Outfitting the Kitchen - Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project - 7/8/2014
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Adam, Norm, and Will discuss their approaches to outfitting a kitchen, including the kitchen tools they consider essential, their least favorite tools, and kitchen gadgets they consider guilty secrets.
Cutting boards: Go to a plastic supply store (Adam must know a half dozen of them) and buy some food grade HDPE (high density polyethylene) block that's an inch and a half thick. Use a router to cut a groove maybe 3/4" in from the edge, to stop liquids from flowing over the edge. If you like you can also router the outside edges round. You now have a beautiful and easily cleaned cutting board that will last a hundred years.
I was at a signing a couple of years ago in London and Alan Moore was lovely. We had a little chat about his cameo in Stewart Lee's comedy vehicle. And before the actual signing, he and Kevin O'Neal had a walk down the massive queue outside the comic shop. Top man
Here's a good tip: When buying measuring spoons/cups do NOT purchase plastic. Buy stainless steel with stamped or engraved labels.
Measuring cups are not all made equal. A measuring cup can be labeled as 1 cup but refers to a level amount but some are labeled as 1 cup and refer to a heaping amount. With a stainless steel set you may never need to replace it and that will lead to more consistency in your recipes.
Alton Brown taught me to cook, I never learned from recipes I learned the way food interacts and started making things then started using recipes after that.
Regarding cook-ware; I have recently switched to Ceramic coated pots and pans, and they are worth their weight in gold, you CAN NOT get anything to stick to those things and they heat perfectly even.
on a side note, Ceramic knives are good too, they will cut through bone like it is nothing, only drawback are you can't sharpen them (they shatter) and they are fairly fragile...
I love to cook, and when we remodelled our kitchen, I treated myself to a full set of Japanese Global knives and the block,... of which, I really only use the big one. You can quickly tell the skill of someone in their kitchen, they either breeze through prep with a big knife, or struggle and make wonky cuts with a small one.
When we rent places for holidays, we often got to 'Forest Holidays' which are log cabins in the woods, nicely appointed, but the kitchen knives are basic. So I bought a 'Really Useful Box' and two Kuhn Rikon knives with sheaths, so they can be transported nice and safely.
One of my favourite gadgets is my slow cooker. I work from home, so can prep stuff at lunchtime, and then after work, when I've finished walking my dogs, I go into the kitchen, and it smells really nice, and dinner is ready. I love to slow cook chilli.
i just found Tested recently and im really loving it. thanks guys!
Former professional chef here...if you can get your hands on a copy of "Professional Cooking" by Wayne Gisslen, you won't be disappointed. The recipes have been tested by Le Cordon Bleu. It contains recipes, variations on said recipes, techniques, conversions, etc. It's the book that they teach the Culinary Arts program at one of the best cooking schools (no names mentioned...but I'm an alumni) in North America. If you get the book and hate it...I will film myself eating my copy of the book and post it on TH-cam haha.
That aside, I really love what you guys do! Keep it up!!!
Peace and love guys,
Alex
dont calibrate those cheap insta read thermometers in boiling water, boiling point varies on your altitude. Most restaurants i know of calibrate in ice water, freezing point never changes due to altitude (or at least the change is negligible)
I have a deep fryer that has only been used for frying once. The rest of the time it serves as my sous vide cooker. Most consumer grade sous vide systems only use a few hundred watts (maybe up 700W) but even a cheap deep fryer is well over 1KW. Add a $20 aquarium water pump and a $40 PID controller/SSR setup and you have a sub $100 sous vide system that will heat up in minutes and have
Again, I'd love to see Adam's coffee/espresso setup.
Is it intentional that the mic is always in front of Norm's head :)
that is to hide him while digging of for nose crumbs. especially on casts like this where he has nothing to say
Unintentional, I'm sure. But I noticed the same thing. Norm looks dazed at times during this episode. Still a cool, dude, Norm! Hang in there.
An episode about kitchen tools?! I knew I enjoyed Tested for a reason!
Ditch the wooden spoons and go buy some bamboo. It lasts five times as long and can actually survive going through a dishwasher without turning into a fuzzy mess. Seriously a million times better.
Two tools I find to be indispensable: Microplane box grater makes shredding things sooooo much easier. 2) A sturdy silicone spoonula. When I was a college student it was my only implement and worked for everything. Basically has replaced wooden spoons in my kitchen.
That spine lectern is freaking me out. I can't stop noticing it now.
+ZGryphon im more fascinated by the terminator with a straw boater hat lmao
+ZGryphon im more fascinated by the terminator with a straw boater hat lmao
hah! My dad had a lamp with similar spine design hanging from his ceiling. I spent my childhood falling asleep with that thing creeping me out in the dark room lit with the cold light from the outside street lamps (and not always in a scary way, but it was... tacky... disturbing).
