tricks

Knife Sharpener This is literally the greatest knife sharpener ever in terms of ease of use and it actually making an edge! It does mark the sides of your knives, but I’ll take that trade-off for excellent results. Dull knives are dangerous and simply are horrible to use even if you don’t injure yourself in the process. Work Sharp Knife & Tool Sharpener from DAREX on Vimeo. Link to the manufacturer’s site.

Great for sous vide Sous vide was my primary driver for getting one initially. However, it helped in general with the ability to buy in bulk from Costco for any cooking methods. Sous vide, smoking, pressure cooking, etc. Who doesn’t want quality meat at great prices? I bought one that rotates up for storage (FoodSaver model V2866). Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is made anymore.

Bought these during one of Amazon’s Cyber Monday deals. They work good for me and can be used in an Instant Pot too. However, I stopped using the Instant Pot with them, because it is hard to dial in the doneness and it is way overkill to use a pressure cooking poached eggs anyways. Now, with the whole egg still in the shell pressure cookers are great for soft and hard boiled eggs.

Extra Pot Having an extra pot can greatly speed up the pressure cooking of multiple items for the same meal. I can even rationalize the need for having two Instant Pots! Just having the extra pot allows you to prep something else while the Instant Pot is cooking. Often meat is going to take a lot longer to cook, than vegetables. As a result, you end up cooking the meat first, then taking it out, etc.

Instant Read Thermometer Temperature is precious and over/under cooked food is a waste and dangerous. Everyone cooking needs an instant thermometer. After doing a bunch of research I decided on the ThermoWorks Thermapen brand even when they were still selling for $99 on sale. They have come down in price and I have some links below to cheaper options that are well reviewed on Amazon. Competitive knockoffs simply were not available years ago when I needed to get one.

Claws to shred meat easily These things are great! I used a blender a couple of times to make shredded chicken (you can Google it), but it makes a mess even in my largest mixing bowl. Little pieces always shoot all over the place. These claws are fast and easier to clean. I haven’t used my blender for shredding chicken in years now.

Silicone Gloves Being able to grab food directly off the grill or out of the Instant Pot saves a lot of time. Don’t go cheap on these! I bought my father a pair from Amazon that looked identical to these AYL ones, but when they arrived they were thinner and smaller. They ended up being unusable :( Claws to shred meat easily These things are great! I used a blender a couple of times to make shredded chicken (you can Google it), but it makes a mess even in my largest mixing bowl.

Plastic Sous Vide Container I personally used a metal pot for a while, but finally broke down and bought one of these to make my setup more efficient. Metal simply transfers heat, so the sous vide machine has to do more heating as a result.

No fighting to keep the bag open while attempting to fill it with food Worth it. Especially, if you are buying in bulk from somewhere like Costco like I do. They fold up to be compact too.

Cast Iron For Searing Bought two cast iron skillets to sear. These both are made by Lodge and heavy. I seasoned them three times at 400 degrees for an hour each time.