The Beginner’s Guide to the Kitchen Utensil Holder
Ah, the kitchen utensil holder. At times, a vessel devoted to bouncy whisks, brightly-colored spatulas, and shiny ladles that eagerly clamor for a spot on the stovetop. At other times, a repository for burnt wooden spoons, lone chopsticks, and jumbo-sized salad tongs. If you’re like Ina Garten, yours might house a bunch of soup spoons for sampling. Or, if you’re like Julia Child, you might own multiple crocks: one for spatulas or SPATS (as she lovingly referred to them); one for FORKERY; and one for wooden utensils.
While there’s no right way to organize your utensil holder, these tools are absolutely essential in any beginner’s kitchen:
1. The Wooden Spoon
One might argue you can never have too many wooden spoons. Quite simply, you can use these to stir pasta sauces, soups, cake batters, you name it. Just make sure to hand wash them, as they can splinter and break in the dishwasher.
2. The Heatproof Spatula
I recommend keeping a regular-sized spatula and a smaller one in your utensil crock. Large for scrambling eggs in a skillet, folding egg whites into a batter. Small for scraping the last traces of batter out of a bowl and for delicately icing frosting on cakes. Big caveat: make sure your spatulas are silicone and not rubber to avoid melting when using in the presence of heat.
3. The Ladle
Ladles are pretty straightforward and not as multi-purpose as the rest of the gadgets in this lot, but if you’re a real soup/curry fiend, then you’ll want to have a sturdy ladle handy. I prefer stainless steel over rubber, as rubber ones tend to leave a lingering film and odor from the previous soup.
4. The Slotted Spoon
Slotted spoons are great and handy and when I think of them I am always reminded of Sally pretending to eat Dr. Finkelstein’s soup in Nightmare Before Christmas. Slotted spoons are used for removing solids from liquids (think potatoes, dumplings, etc.) and lifting fried foods from skillets of hot oil (i.e. fries and fried chicken).
5. The Whisk
Whiskity whisks…who doesn’t love a whisk? I love how they turn egg whites into stiff meringues, or transform heavy cream into soft, pillowy peaks. Use your whisks to stir eggs for a scramble, mix dry ingredients for a cake, or transform eggs and marsala into a frothy zabaglione. You should opt for a mid-sized whisk that does the job of large and small whisks, or if you’re feeling ambitious, you could also spring for a tiny whisk, which is ace at whipping up vinaigrettes, and proofing yeast.
6. The Tongs
This multi-purpose gadget does it all. I use them to transfer pasta out of boiling pasta water, to flip roasted veggies in a baking sheet, and for tossing salads with dressing.
7. The Metal Spatula
I like to keep two of these guys on standby. I use a sturdy metal spatula to do things like flip veggie burgers, pancakes, and grilled cheeses. I also keep a fish spatula on hand for actions that require a bit more delicacy, like transferring cookies to a baking sheet or actually flipping fish in a skillet (the other one is a bit too big and bulky for the task).