The Best of the Best: My Top 25 Kitchen Essentials

I’ve gotta be honest, there’s not been a lot of focus on cooking in my house since the new year. With the trauma our nation has gone through in recent weeks, food has taken a back seat. And I’ve been focused on spending time with my son, who left for college last weekend (I’m fine, really). In an attempt to wield control over at least my little piece of the world, I’ve also been cleaning out my pantry. Try it, it helps! And it’s given me renewed appreciation for some of the workhorses in my kitchen. So in lieu of a recipe today, I’m bringing you a different kind of post: My Top 25 Kitchen Essentials.

I’m very particular about what I use in my kitchen. If it’s flimsy, clunky, or doesn’t do its job well, it’s out. These are my tried-and-true, unfailing, all-time favorite workhorses, the items I reach for over and over. Some are investment pieces, some could be add-ons to your Amazon order. All are indispensable in helping me work efficiently, cook evenly and consistently, and coax the best possible flavor and texture out of dishes.

I use these items in my own personal cooking and for development of my recipes here on the blog. So you can trust that they’ve all been extraordinarily well-tested. From the small to the spendy, these are the tools I think deserve a place in any well-stocked kitchen.

*This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and buy something, I may earn a small commission. I only ever recommend products I personally use and believe in.

My Top Ten Investment pieces

Not all of these will break the bank, but they are the important pieces that stand up to constant use and keep performing consistently. They’re the things I hope to hand down to my son, should he retain his interest in cooking. Well, maybe not #2.

USA Pans Bakeware. Guys. If you are in any way frustrated with the performance of your current pans, look no further. These are hands-down the very best pans for baking and I’ve pretty much thrown out all my old ones. Maybe it’s the ridges? I don’t know. All I know is they cook evenly, release food flawlessly, and clean up beautifully. I own all the pans you see here (the muffin tin, the baking sheets, the 9×13 baking pan, the loaf pan, and the square baker), plus the round cake and pie pans. They’ve got tons of others as well and I plan to slowly continue acquiring them until my collection is complete. Don’t tell my husband.

Smart Step Mats. My kitchen has rustic stone floors, which are lovely to look at but not to stand on. Without these mats I’d be bent over and hobbling around like a chimp in heels. Although they may not be the cheapest kitchen mats you’ll find, I promise they’re worth the investment. Unlike less expensive versions, they’re not overly squishy, and I can attest that they hold up like iron. I’ve had mine for five years and even with daily pounding, spilling, and cat clawing they still look new.

Breadtopia’s Clay Bread Baker. Made in Portugal, this sturdy baking vessel produces the best rise and most evenly-browned crust on all my loaves. It comes in a variety of sizes for your favorite loaf shape (I use the Batard shape). Bonus: compared to high-end dutch ovens and other cast iron bakers, it’s quite affordable. And the lightweight clay also won’t break your back when you pull it out of the oven. The fantastic Breadtopia website is a wealth of information, by the way, for artisan bread bakers!

Cuisinart 14 cup Food Processor. There are many, many food processors on the market, and I’ve owned several, from tiny onion choppers to super-fancy models that promise to do everything but clean your house. When my most recent (expensive) model abruptly died, I did a ton of research and settled on this one. Aside from basic attachments for shredding and slicing, it has no bells or whistles, and I kind of adore that. It does exactly what’s it’s supposed to do, powerfully, efficiently, and quietly. I use it regularly to make pie dough, grate cheese, puree pesto sauce, and make my beloved Nutty Chocolate Bombs.

Misen knives. I prefer purchasing single blades to buying big sets, which often come with pieces I don’t need. My Misen knives are my absolute favorite and the ones I reach for before all others. They’re comfortable to hold and most importantly, they stay sharp longer than any other knife I’ve owned. I give them a swipe with my sharpening steel after every few uses, but otherwise don’t fuss with them. They’re also very affordable, which is rare for a really good knife.

Vitamix Blender.  Again, a splurge-tastic investment, but look around before buying – sometimes you can find deals at big-box stores or online. I pulled the trigger on one of these several years ago and have never regretted it. It’s got a super-powerful motor and razor-sharp blades and is like nothing else you’ve ever used. It makes the creamiest hummus, blends soup like a charm, and grinds up the tiniest blackberry seeds in your smoothie. It’s the gold standard of blenders for a reason.

All-Clad All-in-One Pan. If I had to pick only one pan to use forever, it would probably be this one. All-Clad is expensive, but this is the kind of pan you’ll hand down to your kids. It heats evenly and has tall enough sides and enough surface area to perform a multitude of functions. I use it for searing, sauteing, and making risotto and sauces. Tip for my Colorado peeps: the Williams-Sonoma Outlet in Silverthorne carries All-Clad (and lots of other fun stuff) at a nice discount.

