Anton Savage: Attention kitchen nerds, here is the equipment you really, really need
From meat thermometers to the world’s best vegetable peeler, my obsession with cooking gadgets knows no bounds
Originally published in the Business Post.
Bob Kramer travels with sharpening stones. Admittedly, Bob Kramer is one of the world’s top bladesmiths, so he has some skin in the knife game. Even, so it’s a bit extreme.
Bob brings a set of Japanese stones with him whenever he goes on vacation so he can, as he puts it, “tune up” the slicing equipment in whatever AirBnb he ends up. I was mid-way into mocking his obsession when a family member reminded me that I have been known to travel with a meat thermometer.
I attempted to explain how my meat thermometer was very different from Bob’s stones until forced to accept the reality - there are some products every kitchen should have and few do, so anything light enough to be put in a suitcase should be.
Prime amongst them is a meat thermometer. Nothing cooks evenly, no two pieces of meat cook at the same speed and anyone who believes they can tell how well something is cooked by prodding is either deluded or a Jedi.
But you don’t need just any meat thermometer. You need a Thermapen. These have small tips so you know exactly what part of the meat they’re reading, they provide a result fast and they’re waterproof so if you drop them in the soup it’s not catastrophic.
Next up is a good peeler. “A peeler is a peeler,” you say. Well, clearly you’ve never used a good one like an OXO, which was designed by Sam Faber when he saw his wife Betsey struggle to use a traditional one. He set about creating a sharper, more comfortable and grippier peeler, and has changed the world for anyone who has to occasionally tackle a carrot.
Click here to read the full article.