...if anything this here spine thing seems nostalgic XD
Brazil lost today. This video saved my life...
Awesome Podcast. I'm not big into cooking but this gave me lots of good gift ideas for my wife. She loves to cook and bake (and I love to eat)!
When you finish using a pot or pan for cooking, fill it with water to keep the food remnants soft, and also soften any harder residue, when you get around to washing up, it takes little effort to clean it, this is specially useful for non-stick, you don't want to be using anything abrasive.
Had my Teflon frying pan for over 30 years, still works great
My pans are aluminium, and clean up easily, even if i slightly burn the food.
You should have a set of colour coded cutting boards, a different colour for cooked meat, fresh meat, vegetables, cheese etc to prevent cross contamination of bacteria and flavours.
Kitchen Blog! You guys need to do a kitchen blog. Nothing fancy, just some sort of accounting in regards to recipes, techniques, or odds and ends that you encounter in your day-to-day cooking lives. We all have to eat, and as people who enjoy making things and testing the limits of what we can do for ourselves, you (and this is an assumption on my part, most of us viewers) always enjoy learning about new techniques or recipes, or even just learning something as simple as a new cut of meat or a surprisingly available ingredient which has been overlooked.
Great Podcast! Being 10-15 minutes longer than usual really made the conversation seemed fleshed out, wide range of topics covered and in nice detail. If time allows these extra few minutes make a difference!
So you mention the film, the radio series and the books of HHGTTG, but you forgot about the TV series! Its so awesome and the animations of the guide are brilliantly done. Check it out.
My cutco vegetable peeler is my favorite and it has stayed sharp for years. As a chef, as much as I use it, that's amazing.
I have always liked The Joy of Cooking for a cookbook. Not only does it have good & simple recipes, but italso explains why the methods work.
I am going to try that tempura hotdog recipe.
Should do an episode upon essential shop accessories. How essential is a miter gauge for a table saw or router table?
I love my Le-cruset pots, frying pans etc. I use 2-3 knives and use the diamond chisel sharpeners to sharpen them. I am sad and collect colanders, but use the old enamel one that I picked up in an antique store for £1.00. As for a chopping board I use a 2 inch thick board. Mason mixing bowls with a flat side for when your mixing. We dont use CUP sizes here in the UK, I still use ounces so a good balance scales is my must (cant stand digital scales) But my favorite item is my 5inch cast iron skillet/omelette pan use it almost everyday. Oh and as much cleaning equipment you can fit in your kitchen.
To clean burned lasagna pans or dried fats on metal pans, fill it with the hottest water you can and add a dryer sheet or two to cover the bottom of the pan and leave i overnight. The mess with wash off easily the next morning.
you also forgot a jar opener,a hand - held plastic cutting board that folds up and slide chopped food into the pot, plastic food containers with lids ,strainer, muffin pan , bunt pan , pitcher, a nice set of Corning Ware dish set, a nice set of silver ware.
Wow, Thermapens are expensive in the US.. I have bought a load in the UK (mostly as gifts) and they cost me £28 to 56 each (much less than $100)
Cast iron skillet is the best thing I ever bought.
One of my favorite things in the kitchen: a carbon steel wok. They're cheap, and pretty fun and easy to use.
My favorite basic tool they didn't mention is the basic polypropylene bowl scraper. Ateco makes one that costs about 99 cents at most kitchen stores.
I inherited a nice Le Creuset cooking pots and pans set. I love them so much.
Microplane zester is an essential for my kitchen. For citrus zest, garlic, ginger and hard cheeses.
Most of my cooking is done in a large clad-steel pan or in my cast-iron skillet. Clean up is actually easy enough if you deglaze the pan right after cooking.
There's so much I want to comment on in this episode but I seriously doubt I'll get any meaningful conversation out of the TH-cam Comments section so I won't bother.
My family has used the same low-end (flip-up) KitchenAide mixer to make bread dough on a weekly basis for the past 15-20 years (and various other things on a biweekly basis) and haven't had any issues -- no noticeable decline in horsepower, no need for maintenance, no problems whatsoever.
I am astonished that Will apparently found a way to destroy one. How viscous do you make your pizza dough???
no one mentioned a good can opener, I bought my mom a hamilton beach electric opener that has the safe top cut (no sharp edges) she talked about it so much it is in every kitchen in my family. really well built small appliance she uses it everyday and i got it for her 5 or 6 years ago.
I know that my comment is rather late to the game considering this is from July...but I was wondering if you guys ever did like a recap list of links/resources that you discuss during the podcasts. I haven't seen them yet but this is a podcast I would have really appreciated it for.
I would love to see that "non stick" stick pan seasoning method tested!
I can tell that norm cares about cooking as much as I do
I do asian food with some tools for spicees.
