In my years of canning, one of the things I’ve found is that most of my favorite canning tools weren’t made specifically for canning. They are simply kitchen utensils that are well made, sturdy and just happen to serve a useful role in my preserving practice. From the bottom left corner and moving clockwise, here are some of my current favorites.
- This six-piece set of stacking measuring cups
by RSVP is fantastic. They are made from solid stainless steel and have a nice heft in the hand. I use the one-cup measure to portion jam into half-pint jars and the half-cup one fits neatly into my larger storage jars.
- I’ve long been a fan of a serrated edge peeler. It’s particularly handy during marmalade season because it allows you peel off the outer zest from citrus without taking any of the pith along with you. What makes this particular peeler so nice is that it had dual blades, one smooth and one serrated. Makes for less clutter in a crowded utensil drawer. The one pictured above is from Williams-Sonoma. Kuhn Rikon
also makes a version.
- Thermapen
is simply the best instant read thermometers out there. I’ve bought two in recent years and just love them for minding the temperature of my jams, jellies and curds. They’re pricy, but worth the money (and make sure to check the end of this post for a Thermapen giveaway!).
- I first found this potato masher
at a Tuesday Morning and it has supplanted all my other mashers. What makes it so awesome is that the tines are bladed. They’re not sharp, but they have just enough edge to make it perfect for breaking down cooking fruit. It’s a fantastic tool.
- A good, fully encased silicone spatula. The one pictured above is from GIR and is quite nice. However, it also costs $22.50, which is more than most people want to spend on a spatula (disclosure! this one was sent to me for review purposes). For a more sensibly priced version (under six bucks), check out this one from Orka
. According to Amazon, I bought mine in 2009 and it’s still going strong.
- A good paring knife. I like the ones made by Kuhn Rikon
, but couldn’t find one in the kitchen when preparing to take this picture. The most important thing is that it feels good in the hand and holds an edge.
- If you’ve been reading this site for any length of time, you’ll know that I am crazy for my 4th burner pot
. Also made by Kuhn Rikon (they don’t know I exist, I just like their products), this skinny pot has a spout, a heat-proof handle and is fitted with a rack. This means that it works as a small batch canning pot, a pot for heating pickling liquids and syrups for canning whole fruit and even as a tea kettle in a pinch. On Thanksgiving, I used it to heat up the gravy. It is a genius piece of equipment and I love it so much that I own two.
- I bought this Cuisinart stainless steel wok
at Macy’s last summer on a whim. It was on sale and I had a feeling that it might be a handy size and shape for making small batches of jam. And I was right. The flared sides encourage evaporation and it holds a bit more jam than a 12-inch skillet. It’s lighter than ideal for a true wok, but is quite nice for jams, jellies and chutneys (and it just costs right around $30, which makes it highly affordable).
- Finally, flour sack towels
. I finally got smart and started buying them in colors instead of in white. No matter how much I bleached them, the white ones just never get clean. The deeply colored ones don’t show the stains as much. Amazing the difference these little choices make in my quality of life.
As promised, I have an orange Thermapen to give away to one of you nice folks. Here’s how to throw your hat in the ring for chance at it.
- Leave a comment on this post and tell me about your current favorite kitchen tool.
- Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Friday, November 30, 2012. Winner will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog over the weekend.
- Giveaway open to everyone (the shipping is on me, no matter where you live).
- One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post. I do not accept submissions via email.
My food processor.
I have lots of gadgets that I love, but my favorite of the lot is my grandmother’s egg-rite timer. It’s older than I am, still works like a champ (although the colored disk started to wrinkle a little bit about 15 years ago), and it is never wrong. It’s goofy, but I love that thing.
My two most used items have to be a fully clad, 12-inch pan with straight sides and my Cutco Chef’s Knives that I got at a yard sale. My favorite thing to USE, though, is my KitchenAid. I have the fruit & veggie strainer that makes quick work of all kinds of lovelies for canning, but I also have the pasta making set. Homemade egg pasta made only with flour & eggs from the neighbor’s chickens just can’t be beat!
That looks incredibly handy! I’ve only recently discovered the awesomeness that is homemade jam, and my family runs through it faster than I can make it. 🙂
I love my digital kitchen scale! I crave precision and am terrible at spatial concepts like eyeballing quantities, so I don’t know how I got along without it all these years.
I love my Kitchen aid mixer and now I have the ice cream maker attachment and it’s so much fun. Next I want the meat grinder!
My current favorite kitchen gadget is my pressure cooker. I just started using it before Thanksgiving and I used it to make multiple batches of turkey stock and ended up yielding almost 2 gallons! Each batch only took about 1 hour instead of 5 or 6 on the cooktop.
