The 23 Cooking Tools Our Editors Used Most This Year
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The editors of Epicurious spend a lot of time in the kitchen. As we carry on with all that cooking, testing, and experimenting, we gain an appreciation for the tools and gadgets that make our jobs easier. Some you may recognize; others are underutilized items we think more cooks should know about. This year our editors fell in love with new kinds of bread knives, found inexpensive egg timers that sparked serious joy, and reexamined maligned '90s kitchen tools. Take a look at all the gear our editors couldn't get enough of down below.
This inexpensive waffle maker is a favorite of staff writer Wilder Davies. When he tested it for our review of the best waffle makers, he found that it performed on par—and often way better—than machines three times its price. Since then, he's been using it in his home kitchen to make crisp, golden-brown waffles. Read his love letter.
Commerce editor Emily Johnson found out this year that the best bread knife is actually a serrated chef's knife. It's used by pro bakers and in restaurant kitchens, and can slice through the crustiest of sourdough loaves with ease. Bonus: it also cuts delicate produce like tomatoes without crushing them.
These little prep bowls are great for laying out all of your chopped ingredients before you cook; you'll feel like you're on a cooking show (and your food will genuinely turn out better when you prepare everything ahead and portion it out). They're durable and they have lids, so you can use them to store leftover herb or scallion garnishes. And they're great for serving snacks and condiments, as well.
The Savino is a simple, elegant carafe with a silicone-rimmed top and float; it claims to keep wine fresh for a week by preventing exposure to oxygen. Our reviews editor Noah Kaufman tried it, and found that it lived up to its promise, keeping a bottle of Pinot Noir stored in the fridge considerably fresher and more full flavored than a simple cork stuck back in the bottle. Read his full review.
Want genuinely great espresso on the go or without spending upwards of $1,000 on a machine? This mini tool, which operates via a hand pump, churns out a full-bodied brew that's better than espresso machines three times its price. Take it camping. Take it to a hotel room. Or, use it to make a shaken iced espresso at home.
The Thermapen Mk4 has long been our favorite kitchen thermometer. This year, Wilder tried out the brand's latest thermometer, the Thermapen One. This new model can read temperatures in under a second—and, of course, it's extremely accurate. Read our full review.
Sure, you could get a fancy blown glass wine decanter and it would be great. It would also be difficult to clean and easy to break. Our digital director Maggie Hoffman swears by these inexpensive carafes for decanting wine. They get the job done, they go in the dishwasher, and they're inexpensive and sturdy. And there's a certain European café chicness to them, as well.
This timer looks like a cute cartoon character, but you should take it seriously. It's your ticket to perfect jammy eggs. And it makes your morning routine more fun.
As delicate as these mesh cloths may seem, they are a formidable asset in tackling hardened grease spots. Unlike scouring pads or vegetable brushes, they're simultaneously soft enough to avoid scratching delicate glassware and tough enough to get serious scrubbing work done. On top of that, they dry incredibly fast, so you don't have to worry about them becoming a petri dishes for kitchen bacteria.
This miniature mandoline fits in the palm of your hand; it's perfect for shaving vegetables for a quick salad or slaw. It also comes with two grater attachments, and the carrying case doubles as a catch vessel, which makes for a tidy prep process.
In a perfect world, you'd use the entire vegetable every time you cooked something. But we live in the real world, and odds are you'll come across a recipe that calls for half an onion or cucumber. Instead of wrapping up the bisected produce in plastic wrap and hoping for the best, use these stretchy Food Huggers. They offer a tight-fitting seal to keep your apples from browning and your lemons from shriveling. Plus, they help cut down on single-use plastic waste.
Contributor Justine Lee calls this handy device the “Timothée Chalamet of culinary gadgets: thin, tiny, chiseled, and the complete package.” If you've ever struggled with an old fashioned can opener, this one is far simpler and more intuitive. All you do is pierce the edge of the can and pull to create a smooth, clean cut without any jagged edges.
Yes, it's a good idea to clean your coffee grinder every so often; buildup of rancid oils and residue can impact the taste of your coffee. Expert baristas clean their grinders with these tablets, which remove buildup without imparting any additional undesirable flavors. The tablets themselves are flavorless and food-safe.
Was the phrase “good things come in small packages” first uttered about the tiny Oxo Good Grips measuring cup? We can't be sure, but it certainly applies. This tiny version of our favorite angled liquid measuring cup features a cleverly marked slanted ridge, so you can see how much liquid it's holding from the top. There's nothing worse than carefully holding a tablespoon over a mixing bowl with one hand and trying to steadily pour vinegar into it with the other. This cup's flat base means it can sit upright on the counter while you measure, and any overzealous filling is easily rectified thanks to the fine spout, which can transfer ingredients back to the container they came from. You can work quickly and efficiently, knowing that you're getting the most accurate amounts possible.
Everyone needs a quick and lazy meal here and there. This vintage camping tool, designed for making molten sandwich pockets over a camp fire, is actually great to have around in your home kitchen for the times that the need for something easy and satisfying strikes. Spray a little oil on the two sides of the pie iron, place two slices of bread and your choice of fillings inside, and heat the whole thing over the stove for a couple minutes. Voila, you're eating your own DIY Hot Pocket.
Sure it's a bit of a splurge item, but staff writer Wilder Davies insists that this thick goat hair brush makes him a much better duster. “This particular brush has supersoft, pliable goat-hair bristles and a thin beachwood handle and is perfect for maneuvering around objects on a shelf without having to move them. The brush will last a lifetime, provided you occasionally comb the bristles as one would a pony's mane.”
Oil misters are a relic of 90s low-fat diet culture, but contributor Lauren Joseph recently found a new appreciation for them. After all, we're currently living in the era of the air fryer. This oil mister comes in handy for coating your food in a smooth, evenly-distributed gloss of oil, ensuring that things will get nice and crispy as soon as that turbo fan kicks on.
Vacuum sealing is scientifically proven to extend the shelf life of food (it's been used in industrial settings for this explicit purpose for decades), but when we set out to review this new vacuum sealing system from Zwilling, we wondered if it was actually practical for home cooks. After testing, we say yes. The hard shell vessels preserve fragile herbs and fresh berries for over a week.
This mini pot is called a butter warmer, and it is useful for that purpose. But, Emily also finds a myriad of other uses for it in the kitchen, like for warming milk for coffee, making chhonk, and reheating single servings of soups or curries.
This unusually shaped whisk is great for breaking up pockets of flour and incorporating them into dough. Use it for scones, pancakes, brownies, and many more baking projects.
Want to make your cakes look instantly more impressive? Make them taller. Instead of adding more precarious layers, you can simply use a tall cake pan—it gives you the kind of towering desserts you covet in bakery windows, with minimal effort. Read more about why tall cake pans are better.
