Five Essential Tools for Your Kitchen

Kitchens are equipped with the necessary appliances for cooking and cleaning: refrigerator, stovetop and oven, sink, and dishwasher. In contemporary kitchens, the microwave is just as important as the oven. But cooks require more tools to create their gastric masterpieces. Each one has a bit of history, and over the years have become as essential to the kitchen as appliances and running water.

Stand Mixer
The stand mixer is a device that holds a large mixing bowl in place while the dough or batter is mixed by an automated beater. The cook adds the ingredients to the bowl, sets the speed and the mixer does the work. Invented in 1908, the first mixers were designed for commercial bakers and distributed by Hobart Manufacturing Company. By 1919, stand mixers had been modified for use by home cooks, and Hobart Manufacturing had taken on the name KitchenAid.

Stand mixers still perform the same basic function, allowing home cooks to mix, whip or beat faster and more efficiently than by hand.

Blender
Like the stand mixer, the blender has its roots in commercial applications. Invented in 1922 by Stephen Poplawski, an inventor in Racine, Wisconsin, the blender was used in soda fountains to blend malteds. Eventually, other uses came to light, such as liquefying fruits and vegetables and the blender became the precursor to the food processor and the hand-held immersion blender.

Today's high-powered blenders still allow the home cook to whip up malteds, but it's also used for smoothies, marguerites and for liquefying veggies for cream soups.

Immersion Blender
The immersion blender is a blender on a stick. The blades, rather than fixed to the bottom of a container, are fixed on the end of a hand-held cylinder that houses the motor. The cook can then take the appliance to the food. Invented in Switzerland in the 1950s, the immersion blender didn't come into home use until the 1980s and 1990s.

Food Processor
The primary difference between a food processor and a blender is a blender is designed to work with liquids while the food processor is designed to chop or slice without turning the contents to liquid, or puree without additional moisture added to the food.

Also rooted in commercial application, the food processor was first conceived in 1960 by Pierre Vurdun, a salesman for a French catering company. His first brainchild was the Robot Coupe, which evolved to the Magimix.

Carl Sontheimer, an American engineer, spotted the device at a trade show in Europe in 1971. Sontheimer created Cuisinart, and once the food processor was in the hands of such notables as Julia Child and James Beard, the food processor became an essential tool in the home kitchen.

Cast Iron Skillet

No matter what other type of cookware you may have in your kitchen, you should have at least one cast iron skillet. It may not be a high-tech gadget, but when it comes to searing food and then braising it in the oven, nothing beats an iron skillet.

Cast iron was first made into cookware sometime in the 6th century B.C. in China, and seen in England in the 12th century A.D. in Britain. By the 1800s, cast iron cookware was common throughout Europe and America. In today's kitchen, cast iron is as essential as any plug-in appliance and lasts years longer.

Resources:
Idea Finder
The Cook's Den
The History Of
Holiday Cook

Further Reading:
Tips for Making Low-fat Stew
Good Luck Foods to Serve for New Year's Celebrations
A Guide to Environmentally Friendly Kitchen Flooring