The rubber spatula. Nothing beats it.
My favorite right now is my new 9 cup food processor by Cuisinart, love it! But that’s more of an appliance than a tool I suppose! I love and use a plastic serrated “lettuce” knife for all kinds of things, it makes chopping spinach and lasagnas a breeze!
I just love my potato masher that I bought online at Tasha Tudor’s store. It is made of wood and looks nothing like the modern potato masher.
I’m going to second the comment about my kitchen scale being super useful. I use it not just to weigh food (for portioning before adding to the freezer or cooking), but also to weigh yarn so I can “portion” it out for sock knitting and such. 😉
I’m so glad you’re not only giving away a Thermapen but that you linked to it! I heard about this wonder tool just last week while listening to Christopher Kimmel host an NPR program on Thanksgiving. I couldn’t look it up right then, but now I’ve got the link and have saved it to my Wishlist just in case I don’t win. Thank you!
I have a silicon ‘spoonula’ or whatever they are called. The narrow end fits inside a can of tomato paste, and the large end is perfect for scraping cake batter, frying eggs, stirring boiling things so they don’t stick to the bottom, pretty much anything. But the best part is that I think it has a steel core or something, so I can stir even the stiffest cookie batter without it breaking! (I have broken so many spoons and spatulas over the years).
But what I really need is a kitchen thermometer!
Hands down (but not in the hot jam!)–by far my favorite kitchen gadgets are the fully-encased silicone spatulas like the one you have pictured. I use them for everything from candy making to scrambled eggs, with no fear, ever, of a handle coming off. I can’t believe every kitchen in the world doesn’t have at least one–and this has become my standard outside-the-package bow accompaniment when wrapping wedding and shower gifts.
I have this tupperware spatula that I just love. It’s got a nice thick handle, so it’s easy to grip, and the contours are perfect for scraping out my mixing bowl.
I have a difficult relationship with kitchen gadgets, I am always striving for as few thingamabobs as possible. That said, some are just too useful. I think my apple peeler/corer is possibly one of the most fantastic things ever.
I’ve had some heatproof nylon spoons for years and love them – they look like these (but I got mine at my local restaurant supply store): http://www.cutleryandmore.com/miu/high-heat-nylon-fiberglass-cooking-spoon-set-p125840
My favorite tool is probably my Vitamix. I use it at least twice a day sometimes 3-4 times to make smoothies, nut butters, soup, salad dressings and ice cream. Totally worth the investment.
My immersion blender, which I bought in August. Great for peach butter, and making pumpkin pie from a roasted red kuri squash.
At the moment, my favorites are the two enameled cast iron pans I have – one a wide, shallow Le Creuset hand-me-down from a friend who never used it, and the second a larger Lodge enameled dutch oven, a yard sale find (and gift from the same friend who knew how much I loved her hand-me-down). The larger one serves as my jam pot; it seems to work much better than my first attempts at jam using Revere Ware stainless steel, which was too lightweight.
We also try to adhere to a “no single use implements” rule in the kitchen, but certain exceptions must be made. I finally broke down and got a magnetic jar lid wand, which I love. Can’t say this is my favorite tool, but it’s in the top tier.
my favorite kitchen tool is my paring knife.
My current favorite is probably my toaster. I’ve been on a total toast kick lately. Of all the things to love, when I have dozens of silly gadgets in there…
Since I started growing garlic my favorite utensil is a really good heavyweight garlic press. Now I actually use the garlic I grow.
My cast iron frying pan!!!
My favorite kitchen tool is actually a enormous stainless steel bowl. I am a very messy mixer and it helps me make slightly less of a mess!
Pressure cooker, no doubt.
My grandmother’s bread knife…….and I an 68 years old to give you some idea of it’s age! I smile everytime I use it. It is amazing, I have never sharpen it and it still cuts a tomatoe like it was soft butter. MK
I loved my silicone spatula that I got at a store-closing clearance sale years ago. That thing took some serious abuse, and only gave up a month or so ago (one of my roommates was using it and the large end just snapped). I’d love to replace it with one like the one in the picture.
Current fave is my Melitta ceramic coffee pot (was going to post a link, but looks like they don’t make it anymore). Simple, low-tech, yummy coffee.
But that 4th burner pot might take its place. Seriously, my reaction to seeing that was “yes!” I have all 4 burners going reasonably frequently, so sick of everything being lopsided half on, half off the burners.
