A kitchen utensil is a hand-held, typically small tool or utensil that is used in the
kitchen, for food-related functions. A cooking utensil is a utensil used in the kitchen for
cooking. Other names for the same thing, or subsets thereof, derive from the word "ware",
and describe kitchen utensils from a merchandising point of view: kitchenware, wares for the
kitchen; ovenware and bakeware, kitchen utensils that are for use inside ovens and for baking;
cookware, merchandise used for cooking; and so forth.
A partially overlapping category of tools is that of eating utensils, which are tools
used for eating. Some utensils are both kitchen utensils and eating utensils. Cutlery can
be used for both food preparation in a kitchen and as eating utensils when dining. Other
cutlery such as forks and spoons are both kitchen and eating utensils.
Other names used for various types of kitchen utensils, although not strictly denoting a
utensil that is specific to the kitchen, are according to the materials they are made of,
again using the "-ware" suffix, rather than their functions: earthenware, utensils made
of clay; silverware, utensils made of silver; glassware, utensils made of glass; and so
forth. These latter categorizations include utensils — made of glass, silver, clay,
and so forth — that are not necessarily kitchen utensils.
Materials science Benjamin Thompson noted at the start of the
18th century that kitchen utensils were commonly made of copper, with various efforts made
to prevent the copper from reacting with food at the temperatures used for cooking, including
tinning, enamelling, and varnishing. He observed that iron had been used as a substitute, and
that some utensils were made of earthenware. By the turn of the 20th century, Maria Parloa
noted that kitchen utensils were made of iron and steel, copper, nickel, silver, tin, clay,
earthenware, and aluminium. The latter, aluminium, became a popular material for kitchen utensils
in the 20th century. Copper
Copper has good thermal conductivity and copper utensils are both durable and attractive in
appearance. However, they are also comparatively heavier than utensils made of other materials,
require scrupulous cleaning to remove poisonous tarnish compounds, and are not suitable for
acidic foods. Iron
Iron is more prone to rusting than copper. Cast iron kitchen utensils, in particular,
are however less prone to rust if, instead of being scoured to a shine after use, they
are simply washed with detergent and water and wiped clean with a cloth, allowing the
utensil to form a coat of material that then acts to prevent further corrosion. Furthermore,
if an iron utensil is solely used for frying or cooking with fat or oil, corrosion can
be reduced by never heating water with it, never using it to cook with water, and when
washing it with water to dry it immediately afterwards, removing all water. Since oil
and water are immiscible, since oils and fats are more covalent compounds, and since it
is ionic compounds such as water that promote corrosion, eliminating as much contact with
water reduces corrosion. For some iron kitchen utensils, water is a particular problem, since
it is very difficult to dry them fully. In particular, iron egg-beaters or ice cream
freezers are tricky to dry, and the consequent rust if left wet will roughen them and possibly
clog them completely. When storing iron utensils for long periods, van Rensselaer recommended
coating them in non-salted fat or paraffin. Iron utensils have little problem with high
cooking temperatures, are simple to clean as they become smooth with long use, are durable
and comparatively strong, and hold heat well. However, as noted, they rust comparatively
easily. Earthenware and enamelware
Earthenware utensils suffer from brittleness when subjected to rapid large changes in temperature,
as commonly occur in cooking, and the glazing of earthenware often contains lead, which
is poisonous. Thompson noted that as a consequence of this the use of such glazed earthenware
was prohibited by law in some countries from use in cooking, or even from use for storing
acidic foods. Van Rensselaer proposed in 1919 that one test for lead content in earthenware
was to let a beaten egg stand in the utensil for a few minutes and watch to see whether
it became discoloured, which is a sign that lead might be present.
In addition to their problems with thermal shock, enamelware utensils require careful
handling, as careful as for glassware, because they are prone to chipping. But enamel utensils
are not affected by acidic foods, are durable, and are easily cleaned. However, they cannot
be used with strong alkalis. Earthenware, porcelain, and pottery utensils
can be used for both cooking and serving food, and so thereby save on washing-up of two separate
sets of utensils. They are durable, and "excellent for slow, even cooking in even heat, such
as slow baking". However, they are comparatively unsuitable for cooking using a direct heat,
such as a cooking over a flame. Aluminium
James Frank Breazeale in 1918 opined that aluminium "is without doubt the best material
for kitchen utensils", noting that it is "as far superior to enamelled ware as enamelled
ware is to the old-time iron or tin". He qualified his recommendation for replacing worn out
tin or enamelled utensils with aluminium ones by noting that "old-fashioned black iron frying
pans and muffin rings, polished on the inside or worn smooth by long usage, are, however,
superior to aluminium ones". Aluminium's advantages over other materials
for kitchen utensils is its good thermal conductivity, the fact that it is largely non-reactive with
foodstuffs at low and high temperatures, its low toxicity, and the fact that its corrosion
products are white and so do not discolour food that they happen to be mixed into during
cooking. However, its disadvantages are that it is easily discoloured, can be dissolved
by acidic foods, and reacts to alkaline soaps if they are used for cleaning a utensil.
