Pots, Pans, Bowls & Utensil Logistics

[Heather]

Other home cooks out there: in addition to your mise, do you plan out which pots/pans/bowls/utensils you're going to use for each dish? Do you have certain kitchen items that are only used for particular purposes?

[pax]

Other home cooks out there: in addition to your mise, do you plan out which pots/pans/bowls/utensils you're going to use for each dish? Do you have certain kitchen items that are only used for particular purposes?

Yes. I share my kitchen with my kids and husband. If I do not make sure I have everything before I start, it's likely that at some crucial moment I'm going to be banging my head under the cabinets trying to find something.

I have two very visual children who eat more when the food is pretty. I am not even sure they know they are doing it but they do, so I plan plates and style (family vs plated, for example, too).

Yes, I have some items that are only used for particular purposes. Nobody opens my knife drawer but me! I have various bake molds that only get used for various times of year..gingerbread houses, birthday cakes, etc.

Dealbreakers: eyes, brains, trotters

[Xochitl10]

Other home cooks out there: in addition to your mise, do you plan out which pots/pans/bowls/utensils you're going to use for each dish?

Not as carefully as I should. I consider this my biggest weakness as a home cook -- in my American kitchen, I'm always contorting around to the utensil drawers and opening them with my foot to avoid getting dough/tomatoes/whatever on the handles. Or making Azami do it (not with his feet).

Do you have certain kitchen items that are only used for particular purposes?

Yes, mostly baking supplies. I've also got the suribachi and surikogi (Japanese mortar and pestle), which I only use to grind sesame seeds and mix dressings. Oh, and the screw-press pickle bin.

[DanCole42]

Other home cooks out there: in addition to your mise, do you plan out which pots/pans/bowls/utensils you're going to use for each dish? Do you have certain kitchen items that are only used for particular purposes?

I try to keep everything in my kitchen organized. Spatulas in one spot, wooden spoons here, slotted spoons there, graters and microplanes together, etc. That way if I realize I forgot to get something out halfway through, I don't have to hire Indiana Jones to find it for me. Most of my regularly active-while-cooking stuff (wooden spoons, tongs, etc.) is in the two drawers right next to my stove, so it's as if it's out in front of me. Pots and pans I'll usually have out and ready.

The exception to this is when I grill. For some reason I always find myself having to open the back door with my hands covered in beef juice only so I can track mud through my living room in order to get that one item I forgot (usually while my food is flaring up).

As for an item that's only used for one purpose, I've only got one: a fire extinguisher.

Well, that's not true. There's the castle-shaped cake mold and the sailboat popsicle maker my wife made me buy.

[Pool Boy]

The exception to this is when I grill. For some reason I always find myself having to open the back door with my hands covered in beef juice only so I can track mud through my living room in order to get that one item I forgot (usually while my food is flaring up).

Dude that is so me, too.

The only thing I do, before I cook *big*, is to make sure everything is spotless and clean and ready. Then I prep most of the mise before I start the actual cooking. Not all of it (sometime though), but most of it. I hate the freaking clean up though.

[laniloa]

There's the castle-shaped cake mold

How about a jello mold for the next picnic? Ice scuplture for your next party punch. The sailboats can swim in the moat.

[pax]

Now I'm going to have to start using these things more. What a great idea. An ice castle in an ice cream punch for a kid party. Who'da thunk? (Well, ok, you did, but you're obviously gifted. )

Thank you.

[laniloa]

Now I'm going to have to start using these things more. What a great idea. An ice castle in an ice cream punch for a kid party. Who'da thunk? (Well, ok, you did, but you're obviously gifted. )

Thank you.

Nah...just happy to co-opt ideas from mom and pass them along.

[MsDiPesto]

I take things out of the drawers and cabinets as I need them. This usually resulted in a later comment from the ex, who would usually say "what, you used every pot and pan in the kitchen?"

Hey, whatever it takes!

[porcupine]

Do you have certain kitchen items that are only used for particular purposes?

I have 'good' baking gear and 'old' baking gear. The old baking gear gets used for just about anything - as a shallow container in the fridge, roasting veg, drip tray... but the good stuff stays put in a special place and is used only for the baked goods for which it was designed.

So, when 18 small mail order plants arrived unexpectedly while I was out of town, my friendly housesitter put them in the first tray-like thing he could find (or so I guess): my perfectly dent-free, perfectly grease-free, always carefully dried before storing in the good baking gear cabinet 9x13 sheet pan. At least the plants survived.