Hello. Hi. In this box I've got 10 kitchen tools under $20 that can make you better cook. Also in
this box is the one inexpensive kitchen tool I'm never using again. Let's get into it.
First up on my list is a microplane. Kind of a confusing name because it sounds like a toy plane,
but it is in fact a kitchen tool. It's basically a little baby grater that gets you really delicate,
tiny shavings of whatever you use it on. And I think every home cook should have one of these
for a couple reasons. First, it is hands down, the best tool for zesting citrus. Your lemons,
limes, grapefruits, oranges. Unlike a standard grater, you get all of the flavorful essential
oils that live in the peel, but none of the bitter white pit underneath. If you're not
using citrus zest in your cooking, it's such an easy way to upgrade your food. It adds pep and
a bright zingy citrus flavor to so many things. From roasted vegetables to hummus, to desserts to
vinaigrettes. You can grate larger nuts like Brazil nuts or cashews onto a salad. I also
like using this for grating fresh nutmeg, lemon grass. You can even use this for ginger or garlic.
But if you do use this for ginger or garlic, it is going to turn into more of like a pulp
or a puree. So if you're looking for more of a mince, I recommend a medium grater like this,
this is kind of tool 1A on the list. This is so great for fresh ginger and garlic and even
fresh turmeric. It works much quicker than mincing everything by hand. So you save time
when you're cooking and if you make any of my recipes, you know how often I use ginger
and garlic, so I really love this thing. This next item might seem like overkill to
some people, but I swear by it, a digital scale. This has made me a better cook in so many ways.
So first off, very useful for baking because it's just a lot more accurate to measure by weight than
by volume. So if you're measuring milk or flour or sugar, you're going to get much more precise
results if you use one of these because we all use measuring cups differently. Even small variations
in baking can be the difference between your brownies tasting great and your brownies tasting
gross. Even if you don't bake very often, there are just a lot of everyday ingredients that are
so much easier to measure on a scale than to try to figure out how they work in measuring cups.
Fresh herbs, for instance, do you pack them in tightly? Do you pack them in loosely? Somewhere
in the middle? It's a lot easier to just put them on a scale in a bowl. Also, certain nuts
like walnuts, hard to fit into measuring cup and mushrooms. I don't even know where to start,
how do you measure mushrooms? I really don't know. This is a serious question that I'm asking.
A scale is also really useful if you want even portions of something so that they cook
evenly. So if you're making some sort of bread or fritters, definitely use a measuring scale instead
of trying to eyeball it or use a tablespoon measure. The last reason I love using a scale
has nothing to do with cooking and everything to do with cleaning, which I hate. I hate washing
dishes. So instead of using six different dry measuring cups and one liquid measuring cup,
when I'm cooking or baking. I get to just put everything in one bowl on my scale, I hit the
tare button to reset it to zero every time I add a new ingredient and it works so much better.
Speaking of precision, the next thing on my list is an oven thermometer. Have you
had your oven calibrated? If not, this is a must. For instance, in my last apartment in
Brooklyn, my oven was off by a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, a hundred degrees. That is enormous,
but also not that uncommon. So it was only once I started using one of these that I realized, oh,
that's why my cookies and cakes are not turning out as I intended. And that's why my roasted
vegetables are basically steaming instead of browning. So get yourself one of these.
Next up is a citrus squeezer. I use a lot of citrus in my cooking. It does so many wonderful
things, it makes heavy foods taste brighter, it makes spicy foods taste less intense and it makes
bitter foods taste well, less bitter. I guess if you have freakishly strong hands, you can just
use those hands to juice your limes and lemon. But for the rest of us, this thing is going to get out
so much more juice. This is particularly useful when you're making a recipe that needs a lot of
citrus like you're making a salsa or guacamole with lime juice or a lemon cake that needs a lot
of lemon juice. We're going to definitely save time with this. I recommend getting a stainless
steel one like this instead of an enameled one. I used to have one of those, it started to chip
and I don't know about you, but I don't really want enamel chips in my food. Oh,
and just be sure to put the citrus fruit in the right way, otherwise everyone will roast you.
The next thing I want to show you is this silicone spatula. This is one of those things
that doesn't seem that exciting or useful until you actually start to use it a lot.
It bends and flexes in a way that a standard wooden spoon or metal spatula can't. Kind
of like the difference between your body in your twenties and your thirties. Flex-y flex,
no flex. What that means is they're really good at getting into all of the corners of your pan,
as well as getting out all of the food from your skillet, your bowl or your blender. Plus
they're really easy to clean and actually heat resistant up to 550 degrees Fahrenheit. So if
you accidentally let your spoon rest in a big pot of hot soup, it's not going to melt immediately. I
like both this flat edge one and this spoonula to mix between a spoon and a spatula, which is
particularly useful when you are trying to get everything out of a food processor or a blender.
