15 Bachelor Pad Kitchen Essentials and Cooking Tools

Around the world, men have enjoyed a respectable status in the kitchens of royals and celebrities alike. Audiences everywhere love the star male chefs on TV such as Gordon Ramsay and Guy Fieri. Women absolutely dig a guy who knows how to use his, uh, kebab skewer. And what could be more macho than doing biceps curls using an iron skillet that has a sizzling porterhouse in it?

If you’ve got the gall, then it’s time to dig into the mines of gastronomic greatness. First, make sure you have the right kitchen essentials and tools and know exactly how to use them. In this case, quality cooking essentials trounce quantity every single time.

To help you out we’ve come up with 15 bachelor pad kitchen essentials and cooking tools that are a must-own for any fledging home chef. So here are a few useful tidbits about brandishing big fat chef’s knives and other various kitchenware for your bachelor pad.

15 Bachelor Pad Kitchen Essentials and Cooking Tools

1. Cutting Board

Available in all sizes and materials, cutting boards take the brunt of any blade and provide a portable work surface. These essential handy rectangles of plastic or bamboo protect the tops of your counters and tables not only from blades, but from the blood of meat, and all the microbes that love it.

Note: Grab a few of these and designate one for veggies and fruits and another just for animal products. This helps to avoid the dreaded cross-contamination.

2. Chef’s Knife

A chef’s knife serves as the go-to blade central to any collection. Combined with a serrated knife (for bread) and a paring knife, these form the triumvirate of knives every guy should own. Expect to drop at least a buck-fifty for a good one. Make sure it has a “full tang”, a riveted handle, and a high-carbon stainless steel razor-like blade.

Use it for everything: chopping all sorts of ingredients and cutting through whole poultry carcasses.

3. Skillet

Having several skillets on hand is a great idea, and the Lodge Logic pre-seasoned is the gold standard. A heavy cast-iron skillet is what all of our grandmothers and their mothers used. It is the mother of one-skillet meal-makers.

Caramelize your veggies, brown your meat, make omelets, frittatas, pancakes, cornbread, and just about anything else you damn well please in this heat-conducting skillet. Plus, the cast iron means you can brown a steak on the stovetop and then put the whole steak, skillet and all, in the oven.

4. Measuring Cups

Churning out great, fragrant dishes and baked goods is all about the highest quality ingredients in precise ratios. Measuring cups are the key to nailing your next round of bean dip or your first attempt at beef stew. Cups, measuring spoons, and a Pyrex measuring cup are implements no guy should endure another day in the kitchen without.

5. Wooden Spoons

While cooking, you’ll want to stir, mix, and taste what you’re whipping up. Wooden spoons won’t scratch your delicate frying pans and sauce pots. Wooden spoons are also naturally microbe-resistant, so there’s no risk of introducing cultures to a pot of hot goodness. Also, wooden spoons don’t conduct heat, remaining cool despite how often you plunge them into a swirling mass of steamy creamy whatever.

6. Bakeware

Throwaway aluminum pie pans and one-use muffin tins are so beneath you. You’re worthy of a set of non-stick bakeware. Besides, bakeware isn’t just for baking bread and cakes. Cookie sheets are also great for roasting veggies and making perfectly golden-brown bacon strips.

Nonstick bakeware makes for nonstick baked goods. Ever had four-grain bread from scratch? Now’s your excuse to try.

7. Dutch Oven

If bachelor pad kitchen essentials had a high priest, then the Dutch Oven would be it. For cooking everything from osso buco to risotto, soups and stocks to fish stew, a Dutch oven is great for browning, sweating, simmering, braising, roasting, and tons more. Traditionally, Dutch ovens are cast iron and occasionally enameled, though the colored enamel sort often runs into the hundreds of dollars.

Cheaper versions made of bonded aluminum plates are effective. Traditionalists always prefer a Le Creuset. Dutch ovens can also go from stovetop to oven to fridge with equal ease.

8. Oven Mitt

When the roast is done and it’s time to pull it out of the oven, use a pair of hearty, thick mitts to protect your manly hands. Serve casseroles family-style by gently extracting them from the oven and bringing them directly to the table.

Today’s mitts are available in every kind of motif and design, from Darth Vader to the MLB teams. While you’re exploring mitts, consider a half dozen hunting-themed pot holders. Just in case.

9. Griddle

Today’s griddles are self-contained and powered by electricity. Achieve awesome grill marks on prime hamburgers or steaks, or throw together a turkey and Havarti panini worthy of Bobby Flay.

Host a mini-grill party and grill veggies to order. Grill plates that fit snugly atop stove burners are a wonderful, convenient alternative.

10. Crockpot

Imagine tossing a bunch of tasty stuff into a pot and returning home hours later to a perfectly cooked heap of succulent amazingness. A crockpot will help you achieve this. It cooks just about anything through and through but at a low, slow temperature. Never any risk of burning or overcooking. Something about the low, gradual heat causes flavors to melt together and magnify. A must-have for busy bachelors who miss home-cooked goodness.

11. Keurig

Coffee is tantamount to getting anything in your life done, including getting to work. But do you even need to be told? This automatic one-cup brewer ensures you get the daily eau de dark roast that is your birthright. Never again worry about proportion, grind, or another bad cup of joe.

12. Mixing Bowls

Mix to your heart’s content: waffle batter, custom Chex party goodies, and salads. Mix wet and dry ingredients separately – as most baking recipes require. Mix Valentine’s Day chocolates. Mix jelly beans and Halloween candy. You get the picture.

13. Mustache Bag Clips

Clips help you keep your chips fresh and crisp in their oversized bag. Cowboy-style or Chaplinesque bag clips just make clipped bags of corn chips appear more fun. Themed clips allow you to leave the mark of your indomitable guy style in every part of your kitchen.

14. Dispenser

This baby keeps your dry goods fresh and protected from invaders. It’s also the best means of storing and dispensing cold cereal, man’s other best friend. Maintain an assortment of these wonders for safely keeping candies and other dry foods.

15. Blender

A respectable blender turns tomatoes, onions, and lime juice into salsa. Blended frozen margaritas? They can be done at the touch of a button. Mix up smoothies galore, not to mention those horrid, artificially flavored protein nightmares you honestly believe are going to make you monstrously diesel by the next full moon.

Bachelor Pad Kitchen Essentials and Cooking Tool FAQs