Setting Up a New Kitchen

At the very top of the list is an ABC fire extinguisher big enough to do some good. I would even suggest you need two fire extinguishers. Where you place them is important. One extinguisher should be at the entrance to the kitchen so if a fire starts while you’ve stepped out of the room, you have to reach through the flames. The second extinguisher should be on the opposite side of the room so you can fight your way out if you have to. Hopefully you’ll never need to use either.

Next on my list of essentials is a collection of thermometers. My mother didn’t have any thermometers, and I lived. But I should probably also mention that my mother over-cooked everything. I don’t really consider that a good option.

I start with two basic thermometers: A probe thermometer that can stay in the food while cooking (and has a remote read-out), and an instant read thermometer. Be sure to get thermometers that not only can read the temperature of hot, cooking foods, but can check the temperature of something that should be cold, too. For example, you want to make sure that the potato salad you’re taking on a picnic has not sat at 45-degrees or warmer for more than two hours.

While we’re on the subject of thermometers, I recommend an oven thermometer. That dial on the front of the oven may not be accurate. It may not be a health and safety issue, but there are things that will turn out better if you have the oven at the right temperature, and not just something close to right.

Modern refrigerator/freezers usually do well, but if you have questionable cold storage, you may want to get a refrigerator/freezer thermometer, too. It may be your first warning that something is amiss.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move on first to the bigger-ticket items. Small appliances.

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