🛠️ Cooking Equipment
Idea from https://tylertringas.com/cooking-for-founders/
Pots and pans
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cook long pasta in it! honestly good for everything, goes in the oven too. you basically only need this pot, the others are bonus
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good for high heat stuff, pancakes, fried eggs. probably use this more than anything else
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I just have random ones that I got as gifts. Mostly use them for sauces or pasta
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braises, soups, stews, roasting whole chicken, baking bread
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searing on stove top, cornbread in the oven, etc. i prefer to cook acidic dishes in the stainless to keep the seasoning. i don't use my often, carbon steel does 90% of what this does and is easier to handle
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stir frying or deep frying, these are cheap and easy to use
Baking
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half sheet pans + racks; also get 2 quarter sheet pans
so useful; roasting veggies, prep, cookies, etc. kinda recommend the nordic ware stuff, seems to be better than generic
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roast chicken, whole vegetables (sheet trays are better for cut vegetables)
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so expensive 😢 but really improves pizza crust. use it for quesadillas or smash bugers on the stove top, or making english muffins
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parchment paper
useful in a lot of places; cut a small square when smashing smash burgers and it'll keep your spatula from sticking; cook bacon for a crowd by lining a sheet tray with it
Tools
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2 stainless steel tongs
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so useful. pancakes, stirring vegetables, cooking eggs, etc
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stirring stuff, tasting
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scraping, stirring
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anything's good for this, useful for spoon stuff lol
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very extravagant, but super handy for scraping the last bit of sauce out of a pan. kinda overlaps with below though
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I really like this narrower one, great for scraping out jars and small bowls
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i broke some of those handled graters >_< which are frustratingly NOT a single piece. this set has been a lot more reliable and has a nice large grating surface
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super useful; cheese, citrus, garlic/alliums, nutmeg, etc.
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breaking down poultry, cutting herbs. i use mine for ton of miscellaneous tasks
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you can cook beans and lentils and other grains in these too!
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sauces, mayonnaise
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a nice big piano wire whisk, 12 or 14", handy for mixing dry or wet ingredients
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nothing fancy, but necessary for making laminated doughs (pie crusts, biscuits, pastries). i end up using my french style rolling pin more often tbh (easier to clean, more durable)
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useful for serving soups / stews / chili portions. also can be used for wok cooking, pancakes
Prep
The references list is spot on for this stuff: https://tylertringas.com/cooking-for-founders/
Some additions:
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i use this for pancakes + madelines + popovers. saves cleaning an extra bowl
Knives
- 8-inch chef's knife, like this commercial kitchen one
- paring knife, I like these opinel carbon steel ones
- offset bread knife (these are so much better than the classic saw tooth bread knives!)
The advice on cutting boards here is spot on (at least 1 large wooden, 12"x18" or bigger, and 2-3 small wooden or plastic): https://tylertringas.com/cooking-for-founders/
Storage
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these are super. they all use the same lids, nest compactly, leakproof, clear so you can tell what's in them. cheap. reusable. you can toss them if they break.
Exotics
This is stuff I use less frequently but is handy.
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I have a model sortof similar to this one. I use it when grinding whole toasted sichuan peppercorn, toasted whole spices for indian food, etc
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guacamole tastes better out of it, might be all in my head though 😅 also useful for making aioli and pesto
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stand mixer
I use this pretty rarely but it is useful when making enriched doughs like brioche
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food processor
also pretty rarely used, but great for pesto or lazy biscuits, breadcrumbs
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ok they look dumb but they are really useful for flipping stuff, mixing pasta dishes