As the holidays approach and the days get shorter, many of us are preparing to spend more hours in the kitchen cooking everything from turkeys to cookies.
To improve your extra time in the kitchen, CNBC Make It rounded up five staff-approved products to upgrade your cooking space, from an immersion blender perfect for making soup to a leak-proof trash can that can store all your leftovers.
1. Mini casserole
Now that it’s cold, it’s finally soup season, which usually means pulling out my deepest, heaviest pots. But since I usually only cook for my husband and myself, it can be tiring to take out and clean our 8-quart storage pot all the time.
Luckily, my Great Jones Dutch Baby, $120, is the perfect volume to cook dinner for two. It’s still a sturdy cast iron, but its small size, 3.5 liters, makes it ideal for soups, chili and risotto without wasting much space. Plus, it looks really cute on my stovetop in fall green.
— Hanna Howard, senior working editor
2. Hand blender
If you’ve ever tried to make a blended soup batch by batch in a regular blender, you know how much of a mess it is.
While an immersion blender, like this $45 one from KitchenAid, isn’t technically an essential kitchen tool, the time and energy it saves on things like soup and applesauce is 100% worth it. Plus, it’s so much easier to clean after use.
— Emmie Martin, Money Editor
3. Sous vide hob
The cooking technique known as ‘sous vide’ sounds fancy, but in reality it’s culinary finger painting. You basically put a piece of meat or some vegetables in an airtight plastic bag (with whatever spices or marinade you like) and submerge it in some water. Then you use a small machine (mine from Anova costs $100) to heat the water until the internal temperature of what you’re cooking matches the temperature of the bath.
That means if you’re willing to wait an hour or two, you can get a uniform, white inside on those mutant-sized chicken breasts — or a perfect medium rare on your favorite cut of steak. Simply remove it from the water, sear it well and serve.
The stove can be controlled via an app, which also includes recipes and manuals written by award-winning chef J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. It really couldn’t be easier.
— Ryan Ermey, senior money reporter
4. Simplehuman Trash
In what kind of world do kitchen trash cans – which are at least recommended by review sites – cost hundreds of dollars? Disturbed. But even though Simplehuman is one of the companies responsible for this mess, I have to hand it to you: the 13-gallon semi-circular plastic trash can costs $50 and is just right.
It looks beautiful and has proven to be sturdy, leak-proof and pet-resistant so far. If any of these elements fail, a waste bin comes with a five-year warranty. Excuse me while I untangle my brain about this.
—Cameron Albert-Deitch, success editor
5. Mini rice cooker
Living in New York City with limited space, I did my best to stick to the kitchen essentials. A rice cooker never felt necessary when you could just make rice on the stove. But it turns out I’m not very good at cooking rice. I would add too much water, or simmer it too long. Someone else?
When I finally bought the Dash Mini Rice Cooker, $21.99, it was a game changer. I can now let rice cook and forget about it. No more babysitting, and I get perfect rice every time, without any guesswork about timing or water level.
A bonus: the device is small enough to put in a cupboard when I’m not using it.
— Emmie Martin, Money Editor
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