Miscellaneous Useful Tools in the Kitchen

The most important thing about cooking isn’t producing delicious food, in our opinion – it’s about having fun in the kitchen and enjoying the process. Sure, making nice food that you enjoy and that you can share with other people is important, but what’s the point if you’re having fun at the same time?

The most important things are, of course, nice knives, cutting boards, pots, pans, and all the other main players in the kitchen. But, there are many other tools, appliances, and accessories that can make your life a whole lot easier when you’re cooking.

At the Bamboo Guy, we’re all about encouraging a love and passion for cooking, so we have several miscellaneous kitchen tools available to you that’ll make the process easier and more fun.

So, stick with us while we tell you all about our favorite tools that making cooking a whole lot easier and more fun.

Kitchen Tools and Accessories to Add to Your Collection

When it comes to cooking, making your life easier will actually make things more fun too, ad the best way to do that is to get yourself some handy tools to add to your collection. Ranging from sharpening and honing tools to jar opening accessories and cutting board treatment, we have it all.

Whetstone

The one thing everyone has in their kitchen is knives, so everybody needs to sharpen them – not too regularly, or they won’t last very long, but regularly enough that they don’t get to the point where they’re completely unusable. In fact, the proper way to look after your knives is to sharpen them with a proper knife sharpening tool periodically, and then hone them a little more regularly (but we’ll get into honing a bit later).

Our recommendation for the best, most effective, and easiest sharpening is a whetstone – better yet, a whetstone kit.

So, what is a whetstone? A whetstone is a block most commonly made from ceramics or aluminum oxide, and it’s quite a coarse and gritty material. It’s one of a few different tools that can be used to sharpen knives, and in our opinion, it’s the best. It’s a manual method, so you can control exactly how much your blade is sharpened and at what angle, which is very important.

Essentially, you position the blade of the knife at the desired angle (which is different for different types of knives), and gently but firmly pull it back and forth against the whetstone. What you’re doing is removing small bits of the blade which results in it becoming sharper.

If you want to up your game even more, you should consider a full whetstone kit. This will include, among other things, stones with varying degrees of grit, so you can start with the most coarse grit and end on the finest – this is the most effective way to sharpen a knife while looking after it too.

Honing Rod

Honing rods are an essential component of knife care, but people do tend to mix up what they are and exactly what they should be used for. So, if you’re not 100% certain, stick around and we’ll give you the lowdown.

As we said, a honing rod is part of the knife sharpening process, but that it doesn’t mean it’s what you use to do the actual sharpening. Honing is a far more subtle process – ideally, it should be done after you’ve sharpened your knife, with a whetstone, an electric sharpener, or any other kind of manual sharpener. What a honing rod actually does is it realigns the knife and keeps the edge of blade straight.

So, the idea is that once you’ve sharpened your knife, you’re supposed to use the honing rod to realign and straighten the edge. Having an aligned and straightened blade edge will help the blade last longer and maintain its quality.

The other thing you can use a honing rod for is just maintaining your knife over time. While you don’t need to (and shouldn’t) sharpen your knife too regularly – because then it won’t last very long – you can still hone it fairly regularly. If you do that, you won’t actually need to sharpen it that often, and your knives will last longer.

The process of honing a knife is pretty similar to sharpening it – moving the blade back and forth against the rod at a predetermined angle.

Carving Sets

If you’re going to take the time and effort to cook and prepare a delicious roast, the one thing you want to be able to do properly is carve. Since carving can be a bit of a difficult process, having a god carving knife is always helpful, but having a full carving set is even better.

So, what does a carving set include? The basic components of a carving set are a carving knife and a carving fork. You use the fork to hold the meat in place while you use the carving knife to carve beautiful slices of meat. If you really want the full monty, you could invest in an extensive carving set that includes carving knives and forks of a variety of sizes. That way, you’ll have the perfect sized tools for whatever you’re carving – whether it’s a small chicken or a massive turkey.

Carving Fork

The best way to carve properly is with the proper tools, and a carving fork is essential – its size allows you to properly hold the meat in place without damaging it.

