Best Cooking Utensil Set For Home Chefs

Having the right cooking utensils is essential to protect your pots and pans from scratches, while also ensuring that you’ve got heat-resistant and non-toxic kitchen tools.

With that in mind, here’s what to know about cooking utensils, such as if you should choose ones made of silicone instead of other materials.

Are silicone utensil sets good?

Silicone utensils are beneficial because they’re heat-resistant, non-toxic, and resistant to stains.

Silicone is flexible, can be washed in the dishwasher, and very strong. Best of all, you can use silicone kitchen utensils in your cookware, such as when stirring food on the stove, without worrying about them damaging your expensive pots and pans.

Unlike other materials, such as plastic, silicone rubber doesn’t react with food or produce dangerous fumes during the cooking process.

However, it’s important to ensure that you purchase silicone utensils that are non-toxic. Cheaper silicone can contain harmful chemicals, so make sure that the silicone utensils are free of BPA and of food-grade quality. You should gauge the quality of silicone by smelling it – cheaper silicone will have a stronger odor than high-quality silicone – and touching it. When you pull and twist silicone utensils, they should be tough yet flexible without becoming deformed easily.

Are bamboo cooking utensils safe?

Bamboo utensils have many benefits. These include how they’re lightweight, flexible but durable, and resistant to both odors and stains.

If you want to buy bamboo cooking utensils, you have to ensure they’re of a high quality. This is because you can find ones that are toxic. In Europe, there have been recalls of bamboo utensils as a result of their binding agent, which is usually made up of a melamine-formaldehyde resin. This is a plastic that, when made poorly, can release toxic components that are harmful to the kidneys while also being carcinogenic.

A good tip when purchasing bamboo utensils is to choose ones that have been constructed out of solid bamboo. These don’t contain harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde. This is because when bamboo is first cut into strips, it has to be glued together to form the utensils, and the glue is what typically contains the formaldehyde which you want to avoid.

What every kitchen must-have?

If you want to start cooking more at home, you should invest in the most important kitchen essentials. Some cooking utensils to own that you’ll be able to use for cooking a variety of dishes include the following:

Measuring spoons and cups

These are essential for baking and cooking purposes, especially when you need to ensure your ingredients are in precise quantities.

Slotted spatula

This is a thin but flexible spatula that allows you to scoop deeply into pans so you can flip food such as fish, burgers, and fritters during the cooking process.

Tongs

Tongs help to keep your hands away from the heat source, while also being useful for flipping foods such as chops, chicken, and steak. You can also use them for picking up smaller foods, such as roasted veggies.

Whisk

This tool gives you a quick way to emulsify cooking ingredients like oils and vinegars, such as when making marinades. It’s also useful for whisking eggs and baking.

Ladle

This can be used to scoop soups, stews, and other liquids out of a pot.

Slotted and solid turner

These are two important utensils. A slotted turner allows moist foods to be handled while it conveniently drains their excess liquid. A solid turner is great for flipping foods during the cooking process.

Spoonula

A spoonula is a blend between a spatula and a spoon because it looks like a spatula but has a spoon-like end instead of a flat end. This is a useful cooking utensil because you can use it to stir foods while they cook. The spoon gives you greater coverage while the flexible body helps you to scrape all the ingredients so that they don’t burn.

What is the best material for a spatula?

Two common materials that are used to make spatulas are wood and silicone, but you can also find spatulas in metal and plastic. All of these have pros and cons. Let’s explore them.

Silicone

● Silicone spatula pros: this material is heat-resistant, gentle on your cookware because it’s soft, and flexible so it makes the spatula comfortable to use.
● Silicone spatula cons: it can be difficult to recycle silicone, and some low-quality silicone products can contain chemical fillers which you want to avoid.

Wood

● Wood spatula pros: wood is soft so it won’t damage your cookware, it’s heat-resistant and stays cool, and is easy to grip.
● Wood spatula cons: wood can be difficult to clean because it’s porous, wood can crack and splinter, and it can become stained easily.

Plastic

● Plastic spatula pros: plastic is usually cheaper than other materials, and it’s lightweight.
● Plastic spatula cons: plastic can’t be used at very high temperatures, and it’s not eco-friendly. It can leach chemicals into food.

Stainless steel

● Stainless-steel spatula pros: it’s easy to clean, and resistant to heat.
● Stainless-steel spatula cons: it can scratch cookware.

As you can see, silicone has many features that make it one of the best materials for spatulas.

It won’t leach chemicals into your food like plastic, it’s easy to clean and strong as well as heat-resistant, plus you don’t have to worry about it splintering like wood or scratching cookware like stainless steel.