Looking at a lot of the replies to this thread, I feel like I can finally offload some things.
- Kitchen equipment is expensive and finicky
- Non-stick equipment wears out fast and requires constant replacement every 6-12mo, yet it's always the cheapest option. Basically buying a hardware subscription. Steel is more expensive. Carbon steel, more expensive. Aluminium/copper, easily in the $50-100+ range. Cast iron cookware is cheap but notoriously difficult.
- I see a lot of silicone equipment being sold cheap, but they also wear out fast. A $3 silicone spatula is not the same as a $3 wood or bamboo spatula. A lot of tools also don't work on non-stick surfaces.
- Cheap kitchen knives don't come with a whetstone or a lesson on sharpening. The modern trend of japanese knives doesn't help this, since japanese knives are difficult to sharpen correctly.
- A lot of dodgy kitchen equipment is sold cheap but don't use food grade materials. For example, cheap strainers have a chrome plating and will rust fast. Noone should need to cook with rusty tools.
- Cheap bowls/plates are shit, heavy (stoneware being trendy is truly horrid), hard to hand wash, and have very thin coatings. Prone to cracking and chipping too.
- Cheap dutch pots are some of the worst equipment I've had the pleasure of using. Good heavy pots have frightening price tags.
- A shit oven is worse than not having an oven. Everything coming out either burnt or under=cooked with severe cold/hot spots can seriously turn off an amateur cook.
- A kitchen scale isn't a necessity until it becomes one, and inaccurate kitchen scales are way too common. A good kitchen scale is, again, very easily $50+
- Dessert-making/baking is a serious flex on what tools you have on hand. An electric hand mixer, whisks and scrapers and correctly sized baking/setting dishes. A $2 bag of fruit and some flour/butter/sugar is nothing compared to the $100+ worth of equipment I need to use to turn that fruit into tart filling.
- Culinary education not being a priority in schools.
- Steel (especially carbon steel) equipment is finicky to use, requires a surprising amount of cooking oil, and can warp at high temperatures. But free pot-and-pan handling instructions are mostly limited to youtube videos.
- A $15 nonstick pan doesn't come with a lesson on how to care for that very delicate non-stick surface.
- Sharpening knives requires experience and patience and a whetstone. And a good whetstone can run $30-50+.. more costs.
- Ingredient substitutions and replacements are hardly a priority in most recipes. It's assumed knowledge, but it really isn't.
- Most online recipes are shit. Wrong temperatures, vague instructions, wrong measurements, weirdly specific ingredients.
Unhealthy food is not cheap. Cooking unhealthy food is easy and fast and doesn't require lessons on how to use a kitchen or a sharp knife/grater I don't have.
I'm convinced that kitchen equipment manufacturers are in the business of selling garbage to poorer customers because they think that poorer people just don't know better. Banking on people's ignorance. This should not be a thing, but it is and it is infuriating.
What are you doing to your non-stick equipment where it wears out so fast? I've been using the same non-stick pans for like a decade, and I just wash that shit with dish soap and a sponge. If there's something you have to do to take care of it then I've never done it.
Also, one piece plastic spatulas are affordable and last a long time. I've never had to replace one. Honestly better than anything silicone.
Ingredient amounts don't have to be perfect. A cheap analog scale will probably be close enough, and will last a really long time. Though I don't use a kitchen scale tbh, so I don't know how well they compare to a digital one.
A lot of what you listed seems over the top tbh. While I'm sure I'm using sub-par cooking equipment, added with the fact I don't make much variety, your list is like creating the perfect kitchen which most people don't have anyway. I mean I think I've sharpened a kitchen knife once or twice, and some of mine are dull, but they still do the job. As long as what you have works, then you should be good.
Sure online instructions aren't perfect, but you learn through trial and error, like all things in life. No one is good at cooking at first. I'm not even good at cooking. I manage make everything I cook with very few kitchen items, and it doesn't always turn out perfect, but its still good enough.
i dont know the show or particular situation you are talking about, but is that normal in USA to go grocery shopping once every 3 weeks/a month?
in germany typically we buy less food but go usually twice or once a week. personally I go twice a week (me once, and SO second time)
i don't know how it's possible to buy so much for for 3 weeks/a month, no one does that here or in any where in europe i've seen, because yes of course, this food is perishable. that's why we buy less food at time but fresh and go more often. why the need to buy food to last so long?
Some people do I assume. Me and my dad go once every 10 days or so, and even then don't really buy that much. Maybe 15 - 20 items. But we also go to Costco once every other week as well.
But while I'm at the store I see carts packed to the top, so I assume they're buying multiple weeks of food at a time. Either that or they live in a home with like 12 other people.
www.resetera.com