Berkey Water Filter. I seriously use this every single day, for my coffee, for drinking water, and for my sourdough starter and bread recipes. Have I ever mentioned that I’m a water snob? Yes, it’s a thing. I hate it when I can taste chlorine or anything else in my water. Plus, it’s actually quite important in bread-baking to use purified water, and I’m not into buying gallon jugs at the grocery store. We acquired a Berkey early in quarantine days, when my husband started disaster planning (if the world continues to implode, we can drink rainwater!). And you guys, it is the BEST. The cleanest-tasting water ever. The filters last literally for years. I haven’t bought a plastic bottle of water in months, and I feel pretty good about that. We have the Big Berkey for our small household.

Le Creuset dutch oven. I have a couple of these in different sizes, including the 3.5 quart round for baking my sourdough bread. The one I use the most is this 8-quart oval, which easily holds a double-batch of my chili. With care, these will last forever, and are so pretty you can keep them out on your counter or stove. Which is nice because they weigh approximately 1,000 pounds apiece (not really, but man, they’re heavy).

Big Rustic Cheese Board. There’s nothing more appealing than a pretty plank covered with an artfully-thrown-together variety of cheeses, meats, nuts, and fruits. It’s my go-to appetizer when we have friends over, and people LOVE it. I love these boards from Etsy – they’re incredibly beautiful, made from vintage cutting boards from Europe. Such a cool farmhouse vibe. They come in various sizes appropriate for small groups or a big party (remember parties? sigh).

My Top Ten small but mighty

These are the smaller items that I may have to re-buy or replace from time to time, but have proven themselves so unique or invaluable that I will continue to do so forever.

O-Cedar Scrunge sponges. I know. How incredibly boring. But listen. These sponges are genius for cleaning up the one thing that drives us bakers crazy: dough. If you bake, you know what I’m talking about. Bread dough, sourdough starter, and basically anything else made of flour and water sticks to regular scrubby sponges like algae to rocks and is impossible to remove. But the rough side of these sponges is made of some magic voodoo that makes it super-easy to scrape dough off. If you, like me, are OCD about scrubbing every last bit of dough from your bowls and counters, these are going to bring a little happiness to your next clean-up session.

Kitchen towels from Anthropologie. Maybe not the place you’d expect to find THE BEST kitchen towels, but let me tell you. These towels are better and more durable than any I’ve found from high-end kitchen retailers like Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma. They’re soft and absorbent, come in fun, pretty prints, and the saturated colors help hide any stray stains. Most importantly, they wash like a dream. I hate it when the edges of towels come out of the dryer all wrinkled, and these don’t do that. They’re basically perfect.

Cuisinart Spice and Nut Grinder. All cooks know that spices can amp up a dish’s flavor dramatically. What’s not so widely understood is how much more flavor you get from freshly-ground spices. Many jarred spices lose flavor quickly, turning into faintly-scented dust as they languish in the pantry. Whole spices keep much longer, releasing their goodness only when blitzed. Try this with cardamom pods (and make my Lemon-Cardamom Cake or Dirty Chai Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls). Or blitz some fresh rosemary for my Rosemary Olive Oil Sourdough Crackers, which I make about twice a week because my husband is addicted.

Jenaluca cookie dough scoops. These scoops are essential for the uniform-sized balls of dough you need for nice round cookies. I’ve gone through several from cheaper brands and the handles inevitably stick and/or break. I bought this set a couple of years ago and they still work perfectly. They have ergonomic handles, which is important when you’re churning out batch after hand-cramping batch. The smallest size is great for making truffles or little sandwich cookies, the medium is my go-to for basics like chocolate chip cookies, and the large size works beautifully for large bakery-style cookies or pleasingly perfect scoops of ice cream.

Thermapen MK4 Thermometer. Okay, so this is an expensive thermometer. But I promise it’s the only one you’ll ever need. It’s highly accurate, gives readings in seconds, and has a needle-thin sensor that won’t leave holes in your pretty loaves of bread or fine cuts of meat. It can be used as a candy thermometer, too. It’s super sturdy and accurate and I just really enjoy using it. If it’s wrong to love a thermometer, I don’t want to be right.

Stasher bags. I bought these on a quest to stop (or at least reduce) using single-use plastic ziplock bags. I’ve tried similar products from other brands and these are the only ones I’ve ended up keeping. In fact, I’ve had some of mine for a couple of years (and they’re still perfect). I use them to store scraps and leftovers, freeze dough, and transport snacks. They’re easy to open and close (but stay sealed when you need them to), they clean up super well, and they don’t hold scents AT ALL. Even that time I accidentally left an onion in one for like, a month (ew). They’re dishwasher and microwave safe, and you can even boil peas or your boil-a-bag rice in them! Tip: you’ll save $$ by buying them in bundles rather than individually.

Plastic quart deli containers. These are brilliant for freezing homemade chicken stock, as well as for storing soup, sauces, and leftovers of all kinds. We even put leftover (undressed) salad in these, top it with a damp paper towel, and the lettuce magically stays fresh and green instead of wilty. They’re also great pantry organizers – I use them to store smaller amounts of grains, beans, and specialty flours. This brand is BPA-free and dishwasher and microwave-safe.

