Untesils & Hand Tools

A bowl scraper is one of the most useful tools in the kitchen. It is flexible which lets you perfectly copy the inner part of any bowl and effectively scraps out contents. Thanks to its’ flexible body, it is great for more than that:

1. Useful for baking – easy manipulation of dough, batter, and pastry creams.
2. Assists with cutting dough – can replace a dough cutter for the majority of doughs
3. Useful for bread or buns preparation
4. Enables gathering and manipulating ingredients such as, meat and vegetables

Assists you in keeping countertops clean – more easily scrape up crusty foods

For scraping out of the bowl, you can partially replace a bowl scraper with a spatula, but a spatula will never give you the benefits and productivity of the large blade of the bowl scraper.

Since bowl scrapers are very inexpensive, I would encourage you to purchase a few to have them available anytime you need.

The minimum size that I recommend is 5 ¼” x 3 ½”– smaller are typically not as effective.

The best size is a slightly larger options, about 7 ½” x 4 ¾ “, which will provide you with a flat blade on one side and a nicely round blade on the other side. (The rounded side can perfectly copy the inner part of any mixing bowl).

Since a bowl scraper is very inexpensive, I would encourage you purchase a few to have them available anytime you need.

The selection of material is your choice, but selecting a professional grade will give you higher durability and a longer lifetime.

A box grater (also called a large grater) is a very useful and budget friendly tool that is perfect for hand shredding and grinding your ingredients. It can be used for cheeses, vegetables, chocolate, fruit and more.

If your budget allows, you can also purchase a kitchen mixer or food processor with grating and shredding attachments (read more here) which will be great for processing larger quantities. Even though I own both of them, I always like my box grater for its convenient size, easy cleaning, and because it does not need to be assembled.

For your household, you can use any handheld can opener that you like, which allows you to open the can quickly and safely. I would recommend using a crank can opener, which is fairly cheap, easy, quick, and safe to use.

This basic cookie cutter is round with a 2 ½” or 3” diameter and should be present in any kitchen.

You can buy basic round cutters, or you can buy a sturdier version that can be held with your whole hand and has a longer lifetime and even better durability than most cookie cutters.

Optionally, you can substitute out round cutter by using a glass, but it may slow your process.

It is good to have other shapes of cutters as well (especially for baking Christmas cookies with kids).

The selection of material is your choice, but selecting a sturdy, commercial grade cutter will give you higher durability and a longer lifetime.

Deep fry thermometer (sometimes also called a candy thermometer) to be able to control the temperature during frying (the thermometer needs to be able show temperatures between 100 – 400°F). It is also a very cheap item. Do not confuse the deep fry thermometer with a basic food thermometer. While you can use any food thermometer to replace a deep fryer thermometer if it displays temperatures up to 400°F, most food thermometers are only able to show 200°F max.

A disher (with a trigger) is sometimes called an ice cream scoop or a scoop with a trigger or ice cream scoops/dishers.

Most of us have a disher at home for ice cream serving, but they are very good for multiple other tasks. A disher helps you to increase your speed and productivity in the kitchen by having uniformed portions with minimum effort and without needing a scale!

They are extremely easy to use for scooping ingredients and releasing thanks to the trigger (does not apply for triggerless ones).

The best for any household would be to have a combination of 3 of the most useful sizes: 1 OZ, 2 OZ, and 4 OZ or 5.33 OZ.

1 OZ disher is best for:

1. Scooping and portioning cookie dough
2. Scooping and portioning deli salads or spreads right on the bread
3. Scooping smaller meatballs
4. Scooping and portioning sour cream (for example, on the top of a soup

2 OZ disher is best for:

1. Scooping and portioning larger meatballs
2. Scooping perfect portions of ice cream
3. Scooping and portioning smaller portions of potato salad
4. Scooping and portioning cookie dough for jumbo cookies
5. Scooping batter for regular cupcakes or muffins

4 OZ or 5.33 OZ disher is best for:

1. Scooping and portioning regular portions of potato salad
2. Creating unified burger patties for beef, veggie, or salmon burgers (and other burgers too)
3. Scooping batter for large cupcakes or muffins
4. Scooping jumbo portions of ice cream

The selection of material is your choice but selecting NSF certified products suitable for restaurants will give you higher durability and a longer lifetime.

A stainless-steel dough cutter is a very effective tool especially for portioning dense dough, ie., pasta dough. It can also be used for shaping and manipulating all other dough, such as bread dough.

However, if you have a denser dough, you can substitute this tool with a knife, but this cutter affords you even more opportunities than a knife. You can use a stainless-steel dough cutter to manipulate your ingredients, shape dough, etc. And keep in mind that the stainless-steel dough cutter is sharp, so it can damage your countertop.

I would recommend this tool only to those who are very frequent bakers– to all others, I would recommend purchasing more bowl scrapers.

You will need a reliable food thermometer in your kitchen for more than just meat preparation. In general, I prefer digital ones since I find them to be more accurate, but if you have a high quality analog one, you will be fine too. The most basic food thermometer has a range between 50 – 200° F, but if you plan to use your thermometer as a deep fryer thermometer, too, you need to have one which can show temperatures up to 400°F.

See section “Recommended and Safe Internal Temperatures of Meat and Fish” here.