Kitchen utensils
Knifes and peelers
Knifes are made out of several types
of material: carbon steel, stainless
steel, high carbon stainless steel,
which is the most expensive and will
last the longest. These knifes will not
stain and holds a sharp edge longer
than other steel types.
Knifes and peelers
Ceramic knifes are fairly new. These
knifes don't need sharpening for
years, and should be sharpened by
an expert when they do wear down.
Knifes and peelers
Knife handles are made of wood or a
plastic composite. Both are good
choices. The only difference is in
cleaning and maintenance. Knifes
with wood handles deteriorate more
quickly when cleaned in the
dishwasher.
Knife’s anatomy
Knife’s anatomy
A Point: The very end of the knife,
which is used for piercing.
B Tip: The first third of the blade
(approximately), which is used for
small or delicate work.
Knife’s anatomy
C Edge: The entire cutting surface of
the knife, which extends from the
point to the heel.
D Heel: The rear part of the blade,
used for cutting activities that require
more force.
Knife’s anatomy
E Spine: The top, thicker portion of
the blade, which adds weight and
strength.
F Bolster: The thick metal portion
joining the handle and the blade,
which adds weight and balance.
Knife’s anatomy
G Finger Guard: The portion of the
bolster that keeps the cook's hand
from slipping onto the blade.
H Return: The point where the heel
meets the bolster.
Knife’s anatomy
J Tang: The portion of the metal
blade that extends into the handle,
giving the knife stability and extra
weight.
K Scales: The two portions of
handle material (wood, plastic,
composite, etc.) that are attached to
either side of the tang.
Knife’s anatomy
L Rivets: The metal pins (usually 3)
that hold the scales to the tang.
M Handle Guard: The lip below the
butt of the handle, which gives the
knife a better grip and prevents
slipping.
N Butt: The terminal end of the
handle.
Knifes and peelers
Chef's Knife
Also known as a cook's knife or
French knife -is usually the largest knife
in the kitchen, with a wide blade that is
8" to 10" long. The knife should have a
full tang. This means that the blade
should go all the way through the handle
for the best wear and stability.
Chef’s knifes
Knifes and peelers
Paring Knife
Paring knives are generally 2-1/2-4" in
length. The most often used knife in the
kitchen. It is ideal for peeling and coring
fruits and vegetables, cutting small
objects, slicing, and other hand tasks.
Paring knifes
Bread Knife
Bread knives are usually
serrated. Most experts
recommend a serrated
knife that has pointed
serrations instead of
wavy serrations for
better control and longer
knife life. You must use a
sawing motion when
using a serrated knife.
Knifes and peelers
A cheese knife is a type of kitchen knife
specialized for the cutting of cheese. Different
cheeses require different knives, according
primarily to hardness; most often "cheese
knife" refers to a knife designed for soft
cheese.
Cheese knife
Soft cheeses
require a sharp
knife. As these
cheeses are often
sticky, a cheese
knife will be
serrated and often
have holes to
prevent sticking.
Peelers
A peeler (potato peeler and/or apple
peeler) is a metal blade attached to a
wooden, metal or plastic handle that is
used to remove the outer skin or peel thus
peeling certain vegetables, frequently
potatoes, and fruits such as apples, pears.
Universal peeler
Peeler for fish
Meat cleavers
A meat cleaver is a large, most-often
rectangular knife that is used for
splitting or "cleaving" meat and bone.
A cleaver may be distinguished from
a kitchen knife of similar shape by
the fact that it has a heavy blade that
is thick from the spine to quite near
the edge.
Meat cleavers
Many cleavers have a hole in the end
to allow them to be easily hung on a
rack. Cleavers are an essential tool
for any restaurant that prepares its
own meat.
Meat cleavers
The cleaver most often found in a
home knife set is a light-duty cleaver
about 6 in (15 cm) long. Heavy
cleavers with much thicker blades are
often found in the trade.
Meat cleaver
Meat tenderizer
Is hand-powered tool used to
tenderize slabs of meat in
preparation for cooking the meat.
Generally, it looks like a hammer
made of metal or wood, with a short
handle and large, sometimes hollow,
typically square head.
Meat tenderizer
It has rows of small pyramid spikes
on the ends. It is useful when
preparing particularly tough cuts of
steak, and works well when broiling
or frying the meat. It is also used to
"pound out" dishes such as chicken
fried steak or schnitzel to be wider
and thinner.
Meat beaters
Meat tenderizer
Meat tenderizer with
wooden handle
Chopping boards
Chopping board is a durable board
used to place material on to be cut.
Most common is the kitchen cutting
board for use preparing food, but
other types exist for cutting raw
materials such as leather or plastic.
Chopping boards
Kitchen cutting boards are often
made of wood or plastic. There are
also chopping boards made of glass,
steel, marble or corian, which are
easier to clean than wooden or
plastic ones, but tend to damage
knives.
Plastic boards
While plastic is theoretically a more sanitary
material than wood for cutting boards, testing has
shown this may not be the case. The softer
surface of plastic boards is scored by knives, and
the resulting grooves and cuts in the surface
harbour bacteria even after being well washed.
However, unlike wood, plastic boards do allow
rinsing with harsher cleaning chemicals such as
bleach and other disinfectants without damage to
the board or retention of the chemicals to later
contaminate food.
Plastic chopping boards
Colour coded chopping boards
Graters
Several types of graters boast different
sizes of grating slots, and can therefore aid
in the preparation of a variety of foods.
They are commonly used to grate cheese
and lemon or orange, and can also be used
to grate other soft foods.
Graters
They are commonly used in the
preparation of toasted cheese, Welsh
rarebit, and macaroni and cheese.