Best of all, carving forks come in different sizes. You don’t necessarily have to have a specifically sized carving fork for particular types of meat, but if you do have the luxury of being able to choose, it certainly helps to for instance, have a smaller one for a little chicken or gammon and a longer one for something large like a turkey.

Kitchen Shears

Kitchen shears, otherwise referred to as kitchen scissors, are a super handy tool to have in your kitchen, and to be honest, we think they’re pretty essential. You can use them for just about anything – trimming herbs, cutting fresh pasta, trimming fat, cutting pizza, you name it.

What’s the difference between ordinary scissors and kitchen shears? Well, the latter are stronger and sharper, and they have a pivot point that allows you to separate the two blades for easier cleaning. Their blades are also often serrated, which can be helpful with certain types of food.

Magnetic Knife Holder

We always advise against storing knives in drawers or anywhere else where the blades of your knives may knock or bump against each other. So, what are the alternatives? Well, there are a few, but magnetic knife holders are a trusty favorite – especially if you’re wanting something that can be both practical and aesthetically pleasing in your kitchen.

A magnetic knife holder will sit on the wall of your kitchen, above the countertop, and your knives will hang from it by means of the magnet and the blade. Not only does it look cool, but your knives will be protected and super accessible.

Knife Block

Another great option for storing your knives, other than in a drawer (a big no-no) or on a magnetic knife holder, is in a knife block. A knife block is basically a large wood en block with different sized holes in it for different sized knives. You simply stick the knife in, blade first, and all you can see is the handle. The knife will be protected from bumping and bashing, and the wood is generally quite nice and gentle on the blade.

Knife Oil

Taking proper care of your knives is so important, especially if you’re spending a lot of money or high-quality knives. Apart from how you wash them and store them, you also need to know how to maintain them, and knife oil is essential. It allows you to take care of both the blade and the handle by sealing the materials off, preventing corrosion, and maintaining the sharpness of the blade. By regularly oiling your knives, you’ll increase their lifespan dramatically.

Cutting Boards

If you do a fair amount of cooking, you’re going to need to invest in some decent cutting boards – not only because it’s a good surface for preparing food, but because having the right cutting boards to use well help you look after and maintain your knives and their blades. Hard materials, like glass or even your countertops, will cause your blades to become blunt and possible damaged, while rubber and plastic are more gentle, but the boards get cut and damaged more easily, making them a little less sanitary.

Wooden cutting boards are generally considered the best option because they’re gentle on blades, they repair themselves, they’re cleaner, and they’re the most aesthetically pleasing.

At the Bamboo Guy, we have a great, broad selection of cutting boards, so browse our collection and make your choice.

Wood Care Accessories

Just like you need to protect your knives, both blades and handles, it’s imperative that you look after your wooden cutting boards and wooden knife handles using wood care accessories.

We provide a selection of wood oils and waxes so that you can easily treat and maintain your cutting boards yourself, lengthening their lifespan and ensuring that they’re protected and as sanitary as possible.

Garlic Press

Say goodbye to spending hours upon hours chopping up garlic manually when you treat yourself to a garlic press. All you have to do is peel the cloves of garlic, pop in them in the press, squeeze, and voila! Freshly pressed garlic in a matter of seconds.

Best of all, it’s relatively small so it won’t take up space, it’s easy to use, and easy to clean.

Lemon Juicer

Much like a garlic press, a lemon juicer is all about your life easier and making the process more effective. With a lemon juicer, you don’t need to spend your energy squeezing the life out of lemons (because, isn’t life supposed to give you lemons?) – a lemon juicer will do it for you, way quicker and more effectively. Just pop it in, close it up, and squeeze, and you’ll get more lemon juice out of a lemon than you ever would’ve manually!

Jar Opener

No more wasting time putting elbow grease into opening jars – or sheepishly asking a neighbor for help – when you have a jar opener. With this nifty tool, you’ll be able to open absolutely any jar, no matter how tight, within a few seconds. It’s a game changer, especially if you have small hands or aren’t blessed with oodles of upper body strength!