Kitchen tools and equipment: names, pictures and uses

How many of these do you actually need?

Fewer than you think. Of the 93 tools above, 45 are marked essential, and honestly even that is a generous list. A kitchen with fifteen good things in it cooks better than one with sixty cheap ones, because what limits most cooking is a sharp knife and a pan that stays hot. Not how many drawers you can fill.

The expensive mistake is buying by the number. A fifteen piece knife block sounds like a bargain, but it only exists because thin stamped blades are cheap to make. You will use three of them. The rest are there to fill the block. Twenty piece gadget sets work the same way, where the avocado slicer is paying for the peeler you actually wanted.

So buy a few good things, and add something new when you have reached for it twice and found it missing. Wanting a tool while watching a cooking video does not count.

How to tell a good one from a bad one

Almost every real difference comes down to what it is made of and how it is put together, not whose name is on it. Here is what to look at before you spend anything.

Knives: pick it up first

How it feels in your hand matters more than the steel. A forged knife with the metal running all the way through the handle feels solid and planted. A thin stamped blade feels like a lever. Harder steel stays sharp longer but chips more easily and is harder to sharpen at home, so a normal European knife is more forgiving than a very hard Japanese one if sharpening is not your thing.

Pans: the metal decides how it cooks

Stainless steel browns food well and turns the sticky bits into a sauce, but food will stick if you rush it. Cast iron holds heat better than anything, so it sears properly. Carbon steel is lighter and reacts faster but needs looking after. Non stick is brilliant for eggs and fish and wrong for steak, and it wears out however much you spend.

Thickness beats brand name

A thick base is what stops one side of your pancake burning while the other stays pale. Pick up two pans the same size. The heavier one will almost always cook more evenly.

Check what your hob is

Induction hobs only work with pans a magnet sticks to. Lots of aluminium and copper pans simply will not heat up. This is the most common expensive mistake people make when they move house.

Baking trays: pale and heavy

Thin dark trays soak up heat and burn the bottoms of biscuits before the tops are done. Heavy pale metal bakes evenly. Glass and ceramic hold heat for longer and let you see whether the base of a pie has actually browned.

Look at the handle

Handles held on with rivets last longer than ones that are just welded. If you want to move a pan from the hob into the oven, check what temperature it is rated to. Plenty of plastic handles and lids will not survive a hot roast.

Match your utensils to your pans

Metal turners wreck non stick. If you own non stick, use silicone or wood. Silicone copes with heat and washes properly. Wood is gentle and will not get hot in your hand.

Things to think about before you buy

The right kit depends on how you cook, not on a list someone else wrote. Five questions sort out most decisions.

How you really cook

Not how you plan to. If you make a few dinners in the week and a roast on Sunday, you need a good knife, two pans and a roasting tin. Not a pasta machine.

How many people you cook for

This decides your pan size. A small 20cm frying pan cannot brown food for four people, it just steams it. A crowded pan is one of the main reasons home cooking tastes a bit flat.

Where you are going to put it

The appliances are the problem here, not the utensils. A stand mixer shut in a cupboard because there is no room on the worktop is money spent for nothing.

Whether you will hand wash it

Be honest with yourself. Carbon steel, cast iron and good knives all hate the dishwasher. If you know you will not wash up by hand, buy things that can take it rather than ruining nice ones.

Where the money should go

Spend on what you touch every day and what is genuinely bad when it is cheap. One knife, one or two pans, a scale. Save on anything that only does one job. A cheap digital scale will improve your baking more than an expensive mixer will.

What to buy first, in order

Starting from nothing? Buying in stages costs less and wastes less than buying a big set. Each stage works on its own, so you can stop whenever you have enough.

Stage one: enough to cook almost anything

A chef's knife, a paring knife, a serrated knife, a cutting board and a honing steel. A frying pan around 24 to 28cm, a saucepan and a big pot. Tongs, a turner, a wooden spoon and a silicone spatula. Mixing bowls, a digital scale and measuring spoons. A colander, a fine sieve, a peeler, a grater, a can and bottle opener, and oven gloves. That is about twenty things and it covers the vast majority of recipes.

Stage two: when you start hitting limits

A cast iron pan and a casserole dish for searing and slow cooking. A baking tray, cooling rack, loaf tin and cake tin once you get into baking. A thermometer, which is the cheapest thing you can buy that genuinely improves how your meat comes out. A stick blender for soup.

Stage three: only when you know you need it

Mandoline, stand mixer, food processor, spiralizer, piping bag. Each of these is very good at one narrow job. Buy the one whose job you have actually been struggling with, not all of them at once.

Mistakes that cost people money

Buying the knife block set

You will use three of them. The other twelve are there to fill the holes.