Grater 4-ways
Grater for vegetables
Ladles and skimmers
A ladle is a type of spoon used to
scoop up and serve soup or other
liquids. Although designs vary, a
typical ladle has a long handle
terminating in a deep bowl,
frequently with the bowl oriented at
an angle to the handle to facilitate
lifting liquid out of a pot or other
vessel and conveying it to a bowl.
Ladles and skimmers
Ladles are usually of aluminium,
silver, plastics, melamine resin,
wood, bamboo or other materials.
Ladles are made in a variety of sizes,
the larger ones being about 1 foot
(30 cm) in length, with the different
sizes tailored to the intended use.
One piece ladle
Skimmer
Spatulas
A spatula, also called an egg slice,
a "turner," a flipper - is a kitchen
utensil with a long handle and a
broad flat edge, used for lifting and
turning fried foods.
Spatulas
Spatulas have a handle that is long
enough to keep the holder's hand
away from what is being lifted, or
flipped . Spatulas are usually made of
plastic or metal, with a wooden or
plastic handle to insulate them from
heat.
Spatula’s
Slotted turner
Fish and asparagus turner
Colanders
A colander is a bowl-shaped kitchen
utensil with holes in it used for
draining food such as pasta and rice.
Conventionally, colanders are made
of a light metal, such as aluminium
or thinly rolled stainless steel, but
some colanders are made of plastic
or silicon.
Colanders
A colander is pierced with a pattern
of small holes (or slots in plastic
colanders) that let the liquid drain
through, but retain the solids inside.
It is sometimes also called a strainer
or kitchen sieve.
Colander with handles
Kitchen bowls
Available in different sizes and shapes,
highly utilitarian metal bowl sets can be
used to keep food as well as beverages
everyday.
Kitchen bowls
Cooking pots and pans
The development of pottery allowed
for the creation of fireproof cooking
vessels in a variety of shapes and
sizes. Coating the earthenware with
some type of plant gum, and later
ceramic glazes, converted the porous
container into a waterproof vessel.
Cooking pots and pans
The earthenware cookware could then
be suspended over a fire through use
of a tripod or other apparatus, or
even be placed directly into a low fire
or coal bed as in the case of the
pipkin.
Cooking pots and pans
Even after metal pots have come into
widespread use, earthenware pots are still
preferred among the less well-off, globally,
due to their low production cost.
Improvements in metallurgy during the
19th and 20th centuries allowed for pots
and pans from metals such as steel,
stainless steel and aluminum.
Aluminum pan
Aluminum is a lightweight
metal with very good
thermal conductivity. It is
resistant to many forms
of corrosion. Aluminum is
commonly available in
sheet, cast, or anodized
forms and may be
physically combined with
other metals.
Stainless Steel pan
Stainless steel's
virtues are
resistance to
corrosion, nonreactivity with
either alkaline or
acidic foods, and
resistance to
scratching and
denting.
Non-stick frying pans
Frying pans with non-stick surfaces were
introduced by DuPont in 1956 under the
Teflon brand name. The durability of the
early coatings was poor, but improvements
in manufacturing have made these
products a kitchen standard. Nevertheless,
the surface is not as tough as metal and
the use of metal utensils can permanently
mar the coating and degrade its non-stick
property.
Frying pans with non-stick surfaces
Non-stick frying pans
featuring teflon
coatings must never
be heated above about
465 °F/240 °C, a
temperature that
easily can be reached
in minutes.
At higher temperatures
non-stick coatings
decompose and give
off toxic fumes.
Carbon Steel pan
Carbon steel cookware
can be rolled or
hammered into very
thin sheets of material,
while still maintaining
high strength and heat
resistance. This allows
for rapid and high
heating.
Braisers and roasters
Braising pans and roasting pans
(also known as braisers and
roasters) are large, wide and
shallow, to provide space to cook a
roast (chicken, beef, or pork). They
typically have two loop or tab
handles, and may have a cover.
Braisers and roasters
Roasters are usually made of heavy
gauge metal so that they may be
used safely on a cook top following
roasting in an oven. Unlike most
other cooking vessels, roasters are
usually oblong or oval.
Cast rectangular roaster
with glass lid “Titan”
Baking pan rectangular
Cooking pots
Stainless steel cooking pots are used for wideranging of cooking and storage purposes.
Cooking pots can be deep and large with or
without close-fitting lids. They can also be
used for cooking pasta, stews or vegetables. A
heavy stainless steel cooking pots of goodquality are used often because they circulate
heat equally and are more sensitive to
alterations in temperatures.
Cooking pot
Stock pots
Stock pots are large-capacity pots and
utilized for several functions, such as making
stock, cooking whole chickens, boiling or
braising large cuts of beef cattle, steaming or
simmering shellfish, etc. These are deep, tall
and available with tight-fitted top covers.
Stainless steel stock pots are highly
demanding for both residential and
commercial usage.
Stock pots
Sauce pots
Saucepans (or just "pots") are vessels
with vertical sides about the same
height as their diameter, used for
simmering or boiling. Saucepans
generally have one long handle.
Sauce pots
Larger pots of the same shape
generally have two handles close to
the sides of the pot (so they can be
lifted with both hands), and are
called sauce pots or soup pots (3–
12 liters).
Sauce pans and sauce pots
Saucepans and saucepots are measured by
volume (usually 1–8 L). While saucepots
often resemble Dutch ovens in shape, they
do not have the same heat capacity
characteristics.
Sauce pans and sauce pots
Very small
saucepans used for
heating milk are
referred to as Milk
Pans, such
saucepans usually
have a lip for
pouring the heated
milk.
Sauce pans and sauce pots