What Are The Best And Most Unusual Cooking Accessories

I have been pondering cooking accessories for a while. I’ve been particularly curious about what makes a great one versus the ones that clutter my kitchen and gather dust. 

I am sure you know what I’m talking about. I have kitchen utensils that are never off the draining board as I use them for every meal. And then there are the sad accessories, the ones that I was so sure would change the way I cook and revolutionise my habits. We all have one of those and I have more than a few but here’s one, the utterly useless flavour shaker. I could write you a long form poem about dusty cooking accessories. But fear not, instead I’ll blog about the ones that will help you in the kitchen. 

I’ve a love hate relationship with kitchen gadgets. Mainly I love them, I just hate how much space they take. I would love nothing more than to tranform the downstairs of my house in just one large kitchen full of cooking accessories. Pure bliss. 

As I was thinking about writing this post for a while, I have been paying closer attention to my go to moves in the kitchen? What do I use regularly? What do I use infrequently? And what do I stumble across hiding behind a large pot once every few months, but that I’ve never used? There are plenty of all of the above. 

But this isn’t about me and so I went to my happy place  and a couple of other Facebook groups to see whether I could learn a thing or two. The results were very interesting. There were clear front runners and then some mighty surprises.

Instead of giving you my top 3 (which you can see in the photo at the top of the page), I am going to talk to you about the 3 most popular cooking accessories amongst my friends and acquaintances far and wide. Answers came from all corners of the globe (as if a globe could have corners) and from a fairly varied bunch of folks.

Knives

You use them every day. They are essential in most cooking techniques and yet we treat them so poorly. A sharp knife is a thing of beauty, it slices through so many different structures and textures and so it needs looking after. It was no suprise that the majority of responses I got was about knives. Be it your one trusted friend or a whole set of sharp tools, they make the difference between making cooking a pleasure or a chore.

Frying Pan 

This one took me by surprise. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love a good non stick frying pan, but I replace regularly. I’ve never been too attached to any particular pan. But it was mentioned a fair few times. Apparently lava stones frying pans are what you want. I know they are a fairly big deal in France but I’ve never seen them here. Do you have one? And if so, would you recommend it?

Silicone Tongues 

I’d never really paid these much attention until I started my research for this post. And as it happens, they were the clear winner. I had used silicone spatulas and silicone cake molds but never the tongues. So off I went to purchase a pair, and right enough, they are the business. They won’t scrape a pan but will get all the wee bits unstuck from the bottom. They’re easy to wash and very good value. 

Good To Know

Other mentions were spice grinders, pestle and mortar, egg separator, spatulas, graters, blenders, garlic presses, chopping boards, knife sharpeners and the very scary Mandolin slicer. 

To make this a bit more fun, I asked everyone to send me a selfie with their favourite cooking accessories. 

Thank you ever so much for playing along to Melanie May , Sinead Fox, Alecksy Nuisance, Conor Farrell, Louise O’Neill, Jolene Cox, Gaia Fox, Doll Kinsella, Niamh Ni Chonchubhair, Paul Reynolds, Donna Hennessy, Nicola Halloran, Conor Bofin,  Fanch Ar Moenner, Laura Anne Bradley, Rory Carrick and Marian O’Muilleor. Yissers are ledgebags.