In the European Union, the construction of kitchen utensils made of aluminium is determined
by two European standards: EN 601 and EN 602. These define maxima for the percentages of
impurities or added elements present, other than aluminium, in such products, as follows:
Unalloyed aluminium
iron and silicon: less than 1% chromium, manganese, nickel, zinc, titanium,
tin: less than 0.1% each copper: less than 0.1%
other elements: less than 0.05%
Alloyed aluminium
silicon: less than 13.5% iron: less than 2%
copper: less than 0.6% manganese: less than 4%
magnesium: less than 11% chromium:less than 0.35%
nickel: less than 3% zinc: less than 0.25%
antimony: less than 0.2% tin: less than 0.1%
strontium: less than 0.3% zirconium: less than 0.3%
titanium: less than 0.3% other elements: less than 0.05% each, and
less than 0.15% in total
Diversity and utility
Before the 19th century "Of the culinary utensils of the ancients",
wrote Mrs Beeton, "our knowledge is very limited; but as the art of living, in every civilized
country, is pretty much the same, the instruments for cooking must, in a great degree, bear
a striking resemblance to one another". Archaeologists and historians have studied
the kitchen utensils used in centuries past. For example: In the Middle Eastern villages
and towns of the middle first millennium AD, historical and archaeological sources record
that Jewish households generally had stone measuring cups, a meyḥam, a kederah, a ilpas,
yorah and kumkum, two types of teganon for deep and shallow frying, an iskutla, a tamḥui,
a keara, a kiton, and a lagin. Ownership and types of kitchen utensils varied
from household to household. Records survive of inventories of kitchen utensils from London
in the 14th century, in particular the records of possessions given in the coroner's rolls.
Very few such people owned any kitchen utensils at all. In fact only seven convicted felons
are recorded as having any. One such, a murderer from 1339, is recorded as possessing only
the one kitchen utensil: a brass pot valued at three shillings. Similarly, in Minnesota
in the second half of the 19th century, John North is recorded as having himself made "a
real nice rolling pin, and a pudding stick" for his wife; one soldier is recorded as having
a Civil War bayonet refashioned, by a blacksmith, into a bread knife; whereas an immigrant Swedish
family is recorded as having brought with them "solid silver knives, forks, and spoons
[...] Quantities of copper and brass utensils burnished until they were like mirrors hung
in rows". 19th century growth
The 19th century, particularly in the United States, saw an explosion in the number of
kitchen utensils available on the market, with many labour-saving devices being invented
and patented throughout the century. Maria Parloa's Cook Book and Marketing Guide listed
a minimum of 139 kitchen utensils without which a contemporary kitchen would not be
considered properly furnished. Parloa wrote that "the homemaker will find [that] there
is continually something new to be bought". A growth in the range of kitchen utensils
available can be traced through the growth in the range of utensils recommended to the
aspiring householder in cookbooks as the century progressed. Earlier in the century, in 1828,
Frances Byerley Parkes had recommended a smaller array of utensils. By 1858, Elizabeth H. Putnam,
in Mrs Putnam's Receipt Book and Young Housekeeper's Assistant, wrote with the assumption that
her readers would have the "usual quantity of utensils", to which she added a list of
necessary items:
Copper saucepans, well lined, with covers, from three to six different sizes; a flat-bottomed
soup-pot; an upright gridiron; sheet-iron breadpans instead of tin; a griddle; a tin
kitchen; Hector's double boiler; a tin coffee-pot for boiling coffee, or a filter — either
being equally good; a tin canister to keep roasted and ground coffee in; a canister for
tea; a covered tin box for bread; one likewise for cake, or a drawer in your store-closet,
lined with zinc or tin; a bread-knife; a board to cut bread upon; a covered jar for pieces
of bread, and one for fine crumbs; a knife-tray; a spoon-tray; — the yellow ware is much
the stringest, or tin pans of different sizes are economical; — a stout tin pan for mixing
bread; a large earthen bowl for beating cake; a stone jug for yeast; a stone jar for soup
stock; a meat-saw; a cleaver; iron and wooden spoons; a wire sieve for sifting flour and
meal; a small hair sieve; a bread-board; a meat-board; a lignum vitae mortar, and rolling-pin,
&c. — Putnam 1858, p. 318
Mrs Beeton, in her Book of Household Management, wrote:
The following list, supplied by Messrs Richard & John Slack, 336, Strand, will show the articles
required for the kitchen of a family in the middle class of life, although it does not
contain all the things that may be deemed necessary for some families, and may contain
more than are required for others. As Messrs Slack themselves, however, publish a useful
illustrated catalogue, which may be had at their establishment gratis, and which it will
be found advantageous to consult by those about to furnish, it supersedes the necessity
of our enlarging that which we give: — Isabella Mary Beeton, The Book of Household
Management
Parloa, in her 1880 cookbook, took two pages to list all of the essential kitchen utensils
for a well-furnished kitchen, a list running to 93 distinct sorts of item. The 1882 edition
ran to 20 pages illustrating and describing the various utensils for a well-furnished
kitchen. Sarah Tyson Rorer's 1886 Philadelphia Cook Book listed more than 200 kitchen utensils
that a well-furnished kitchen should have. "Labour-saving" utensils generating more labour
However, many of these utensils were expensive and not affordable by the majority of householders.
