From Scratch: Building a solid working kitchen on a budget

If you’ve already read my post on my Kitchen Essentials, then you know the idea of what I’m going to be talking about here. I want to show you how to build a functional kitchen with as little equipment as we can manage, with room to add bells and whistles later of course, I do love my shiny things after all. In this post I will be acting as if I have nothing, and am moving into an apartment with no equipment there besides a fridge, microwave, cooker, and if you’re lucky, a dishwasher. Plates, bowls, cutlery, glasses, cups, kettle, and cleaning supplies will be excluded, as this is to focus solely on cooking. Now enough rambling, lets begin:

1. Pots and Pans:

   Much like I said in my Kitchen Essentials post, this isn’t about having everything, this is about having the least amount of equipment that you can do the most with. For that, I like a set of 3 saucepans, ovenproof, and with lids. I also like to have 2 medium frying pans, one non stick, one stainless steel, and one large non stick frying pan. With these you can cook almost anything, from Sauces, Steak Dinners, Full Irish, Pancakes and anything else you can think of.

2. Blenders:

   There are two pieces of equipment in this section: A standard Jug Blender, and an Immersion Blender. I think both are necessary as they both do different things, for example, if you make a soup and can’t wait for it to cool down, the Immersion Blender is your best friend, but for making Smoothies, or Sauces, you can’t beat the Jug Blender. They are also both useful in the Pastry side of things, as you will see in various recipes throughout this website.

3. Stand Mixer:

   Again, an important piece of equipment, but it doesn’t have to break the bank, and you can even save a little space and money by buying one that has a Blender Jug attachment. If funds are really tight and you desperately want to do some baking I would recommend one of the hand mixer attachment stands, they aren’t pretty, and they don’t have the same power as most stand mixers, but they get the job done with no complaints.

4. Utensils:

   Okay this is going to be a long section. This focuses solely on cooking utensils, as stated above, so any cutlery or anything is going to be omitted. I think the easiest way is to divide it into sections that we can tackle together, one by one. First up to bat is Knives.

   For Knives I recommend:

   A standard Chefs Knife

   A Paring Knife

   A Cleaver

   A Fish Knife

   A Boning Knife.

   With these 5 knives there isn’t a task in any kitchen you can’t tackle.

   Next up is the actual cooking tools:

   Silicone Spatulas

   Good Kitchen Tongs, a few pairs

   One Plastic Whisk and one Steel Whisk

   A Good Can Opener

   A Ladle

   A Medium and Large Sieve

   A Fish Slice

   A Vegetable Peeler (I like Y style)

   A digital weighing scales.

   Just a few items, and that’s more than enough to get you started with any cooking you might want to do. With these you are set up to cook a variety of dishes, from many cooking styles, with no want for anything.

5. Baking Sheets and Tins:

   I recommend 2 standard size Roasting Dishes, 1 Cookie Sheet, 2 Loaf Tins, and 1 Cupcake Tray, as well as a Wire Cooling Rack. With these you can make cupcakes, bread, any roast dinner you could want, cookies, loaf cakes, and a multitude more. Obviously there are a variety of cake tins, silicone moulds, and pastry rings that you can bulk out your collection with, but to get you started, this list allows you to make the largest amount with the lowest amount of equipment.

6. Cutting Boards:

   I will always recommend Wooden Cutting Boards, just two will get you started as long as you clean them properly. Take care of them and they will take care of you, in terms of any needs you have of your cutting board.

7. Storage Containers:

   Storage containers are the backbone of any kitchen, you can never have enough. To get you started I would suggest plastic Chinese Takeaway Containers, as well as Large Ice Cream Containers. If you don’t want to pay for a full box then what I did was go to my local Smoothie Shops, and ask for any containers they were throwing away, which usually gave me a good haul of 4 litre Ice Cream containers. I would also ask my local Chinese Restaurant if they would be willing to sell some plastic containers, which more often than not they are willing to part with a few, which is perfect for getting you started.

I do think this list is the highest rate of usefulness for the lowest amount of equipment, and there’s a small enough amount that you should be able to fit it in the smallest of kitchens. While very pared down, it should be more than enough for most basic dishes, and is a good foundation to build on.