Is it time to refresh your kitchen tools?
There comes a time when the kitchen starts to seem a bit shabby. It’s no wonder: this room is possibly the busiest in the house. Perhaps you’ve already stocked your kitchen thoroughly and invested in a double-burner griddle or a Dutch oven and you want to level up your basics, too. Maybe you’re sick of using those stained, crusty oven mitts to pull your roasting pan out of the oven. Or resetting the pantry wasn’t enough to make you feel like your kitchen is well-stocked. If that’s the case, perhaps it’s time to refresh your simple kitchen tools.
HERE ARE 5 IDEAS FOR BRINGING A FRESH VIBE TO YOUR KITCHEN:
- Swap out old dish towels, oven mitts, and trivets: While we don’t advocate simply throwing away perfectly good towels, oven mitts, and trivets, there can come a time when things are too dingy. Stains, tears, and holes are normal with heavily-used dish towels. Turn them into rags or find a place that recycles textiles. As for oven mitts, they should be retired if they’re caked with various cooking stuff or just seem pretty dirty. HexClad’s Hot Mitts are a major upgrade on the old school all-fabric version thanks to their heat-resistant silicone exterior. It may be the case that you don’t even have trivets at all! This surprisingly useful kitchen tool protects tables and countertops from burns. Plus, HexClad’s Silicone Trivets are nonstick, keeping your hot dishes from sliding around.
- Set yourself up with a set of mixing bowls: For whatever reason, high-quality mixing bowls get overlooked by many cooks. Not just useful for batters and doughs (though they’re good for that, too), mixing bowls are essential for making homemade sourdough bread, whisking eggs for omelets and frittatas, and assembling the best salads. HexClad’s Stainless Mixing Bowl Set comes with vacuum seal lids, allowing the bowls to double as food storage and to prevent food from taking on smells in the fridge.
- Swap out your plastic cutting boards for wooden ones: Though plastic cutting boards can be convenient, cutting on them can release microparticles of plastic that can be ingested. A wooden cutting board, meanwhile, is equally gentle on knives, but has natural antimicrobial properties that help inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Use your wooden cutting boards for everyday chopping and slicing, big batch meal prep, and assembling snack boards and charcuterie platters for parties.
- Build out your knife set: A chef’s knife and paring knife can do a lot, but if you’re a regular cook, you might want to take the opportunity to invest in knives that are particularly good for a single task. A utility knife is great for peeling potatoes and other thin-skinned vegetables, while a cleaver is perfect for heavy-duty meat hacking or chopping hardy winter vegetables like butternut squash or thick-skinned fruits like coconut and watermelon. If you love hosting Thanksgiving, investing in a carving knife will be worth it. Or, if you enjoy visiting your local fishmonger, perhaps a boning and filet knife is the thing to get. Store your knives on our Walnut Magnetic Knife Block, which keeps blades sharp (versus drawers where they can bang about and get dull) and out of harm’s way. Keep the edges sharp by using a honing rod regularly.
- Invest in salt and pepper mills: If you’ve been shaking out table salt or pre-ground pepper for cooking and finishing dishes, we’re here to intervene. Instead, fill your salt mill with high-quality coarse salt and keep flaky sea salt for finishing dishes. Grinding peppercorns rather than using pre-ground is essential for enjoying the delicious aromatic oils inherent in the dried berries. Both the HexMill Pepper Grinder and HexMill Salt Grinder have adjustable burr grinders that allow for consistent granules to season your food.
