Jul 19, 2021
Even with the many delicious foods offered by dozens of different restaurants and many ways to access them through dining in, taking out, or having it delivered to your doorstep after a call or a few taps on your smartphone or tablets, there is still something about a home-cooked meal that makes it unbeatable.
Is it because cooking at home is healthier? One meal from restaurants is found to have more calories and additives than those we make at home, thus for people who are trying to lose weight or for people who are mindful of the fitness, watching how much calories you’re putting in your body for a day is easier when you prepare your own meals at home with the ingredients you know.
With that, we feel much more in control since we get to decide what goes in or not with our food. We get to choose how salty, sweet, or spicy our food will be to satisfy what our taste buds desire, making us happy. Not to forget, the process of doing your home-cooked meal can be satisfying when you do it alone listening to the simmering pot, to the sound of you chopping as if you’re making your own autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR (and we all know how relaxing ASMRs are, unless you’re the type who doesn’t like noises like that), or when you do it with people you love giving you time to interact and connect with them.
Additionally, a home-cooked meal is WAY more economical than getting outside food for every meal. In the Philippines, some restaurants offer a meal costing as much as 500 Philippine pesos, this amount can feed a small family for a day already. I bet this is the very first answer people can think of when asked why they would rather eat foods at home than from restaurants. Still, keep in mind that it’s a great experience to eat out especially during special occasions.
Going back to a home-cooked meal, no matter what your reason may be, we can all agree that there is a good reason to start or continue cooking food in our homes. Whether you’ve been a home cook for a long time already or you’re new to this, All Home brings you this article to introduce you to our must-have kitchen tools for home cooks.
Before everything else, make sure you have an apron to protect your clothes from food stains as you get into the zone of preparing your home-cooked meal. Getting stains on you is inevitable when cooking, especially when you’re frying with cooking oil which may splatter on you when moisture from food touches it. An apron with a pocket is even better so you can keep some stuff you need for cooking very close, like a bottle of your spices, or whatever you want to put.
The gloves are essential to protect yourself from being burnt when touching or transferring a pan or pot. The pot holder is useful for when you want to place a hot or warm pan or pot on a surface like your dining table. It will keep a plastic tablecloth from being melted, or it will prevent scratches from your glass dining table or even from your wooden dining table when you serve your home-cooked meal. Basically, a set of gloves and pot holder will protect you and preserve the beauty of your furniture.
To be able to cut your ingredients, a sharp knife is important. Get anything from a set of knives, and it can slice whatever you need—it is versatile that way. But did you know that there is a knife for a specific purpose? This explains why it is hard to cut some ingredients without the appropriate knife. A butcher’s knife is used to cut through meat. A paring knife is used to peel fruits and vegetables. A bread knife is done to cut bread without crushing its soft interior. It may be good to get a set so you can have a knife for different purposes ready, or research which knife is best for your purpose and buy them individually.
Now, what is a knife without a chopping board? Chopping boards are used to protect your surfaces from getting scratched by the knife. Make sure you have two separate chopping boards when cutting a ready to cook food and a raw ingredient at the same time. This is to avoid food poisoning that can happen when your raw ingredients transfer the bacteria to the chopping board and to the ready to cook food. This bundle of two chopping boards will save you time in getting separate chopping boards to prevent food poisoning that may ruin your experience in eating a home-cooked meal.
Using measuring cups and measuring spoons to measure how much of the ingredients you will put in? A waste of time and money, some people might say, we can just approximate using the spoons or teaspoons that we already have. Contrary to that, these two are actually very useful if you’re following a recipe where it’s best to follow the exact amount of ingredients as variations from it may result to a poor quality, for instance, in baking breads, a decrease or increase in an ingredient may cause the dough to become too soft or too hard. The use of these two tools are important as well in case you are experimenting and you actually achieved a mouthwatering dish that you definitely want to do again, you can easily redo it when you know the exact amount of ingredients that you have used. Also, using measuring cups and spoons will also make your calorie tracking easier as the presence of how many calories are in a food is based on a serving size.
One of the things that comes to mind when we hear “spatula” is Spongebob and his spatula in Krusty Krab. He uses this in cooking to flip the meat patties, and you should get your own for your home-cooked meal. The spatula has long handle to keep your hand far enough from the food you’re lifting and from the hot surface. More than that, there are many uses for a spatula depending on its shape, size, and material. A chinese spatula is best for stir-frying veggies and rice. It is shaped like a shovel allowing you to hold more food. Fish spatula is used in turning fish, as the name implies. It is thin and long to easily lift fish, while the long slots allow any liquid to drip from the fish, like cooking oil. Slotted spatula, like the fishing spatula, has holes to remove any liquid substance from the food, but instead of carrying just fish, it can be used to carry different foods. Silicone spatula can also be used for cooking especially on non-stick pans to prevent scratches, it can also be used to mix food like in baking, or to scrape liquids like sauces, honey, and mayonnaise.
This used to lift foods as well, but unlike the spatula, tongs can be used to grip foods too. This is well-suited for easily getting foods that are being deep fried. There are also different kinds of tongs, such as one you use for grabbing hot pans, which you can see they use in korean barbecue places when they change the grill in front of you. There are also tongs for ice and tongs for salad.
Planning on cooking or scooping a warm and delicious soup as part of your home-cooked meal? A long tool with an attachment that looks like a small bowl is perfect to reach your deep bowls. Ladle is a large spoon that can be used for cooking, mixing, and also for serving soups, sauces, juices, or any liquid dishes.
As the name suggests, frying pans are used for frying different kinds of foods. You can have one pan for any food, but there are also different kinds of pans. Non-stick pans are perfect for in preparing your home-cooked meal that includes foods that require low to medium heat and tend to stick to pans like eggs. You don’t even need to use oil to prevent food from sticking anymore, thus giving you a healthier meal. This is best paired with wooden or plastic utensils to avoid scratches. Stainless steel pans are heavier than non-stick, they are also long lasting and are great for stir-frying or browning meat. Metal utensils are also good to use with stainless pans because you won’t have to worry about scratches. Newer designs based on the needs of consumers are also being created, one of which is this 3-in-1 square pan where you can simultaneously cook different foods at the same time. This is perfect for those who love eating with many varieties like a king during breakfast but have little time to prepare.
Wanting to prepare a home-cooked meal of sour and savory sinigang? You can make one with a cooking pot. This is ideal for boiling meat slowly and for a long time. It has a wide heating surface area for maximum heat conduction. This is your best pal in creating your favorite Filipino foods like sinigang, bulalo, and kare-kare. Other than these main dishes, you can also cook soups like crab and corn soup or spinach soup with this one since it can hold a large amount of water depending on the size. Moreover, if you’re one who has trouble sleeping at night, you can warm liquid milk in a cooking pot to help you relax. In essence, cooking pots are used for liquid dishes.
We all know that cooking is a way to a person’s heart, more so if it’s a home-cooked meal, which is one of the reasons why it’s best for your kitchen to be equipped with tools that are fundamental to cooking. Having all the basics will make you enjoy the process of cooking, and prepare a delightful meal for the ones you love.
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