybe diameter is 5 inches?
i'm not at home but that sounds right, it's plenty deep. And it's by far the best mortar and pestle I've used, love this thing.
I agree on the two knives, but I find a bread knife more useful than the paring -- not just for bread but for tomatoes, peaches, etc.
Appliance wise, my Vitamix is my favourite.
Michael, do you use your food processor for pie dough? I only have a mini-fp.
Oh yeah -- I also love grapefruit spoons -- good for so much more than grapefruit!
Hi Michael, It looks like the mortar and pestle you are holding in your video is different from the one you are selling on OpenSky. Can I order the one you show in the video -- LOVE that one!
This one looks like the one in the video:
http://www.amazon.com/Mortar-Pestle-Nicely-Finished-diameter/dp/B002S5G7W0
I bought my mom a cast iron mortar and pestle a couple of years ago and wish I had bought one for myself. It wasn't very big but had good heft and a rough texture that made quick work of the hardest seeds and spices. Other tools I love in my kitchen: a pot rack above the stove and a wall magnet for my knives. Leaves tons of counter and cabinet space available.
Mr. Ruhlman, you choose kitchen tools based on whether they look good on your windowsill? Seriously?
Can you tell me where to get the mortar and pestle in your video? It is different from the one on Open Sky....
chopsticks are my favorite. I eat everything with chopsticks for a few reasons which have little to do with cooking and everything to do with eating - chopsticks allow for time between bites and makes eating at the table longer- means kids can't run away and stomach get to enjoy the first bits of food before the next bite. I have packaged wood chopsticks in the lazy susan on my kitchen table. I refuse porcelain as they can't pick up as easy as the wooden ones.
your advertising to much an not blogging about food , real food , whats up with that!! i don't mean to be butthead but i been following you an chef john an david lebovitz an poineerwoman for yrs now get back to cooking everyday please i think you losing what got you where you are now ! you all seem to be 🙁 um you all taught me alot but why stop now please keep it about the food 🙂
Well, if you had a wooden spoon.... ; )
...the handle is also good for checking the temperature of oil for frying.
Ciao,
L
'Touche' on the 'shoving metal in your mouth'; you are right, wood is much more civilized. I'll confess, I realized through this 'mI stuck in a mortar and pestle box using them only for the most obvious tasks. You have effectively released me and I'm promoting them to official multi-purpose kitchen tools. And chopsticks....so smart. Love the tone of the video too. Very funny.
hmm...odd Mr. Ruhlman. A thermometer is way more useful than chopsticks for measuring oil temperature. My hands and/or a nice sturdy silicon spatula are also better to mix any kind of dough. I guess, I do not buy the whole chopsticks are one of the most useful tools argument at all. I do agree on the mortar and pestle though. I bought my granite ones from a Thai grocery store years ago and they will, I am sure, outlive me. They really are awesome tools and look great.
Now, seriously, you rarely use a food processor? It's a toss up between that and the KitchenAid mixer. Very few tools are as useful as far as I am concerned. Maybe because I make peanut butter at least every other week I suppose...
We have a big knife block full of every kind of stainless steel knife (and scissors) on the market. They are all pretty much collecting dust since we purchased a set of 3 ceramic knives. These ceramic knives have very sharp blades which hold their edge for a lot longer time than steel. Also they don't stain or rust or transfer odors.
A wooden block is much easier on knife blades than those made of other materials and are also more sanitary than their their non-wood counterparts. Bacteria are absorbed into the grain of the wood where they either die or are too far removed from the surface to affect any food being processed.
Thanks for your tip on using chop sticks to check the temp of oil.
JP
Hola! I've been following your weblog for some time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Austin Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep up the fantastic work!
What is Facebook?
I was very thrilled to discover this site on yahoo.I wanted to say thanks to you with regard to this great read!! I definitelyliked every little bit of it and I've you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.