Of course, would love to have the thermometer too 🙂
I love the magnetic wand that lifts the canning lids out of the boiling water. What a nifty tool!
Immersion blender …oh how it has changed my life!
My bench knife is my most useful and used tool.
my favorite kitchen tool is my kitchenaid mixer. Does that count as a tool, or is it a machine? No matter, it definitely revolutionized my baking.
I have a wood handled dough mixer. It’s part wisk, part dough hook. Has two very open, odd shaped loops to mix your dough by hand. I saw it used during a cooking demo for King Arthur Flour. Very easy to use, and easy to clean.
Just love it.
I am getting into canning and need all the tools i can get since i am on a small budget.
ps. love your blog
my immersion blender – love it!
My vegetable peeler gets almost daily use. And my knife set.
Two of my favorite gadgets are my microplane and lemon juicer!
My favorite kitchen tool right now is the new small dough scoop I got that I’ll be using to make chocolate truffles for Christmas.
My current favorite tool is the dough whisk that can be found at King Arthur Flour. I love it for mixing muffin/quick bread batter – no dough in-between tines to clean. It’s wonderful. And thank you for pointing us to the 4th burner pot. I got one and love it. What a great canning idea with the stainless steel wok.
I’d have to say my Cuisinart for big jobs. And, my French press for perfect coffee every day!
Oooh, excellent giveaway! My favorite kitchen tool is my wooden spatula. I love it!
My tovolo silicone scraper. The thing is a beast!
My favorite tool would have to be my kitchen scale. I use it several times a day, everyday…so much that I’m surprised how long the batteries last! (I love reading about what you love to use, and read thru so many fun reader comments too!)
Oh, my scale or my microplane. both are used everyday and changed the way I do things. But having two sets of measuring utensils is up there too!
The Kitchen Aid mixer and attachments. The ricer for the quarts upon quarts of applesauce we can for the year. Oh, and the dehydrator, for the jar upon jar of apple slices we dehydrate for the year. Do I have to pick one?
My mother-in-law’s paring knife. None better.
I know there is an official name, but I don’t remember what it is called. Anyhoo, it’s the wires on a handle that I used to cut butter into pie crusts. I use it on other things as well, but it’s great for chopping butter up into homogenous pieces.
My KitchenAid mixer is probably used the most, but I have a cute little blue silicone spatula that makes me happy when I use it.
My favorite gadget tends to depend on what I am doing at the time. My favorite last week, as I made apple pie, was the apple peeler/slicer/corer kitchen gadget that looks like an undersized instrument of torture. I bought it for around $20 at Bed Bath and Beyond. I bought this a few years ago, and can’t believe I waited that long! It actually works, and apple pies are in the oven baking in about a quarter of the time.
I am thankful for small, heavy-bottomed saucepans. After substantial stretches of time cooking for four, six, 20, and 150+, I’m still getting the hang of this business of cooking for one or two. Appropriately-sized tools provide better guidelines.
My favorite kitchen tool is the green tomato knife by pampered chef. It will go in the dishwasher no problem and it is cheap so if it gets messed up its easy to replace.
My favorite kitchen tool is a vegetable peeler. It’s handy and quick for peeling a potato. I love it.
I am a huge fan of my food processor!
I love my kitchen scale…nothing better than recipes measured in grams.
Love my Kitchenaid!
My small silicone-bottomed metal mixing bowl that is the right size and shape to whisk eggs for an omelet or beat a small bit of whipping cream to top a slice of pie.
My favorite kitchen tool will always be my cast iron skillet!
I don’t know if I’d call it a “tool” but I love my magnetic knife strip. What started as a counter-saving strategy for my tiny kitchen now means that my favorite knives, scissors, and measuring spoons are ultra-accessible at all times!
Boring, I know, but I just really love my Global chef’s knife. I have no idea how I managed to tolerate dull, crappy knives for so many years!
My immersion blender! Great for making smoothies, soup, sauces, even soap, and easy to clean after.
My favorite kitchen tool is my KitchenAid mixer. 20 years old, still going strong. I hope to upgrade to a commercial 7 quart version someday.
I am absolutely in love with my immersion blender!
Love my old Kuhn Ricon serrated peeler. Especially great for peeling peaches, tomatoes and pears.
My favorite kitchen item is the Thermapen. My boyfriend recently dropped ours in a pot of boiling oil. Not until it was gone did I fully understand how much I love that thing.
Probably my analog candy thermometer. Unlike the digital one I had, this one isn’t constantly in need of new batteries.
I love the knives my husband got me for Christmas last year the best
I really like my new immersion blender.
tongs!
