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The Minimum Viable Kitchen

priceonomics.com

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Re: The Minimum Viable Kitchen

#71

Post by edw519 »

One mans' MVK = another mans' WTF.

My MVK? A refrigerator, a knife, and a cutting board.

A little background...

90% of what we eat = raw produce. So it's pretty straightforward. We just eat produce at home and an occasional hot meal out. Every meal at home is either fresh fruit or a salad. (I haven't eaten anything other than fruit before noon for 25 years.) We have lots of nuts & seeds, cereals, snacks, and many wonderful things in our fridge.

We eat out at restaurants several times per week and zero in on our favorites. (Living in Miami, we'll probably run out of fantastic options in about 30 years.) Most of the places we go serve food far better than what we could or would want to prepare and most definitely satisfy our "foodie" desires. Miami also offers many foods we would have never even dreamed about.

This was a nice post for beginning foodies (Thank you, Matt), but these days, MV asymphtotically approach zero. In most places, you really can eat lots of delicious and healthy food without all that stuff.

(By the way, anyone need a stove, range, or microwave with 0 miles on them?)

Re: The Minimum Viable Kitchen

#72

Post by danielweber »

mattmaroon wrote: post #41
jtchang wrote: post #24

I cook quite a bit and have a lot of friends who own commercial kitchens. - Victorinox Fibrox knives are by far the best value you will get. They are inexpensive and are quite the workhorse. - I agree for the most part about the pots and pans except cast iron should be #1 on the list. The one thing you will learn very quickly as a cook is that cast iron is your friend. It also lasts forever. - Someone said something…

I like cast iron, and have a couple pieces. The problem is I feel like it's an addition since there are things you can't do in them and didn't fit with the minimum viable gourmet kitchen. Cooking with tomatoes would be probably the most frequent thing I need non-cast iron for. And yeah, I laughed at the whisk thing too.

I do spaghetti sauce in a cast iron all the time. Am I doing something wrong?

Re: The Minimum Viable Kitchen

#73

Post by vecinu »

callmeed wrote: post #67

On blenders, I've never had luck with a "If you were stuck on an island with 1 kitchen electric ..." I cook a lot (for a family of 5) and my minimum/essential kitchen items for us are: - 2 knives (I use Global but I like Victorinox too) + Henckels sharpener - Cast iron skillet - Wok - Small non-stick pan (my wife prefers little/no oils) - 2 Pots - 1 steamer basket - 1 baking sheet - 1 pizza stone (or some unglazed ti…

Thanks for these great suggestions.

What do you think about slow cookers destroying vital nutrients? This is the only thing keeping me from buying one.

I read some more serious research a while back but a quick search on Google got these 2 (not so great) sources:

http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=dailytip&dbid=45 http://www.livestrong.com/article/129000-slow-cookers-nutrit...

Re: The Minimum Viable Kitchen

#75

Post by pbnjay »

If you were to get only one cookbook ever, the best bang for your buck and the one that gets the most use at my house is the Joy of Cooking. It's $22 and has thousands of recipes from salad dressings to pot pies to all that fancy-shmancy stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Cooking-75th-Anniversary-2006/dp/0...

Re: The Minimum Viable Kitchen

#76

Post by rdl »

mattmaroon wrote: post #59
rdl wrote: post #23

The fundamental rule I have is "don't buy sets -- buy individual items as you find uses for them". I bought a lot of really expensive stuff on eBay (Staub, Demeyere) and in Japan (Global Pro knives), and I actually only use a few of each. A cast iron enameled wok, though, is awesome. I got mine from the Wok Shop in SF for $30 with spatula/etc. http://refer.ly/cooking_tools/c/59d5b57c118b11e2a4ec22000a1d... is what I…

I mostly agree. I just recommended the pots and pans set because they're cheap that way, and you really will use everything you find in a 10 piece set (which, btw, usually counts at least 3 lids as pieces). Knives on the other hand... I got a set as a gift long ago and have at least 5 I've not touched.

The main benefit for me in having two knife blocks of knives is being a able to do meat vs. veg prep with different instances of the same model knives and not wash anything until it is done, but now my kitchen is too small to do that.

Re: The Minimum Viable Kitchen

#77

Post by ghc »

My Minimum Viable Kitchen would forget about half that stuff and add a Rice Cooker and broiler pan.

I have more kitchen equipment than I know what to do with, but 95% of the meals I wind up cooking need at most these:

- Bamboo Cutting Board

- Plastic cutting board

- Tongs, spatulas, and cooking chopsticks

- Rice cooker

- Chef's knife

- Paring Knife

- Sashimi knife

- Nakiri

- Aluminum nonstick pan

- cast-iron griddle / broiler pan

- Pot with steamer

- Saucepan

- 12 Qt. Stock pot

- Large Wok

- Mixing bowls

- Whisks

- Hand mixer

This is enough equipment to cook a broad range of French, Japanese and American dishes. It's nice to have things like a Mandoline, oil thermometer or blender, but I find myself using them less frequently as I become more experienced. I've also never owned a tabletop mixer and never wished for one.

Re: The Minimum Viable Kitchen

#78

Post by tvon »

jmduke wrote: post #5

Line by line, my disagreements: - You don't need cookbooks. The internet is better in terms of 'MVK', and the best cookbook is the one you make yourself. - Get rid of half of the pots and the dutch oven. Cast iron is indeed the greatest. - A stand mixer is nice, but by no means is it Minimum Viable. - If you insist on getting a mixing bowl that isn't a regular bowl, don't get three of them. - Ditch the whisk. - Sayin…

FWIW, the lid of the Lodge dutch oven functions as a 10" pan if you flip it... I'd guess that would work with any dutch oven with a flat top (and for all I know it's commonplace).

Re: The Minimum Viable Kitchen

#79

Post by wiredfool »

r888888888 wrote: post #70
jtchang wrote: post #24

I cook quite a bit and have a lot of friends who own commercial kitchens. - Victorinox Fibrox knives are by far the best value you will get. They are inexpensive and are quite the workhorse. - I agree for the most part about the pots and pans except cast iron should be #1 on the list. The one thing you will learn very quickly as a cook is that cast iron is your friend. It also lasts forever. - Someone said something…

I feel that cast iron pans are overrated. Stainless steel is easier to clean, lets you build fond, lets you cook acidic pan sauces, and are lighter so you can be more aggressive about pan flipping. The only advantage cast iron has is heat retention and there are few cases where that's useful (like deep frying for example, or baking bread). Iron is actually a relatively poor conductor of heat also and a good tri-ply p…

I find my cast iron to be a pain, and after trying hard to use it well for years. Slow to heat, slow to recover, touchy to season, and heavy as all hell. I've gone back to either stainless or nonstick, depending.

It's kind of like driving an old F350 as a daily driver. Sometimes its just what you need, most of the time it's a heavy, ponderous maintenance nightmare.

Re: The Minimum Viable Kitchen

#80

Post by davidjhamp »

I think the author needs to try to cook a great meal with a rice cooker before he labels everything that comes out of one as painful.

When it comes to minimal a rice cooker is what I would want. You can steam, pan fry, boil and slow cook. Short of baking and dehydrating(which I'm sure you could figure out) its got you covered.

Saying you 3 knives is minimum seems to be missing the point.

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