Omnomicon

Results are in: we have some well-equipped kitchens! I asked readers about their favourite underappreciated kitchen tools and got these results.

Good, solid knives (37%)
Some had brand, others noted the complete genericness of their knives…all in all, having a knife you love makes the kitchen a better place! My all-time favourite was my very first: a meat cleaver I picked up at a yardsale and used for everything from meat (as intended) to cutting onions to mincing garlic.

Mixing bowls (27%)
Nesting, vintage, really big, everyone loves a good mixing bowl.

Prep bowls (27%)
Including ramekins. Mine came from a restaurant I worked at for awhile. We ordered tiramisu from a vendor that came in this perfect glass cups (1 c each) and had no use for them after dessert was done. I managed to nab a good dozen and I *still* run out from time to time.

Silicone Spatula (23%)
Nuff said. I’ve been using one for tomato sauces lately to keep my nonstick all nice.

Microplane (23%)
The one item I originally listed that made it on the list!

Narrow misses were wooden spoons, cutting boards of various sizes and materials (it would seem that cooks tend toward specific formats), whisks of varying description and garlic press (natch).

Ideas that I LOVE included a gold filter in place of cheesecloth, chopsticks (which I so totally use to clean out my garlic press, mix drinks and test cakes for doneness), fondant rolling pin, which might fix my notorious inability to operate a regular one, kitchen shears, and a husband to do the dishes, which I totally put on my registry. 😉

There was also a comment about the uselessness of mandolines, and ho boy, do I have one of my famous opinions on that topic. The first time I had my now-Matron-of-Honour over for dinner, I was in a total tizzy getting everything together and 1 hour before her arrival pulled out my new mandoline to slice up some red onion for the salad. I saw the little handguard and was like “psh, this thing is stupid, they totally put them in here for chumps so they can’t sue the company” and set it aside.

I think you know where this is going.

I earned myself a very permament 1/2″ x 1/4″ scar on the butt of my hand, narrowly missing important veins, and on my first day of work (almost a month later) had to shake hands with everyone with this huge gross bandage that obviously was treating some grievous kitchen injury. It felt gross to do that to a complete stranger.

In unrelated news, I totally found copies of those white bowls I use in most of my food photos and will be listing them on etsy at some point next week. Anyone here interested? They’re all that are left of what used to be Hamilton Beach stand mixers from the 40s or 50s, are made by Pyrex, and let in just enough diffused light to make for nice bright in-the-bowl shots. The ones I have now have some metal-utensil damage (little scratches on the bottom), but only where you’d have food anyway. $20 and they’re yours; $25 next week on etsy.

Here they are in action (there are two–a big ole bowl, and a smaller spouted mixy thing).

I’m not planning on making Omnomicon a repository for etsy advertising, but where so many of my readers are food bloggers, I though these might be of especial interest. To everyone else, apologies on the plug!