I had to laugh when I saw the photographic timer. I've been using my husband's for 46 years. He's a graduate of the NY Institute of Photography, the Navy's Photomate "A" School and the University of Kansas Photojournalism Department.
It's the best kitchen timer ever.
4
A hair bungee: How much of Melissa Clark's hair will end up in the food? ... paleez tie it back, Melissa!
digital postal scales are available for ~$15 - that is one "gadget" I have never shelved since I started using it with Bittman's popularization of No Knead Bread
cookbook: The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, López-Alt, J. Kenji,. Makes a great gift too.
2
@BnB Presuming to criticize a person's manner of cooking in their own home is a bit much. It is not a restaurant, nor a catering service. Please!
18
A video wold have been better!
1
i love my Instant Pot. I have one for myself and bought one for my daughter and family. I have been trying out all sorts of recipes with pretty good results. Recipes that I considered complicated are made easy with the IP.
1
Good grief. get a good chef's knife, a paring knife, cutting board, a pair of tongs and some measuring cups and spoons. Work from a good starter book like Michael Smith's "Best of Chef at Home", have fun, cook, laugh and eat.
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Melissa, dahlink, No, No, No! Dead tree cookbooks for actual use (and marginal notes). The tablet is for The Minimalist videos on YouTube.
3
Second her suggestion on Thermapen thermometer.
I used to over-cook food in trying to make sure it is safe.
No more.
4
The instapot interests me, but six quart size, judging from the photo is so large. I cook mainly for that traditional trio: me, myself, and I. My seven cup rice cooker makes a lot of what I need and use. If there is a smallish but excellent instapot, I’d be tempted to invest.
I’ve been cooking 2-3 times a week with an 8 quart instant pot just for me. It’s fine. Nice to have left over.
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@Joan In California I have an 8 quart and a 3 quart and use both several times a week. Love the 3 quart - I use it for yogurt regularly, as well as cooking grains, beans, risotto. It's very useful - and cute.
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@Joan In California It's a fad. I suspect most will be stored in the garage next year. Do you like Crock pot meals? I don't. The food gets mushy and the individual flavors all become one flavor. InstaPot food tastes that way too.
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It’s great to hear that someone who is so precise and talented at cooking also has an appreciation for high-fidelity music. The compressed, lifeless formats and equipment that is so typical today is the audio equivalent of frozen dinners.
8
Such blatant endorsement of Iphone! Could have said a smart phone or tablet instead. Makes all other suggestions suspect, as was noted in another comment about the instant pot recommendation.
Very disappointing.
8
The advice to weigh ingredients is all well and good but so few recipes give weight-based ingredients. I spent 30 minutes the other night slouched over my heated oven trying to get reliable information online about the weight of butter. If something that basic isn't easier, we've got a long way to go in the cooking community for transitioning from volume-based measures.
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Suggesting the NYTimes Cooking for folks learning to cook is silly at best. I am an experienced cook and use it all the time but I am frustrated with almost every recipe as there is always one ingredient that is not easily available. I know how to substitute but it took years and failure to know how. I think this would be setting up a novice cook for failure.
All that said - I love the recipes!!!
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For the more technically adventurous, an inexpensive Raspberry Pi micro-computer and a free download called RuneAudio does a great job handling our "digital blob", as well as our favorite online music stations.
6
If you're a new fan of instant pots check out simpleguysimplepot on youtube! And I need to find one of those darkroom timers! Thanks.
1
@Bob Muens Instant Pots die, die, die! Just keep your pressure cooker and rice cooker.
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Ginger lemon water recipe, please? I'm always looking for a hot non-caffeinated drink. Don't really care for herbal tea. Thanks
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@bzellin
12 – 16 oz hot water
½ lemon, juiced
½ tsp lemon zest (from ½ lemon peel)
1 in (2.5 cm) piece of ginger, peeled and grated
dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
¼ – ½ teaspoon honey (optional)
1.Heat water on stove top until desired temperature.