Getting non stick too hot

Above a medium heat the coating starts breaking down. Non stick is for eggs and fish. Sear your steak in steel or iron and the pan will last years longer.

Glass or stone chopping boards

They will blunt a good knife within a few uses. Wood or plastic, nothing else.

Using a pan that is too small

The food gives off water faster than it can steam away, so it goes grey instead of brown. Get a bigger pan, or cook it in two batches.

Buying a machine for one recipe

This is the bread maker problem. If it cannot earn a spot on the worktop, it will live at the back of a cupboard and you will never use it.

Assuming expensive means better

Past a certain point you are paying for looks and a name. A mid priced knife that fits your hand beats an expensive one that does not.

How to make them last

Most of this stuff is not meant to be thrown away. Looked after properly, a good knife and an iron pan will outlast you, and the habits that get you there take about five seconds each.

Hone often, sharpen rarely

A few strokes on a steel before you cook straightens the edge back up. Sharpening actually grinds metal away to make a new edge, and you only need that occasionally. Most knives people call blunt just need honing.

Wash knives by hand and dry them straight away

Dishwasher heat and detergent dull the edge and loosen the handle, and water left sitting on the blade will pit even stainless steel.

Keep iron pans oiled

Dry them on the hob and wipe a little oil over the surface. If rust appears it is not the end, you just scrub it off and oil it again.

Never put cold water in a screaming hot pan

The base warps, and once it is warped it will never sit flat on the hob again.

Store knives so nothing touches the edge

Loose in a drawer, blades knock into each other and chip. A magnetic strip or a cheap edge guard will double how long they stay sharp.

Accept that non stick wears out

Two to five years of normal use, no matter how careful you are. Buy it cheap enough that replacing it does not hurt.

Frequently asked questions

How many kitchen tools do I actually need?

About twenty covers nearly every recipe. Three knives, a board, three pans, a few utensils, some bowls, a scale and something to drain with. Everything past that solves a narrower problem, so buy it when you actually meet the problem.

Are expensive knives worth the money?

Up to a point, yes. Going from a cheap stamped knife to a decent mid priced forged one makes a big difference. Going from mid priced to very expensive mostly buys you nicer looks and steel that stays sharp a bit longer while being harder to sharpen. How it feels in your hand matters more than either, so hold it first if you can.

Should I buy stainless steel or non stick pans?

Both, for different jobs. Stainless browns food, takes high heat and makes a sauce from the sticky bits, so that is what you sear in. Non stick is for eggs, pancakes and delicate fish, and it wears out whatever you pay. Using each for the other's job is why people think their pans are rubbish.

What one thing would improve my cooking most?

A digital scale if you bake, or a thermometer if you cook meat. Both swap guessing for an actual number, and guessing is where most wobbly results come from. Both cost less than a pan.

Do I need a stand mixer?

Only if you bake a lot, or you knead bread by hand and hate it. A hand mixer does most of the same work for a fraction of the price and takes up almost no room. What a stand mixer really gives you is being able to walk away during a long mix.

What size frying pan should I get first?

24cm for one or two people, 28cm for a family. If you can only have one, get the bigger one. A large pan cooks a small amount of food perfectly well, but a small pan will steam a large amount instead of browning it.

Can kitchen tools go in the dishwasher?

Stainless steel, silicone and most baking tins are fine. Good knives, cast iron, carbon steel, wooden boards and spoons, and anything non stick are not. The heat and detergent shorten their lives a lot. If you know you will not wash up by hand, buy accordingly.

What is the difference between a blender and a food processor?

A blender makes things liquid and needs some liquid in there to work, so it is for soups, smoothies and sauces. A food processor chops, slices and grates solid food and can make pastry. If you only get one, pick the one that matches what you cook more of.

How often should I sharpen my knives?

Properly sharpen them once or twice a year for normal home use. Hone them on a steel far more often, ideally before each time you cook. Most knives that feel blunt only need thirty seconds on a steel.

Is it worth buying a matching set of pans?

Usually not. Sets are priced to look like a deal but they normally include a couple of sizes you will never use, and they are all the same material, when the point is that different materials suit different jobs. Buying three pans separately gets you a better three pans.

What are the main types of kitchen tools?

They fall into a handful of groups by what they do: knives and boards for cutting, peelers and graters for prep, scales and spoons for measuring, bowls and whisks for mixing, pans and pots for cooking, tins and racks for baking, sieves for draining, and openers for getting into things. This page is organised in exactly that order.

What is the difference between kitchen tools and kitchen equipment?

In everyday use, none. People say tools for the small handheld things like knives, peelers and whisks, and equipment for the larger items like pans, tins and machines. Both are on this list, because you need them together to actually cook something.