I love my Kitchen Aid Mixer. I am such a lover of kitchen gadgets, tools, etc. Really anything cooking related.
love my dual ended silicone spatulas by chef n switchit……don’t see an exact pic on line…. but it’s slender enough to fit small spaces and the wide end cleans the bottom of jars….. thanx for the opportunity….
s cree
I found a wooden handled silicone spatula from Oxo when foraging at Ross. I’ve used it on every batch of preserves since. The spatula is elongated but still sturdy. The wood handle is lovely in the hand.
Marit
Currently my favorite is my colander. I’ve been using it (lined with a tea towel) to strain yogurt to make yogurt cheese.
Hands down, my immersion blender. It makes my fruit butters as smooth as silk. : )
My new dutch oven…I’ve been wanting one forEVER!! Love these gadgets..! Thanks for the giveaway!
My 8″ chef’s knife, and an All-Clad saucepan I inherited. I could do almost everything with those two!
favorite utensil would have to be my favorite pairing knife, it sits so nice in my hand when i have loads of produce to bust through.
My immersion blender is the best thing in my kitchen. I can’t imagine what I did before I had that.
I am in love with my new apple coring/slicing/peeler. It’s been put through the pace with apple pies, apple butter prep and peeling sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving.
I love my food mill! It has gotten a workout this year.
I love my Pampered Chef forged cutlery, especially the large paring knife.
Loving my immersion blender right now – an oldie but a goodie. One of my favorites, which I haven’t used in a while, is a julienne peeler. I use it to make “voodles” – noodles out of vegetables. http://nourishandpreserve.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/making-voodles-and-a-tasty-voodle-salad-with-avocado-dijon-dressing/
I love my potato masher. I mash berries for jams, lentils for soup, potatoes for… well, mashed potatoes!
I love my wooden rolling pin! I’m also getting ready to love the immersion blender that I hope Santa will bring me this year! With so many commenters listing an immersion blender as their favorite tool, I’m encouraged to think it will work well for me, too.
Vitamix…handsdown!
I’m loving my digital scale right now. My gf baking is more successful and it’s shaken things up in a way I feel confident about 🙂 Thanks for the wonderful kitchen ideas.
My current favorite kitchen tool is my jar lifter – no more worries about spilling boiling water all over myself!
I bought a nice silicon spatula last year and I love it. I want two more like it. So handy
I finally broke down and bought the vegetable strainer attachment for my Kitchenaid this year, and now I wonder how I ever got along without it. It made pureeing tomatoes and apples for sauce so much easier and faster, I wish I had bought it years ago. I almost broke it running blackberries thru it (note: NOT good for blackberry seeds!) and was very worried until my boyfriend got it unstuck for me.
About a month ago I went to a outdoor fabrics store and bought a white fine synthetic screen fabric, pretty much mosquito netting and after cutting it into squares I couldn’t be more pleased. It doesn’t unravel or fray, get gross or stain, cleans easily, and and keep bugs out of projects that need to sit in the open (kombucha, sprouts, etc.). I’ll screw it onto the top of my jars to strain out loose tea leaves if I want to brew tea or anything else in the jar, make a makeshift fine mesh sieve out of a colander, make a spices bag to for mulled wine or canning projects so I don’t end up having to fish out bay leaves or star anise. Honestly the most unending useful $2 for 1/8 yard of fabric I’ve ever spent.
Hands down – my Kitchenaid. I’ve not had it very long but I love it! Would love this thermometer, too!
I have some tongs from a restaurant supply store which I love!
My favorite kitchen tool is my pressure canner. I am now able to can meats so that I am not as dependent on my freezer.
I love my immersion blenders, its detachable and swaps to a whisk.love it
My mandoline–it makes salads, pickles, soups, chips, fires, and more!
I love all my kitchen gadgets. And I do have a fully encased silicon spatula but I still reach for my le creuset large spoon-spatula more than any other tool.
I really like my immersion blender!
Oh, I love so many different tools in my kitchen but if I have to pick…my Chicago chef knife. I have had it for 20 years and I still love it.
Good old chopsticks. Not a throw-away pair from a take-out place, but some sturdy bamboo ones that can stir a little bowl of salad dressing or a pot of pasta in boiling water, work the bubbles out of a jar of jam headed for the canning pot, or prop open a pot of rice or stock that needs to be vented.
My favorite kitchen tool is my husband, the chef. Lol!!! For reals, it is my crockpot. It is always there on a busy day. 😀
My new favorite canning tool is a replacement stainless steel jar funnel. I use it for so much more since I keep it handy near my stove because it’s so shiny and new!