For roasting spices I use the smallest non-stick pan I could find. It outlasts all my other non stick pans. (Roasting is done dry, w/o any fat.)
For grinding, I use a poppy seed burr grinder. That thing is a killer, it will even destroy methi seeds (aka fenugreek).
Spice tip: Afaik, cloves can't be ground without cheating. The stems are to oily and fibrous. Get some ground cloves in a shop to use in sauces. (The ground ones that are sold in shops are made by grinding only the ball shaped bits of cloves.)
...This may have been my question! It may not have been, I feel like it's the sort of question a lot of people probably ask. For reference, this is the email I had sent:
Dear Adam,
I've always best enjoyed the content from Tested where you talk about cooking. It's always a pleasant surprise when I find out that people I like are also home cooks. The way you relate to and talk about your shop reminds me of the way I relate to and talk about my kitchen. I have two questions regarding your relationship with cooking:
How is your kitchen like your shop and how is it different?
What are your thoughts on cooking as a form of making?
Thank you in advance, I am a very big fan of the podcast :)
Sincerely,
Sarah
Anyway, thank you so much for this episode, I'm excited to listen to it while I clean my kitchen, which is an unholy disaster.
Interesting thing I saw recently is that you can use a drink shaker to make whipped cream, just throw the heavy cream in, close it and start shaking.
Great info! Thanks guys.
great show Guys
awww wish they had put all the links of the stuff they recommended to buy
Shake peeling garlic can be done in a cocktail shaker as well if you need to use less than a whole head of garlic. :)
Tools in the kitchen - my list looks like this:
- a fridge
- a stove
- a microwave-hood
- a blender
- a toaster
not counting utensils...
A Silpat is a MUST for any form of baking on cookie sheets.
Seasoning a cast iron skillet is some of the best time you can spend in a kitchen - especially if you eat a lot of breakfast items. Its easy too - make sure the pans are really clean, then rub a thin layer of oil over the entire thing (handle and all). Put it in the oven at as high as a temperature as it will go and let it sit in there a good 5 minuets. There will be smoke! Do this at least three times (letting them cool off first each time, of course) and you will have a lovely surface that pretty much nothing sticks to, including egg. And that is saying something. I use mine for corned beef hash and there is no substitute for biscuits and corn bread. I have 8, 10, and 12 inch skillets and I use them all constantly.
A hone for your knives is a must. A little daily/weekly maintanence will make all the difference.
Pyrex isn't the same Pyrex of old, they sold their name to another company which uses sodalime glass, which is strong but not as heat resistant as the famous Pyrex (The sodalime glass versions have a rounded P in the logo and often a blue tint).
Duran is the go to name now for Borosilicate glass which is both strong and heat resistant.
You guys made me aware of Gordon Ramsey's pouched egg technique, from another one of your videos, THANKS!
Norm always speaks so much, just can't shut that guy up! Amirite?! ಠ_ಠ
never seen a problem.
I dont think norm feels like he can relate to or knows enough about most of the random topics they tend to talk about. When there is something he knows he will have no problem cutting off Will and Adam for a second to just say it. But if you watch the other shows they do, when Norm has had time to prepare and knows about the topic, he loves the limelight.
***** I would hope it's sarcasm, because Norm never talks :p but people are always complaining about everything on this page even non-issues so I don't know
Norm's function is basically the insertion of segways. xD
Unfortunately, IMO, because he adds quite a bit to the conversation, and that includes necessary corrections to what Will says.
allluckyseven Yes! Norm definitely enhances the conversation. He is just more low key than Will and I think he gets buried by Will's more extroverted manner of talking. And I think that yes, Norm is very good about correcting Will when he delivers misinformation .
Best Kitchen tool?!.... ORGANIZATION!!! Being able to find and access all your kitchen tools is what makes cooking enjoyable and releases creativity.
Bamboo cutting "chopping" boards, are fantastic.
The Four Hour Chef has a nice gear list. That and Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen are my favorite references.
Man, so happy about the mentioning of Chefsteps. Those guys are just amazing and everyone who's interested in cooking on a smarter level should check them out.
I found a brand of 'commercial' cookware on amazon that I found to be excellent, and well priced. The brand I homed in on is Thunder Group. They make an array of pots and pans (and other restaurant supplies) that are stainless steel, and have the 'right' heft, stay cool handles (boiling a pot of water does not make the handle scalding) and decent fitting lids. The prices are extremely reasonable for the quality.
As for seasoning Cast iron, there is some serious science there, and after weeks of research, I finally found someone online who developed a system that actually works, and understands the black magic/chemistry involved. Search for 'the chemistry of cast iron seasoning' and look for Sheryl canter's blog post, use that guide religiously, and you can not go wrong.
