We spend plenty of time making food for our animals, raw food for our ferrets and our dog, and veg for our bearded dragons. That also means I frequently spend loads of time researching and using kitchen tools.
So here are my top picks for kitchen tools you should consider adding to your arsenal.
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This may change, and if so, will be fully disclosed.
Kenwood Chef Stand Mixer
Ok, this one is more of a prerequisite purchase combined with the next item. It’s one of the most useful kitchen appliances we own.
We had a 7ish year old kMix that gave up the ghost when I decided to try to grind some turkey necks. The mixer, with its attachment, was doing just fine. Then bam! The motor safety engages and locks. Maybe it worked a vertebra into an awkward angle and put too much torque on the motor. Well, I emptied the grinder attachment, cleaned it up, performed the reset procedure on the kMix, and… Nothing. Well, bugger. Suffice it to say, I took it apart and inspected everything, but I couldn’t identify what had actually gone wrong in its guts. I’m not an electrical technician; I do IT.
I have to add that the mincer attachment very clearly states: ‘Always ensure bones and rind etc are removed from the meat before mincing’. So, really, who’s to blame?
Anyway, along comes the Kenwood Chef. From what I can find, it has the same 1000W motor power. But it has a nice extra feature; a high-speed attachment mount. Now, for the purpose of my recommendation here, it’s just a meat grinder, and frankly, most of the other purpose-built grinders available are just as great or better for that job, but I hate single-purpose kitchen gadgets. So when you tell me there’s a blender attachment and a food processor attachment for it, I just can’t resist!
I haven’t tried mincing bones again, yet, I’m not sure that I even need to try as we now buy minced chicken carcass for the bone content. But I have noticed it seems to be chewing through our monthly grinding a bit easier.
Kenwood Food Mincer Attatchment
As said above, this is combined with the stand mixer.
Now, obviously, the attachment is specific to the stand mixer we have, but the principle is that you need a good food mincer/meat grinder.
There’s not that much I can say about the attachment though, it’s just a good, solid, cast aluminium housing with a stainless steel blade and screens. It comes with other bits for making sausages and such, but who cares? I’m shoving lamb testicles through it.
There are other mincers, and with the lightest bit of research, you can’t really go wrong (unless you want to grind bones).
Poultry Shears
These things are essential if you’re dealing with small, soft bones.
Maybe you want to portion some smaller bits of a chicken wing for the ferrets, or you’re just spatchcocking a chicken. I can’t live without them.
My choice here isn’t really based on much. But this pair comes apart for easy cleaning, and personally, I like the handle design (Bunny’s hands are too small to use them effectively).
Could I have bought a cheaper pair? Yes.
Could I have bought a better pair? Possibly.
But I like these poultry shears.
Tupperware, no not the brand
Tupperware is a company that makes kitchen storage containers, but the word tupperware has been genericised to mean kitchen storage containers.
So we’ve minced up all our meat and offal. Where do we put it?
Yup, tupperware!
You need to make sure it’s dishwasher-safe (do you really want to handwash them?), freezer-safe, airtight, and preferably fastened with a clip on all sides; we don’t want to be spilling raw meat all over the floor.
We just grabbed some from Tesco (Klipfresh), they had a good clubcard deal on. They seal nicely, look good, and come in a variety of sizes.
Cutting board
No link for this one, it’s a cutting board, and it’s a personal affair. You know what it’s for, you know why you should have one.
What I will say is that you want a sturdy one, preferably with feet. You’re probably going to be hacking apart organs and meat on it, so you’ll want to maintain it and look after it. And I can’t think of a better way to encourage that than getting one you really like, or maybe one that’s a little more pricey than you’d otherwise buy, it’s a good excuse ;) (still purchase within your means, though!).
Below is a great video by Jose.elcook showing cutting board seasoning.
Note:
Be careful when exposing a cutting board to a lot of water, it will soak it up which expands the cellulose fibres, and when it dries it will contract. If this happens unevenly it will warp and can crack.
Jose shows the use of pure mineral oil, I’d recommend against that and use a beeswax and tung or mineral oil blend.
The tung/mineral oil provides a deep, penetrating hydration that blocks the absorption of whatever you’re cutting, and the beeswax seals the grain and creates a pliable coat that can repair itself after you hack at it with a knife.