this

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ruhlman.com: The Freezer Pantry

http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlma.....r-pan.html

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What to Ditch in the Kitchen – Bitten Blog – NYTimes.com

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.co.....e-kitchen/

Of course, the key is balance.

Also, i think there’s a fine-sight difference betwixt a trained, profesional chef measuring flour, and me measuring flour, woulnd’t you say? Don’t get me wrong, if i’m making a marinade, i’ll eye-ball it, but of course you’ll forgive me if i choose to weigh my flour for my cakes, or use a measuring cup for my sugar.

I think we both agree that too many people keep too many things that they don’t use in their kitchen, will never use, have no intention of using, but think they MIGHT, or might want to SHOW OFF.

If you can chop very fine you don’t need to grate But you are right, a grater is useful.

Measuring cups are for lab rats. I find measuring by the handful, pinch and slurp work fine except when making complex cakes. You don’t see chef’s in restaurants using measuring cups do you?

Do away with most of your gadgets and doodahs and replace them with the best set of chef’s knives that you can afford – then learn to use them properly.

I was lucky in that my first job after school was as a kitchen porter in a Michelin Star kitchen under an exacting German Chef. He taught me how to do just about every food [meat & veg, not pastry] prep task in the kithen with just three knives.

As a result you won’t find slicers, dicers, juicers, choppers, liquidizers, graters or garlic crushers or any of those mechanical or electrical doohickeys in my kitchen.

It drives my wife mad…

And, I love the minimalist kitchen article — I’m trying to “skinny” down my kitchen possessions so this is a great jumping off point.

Keep up the good work!!

I know that no-one would want to support from their own pocket a site that gets as much traffic as this one must, so obviously (at least some) advertising is necessary. However, it would be nice if for every advert post there was at least one real one.

To the article:

I have a similar problem with my kitchen. the last owners (long story about their many mistakes) redesigned the kitchen and now it has but ONE drawer. It took me two days of searching all the local stores, but i found a drawer insert that was two layers, so i could store all the silverware in there. I have to hang my pizza cutter, bottle opener, &c from the wall with HOOKS. I never thougth those little holes in the handles were useful, until i moved into my current place!

Pizza cutters are much better at cutting pizza, quicker, and have lots of other uses. Also, i really like pizza? Also, Pastry brushes can’t really be replaced. That’s not saying everyone needs one, but they are whicked fast & effiecient at applying things like butter to the top of my buns before serving them.

I would vote a cake/pie server can just be replaced by a small-ish spatula, that could then be used for other things, like brownies. Also, most can-openers these days have bottle openers built in, or the wine opener does, so haveing a seperate ones seems silly, if we’re only talking about space? Instead of a seperate meat thermoeter, i would suggest one of the electronic do-hickeys: They are timers, they can alert you when the food as reached the tempurature (so quicker cooking, becuase the cord goes from the food in the oven, out of the stove, so you’re not opening the stove). One of these: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi.....tterer-20/ , to be clear on what i meant.

Better suggestion for replacement of funnel: take a paper plate, fold it into quarters, and cut the tip off: the paper plate is stronger, and won’t let fluids soak through, so can be used for fluids as well (at least, if you have the wax-coated ones?). I use the flat of my chef’s knife to crush garlic my ownself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoYYX_SpV7I but i am a little more… energetic in my crushing? Also, i haven’t tried the salt.

I use one of those cup things on my counter to hold the whisk, spatulas, spoontulas, wooden spoons, slotted spoons, &c. I use a wall knife-rack (the magnetic kind), that is mounted below my wall-mounted spce rack, next to my wall mounted hooks for the pizza cutter, can opener, grater.

I liked the idea stated above of using an old cookie canister for some odds & ends. i’m going to keep eyes open for one now, for my measuring cups. (I have seen those silicon folding measuring spoons, cups, and even a liquid folding silicon measuring cup! same with a funnel!)

Keep up the good work, Erin, thanks.

You guys used to post amazing, original content all the time. I have seen very little besides book advertisements / reviews and tidbit sized tips that seem like rewrapped versions of old articles.

Did everyone give up?

On the Design Public blog, there was a great solution for odd utinsils. Store them in the vintage cookie jar. I love that idea! Another idea would be to keep items in a large specialty cooking container, such as the turkey roaster or the Tupperware containers you need infrequently. I have the “good” silverware in a Tupperware rectangular cake cover, upside down, base serving as lid.

I have a vertical rack for pots that I made from some shelving grid. It also holds the BBQ tools and a strainer. A magnetic knife rack from Ikea keeps knives, a metal trivet and shears in easy reach by the stove. No one sees that clutter because it is out of sight to all but the cook, between fridge and pantry. One cabinet has a small wine rack, which I put some tall cans into and use for taper candles, skewers, etc.

A friend once lived in a home for a few years before he realized that there was a drawer under the oven!

Twenty years ago, my husband and I bought a $450,000 condo on NYC’s upper East Side, brand spankin’ new, 29th floor, and ONE KITCHEN DRAWER! Seriously, the kitchen was smaller than my master bathroom is now (I live just outside of Los Angeles).

We were newly married, and every single relative on my husband’s side — he is Greek — gave us some kind of kitchen utensil or serving dish or cooking pan. Honestly, I just cried. We kept stuff in our oven, on top of the fridge, in our closet, under the bathroom sink … then came baby 13 months later. It was such a relief to move to Denver and buy a 2,000 square foot home for $150K, with the best kitchen EVER!!! I was so excited to have a disposal, and even had enough room to dedicate one drawer just to paper grocery bags.

Now I am motivated to clean out my utensil drawer so it will close properly. We own a sandwich shop, so I rarely cook anymore. Someone should get some use of these items.

I echo the vote for a fine gauge microplane as a necessity. I use mine constantly–for nutmeg, citrus zest, garlic, fresh parmesan/romano.

Also, definitely a corkscrew. Not being a wine drinker, I was once without one, and it was rather embarrassing when someone brought over a bottle of wine for dinner! I’ll never make that mistake again.