Silicone spatulas. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve certainly seen these in my photographs. I use them for everything – mixing batter, sautéing vegetables, prying brownies from the pan, coaxing the last bit of peanut butter out of the jar. A variety of sizes ensure you’ll have the right one for every job. My favorite thing about them – aside from the fact that they can be used at just about any temperature – is the fact that you can throw them in the dishwasher (say it with me:  no wooden handles in the dishwasher).

Slotted Metal Spatula. I used to have a bouquet of metal spatulas:  a pancake turner, a grilling spatula, a basic flat one for cookies. Now I just have this one, and it literally does everything. It’s light and nimble, flat, and thin enough to slip underneath a crepe yet sturdy enough to flip a burger. The slight curve is great for scooping up French fries or roasted veggies. I bought mine in 2017 and it’s still going strong.

Odd-sized measuring cups and spoons. I despise nothing more than having to immediately clean a measuring cup I’ve just used. Like when I’m making a cookie recipe that needs 1/4 cup of one ingredient, and then 3/4 cup of another? You feel my pain. So imagine my delight at finding this set of measuring cups that includes odd sizes like 3/4 and 2/3, plus measuring spoons that include half a tablespoon, 1/8 tsp, and others rarely found in standard sets. They’re pleasantly heavy, and I like that the measurements are etched into the metal rather than printed, so they never wear off. I’m easily pleased, I guess, but they really help with efficiency.

My Top 5 Pantry Essentials

When it comes to pantry staples, I am a firm believer in purchasing high-quality items whenever possible. That said, we live in a time of great abundance and variety, and I am not terribly loyal to many specific brands. These are the few things I buy exclusively and repeatedly, and for which I will accept no substitutes.

Diamond Crystal Salt. We’re getting into finicky chef territory now, but bear with me. You’ll see that in many of my recipes, I specify “kosher salt.” This is in contrast to table salt, which is finer and denser (ergo, saltier) and often contains iodine, which can lend an off flavor to food. Don’t use table salt in your cooking, people! Kosher salt has a nice clean taste and is made up of larger crystals, which means there is less of it by volume in your teaspoon, and it’s easier to pick up “a pinch” with your fingers, helping ensure you don’t over-salt your dishes.

Long story short, I like Diamond Crystal because it’s the least salty kosher salt brand. This gives me that much more control over my seasoning, and by using the same brand consistently, I know exactly how much I need to use across all my recipes. It’s a good idea to always use the same kind of salt to avoid over-salting errors. See, I told you. Finicky. I apologize for nothing.

Wondra Flour. I once read somewhere that Jacques Pepin used Wondra in all his sauces, so I tried it, and I’ve never gone back to raw flour in sauces and gravies. Wondra is pre-toasted, so you can skip the step of cooking the flour in a roux without risking a raw flavor. And because it’s so finely milled, it dissolves quickly and beautifully with no lumps. I really am shocked Wondra is not more widely discussed, so I am here to preach the gospel. Also, I think it’s had the same packaging since the 1970’s, which I find endlessly charming.

Frontera Cooking Sauces. These sauces are my favorite “cheat” when making Mexican food. First of all, I love that they use simple ingredients without any weird additives, and they taste amazing (the Mexican cuisine expert Rick Bayless founded this line and his flavor combinations are magic). They’re wonderful to use as directed (that is, to add directly to meat or veggies), but I also boil them with my rice for easy “Mexican rice,” add them to plain canned enchilada sauce to amp up the flavor and texture, and even stir them into sour cream to make a creamy, spicy condiment for tacos and burritos.

Droste cocoa. When I want chocolate, I want chocolate, you know? I’m talking deep, rich, fudgy flavor. If that’s your thing, this little red box is going to make you very happy. I use it in my No-Bake Nutty Chocolate Bombs, where cocoa is one of only a few ingredients, in my cocoa buttercream frosting, and when making hot cocoa from scratch.

Important note: this is a dutch-processed cocoa, which is acid-neutral and does not interact with some chemical leavening (like baking soda) the same way as “natural” cocoas (such as Hershey’s) do in baked goods. So this is not the cocoa to use in recipes with baking soda, as it can affect the rise and add a weird flavor. But for recipes that specify dutch-processed, or just call for “cocoa”? The lady who looks like she stepped out of The Handmaid’s Tale is going to be your best friend.

Rao’s Pasta Sauce. Another cheater sauce! I’m gonna be honest here and admit I rarely make tomato sauce from scratch. It’s not that it’s hard to do, but you’ve got to simmer it a long time to get good, deep flavor, and I don’t usually plan that far ahead. Plus, it’s messy, and cleaning up tomato sauce spatters is among my least favorite chores. Rao’s is the only widely-available store-bought sauce I’ve found that truly tastes like homemade. I serve it with my homemade spaghetti and meatballs, mix it in with ground beef when I’m in a hurry to make my lasagna, and pretty much always use it as the base on my pizza. I mostly buy the marinara, but the arrabbiata and vodka varieties are also excellent.

So there ya go: my top 25 kitchen essentials. If there’s such a thing as a desert-island kitchen list, this is mine. What’s on yours? Share in the comments below!