The right kitchenware, tools, and equipment can significantly ease a homemaker’s workload. This includes utensils for preparing vegetables, meat, and fish.
Potatoes are best peeled with a short-bladed knife that has a sharp tip. However, using a specialized vegetable peeler with a curved blade is preferable, as it allows for removing a thin layer of skin from potatoes and beets. Cabbage is shredded on a special cutting board designed for that purpose. Vegetables can be chopped into various shapes and sizes using graters. For handling meat and fish, it’s essential to have kitchen knives with wooden handles and long blades. A cleaver and a specialized fish-cleaning knife can greatly speed up the process; the upper blade is used to cut the fish, while the lower one is for cleaning it.
Meat is tenderized with a wooden mallet or a meat pounder. For grinding meat and fish, a combination meat grinder is useful, which can also be used for grinding breadcrumbs, coffee, or a set of different choppers. It’s also necessary to have separate cutting boards for meat, herring, and dough products. When making various purees, special whisks and different straining tools are used.
For baking, you need a fine sieve, a board, a rolling pin, and wooden spatulas of various sizes. Combination machines make whipping eggs, creams, and mousses easier. To cut cookie dough, you should have various cookie cutters. Noodles are sliced with a noodle cutter. A mortar and pestle for grinding spices is also essential.
Cookware and Utensils for Boiling, Stewing, and Cooking.
For boiling, you need pots of various sizes made of aluminum, enamel, or stainless steel, with capacities of 1, 2, 4, and 6 liters. To steam vegetables (which enhances their flavor), special racks are required that fit into the pot with water. In this case, vegetables are boiled with the lid closed. When making broths and soups, foam is skimmed off with a slotted spoon. First courses are served with a ladle. Water is drained using a colander, while liquids are strained through a sieve.
For stewing, you need shallow pots (sauté pans) and roasting pans. Sauté pans are better for stewing because they create steam more quickly between the ingredients and the lid. For frying, you need frying pans of various sizes—cast iron, iron, and aluminum (3-4 pieces)—as well as baking sheets. For baking, you need metal sheets with high and low edges, various molds for cakes and puddings, and a “miracle pot” for dough products, which consists of three parts: a stand, a pot, and a lid.
Care for Kitchen Equipment and Cookware.
Immediately after use, meat grinders, graters, cutting boards, knives, colanders, slotted spoons, and other utensils should be cleaned of food residues, washed thoroughly in hot water, and dried. Kitchenware should be cleared of food remnants, scrubbed with a brush or sponge in hot water with soap or soda, rinsed in hot water, and dried well by placing them upright on drying racks. Using specialized dish cleaners can make the cleaning process easier and faster.
Knives and forks should first be cleaned with sandpaper, fine sand, or crushed brick, then rinsed in clean hot water and dried with a towel. The sand should be replaced every 2-3 weeks. To eliminate onion odors from knives, wipe them with dry salt. Rust can be removed from knives and forks using wax and salt. For this, a piece of wax is wrapped in a piece of cloth and rubbed on the heated knife or fork until a thin layer of wax appears. Then, fine salt is sprinkled on a second piece of cloth, and the wax is wiped off with it, taking the rust along with it.
To prevent rust from forming on cast iron and iron frying pans, they should be greased with any fat and stored in a dry place. Before use, sprinkle a layer of salt about 1 cm thick in the pan, heat it well over the fire, and wipe it with paper. Plates and dishes should be washed in warm water (95-104°F) with soda or soap, rinsed in hot water, dried with a clean towel, and air-dried by placing them upright on drying racks. Glasses should also be washed in warm water with soda or soap.
Glassware that has been in contact with raw water for an extended period can develop mineral deposits. To clean these deposits, weak acid solutions (10%) are used. Additionally, these deposits can be removed mechanically. For this, a handful of cherry pits is placed in a glass container, half a glass of water and several teaspoons of vinegar are added, and the mixture is shaken well until the sediment disappears from the bottom and walls of the vessel. If cherry pits are unavailable, finely chopped potato peels can be used.
Knives need to be sharpened frequently. For this, it is recommended to soak them in a weak salt solution (half a teaspoon of salt per large cup or glass of water) for 30 minutes, then run the blade several times over a sharpening stone. Knives can also be quickly sharpened using a knife sharpener.
Care for Stoves and Heating Appliances.
When preparing dishes, grease can splatter onto the stove, milk can boil over, and borscht or soup can spill. This dirties the stove, and when it heats up, the food residues can burn, producing acrid smoke. Therefore, the stove should always be kept in pristine condition. Cast iron stoves can be cleaned with a water solution of hydrochloric acid (1 teaspoon of acid per 5 liters of water).
The stove should be rinsed while still warm, allowed to sit for a few minutes, and then washed with water mixed with soda, soap, and sand. The burner and lid of a gas stove should be periodically rinsed with a weak solution of soda or warm soapy water. The nozzle should be cleaned with a toothpick.
The drip tray under the burners should be washed with warm soapy water and dried thoroughly. All parts of the oven should also be periodically washed in warm soapy water.
Special attention should be paid to the primus stove, as careless handling can lead to accidents. Do not fill the primus tank with kerosene more than three-quarters full. The nozzle should be cleaned before igniting the primus. To prevent the primus tank from overheating, place a damp cloth on top.
The primus should always be kept clean. It is best to clean it with newspaper and ash, then wipe it dry with paper. A round brush should be used for cleaning.
The care for kerosene stoves is similar to that of the primus.
A samovar can be cleaned of scale using potato peels, which are placed in the samovar with water and boiled. If this does not remove the scale, a water solution of hydrochloric acid (1 teaspoon of acid per 8 liters of water) should be added and brought to a boil. After this, the samovar should be thoroughly rinsed.