Hey there! This post couldn't be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this write-up to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!
chevelle tour information
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I discovered it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
Hello there Nice wewebsite. Would you like to invitee post on mine sometime? If that's the case you should inform me by means of e-mail or just answer this particular remark simply due to the fact I enrolled in notifications and will know if you do.
Thanks for sharing this good post. Very interesting ideas! (as always, btw)
Thanks pertaining to discussing your opinions. I'd privately also like to express that video games have recently been actually innovating. Better technologies and enhancements have caused it to be easier to generate sensible as well as interactive games. These type of entertainment video gaming were significantly less sensible if your real concept was initially being experimented with. Just like other styles of technologies, video games also have had to evolve via many many years. This by itself is testimony to the fast improvement of games.
Along with every thing which is apparently developing within this area, many of your opinions have been fairly rousing. However, I beg your excuse, because I truly do not supply credence for your entire notion, all be it stimulating it's unlikely that any the a smaller amount. It looks in my opinion that your remarks are in fact not totally rationalized and the truth is you are often your self not wholly confident from the assertion. In virtually any event I did so enjoy going through it.
Thank you a lot for sharing this with all people you really recognize what you are speaking about! Bookmarked. Kindly also visit my website =). We can have a link trade arrangement among us!
A central element of your U.S. financial system could be the financial freedom afforded for the private sector by allowing the personal sector for making nearly all economic selections in identifying the direction and scale of what the U.S. financial state creates. This is certainly improved by somewhat very low ranges of regulation and authorities involvement,[54] at the same time like a courtroom method that typically shields home rights and enforces contracts. Today, the usa is dwelling to 29.6 million compact businesses, 30% of your world's millionaires, 40% in the world's billionaires, as well as 139 on the world's five hundred most significant organizations. From its emergence as an impartial nation, america has encouraged science and innovation. Consequently, the us may be the birthplace of 161 of Britannica's 321 Excellent Inventions, such as items for example the airplane, internet, microchip, laser, cellphone, refrigerator, electronic mail, microwave, Liquid crystal display and LED technological know-how, air con, assembly line, grocery store, bar code, electric powered motor, and ATM.
Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch as I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!
Awesome, Thx!
Its as if you read my personal mind! You appear to know a whole lot about this kind of, like a person wrote the particular book in it or one thing. I think that you could do which has a few pics they are driving the information home a bit, but other than that, this can be magnificent website. A amazing read. I is sure to be back again.
Howdy are utilizing WordPress to your blog program? I'm new to the web site world yet I'm hoping to get started and also create my own, personal. Do you will need any html html coding expertise to create your individual blog? Any help could be greatly appreciated!
Excellent goods from you, man. DUBSTEP GUNS 007 Video Recording Games | 007MRLUKIAN I have understand your stuff previous to and you are just extremely excellent. I really like what you have acquired here, really like what you are stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it sensible. I can't wait to read much more from you. This is actually a wonderful DUBSTEP GUNS 007 Video Recording Games | 007MRLUKIAN informations.
As soon as I discovered this web site I went on reddit to share some of the love with them.
Whats up very cool website!! Man .. Beautiful .. Wonderful .. I'll bookmark your site and take the feeds also...I am happy to seek out a lot of useful information right here within the post, we'd like work out more techniques on this regard, thanks for sharing.
Some really marvelous work on behalf of the owner of this internet site, dead outstanding subject matter.
Hi there, I discovered your site via Google at the same time as looking for a comparable subject, your site got here up, it appears to be like great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
I do consider all the ideas you have offered to your post. They're really convincing and will certainly work. Nonetheless, the posts are very short for novices. May just you please extend them a bit from next time? Thank you for the post.
I are already seeing people discuss del. icio. us as well as bookmarking internet sites... what your heck is it?
UTFpqQ ok love that stuff
Simply wanna input on few general things, The website pattern is perfect, the articles is really fantastic : D.
