People keep asking me what I want and what they should get for their newly-cooking men for Christmas. Here’s a fast list of some mandatory basics all the way up to some nice expensive stuff.
Cast Iron Pan: Your dad cooked on one, your gran-pappy cooked on one when he wasn’t chasing Germans across France. Cast iron pans hold and distribute heat better than anything. You get it seasoned right and they are also super easy to clean. If you don’t have one yet you are wrong. I have a 10″, 8″ and 4″(just for making good egg sandwiches).
A Decent Knife set. I don’t recommend going all gung-ho for a thousand dollar knife set as your first set. Your first knife set should be like your first guitar, gun or wife. Try one out that is decent and the more you use it and try it out the more you will find its shortcomings and benefits. Then when you get your next one, you know what to look for and keep it around a long time.
Plastic PCB Cutting boards. Get a few of these and stop using your new fancy knives to cut right on your wife’s fancy-ass new granite counter tops and destrying your knives. Get ones with little troughs around the edge to keep all that tomato juice and blood off of the counters. One for meats, one for vegetables at least.
Mandolin. No, NOT the kind of mandolin for unwashed renaissance-fair-minstrel-wannabees. A nice sturdy kitchen mandolin for making nice uniform sliced things faster than you can with your ginsu knives.
Instant read thermometer. Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet?
Tonguespank Liquor-infused HOT spices. These are my favorite hot spices and I use them on everything. Check their site out for lots of other super Christmas gifts like Liquor infusion kits and spicy salts!
Stainless mixing bowls. Metal ones won’t melt or warp when you accidentally run them in a hot dishwasher load.
Non stick BBQ grill mats. These are awesome. You have seen them on TV, and I love them. First of all they keep small veggies and kabobs from falling through the grate on your BBQ and you can grill right on top of them and nothing sticks to them. They even leave grill marks on your steak!
White oak barrel whisky making kit. That single dude with the tattoos and piercings next door that just moved here from Portland makes beer? So what, make whiskey like a man.
Bamboo Cutting board workbench. This is on my personal wish list. Little containers to store your cut veggies, a little area to scrape your garbage bits into and it fits on a small counter. This would be great for small apartment kitchen chef.
