There are many reasons you might want to cook more foods from scratch – saving money, controlling ingredients, not being able to source certain foods in your area.
Many people find it intimidating to start making foods at home. Sometimes, it's because of the equipment they see other people using. Many of us slowly build our arsenal of kitchen tools and gadgets as we get more involved in cooking from scratch, but you don't need much to start. In fact, I'm somewhat of a minimalist when if comes to kitchen items, even after years of scratch cooking.
Here are five items I highly recommend for a versatile cook-from-scratch kitchen.
#1 - Large Mixing Bowls with Lids
Whether you're making dough or mixing up a big batch of granola, large mixing bowls are a must. Having lids for those bowls gives them double duty as storage containers.
When I'm in salsa canning season, I like to chop big batches of onions and bell peppers and store them in these bowls overnight to spread out the big task of chopping. I also keep my extra bone broth in them while I freeze small batches in muffin tins.
I recommend glass bowls rather than plastic because they won't scratch or warp – or release micro-plastics into your food!
I have this set of Pyrex mixing bowls.
#2 – Jars
When you cook from scratch, you tend to have more bulk ingredients in your pantry, and let's face it – the packaging raw ingredients come in usually sucks! Whether it's flour in that non-resealable paper bag or baking soda in that box that doesn't close again, you're usually left with food in packaging that's not air (or critter) tight and can make a big mess if you pick it up wrong.
I've found jars to be an ideal solution. I have various mason jars in pints, quarts, and half-gallons, plus I have a few gallon-size jars (I ordered them from Azure Standard). I just choose the appropriate size for what I'm storing. Baking soda goes in pints. A partial box of pasta in quarts. Dried beans in half-gallons. Bulk flour and rice in gallons.
The glass lets me easily see what's inside, but for the ingredients that look similar – flour, powdered sugar, corn starch – I simply cut a portion of the label from the package and tape it to the jar or just write on a piece of tape.
Pro tip: Invest in some one-piece lids, so you're not messing with the flat lid and band every time you open a jar!
Pro pro tip: Get wide-mouth pint and quart jars for easier access and cleaning and so the same lids fit them plus your half-gallons! (Gallon jars will have a larger opening and different lids.)
Having an organized and easily accessible pantry makes cooking from scratch a lot more pleasant!
(If you live in the upper Midwest and have a Runnings near you, I get my jars and lids there for far cheaper than Amazon.)
#3 – Quick Cooker
I own very few kitchen appliances, but this is one I'll never be without. When cooking from scratch, things like brown rice can be time-consuming and fussy to cook on the stovetop. You always have to check to make sure the water hasn't run out and the heat isn't too high or too low. I've made nearly all my rice in my quick cooker for the past several years, and it's perfect every time.
I also like to cook big batches of chicken in my quick cooker. It turns out nice and moist every time, shreds easily, and doesn't take as long as in a slow cooker, which was my previous preferred method of cooking chicken.
There are a million other things you can do with a quick cooker, and I'm not claiming to have explored its full potential. But for me, who lives without a microwave, toaster, air fryer, stand mixer, and more, this is one kitchen appliance that is worth the investment.
Mine is Pampered Chef, and it doesn't appear that they make them anymore, but their multi-cooker appears to be similar. (If you know a Pampered Chef representative, please order through them and support their small business!)
#4 – Pizza Blade
I first learned about pizza blades when I worked in the kitchen of a C-store. Three simple rocking motions, and the whole pizza was cut! When a local pizzaria closed, I bought myself a pizza blade on the owners' garage sale.
This one maybe isn't a necessity, but it has so many unexpected uses. Besides pizzas, you could use it to quickly cut cheese sticks, crackers, tortillas for making chips ... pretty much anything flat. It's one simple rocking motion to create a straight cut across the whole blade without shifting all your pizza toppings. It's great!
I have this pizza blade. It's definitely more expensive than some other options, but reading reviews on the others, it appears that they are very sharp to the point of being dangerous, so I don't want to recommend one. My blade is really no sharper than a butter knife. It's the pressure and rocking motion that cuts rather than the sharpness. If you want to choose a cheaper one, just be aware of that.
#5 – Bread Proofer
This appliance is more of an investment, but if you bake with yeast dough often, it's worth it, especially if you live in a climate with winters.
Yeast prefers warmth – around 75-85 degrees F – and humidity – around 75-80% – to rise. My house is rarely under those conditions. In the winter, in the upper Midwest, my house doesn't get above 70 degrees, and the humidity is probably only half of what yeast prefers.
Before I got my bread proofer, I tended to put my dough bowl on my bathroom counter, turn the shower on hot, and close the door for a while. Trust me, the bread proofer is much more convenient!
The bread proofer I bought years ago has been updated, so it can now perform other functions as well, including fermenting (useful if you like yogurt or kombucha) and even slow cooking. It's also handy because it comes apart and folds almost flat for storage.
Make Scratch Cooking Easy for You
Keep in mind that these tools are just the ones I've found most useful for what I do. If you don't eat bread or make yogurt, don't worry about getting a bread proofer. If you make a lot of thick soups, maybe an immersion blender is more useful to you than some of these items.
Find what works for you, and let me know what your favorites are – maybe it's the next thing I didn't know I couldn't live without!
*This site may contain affiliate links, which means you pay the usual price, but a portion of it goes to me and supports my family and small business. I appreciate it and will only ever affiliate for products that I use and love.*
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