Choosing the right cookware and accessories is essential for a smart investment in your kitchen. Many of us make these choices with a limited budget; so, it is best to spend our money on the pots, pans, and accessories we need the most.
The first step is realistically identifying needs, especially for culinary novices. If you want to avoid your kitchen stacked with items you buy and forget later, it's better to start with the basics. As you progress, you may invest more in sophisticated cookware.
This article lists some of the most common kitchenware items every home cook should have. Continue to read to learn more about pots, pans, and accessories for your kitchen.
Pots
Pots are essential for many cooking tasks, so every home cook needs them. The category is vast, but below, we listed the basics that every home cook must have, regardless of culinary expertise.
- Brasier
The most common type of pot is a brasier, a wide, shallow pan with a fitting lid. It can be used for searing, braising, simmering, and cooking meat, vegetables, legumes, and rice.
- Saucepot
Saucepots come in several dimensions and every kitchen benefits from them. You can use them to make sauces, poach eggs, and more. Saucepots have tall sides and a large base for cooking larger quantities of sauces.
- Pasta pot
Pasta is one of the most popular comfort foods globally, and every home cook, even the most inexperienced ones, can cook it. Sure, you can cook pasta using a brasier pot. However, a pasta pot consisting of two parts, a colander, and a stock pot, is perfect for cooking and draining pasta. With a pasta pot, you can cook fresh and dry pasta varieties like a professional.
- Dutch oven
Dutch ovens are heavy-bottomed, thick-walled, and lidded cast iron pots perfect for slow-cooking tasks. A mid-sized Dutch oven can benefit every home kitchen when cooking meat and stews.
The above-listed pots pretty much cover all your cooking needs. However, you may want to consider enlarging your kitchen inventory. If that's the case, you can add a stock pot, pressure cooker, double boiler, and rice cooker.
Pans
Like pots, pans are a staple for every kitchen. They come in various shapes, sizes, and materials.
- Frying pan
A frying pan is a round, flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, sautéing, and browning foods. It usually has long handles and is generally shallow with slanted sides. A frying pan is an essential item in the kitchen, and it can be used for frying eggs and fish, sautéing vegetables, and many other purposes.
- Saucepan
A saucepan is a small piece of stovetop cookware in various sizes. It is mainly used to make sauces and boil eggs. A saucepan doesn't have a lid, differentiating it from a sauce pot. Also, a pot has tall sides and two loop handles, while a pan is shallow with one long handle.
- Grill pan
A grill pan is a must-have for many homes for cooking burgers and other kinds of meat. It's generally a heavy pan with raised lines on the bottom. The surface with the raised lines drains the fat from food.
- Pancake pan
Although designed for a single use, pancake pans are worth the investment. Pancakes are a beloved breakfast specialty, so you probably find a use for a pancake pan in your kitchen. Pancake pans are nonstick. Some are divided into smaller round parts inside, whereas others are not. Aside from pancakes, you can make omelets and fried eggs using a pancake pan.
- Cast iron skillet
A skillet is a frying pan. However, cast iron skillets deserve an individual mention since people use them for many cooking tasks, such as baking. A small-sized skillet can have several uses in your kitchen.
Consider purchasing specific-use pans such as paella and roasting pans for more sophisticated cooking tasks.
Aside from cookware, cooking requires different kitchen accessories. This is a very comprehensive category ranging from basic kitchen utensils to more sophisticated single-use accessories. What you need as a home cook depends mainly on your kitchen practices. That said, there are some accessories that we cannot imagine any kitchen without. Below, you will find ten essential kitchen accessories.
- Cutting board
- Knife set
- Knife sharpener
- Metal lemon squeezer
- Colander
- Mixing spoons and cups
- Hand whisk
- Cooling rack
- Spatula
- Box grater