I love how norm NEVER talks in this episode
I'm a baker. I ALWAYS measure my ingredients by volume, NOT by weight. It doesn't make any difference! My baked goods come out just FINE and I have two blue ribbons to prove it. If baking ingredients were meant to be weighed, recipe measurements would be given in ounces, not in cups and spoonfuls.
Metric Systems makes measuring SO much easier..... just saying.
I am sorry if you struggle with filling cups with ingredients. I cannot imagine metric cups being any easier to fill.
Frank Eith
At least you're consistent when it comes to being wrong.
Wow man, you really impressed yourself with that one.
Frank Eith wrong again.
Adam, what is that "chair" you are sitting in? I'm sure there's a story behind that!
If you have trouble identifying kitchen tools because they all have black handles, you can wrap the ends with different colours of duct tape.
listening to this and goa trance at the same time.
that pilot chair is awesome
The best tool in the kitchen is a personal chef that I can't afford.
Poor Norm
awesome book stand!
Is that a jet ejector seat Adam is sitting on ?
almost everything I had mention here in these things that Will forgot to say is that all of these things can be found at Walmart or Target or Meijers.
when buying measuring spoons/cups buy some that have the measuring amount raised if it is printed with ink they will come off with your hand and from washing .
Very good episode!
Getting a cast iron skillet and taking proper care of it beats a non-stick pan any time. If you have problems with cast iron you're just doing it wrong, care for it and it will last for decades upon decades and never degrade.
There's no comparison between baking and cooking. With baking, you need to be precise with most of your measurements. It's chemistry. But, with cooking, you have all kinds of leeway. You can be pretty much as loosey-goosey as you like. It's mostly according to taste.
I personally recommend all the test kitchen books
5:00 those storage boxes are available in different heights, and are quite common to find in europe (unsurprisingly, since it's a european company)
for those interested: www.rostimepal.com, it's the "modula" series.
Again, no links in description =(
I respectfully disagree about a food processor. If you are a fan of hummus buying a cheap, small, single speed, on or off, food processor is well worth it. I got mine from the grocery store for about 15 bucks, the money you save on making your own hummus pays for itself in about 5 batches.
Hummus can be as easy as a drained can of chick peas and some water; though that won't taste as good as one with a little more thought put into it.
You guys should do a hang out sometimes. I could add so much info here that you guys would love to know about baking and cooking.
Thanks for the sweet potato fries recipe, I'll definitely try it!
Cast Iron is better than nonstick if you only have one. You can do everything in it.
My to go to chef knife is a 10" Chicago Cutlery chef's blade. Got it at a garage sale for $2 and I haven't stopped using it. I have a paring knife that I picked up on sale, and my filet knife is one my Dad bought in 1974 and it's still a great knife.
As for go to tools, I have a old cheap deli slicer that I use a lot on hams and some cheeses. I have a bread machine that I love because I'm no good at making bread by hand. The other device I like is a rice cooker.
The toilet brush potato peeler is a smaller version of how potatoes are peeled at the industrial scale.
Thanks - that was interesting. In addition to what you said about digital scales, when you go to purchase one perhaps read some guides on what to look for and especially have one that will turn the display off automatically after a reasonable period of time (nothing worse that turning around to get more of what you are measuring and the display has gone blank when you turn back). Also best to ensure it has a reasonably fine graduation (I like 1 gram increments).
Will and Norm are like Penn and Teller.
Please make a video of the toilet brush potato peeling!
I love my All Clad pans....
My Deep Fryer is a tall 20 qt stainless steel stock pot I got for about 20 dollars. It's easier to get depth with less oil in in it. The temp drops faster though, I guess.
4:43 - I was just watching (for the first time) Alien, and I spotted the same type of coffee grinder used years later for the Mr. Fusion in BTTF. Guess once you get to know how props are made you start noticing these things. xD
I know they are a lot in price, but Shun knifes are my greatest investment.
Norm looks so lost. poor guy..
Sounds like some opportunities for Mythbusters Kitchen myths in there
Any of the Tested guys got or tested a Thermomix?
I feel like Alton Brown would disagree with "a sifter is a sifter is a sifter".
Electric slow cooker is brilliant...turn it on and forget about it!
It's kind of interesting it took so long for Will to finally get the same mic stand as the other two. It always kind of annoyed me visually and I was relieved when he finally got one. Maybe only I care haha.
Norm's thinking: "Isn't this what women are for?"
Adam: use sparkling mineral water, as opposed to regular water for the tempura batter.
Track down the Lodge cast iron "pizza stone". It's more multi function, and it won't end up exploding when abused like a ceramic stone. Also, it makes great pizza
awsome mics
"Honey, where's the spatula?"
SPATULA CITY
SPATULA CITY
SPATULA CITY