Hiya, I'm really glad I've found this data. Today bloggers publish almost gossips as well as web and this is really annoying. A excellent site along with interesting content, that's what I want. Thanks for keeping this web page, I will be visiting it. Do you are doing newsletters? Cant think it is.
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I've truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I will be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Thanks for the auspicious writeup. It in truth used to be a entertainment account it. Look complicated to more introduced agreeable from you! By the way, how can we be in contact?
I am helping some friends get their shop on the map and noticed. They have a web site. One of the ways in my research to optimize a web site is to use a blog. I am not blog savvy and neither are they so need a little help as to good sites to place there blog so that they get noticed..
Super i find it!!
I admire what you have done here. I like the part where you say you are doing this to give back but I would assume by all the comments that this is working for you as well.
Hey very nice website!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I'll bookmark your web site and take the feeds also'I am happy to find numerous useful info here in the post, we need work out more strategies in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
I always was interested in this topic and stock still am, thank you for posting.
This really is outstanding. Will you post an update soon ?
Whats up very cool website!! Guy .. Excellent .. Superb .. I will bookmark your web site and take the feeds also…I'm glad to seek out numerous useful information here within the post, we want work out more strategies in this regard, thank you for sharing.
Hey there. I found your blog by way of Google while searching for a related matter, your website came up. It seems to be great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks to visit later.
Lovely just what I was searching for.Thanks to the author for taking his clock time on this one.
I like this post, enjoyed this one regards for posting. "'I have done my best.' That is about all the philosophy of living one needs." by Lin Yutang.
Unquestionably consider that that you stated. Your favorite justification seemed to be on the net the simplest factor to take into account of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while folks think about concerns that they just don't recognise about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , folks can take a signal. Will likely be again to get more. Thanks!
Great day, it’s it will probably be absent from study even so any kind of, i've been previously surfing within your websites and seeks clearly in fact organized. I’m just building a distinctive internet page and thus under pressure to get it appear good, whenever my partner work on element my spouse and i screw it up. By what method really tough provides the actual to develop your internet site? May possibly possibly some criminal significantly like me without any subsequent have attain it, as effectively offer family renovation pages of content material devoid of having destroying it once again all the time?
One thing I have actually noticed is that often there are plenty of beliefs regarding the finance institutions intentions if talking about property foreclosures. One fantasy in particular is the fact the bank prefers to have your house. The lender wants your cash, not your own home. They want the funds they gave you together with interest. Averting the bank will simply draw a new foreclosed summary. Thanks for your post.
Hi there, I discovered your website by way of Google simultaneously as looking for a equivalent topic, your web site came upwards, it is apparently great. I get bookmarked it inside my google bookmarking.
Thisis a tottaly sweet webstore that I found when searching google.
I simply desired to say thanks once more. I am not sure the things that I could possibly have gone through without the type of creative concepts documented by you on that question. It was an absolute depressing difficulty in my circumstances, but taking a look at your expert strategy you dealt with that took me to jump for fulfillment. I am grateful for this advice as well as hope you know what a great job your are undertaking training people using a site. Most likely you've never encountered any of us.
Appreciate it for helping out, wonderful information.
It is really a great and helpful piece of info. I am glad that you shared this helpful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
I discovered your website internet site online and check several of your early posts. Maintain on the top notch operate. I just now additional your Feed to my MSN News Reader. Seeking for forward to reading considerably far more from you discovering out later on!…
I has been examining a number of your articles for this website and I think this internet site is rattling helpful! Keep on putting up.
Lulz.
This could be the right blog for everyone who wants to discover more regarding this subject. You realize much its nearly hard in order to argue along (not which i actually wants... HaHa). You certainly put a new spin over a topic i'm talking about been discussing for many years. Great stuff, just excellent!
very good put up, i actually love this site, carry onto it
I really like your writing style, superb info , thankyou for posting : D.
Hello, World!
cheap xanax online order xanax with no prescription - xanax online buy