Some people considered them unnecessary, too. James Frank Breazeale decried the explosion
in patented "labour-saving" devices for the modern kitchen—promoted in exhibitions and
advertised in "Household Guides" at the start of the 20th century—, saying that "the best
way for the housewife to peel a potato, for example, is in the old-fashioned way, with
a knife, and not with a patented potato peeler". Breazeale advocated simplicity over dishwashing
machines "that would have done credit to a moderate sized hotel", and noted that the
most useful kitchen utensils were "the simple little inexpensive conveniences that work
themselves into every day use", giving examples, of utensils that were simple and cheap but
indispensable once obtained and used, of a stiff brush for cleaning saucepans, a sink
strainer to prevent drains from clogging, and an ordinary wooden spoon.
The "labour-saving" devices didn't necessarily save labour, either. While the advent of mass-produced
standardized measuring instruments permitted even householders with little to no cooking
skills to follow recipes and end up with the desired result and the advent of many utensils
enabled "modern" cooking, on a stove or range rather than at floor level with a hearth,
they also operated to raise expectations of what families would eat. So while food was
easier to prepare and to cook, ordinary householders at the same time were expected to prepare
and to cook more complex and harder-to-prepare meals on a regular basis. The labour-saving
effect of the tools was cancelled out by the increased labour required for what came to
be expected as the culinary norm in the average household.
See also List of eating utensils
List of Japanese cooking utensils References
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading Brooks, Phillips V.. Kitchen utensils: names,
origins, and definitions through the ages. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6619-3.
Matranga, Victoria K.. America at Home: A Celebration of Twentieth-Century Housewares,
International Housewares Association, ISBN 978-0-9655487-0-0
Schuler, Stanley; Schuler, Elizabeth Meriwether. "kitchen utensils". The householders' encyclopedia.
Galahad Books. ISBN 978-0-88365-301-2. Byrne, David; Wheeler, Mike. Kitchen utensils.
Science in the kitchen. Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-12457-8. Studley, Vance. The woodworker's book of wooden
kitchen utensils. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. ISBN 978-0-442-24726-3.
Shrock, Joel. The Gilded Age. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-32204-4.
Klippensteen, Kate. Cool Tools: Cooking Utensils from the Japanese Kitchen. Kodansha International.
ISBN 978-4-7700-3016-0. McGee, Harold. "Cooking Methods and Utensil
Materials". On Food and Cooking: The Science and lore of the Kitchen. Simon
and Schuster. pp. 787–791. ISBN 978-0-684-80001-1. Hancock, Ralph. "metal utensils". In Davidson,
Alan; Jaine, Tom. The Oxford companion to food. Oxford Companions Series. Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280681-9. Lifshey, Earl. The housewares story: a history
of the American housewares industry. Chicago: National Housewares Manufacturers Association.
pp. 125–195. Parkes, Frances Byerley. Domestic Duties ;
or, Instructions to Young Married Ladies on the Management of their Household, and the
Regulations of their conduct in the various Relations and Duties of Married Life. New
York: JJ Harper. Putnam, Elizabeth H.. Mrs Putnam's Receipt
Book and Young Housekeeper's Assistant. New York: Sheldon & Co.
Rorer, Sarah Tyson. Philadelphia Cook Book: A Manual of Home Economies. Philadelphia:
Arnold and Company. Wilcox, Estelle Woods. Buckeye Cookery & Practical
Housekeeping: Tried and Approved, Compiled from Original Recipes. Minneapolis: Buckeye
Publishing Company. pp. 364–365. ISBN 978-1-55709-515-2. Ettlinger, Steve. The kitchenware book. Barnes
& Noble Books. ISBN 978-0-7607-2332-6. External links
Media related to Kitchen utensils at Wikimedia Commons