2.Pour hot water into blender and add lemon juice, lemon zest and ginger- if you’re adding cayenne pepper and honey you may add them now as well.
3.Blend on medium speed for 20-30 seconds.
4.Pour into glass and enjoy!
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@Marge Keller
Thanks, Marge! You're a peach!
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@bzellin
My pleasure dear. Hope you like it. I'm not a fan of the pepper for ginger alone packs a pretty decent punch.
1
Can always count on great tips from Melissa Clark. She's my favorite! TY for sharing.
25
My favorite kitchen tech product? A beautiful set of low-tech, nesting, stainless steel measuring cups, which take up minimal space, are models of economy and design, and should last well into the next century.
Tempted by a digital scale, but it requires changing batteries. I can't stand changing batteries.
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@BobMeinetz get the scale. She’s right about this one.
I’ve had one for ten years and I don’t think I’ve ever changed the batteries.
Far more frustrating will be the new found feeling of “Why is this a volume measure?!? This makes no sense.”
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In addition, I wish for baking, measurements would be given in grams. So so much easier to scale up or down. Just makes more sense.
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@BobMeinetz
@DNF
My measuring cups could last into the next millennium, because I would never use them.
It's a no brainer, but gets better the more you think about it. Volume measurement is never accurate. But beyond that, a single bowl, placed on a scale, can be used for one ingredient, weighed, zeroed out, another added, and so on, regardless of density, liquidity, whatever. One bowl to rinse, too. Try that with your measuring cups! It can be done with an old style scale too, but not quite as efficiently.
11
My most important kitchen asset, not tool, is Melissa Clark. She gives countless inspiration, a different ways to look at preparing various dishes, and lots of subtle humor. My second most important kitchen asset are my pot holders. On more than one occasion I have grabbed a hot cookie sheet out of the oven, only to have colorful language and pieces of baked cookies liter my kitchen.
20
Are electric tea kettles really worthwhile in the age of microwaves?
4
@Jean
In Europe, they heat water very fast (faster than a microwave) because their power outlets have twice the voltage.
In America, a microwave is faster than a wall-powered heating element and anyone you see using an electric kettle here is either misinformed or just trying to look Continental-trendy.
5
@asdfj
That's not a fair statement. I think the kettle is still faster than the microwave for heating water, and it certainly uses less energy.
I picked up the electric kettle habit in Europe and won't live without one now.
Try telling a Brit to make tea using a microwave!
14
@Jean
My vote is yes, especially if you like more than one cup of tea.. Good ones hold a quart of hot water for quite a bit after maybe 90 seconds to boil. I became enamored in the middle of kitchen renovation, the thing was a huge boon to us since getting boiling spaghetti water on a hot plate took over an hour and the microwave just wasn't big enough. Latest house has instant hot water at the sink, put away kettle, but only for now..
2
Anyone else remember when the Times wasn't a text-based version of QVC?
We're already bombarded with ads and paywalls, are you really this desperate for referral fees that you have to debase your actual content?
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@asdfj
I, too was disappointed in some of the choices: the InstaPot was rated rather low by Cook's Illustrated-THEY are relatively unbiased..the device itself is good, but not that brand...makes me view their other recommendations with a rather jaundiced eye...which is sad
5
@KDM You forget that Instant Pot is Amazon's latest stupid fad that we are all supposed to worship. Resist! Rice cookers of the world unite. Pressure cooker solidarity. I got an Instant Pot as a gift. I have no room for an oversized robot on my counter top. It doesn't pressure cook well. Ugly, useless "multipurpose" garbage .
4
Love the column, but I'm surprised that the tech-friendly Ms. Clark hasn't discovered the convenience of a smart speaker for timing. My Alexa can handle multiple timers simultaneously - no more grease stained timers, iPads, or iPhones.
9
@Michael, Alexa is indeed "smart". But I would guess Ms. Clark, like many others, is averse to being spied on by her manufacturer.
32
“Hey Siri, set a timer for 35 minutes” works for me.
3