I don’t know why spring cleaning is a thing. Around here, winter is our chance to tackle tasks that can’t be done in the warm months. Come spring, seeds will need planting, then fascia boards will need painting, and then lounge chairs will need sitting in.
Now’s the time to brew a big pot of tea and take on the dreaded kitchen gadget drawer. Mine is so jam-packed that I sometimes have to jiggle its contents around so I can close it. It contains some gems — items I use all the time — and some duds, which tend to migrate to the back of the drawer, forgotten. Some I bought on impulse, I’ll admit. Others were gifts, and those are harder to let go of.
A good edit starts with pulling out everything, including all the back-of-drawer gizmos, and asking yourself what’s useful. This is different from asking yourself if you used to use it or if you might use it someday.
Among the rejects is an egg separator. I don’t know where mine came from, and I’ve never actually used it. It seems like a solution in search of a problem. I just use my hand, letting the whites slip though my fingers while the yolk remains in my palm, which is how I was taught to separate eggs by Wa’reen, who taught me to cook during my college job at a catering company. Hands are the ultimate multi-purpose kitchen tool, she always said.
It takes me a minute to identify the next gadget, an avocado slicer that already lived at the cottage when we came long. I’ve used it a couple of times, but a large spoon easily pops halved avocados from their skins, and my trusty chef’s knife makes the slices I want. Goodbye.
The shiny lime-green plastic microwave vegetable steamer my mother sent me is something she thought I’d like. I think someone at the transfer station’s swap shop is going to like it even more.
Then there’s the gizmo given to me by my friend Joe when he visited. I don’t know what it’s called, but it punches a hole in the end of a raw egg, supposedly making it easier to peel once it’s boiled. It doesn’t live up to its promise. And plunging just-boiled eggs into a bowl of ice water works every time. Joe won’t mind.
Butter curlers: If I’m remembering correctly, my friends Lucy and Chloe picked these up for me at a thrift store. The little scoops are used to make fancy butter shapes. Looking at them, I remember a time when, somehow, Christopher and I managed to host fancy dinners. I feel reluctant to cut a tie with those days. But it’s a different life now, one in which the butter dish goes from the refrigerator directly to the table.
There is the letting-go part of this endeavor. But one of the joys in the cleanout is a chance to appreciate those things you regard as essential. What follows are four tools that have regained a well-deserved place in my drawer. And a fifth that needs a spot all its own.
My second-favorite kitchen gadget is a sturdy pair of tongs. I use mine every day — they’re great for flipping whatever I’m sautéing or grilling, grabbing baked potatoes, serving noodles, tossing a salad, snagging toast, removing blanched vegetables from boiling water, and snatching items from high shelves. I have them in all sizes. The longer ones are the most useful, but short ones come in handy, too. Even the ones my nephew Kyle gave me: they’re like giant tweezers for very small things like garnishes.
I consider my silicone spatulas absolute necessities. They’re great for stirring things in nonstick pans and for getting the last bit of batter out of the bowl. A tiny one does the same for jars of mustard or mayonnaise. I can’t live without these.
How did I cook before the advent of the digital instant-read thermometer? I use mine for breads and cakes (200° to 210° F is the sweet spot, and I don’t have to peer at the toothpick and guess), to get steaks just right, and to make sure my roast chicken is done at the thigh. It has also replaced my candy thermometer for jams and jellies.
I probably have too many bench scrapers. But they’re for more than gathering dough from your kneading surface and cutting it into portions. I use them to scrape the counter clean and for moving things around — perfect for transporting that mountain of chopped onions into my Dutch oven.
Finally, I hold in my hands my most beloved kitchen object — my quarter sheet pan. This baby is a workhorse in my kitchen. At 9 by 13 inches, it’s just right for baking a few cookies (it even fits into my toaster oven), toasting nuts, or flash-freezing berries. It’s just right for heating up leftovers and corralling breadcrumbs for coating schnitzel.
My quarter sheet hasn’t lived in the bottom of the drawer for a long time. I needed to dig it out too often. In fact, I found it so handy that I’ve accumulated a stack of them, and I’m not sure where they go. Maybe next week I’ll tackle the cabinet where the baking pans live.
