America’s Test Kitchen has a bunch of reviews for different categories. I saw someone post a comment about trying all the top recommendations in every category during the pandemic.

Swiss Classic Tomato and Table Knife That I use as a “sandwich knife” every day for slicing buns or baguettes, butter, anything you’d put on toast or a sandwich gets cut with this knife. I use it over any specialized bread or tomato knife.

Silicone spatula, instant read digital probe thermometer, and a Le Creuset dutch oven/pot.

We have an electric stove and even our good quality pans tend to bow at the bottom a little and reduce even contact with the stove surface. The Creuset lays flat every time, the thicker construction heats more evenly, has high sides to catch spatter from boiling or searing. Instant read thermometers are a game changer for the proper cooking of foods. No overcooking, the correct donness can be checked quickly. It’s a must-have to properly cook food from proteins to bread to custard. The silicone spatula is flexible yet sturdy enough to scrape, fold, or even flip, cleans quickly and easily, and the heat resistance is great.

Tongs, obviously.

click, click

Multi-cooker. Mine’s an instant pot but there are many like it. I made sure to get a stainless steel pan because I knew I’d be abusing it.

Batch cook 8 portions at a time. Portion them up into 4 jars (I use wecks) of 2, 3 in the freezer and 1 to eat that day. We just started bulk mashing potatoes to freeze, re-heat then add dairy for 5 minute carbs. My freezer is full of butter chicken, beef stew and squash soup right now. Chilled ingredients come in, are processed and cooked into meals that day, and then set to freeze.

Rice is good enough. It’ll ferment doughs on cold days. Make’s yoghurt, I used to make it directly in the jars. Stocks are effortless, again frozen immediately in an ice cube tray. Steam veggies. Confit meat works incredibly.

Close second is the air fryer, i’d replace either in a heartbeat. But if I were to start again i’d get an IP immediately after kitchen basics.

Next time, take it one step further lol:

I don’t think I have a favourite, but I’m definitely with you - when it comes to food prep I’ll always choose an item that is one solid piece over one that has joins (and other unnecessary grooves and crevices, or that is porous) where crap accumulates and is hard or even impossible to remove.

I have several silicon spatulas and absolutely love them. Still have some wooden spoons around though, to help break up things that the silicone is too soft for. An example is heating frozen chili on the stove top, using a wooden spoon to break up the frozen bits as they thaw. However, the silicone spatulas are far more versatile. Plus you can scrap every last drop of sauce out of a pan with them.

Longer tongs. I have a gas top stove and using shorter handled tongs can get uncomfortable if I’m cooking something for a long period of time.

Flat strainer. Essentially a spider, except the mesh is the same as a fine mesh strainer. This was a purchase that my wife made that I thought was totally useless and indeed, it sat in the drawer for months. Until I needed just one more strainer, as all the others were used already. Turned out that it is very useful and easier to use than a full strainer in a lot of circumstances. It also doubles as a spider and it is really great at cleaning up hot oil in between batches.

Spray bottle with 50/50 white vinegar and water. Great for cleaning and disinfecting the counter top, also spray it on my cutting boards after washing them to keep them from smelling like what I last cut on them.

Lastly, a really good set of thermometers. I love the Thermoworks thermometers and have the Dot, Thermopen IR, and the 4 probe Smoke for BBQ. Along with multiple types of probes for various applications. They were expensive, but have proven themselves time and time again.

Lastly my absolute favorite kitchen item and by far the most expensive is my Wolf DF304 stove. I found one on Craigslist several years ago that was being sold by a couple who were retiring and did not want to move it to their new condo. It’s a heavy SOB. So I bought it for a song and it really is a serious cooking tool. It is by far the most even cooking oven and the stove top is extremely flexible. It also is standing up to me cooking on it every single day. A lot of people buy Wolf/Sub Zero products as a status item, which is a crying shame. They are well built, they are designed to be used in a commercial kitchen, and they cook spectacularly well.

What’s your favorite kitchen utilities?

Probably electricity.

microplane (much, much more than a “zester”) - relatively under-known, but a true godsend

edited: added ‘uses’ image

Use all the time:

silicon spatula

strainer spoon

ss measuring cups with little pour spouts - The things are so solid they could probably stop a bullet. lol

ss rectangular measuring spoons - Don’t get round ones, get rectangular ones, that way they actually fit into the mouths of spice bottles.

Less used but glad I have them:

thermopen - It greatly improved my meat cooking. no more guesswork

zester - I have a zester that goes on a finger and you palm it. works great and holds the shavings in a plastic cup until you pop it off and empty it. I’ve never found one that works as nicely as this.

box grater - I’ve ignored this for too long and I’m realizing it is better than 99% of the gizmos out there for cheese and such.

Wooden kitchen utensils.

I have a can opener that cuts through the sides of the can instead of the top, so you can just pull off the entire top of the can without cutting yourself with a sharp edge. Makes me feel more sophisticated.

Definitely stainless steel pans! They take a bit to get used to, but they’re so much more convenient because you don’t have to baby them like teflon pans. Cleaning is also much easier, I just scrape them down with a metal spatula and throw them in the dishwasher.

Whetstone for keeping blades sharp. Makes everything so much quicker and safer (dulled blades slip).

Or perhaps a ceramic coated cast iron pot and lid. You can practically cook any meal in the thing, switch it in and out of the oven, put it on the burners, fry in it, deglaze and make a quick sauce with the caramelisation on it. Chefkiss.

Also I think you meant *utensil

We’ve been getting insane mileage out of our rice cooker since we bought it back in May. It gets use almost daily, if not for rice but for oatmeal in the morning.

It’s a 3 “cup” Toshiba rice cooker (as in the cup that came with the rice cooker which seems to be 3/4 of a US customary measurement cup) and has all sorts of fancy cooking modes.

1c steel cut oats

2-3 cinnamon sticks

1/4 tsp each of ground ginger, cardamom, and allspice

1/8ish tsp ground clove (that stuff is so freaking pungent)

Some fresh ground nutmeg

1/2c raisins

1/4c ish of brown sugar

A good knob of butter

Steel cut oats go with around a 4:1 ratio of liquid to oats, so I usually do 2c of milk and fill it to the 0.5 line on the porridge scale written on the cooking liner. Takes a full hour and a half, but is worth the wait.

And it makes cake. The mother fucker makes CAKE! Love it so much I gifted one to my parents for Christmas.

For standard utensils, silicone spatulas are great, but I recently discovered this thing that is basically a silicone spatula in the shape of a butter knife. AMAZING!