For Food Preparation and Dishwashing
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r 4^ 3 ¿4 i :2- / f^g*'Ä^* TOOLS for food preparation and dishwashing ^ ..^ei?*" •^ it (*•.«''• v» :v • ■> . Home aiid Garden Biilletm No. 3 Ü. S. Depariraent oí Agrkuííiire Tools for food preparation and dishwashing Any kitchen needs dozens of tools and utensils to serve a variety of purposes from paring vegetables to dishwashing. Though the work that any one of these tools does may be small, the sum total of all the jobs is a large share of the kitchen work. A homemaker will find it well worth her while to consider carefully what tools she needs and to buy the ones that will serve her best. In the following pages various kinds of tools and small utensils on the market are discussed and, wherever possible, guides to judging quality are also given. Some general pointers In general, double-use tools are the best investment. Special-purpose gadgets, unless frequentlv used, can clutter up the kitchen unnecessarily. There are a few items in such constant use that it saves both time and steps to have duplicates in different parts of the kitchen. This is especially true of paring knives and spoons used for stirring and tasting. When choosing tools and utensils of metal, think of the amount of use they will get. For those that will be used hard, choose durable metals— stainless steel, heavily tinned steel, or aluminum that is fairly thick or reinforced to resist bending. For tools you use only occasionally, light tin plate or lightweight aluminum may be perfectly satisfactory. Alumi- num, unless it has a special stain-resisting finish, tends to leave marks on some other materials. Look for this finish when buying aluminum mixing bowls, stirring tools, colanders, dishpans, or sink strainers. Enameledware, because of its smooth, hard surface, is good for some food preparation and dishwashing utensils. An acid-resisting enamel is best. Glass used in measures and mixing bowls should be of the heat-resisting type. For refrigerator dishes (at least for their covers) and for measures, transparent glass is a good choice—it lets you see the contents. Mixing bowls may be as colorful as you like. To give good service, rubber or synthetic rubber in kitchen tools should be resistant to grease and not easily damaged by heat. That used in sink mats and scrapers should be rather flexible. Hard rubber, which is rigid, is used for cutlery handles. , Plastics are coining into wider use in small utensils and handles. Their clear, bright colors are verv attractive. Plastics are xisually smoothlv molded and so are easy to keep clean. Watch out for any design that does have dirt-catching crevices or creases, or sharp edges that cut into the hand. Transparent plastics are good for food storage containers because you can see what is in them. When buying plastic pieces, read the label to find out what temperature the material will stand. Some plastics can take boiling or near boiling temperatures; some can't. Painted or varnished finishes on handles of tools often do not wear well. Frequent washing will cause a poor finish to peel off and when it is gone the wood roughens. Some finishes soften in water and stain every- thing they touch. A very durable material for handles is the new resin- bonded or plastic-treated wood. However, it is a good precaution to avoid soaking an)^ wooden handle. The handle design of kitchen tools is important, especially in a tool that has to be held with a firm grasp. When selecting a tool, hold it as you would when using it and, without gripping it too tightly, notice whether it feels secure. Be sure the handle is comfortable to grasp and won't slip or turn too easily. For tools to be used at the range, handles of material that will stay cool—wood or plastic rather than metal—are a convenience. However, such handles will scorch or burn, so you must be careful to keep them away from the flame or heating unit. Some kitchen tools, especially the more expensive ones, have labels with information about materials and workmanship that will help you in making your selection. Be sure to look for such labels and to read all the information they contain. When you select a kitchen tool, try holding it as you would when using it to be sure the handle is comfortable to grasp. Tools for food preparation Most tools for handling and preparing food are used and washed repeatedly. So look for features that contribute to ease of handling and cleaning and resistance to damage from water. Look, too, for sturdy construction—parts well joined and finished, moving parts that operate smoothly. Cutlery There is no kitchen tool that will give its user greater satisfaction than a good knife—and nothing more exasperating than a poor one. A few well-chosen, good-quality, and well-cared for knives will do far more for you than a large set of poor ones. To do all the many cutting jobs in a kitchen, you will need a number of different knives and other sharp-edged tools. There is a wide variety to choose from, each type designed for special kinds of work. • Paring knives. Blades of paring knives are shaped in different ways. Some are straight along the cutting edge, some curved. They differ in length, shape of curve, and angle of point. Women have very decided preferences as to blade shapes. Since paring knives are in such constant use in a kitchen, it is worth your while to try to find the ones you can use most easily. You may prefer different types for different purposes. Be particular about the handle of a paring knife. One that you have to grip tightly can be very tiring when you use the knife for a long job. • Peelers and fruif knives. The swivel-blade peeler has become very popular for fruit and vegetable paring because of the thinness of the paring removed and the speed with which it works. It comes in different styles—all inexpensive. The grapefruit knife is another special that is indispensable to some women. Its blade is curved to cut close to the skin of a grapefruit or orange half, and double-edged so that either side may be used for cutting. The blade may be saw-toothed or plain. • Utility knife. The utifity knife is especially good for such jobs as shcing tomatoes and fruit and for boning chicken. It has a slender blade about 5 inches long and is between a paring knife and a slicer in size. Knives of this type are sold also in sets as steak knives for table use. • Slicers and carvers. There are scxcral kind» of oliciug knives; all have rather slender blades that are often somewhat flexible. For general purposes, a blade 7 to 8 inches long is a good choice. It will slice most kinds of meat, carve chicken, cut sandwiches, slice bread. Its pointed tip is good for cutting around bones. A trimmer has a narrower blade— especially good for removing meat from bones. The carver is similar to the all-purpose slicer in shape and size, but it has a somewhat broader, heavier blade. It can be used for the same purposes as the slicer—some women prefer one, some the other. For large hams and beef roasts there are slicers with blades 10 to 12 inches long, rounded or squared at the end rather than pointed. These are designed for the long strokes needed to cut large, thin of meat. • Buicher knives and cleavers. Butcher knives and cleavers are sturdy heavv-duty tools. Butcher knives have broad, rigid blades from 6 to 8 inches long, with strong, blunt tips. They are needed for cutting up large pieces of meat at butchering time and are useful, too, for cutting large heads of cabbage, melons, and squashes. Cleavers are still heavier tools, used for hacking bones. The blade of a cleaver is thick and heavy. • French cook knife. The blade of a cook knife is almost straight along its cutting edge, slanting evenly from handle to point. In house- hold-size cook knives, blades are from 6 to 9 inches in length and vary in width. This type of knife is designed especially for use on a cutting board—for mincing vegetables, cutting through bundles of vegetables, cutting sandwiches. It can be used for carving, too. Kitchen cutlery; Shears,- bread, french cook, and butcher knives. Two spatulas,- cose knife and fork,- grapefruit knife,- swivel peeler. From top down: Tv/o slicers, trimmer, utility knife,- five paring knives. • Bread linifem If bread is Laked at home or purchased unsliced, a bread knife is a good investment. A sUcing knife will be dulled if used often for cutting bread. A bread knife with saw-toothed or scalloped edge slices fresh bread without crumbling it. • Case knife. A case knife is a dull-edged knife, more for spreading than for cutting. Use it for any purpose where a sharp cutting edge is not needed and so save your better knives. • SpatulaSi Spatulas are limber-bladed, dull-edged tools. Their flexibility makes them very useful for spreading sandwiches, icing cakes, and loosening baked or molded foods from pans. A general-purpose spatula may have a blade 6 to 8 inches long and 1 to 1% inches wide. A small spatula with a blade about 4 inches long and three-fourths inch wide is handy for loosening muihns from their pans, for reaching into narrow-mouthed jars, and for putting the finishing touches on cake frostings.