No kitchen is complete without having a complete set of common kitchen utensils for example knives, spatulas, sieves, and so forth. At times it may be open to interpretation what is a utensil and what’s more appropriately considered equipment (in the sense of “hardware”) when it involves something like fancy electric eggbeaters and pots and pans, but the majority of people seem to consider a utensil anything that can be held in the hand, needing no countertop or other such assistance in order to use properly.

Some will even categorize kitchen timers and cooking thermometers as kitchen utensils, along with hand-operated can openers and corkscrews. Cooling racks, cookie sheets, and measuring cups and spoons are also generally considered utensils. But whatever the taxonomy, there’s no denying that everyone who cooks will require them.

Unless you plan to never bake or in any other case work with flour, you’ll need a rolling pin. And even though a knife is a knife, it is often less difficult to use kitchen shears instead.

And even when a knife is the right tool for the job, different kinds of knives are developed for specific tasks, such as those with serrated edges for especially tough (and likely rough!) cuts, while fruits could really use the gentler paring knife.

It may also be more helpful to get multiple sets of a certain utensil, for instance measuring spoons or cups, so that you need not constantly wash your only one while cooking. It’s also probably desirable to own several kind of spatula – not only in various sizes to handle different loads, but also of different constructions, made out of different materials or made according to different designs, for example rubbery coating and hard plastic or solid and with holes, respectively.

Finally, it is also advisable to put quality ahead of quantity – better to own two really good knives than several mediocre ones!

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