The kitchen is a wild room in our living spaces. You can get creative, use sharp utensils, and ignite heat. And we allow anyone people to take full control over these things as a teen and grow from there. It’s totally normal to be confused or intimated. But let’s start breaking down some of those nerves.
- Gas vs Electric Stove
- If you don’t already know which you have, a clear way to identify them is to see if your stove has the rings or a place for a flame to appear. If you see the rings, you have an electric stove and flame identifies a gas stove. With an electric stove, you rely on your electricity to slowly heat up each burner. They can be safer as they don’t have an open flame, but it also takes a longer time to heat up or cool down. So, be conscious of that when you are cooking. If something starts to get too hot, turn it down immediately, as it takes a longer time to descend to a cooler temperature. Gas, on the other end relies on a gas source of heat to build the flame. So, if your power goes out, you can turn the gas on for a moment and use a match to ignite that initial flame. This can clearly be a bit more dangerous as you’re working with an open flame. The more favorable part of a gas stove is your ability to immediately change the level of heat. Rather than waiting for it to slowly heat up or cool down, the flame allows you the liberty to quickly scale up or turn the heat.
- What are all of these oven settings?!
- Okay, so now we’re looking below the stove top to see our oven. Depending on how new your oven is you may see different options. However, bake, roast, and broil are standard. When you set the oven to Bake, expect a consistent medium heat to cook food evenly. When roasting, expect high heat for quick browning, and then a lower heat that finishes cooking thoroughly. Finally, broiling only uses the top element, so it cooks and food quickly, similar to grilling. Then, you have the term “convection” in front of some of these options. Convection allows the heat to rotate evenly throughout the cooking process, where otherwise it may stay stagnant.
- Broiling
- This one gets a full bullet because it can be dangerous if you don’t broil correctly. First, ensure that you’ve moved your rack to the top to reach the optimum heat. Because the heat uses the top element and cooks very quickly, it can turn from crispy to fire when the high heat gets trapped. While newer ovens have the updated technology to reroute that high heat, keep your oven door open slightly. This will allow the heat to escape and reduce small kitchen fires. If your oven has the updated technology, it will likely tell you to close your oven door. That would be the only time that I would suggest you do so.
- Mandolin
- The mandolin is my favorite way to get thin and even slices when making my cheesy potatoes! It is a sloped board that has a v-shaped blade. It should come with a pronged handle or gloves for safety — USE THEM! I thought I was tooooo skilled to need them my first time. And then I got cut and it really hurt. Moral of the story is to use the protective pieces that come with the board. You can adjust for thickness and it’s a great and quick way to get uniform slices!
Hopefully with these 4 kitchen items tips, you can walk confidently into your kitchen and take on your next meal. You can take ownership of your kitchen without intimidation. Once that initial barrier has been broken, you can focus on exploring new foods and sharing them with your loved ones (….or eat them yourself).