Kitchen Gear We Actually Use

Dough temperature drives fermentation speed more than clock time does, and internal temperature is the only honest doneness test for meat and bread. Replaces guessing in about six different recipes on this site.

Used in: Boulder Creek Pizza Pub Inspired Chicken Pesto Sandwich

A cup of flour can vary by 20% depending on how it was scooped, which is enough to move a dough from 72% to 62% hydration. Weighing is the single change that makes bread recipes repeatable.

Used in: True Neapolitan Pizza Dough, Classic French Sourdough Bread, Classic Pizza, Classic Pizza Dough

Still the right tool for small volumes of liquid and spice, where a 1 g scale rounds badly. Get a stainless set with the markings stamped in, not printed — printed ones wash off.

Used in: Mexican Rice (San Marzano Edition), Classic Banana Bread

Rattan wicks moisture off the dough's surface during the cold proof, which is what makes the loaf scoreable and gives you the spiral flour pattern. A towel-lined bowl works but sticks far more often.

Used in: Classic French Sourdough Bread

Lets you move and divide slack dough without deflating it, and cleans a floured counter in one pass. Cheap enough that there is no reason to improvise with a spatula.

Used in: True Neapolitan Pizza Dough, Classic French Sourdough Bread, Classic Pizza, Classic Pizza Dough

The failure a lid prevents is skinning: a ball left uncovered dries at the surface, and a dried surface tears at the rim instead of opening into one. Shallow and flat-bottomed matters too — balls need room to spread sideways without touching, and a deep bowl makes them climb each other instead.

Used in: True Neapolitan Pizza Dough

A curved razor at a shallow angle opens a proper ear. A serrated knife drags through wet dough and closes the cut behind itself.

Used in: Classic French Sourdough Bread

The lid traps the loaf's own steam for the first half of the bake, which is what lets the crust stay soft long enough to spring. Baking the same dough uncovered on a sheet pan sets the crust early and costs you most of the rise.

Used in: Classic French Sourdough Bread

Light-colored aluminized steel browns the crust evenly. Glass and dark nonstick both run hot at the edges and give you a banana bread with dry walls and a wet middle.

Used in: Classic Banana Bread

A thin metal leading edge slides under a dressed pizza without dragging the toppings off with it, which is the entire job. Flour the peel rather than the dough and give it a shake before you commit — a base that has stuck to the peel will not unstick over a 450°C oven. The handle folds flat, which matters more than it sounds like when the thing is fourteen inches wide.

Used in: True Neapolitan Pizza Dough, Classic Pizza

Steel conducts heat into the base of a pizza roughly twenty times faster than a stone does, which is the closest a home oven gets to a deck oven. Expensive and heavy, and the only thing that fixes a pale, floppy crust.

Used in: Classic Pizza, Classic Pizza Dough

Airflow underneath stops the bottom crust from sitting in its own steam and going soft. Also the rack you set meat on for a low-temperature roast.

Used in: Classic Banana Bread, Classic French Sourdough Bread

Holds enough heat that adding a cold steak barely drops the surface temperature, so you get a crust instead of grey steamed meat. This is the pan the reverse sear is built around.

Used in: Mexican Rice (San Marzano Edition), Boulder Creek Pizza Pub Inspired Chicken Pesto Sandwich

A thick base spreads heat instead of concentrating it in hot spots, so a tomato sauce reduces slowly rather than scorching in a ring on the bottom.

Used in: Mango's-Style Mojo Sauce, Tomato Sauce

A long serrated edge saws through a crisp crust without compressing the crumb underneath. A chef's knife crushes a fresh loaf and tears a ciabatta roll instead of slicing it.

Used in: Boulder Creek Pizza Pub Inspired Chicken Pesto Sandwich

Rinsing rice until the water runs clear washes off surface starch, which is the difference between separate grains and a sticky clump. A colander's holes are too big to hold rice.

Used in: Mexican Rice (San Marzano Edition)

Emulsified sauces — mojo, cilantro lime, pesto ranch — come together in a tall cup in about fifteen seconds and break far less often than they do in a full-size blender jar that is only a quarter full.

Used in: Creamy Cilantro Lime Sauce, Tomato Sauce

Shears garlic and citrus zest into a paste rather than crushing it, which releases far less of the harsh sulfur compounds a press produces. Noticeably changes a raw garlic sauce like mojo.

Used in: Mango's-Style Mojo Sauce

Stainless takes a warm water bath to hold dough temperature and goes in the fridge without cracking. The set nests, which matters more than it sounds like when three recipes need four bowls.

Used in: True Neapolitan Pizza Dough, Creamy Cilantro Lime Sauce, Classic Banana Bread, Classic Pizza, Classic Pizza Dough, Pesto Ranch

Breaks down ripe bananas to an even pulp in a few strokes, which keeps the quick bread from baking around solid banana lumps that steam into gummy pockets.

Used in: Classic Banana Bread

One-piece silicone has no seam at the head to trap batter and holds up in a hot pan. The two-piece wooden-handled kind eventually separates and grows a hidden mold line.

Used in: Classic Banana Bread

Glass doesn't hold onto garlic and pesto the way plastic does, and a wide mouth means you can actually get a spoon and a bottle brush inside. Also the right home for a sourdough starter.

Used in: Pesto Ranch

A wide balloon shape pulls air in faster and reaches the curve of a bowl, which is what you want for a dressing you are trying to emulsify by hand.

Used in: Mango's-Style Mojo Sauce, Pesto Ranch

Won't scratch enameled or nonstick surfaces and doesn't conduct heat into your hand during a long simmer. The flat-edged kind scrapes fond off the pan bottom better than a round one.

Used in: Tomato Sauce

Four 250 g balls in about three hours, water in and nothing else. The scratch dough on this site is better and costs a fraction of it — but it wants planning, and this doesn't. Worth a box in the cupboard for the night pizza gets decided at six o'clock.

Flat sheets let you load a scored loaf into a screaming-hot Dutch oven without burning a knuckle. Roll parchment curls and fights you at exactly the wrong moment.

Used in: Classic French Sourdough Bread