I also want to give a special shout out to the pancake spatula. Probably not essential
for most home cooks, but I did test my vegan pancake recipe upwards of three dozen times and
this baby one out every time. So if you're a pancake fiend, definitely get this one.
Up next we have a Y-shaped peeler. I prefer this to the standard swivel vegetable peeler because
the blade is wider, so you get to peel more and once you cover more surface area, which means
you're going to peeler your vegetables quicker so you save time. I think it's also more ergonomic,
it's easier to hold, especially when you're peeling sturdy things like butternut squash
or sweet potatoes. I feel like you just get more of a natural motion and a smoother motion than
with the standard peeler. I feel like you have to kind of contort your body when you use this
more, and it's certainly a lot harder when you're using it on a sturdy vegetable. I also like using
a wide peeler to make beautiful carrot ribbons or zucchini ribbons because they make eating salads
so much more fun and exciting. Also, it's a great way to get your picky kids or your picky partners,
behind the camera, to eat their vegetables. I do want to mention brands real quick. This
is probably the most popular one among chefs, it's the Kuhn Rikon model. I actually prefer this OXO
one though. It's about four times heavier than this one, which means it's sturdier.
It has a better grip, it even has these little built in grips. I feel like when I'm peeling,
especially tough things like broccoli socks or again butternut squash or sweet potato,
I have a lot more control. I don't feel like I'm going to slip and accidentally peel my
fingers along with the vegetables. So this is my preference, but I think either of these is
going to do a better job than a standard peeler. Now it's time to discuss the humble sheet pan. I
can't believe it fit in the box so snugly like that. This is on my list because it can do so
many things really well. You can toast nuts in the oven, you can roast vegetables on it,
you can make a casual sheet cake, you can bake cookies on it, you can toast bakery bread on it,
and you can even make an entire sheet pan dinner on this. I really like this one from
the Nordic Ware brand, it's a hundred percent aluminum, so it conducts heat really well and
it's not going to get warped after a few uses. This handheld mandoline is one of my favorite
tools for several reasons. You can get paper thin, even slices of shallots, onions, garlic,
but also you can turn sturdy vegetables into these delicate feathery wisps. And if you've ever tried
to cut a vegetable evenly and thinly, you know it takes some time and this thing is lightning fast.
I prefer the handheld version over a traditional mandoline for a few reasons. One, the traditional
versions are quite large and clunky and a little difficult for beginners to use. Plus
a professional one is going to run you upwards of like a hundred dollars. But this one takes up very
little space, very easy to use and inexpensive. But if you care about your fingers, please wear
a cut resistant glove when you use a mandoline, it is very easy to cut your fingers otherwise.
Let's talk about this little guy, a bench scraper. These were originally designed for bakers,
but they're so useful for home cooks for many reasons. I use mine to scrape crumbs off my
cutting board when I'm being a little messy, to transfer vegetables from my cutting board straight
into a hot pan and to just help with [inaudible] and make everything move smoother. You could use
a knife to scrape up everything, but you might cut yourself and you definitely will dull your knife
that way. Some models of these bench scrapers even come with ruled markings at the bottom, which is
useful if you want to avoid looking like a weirdo who uses the measuring tape in the kitchen.
Before we get to my last recommendation, let's talk about kitchen tools you shouldn't buy. My
simple rule is that if a kitchen tool can do just one thing and that one thing can be done by a
different multipurpose tool that I already own, I don't buy it. An example of this tool I think
we'd all agree on is this banana slicer. Yes, it slices the banana very quickly, but you can slice
a banana quickly with a knife. Also, this takes up valuable drawer space and is annoying to clean.
My hot take is that a garlic press is no different. It promises to mince garlic
quicker than a knife, but honestly, it does a terrible job. A lot of the garlic gets stuck
in here and it is incredibly difficult and annoying to clean. Trust me, I know,
I've tried to use one of these many times and it still sucks. So leave this at the store or in your
online shopping basket and just use the grater I showed you earlier or mince your garlic by
hand. And I know some of you are going to disagree with me and think the garlic press is great. So
if you do, let me know in the comments below. The last tool I want to talk about is something
you don't actually see in most of my YouTube videos, and that's a magnetic whiteboard. Okay,
so technically this isn't a cooking tool, but it is a kitchen tool, if that makes sense. I use
this to make grocery lists and to make notes of ingredients I'm running low on. It's also
useful in the middle of cooking if I want to jot down a note, but my hands are covered in sauce
and I don't want to touch my phone. I can just use this, it's always in the same place and it's never
in the way. During the week, I use my whiteboard to remind myself of various things. Whether it's
to defrost the tofu or to actually eat the kale I prepped on Sunday. The only reason you don't see
this in my videos very often is because it can be a little distracting in the background and I would
prefer you focus on my baby animal calendar. You can find a link to this whiteboard and all
of the other kitchen tools I mentioned in this video in the description box below. If there are
any other useful kitchen tools under $20 that I missed, let us know in the comments below. Bye.