Subsistence cooking equipment

Reverbe

Our kitchen is the size of a train toilet. We dont have room to store scales so I have a tala measure and a set of weighing spoons. Along with a pyrex jug these seem to do me fine but admittedly I dont do a lot of baking.

I did have lovely scales once along with several other things like nice plates, mugs and wine glasses but I do find anything breakable tends to get broken by my bull in a china shop flatmate.

Reverbe

w.dws wrote: »

Subsistence living Tins of biscuits and bottles of wine? Would they have been able to afford these items in the first place to enable them to use them as substitutes?

gifts - Xmas, birthdays , visitors??

thriftlady_2

Reverbe wrote: »

gifts - Xmas, birthdays , visitors??

But, if we are assuming B&S are being given wine and tins of chocs why can't we assume they are in receipt of more useful gifts or indeed, as has been mentioned, that as parents of teenagers they probably already have built up a basic set of equipment.

It may be more useful to come up with a list of equipment that can do more than one job, like forks for whisking, baking sheet that has a rim can be used for roasts, biscuits, hm wedges, free-form pies, for open-freezing, pizzas etc, a nice set of pyrex or melamine mixing bowls can be used for serving food and storing food in the fridge as well as mixing.

seraphina

Some of the original equipment list somewhat misses the point - if I don't have mini muffin tins/mini small cake tins, I don't bake small cakes, rather than trying to faff about with old small baked bean tins. You've got to remember to save them and have someplace to store them as well.

If people are on a limited budget then I think you have to accept you can't be making things that require anything other than minimal equipment. So that means, for instance, you may need to decide between a baking tray for flapjacks (you know the oven trays with high sides) or buying a bun tin, which you could make muffins in. What I'm trying to say is that I'd go for the approach of being a bit more limiting with what I tried to cook than trying to cobble together rolling pins from sand filled bottles - if you are a novice cook anyway and have no real idea how to make pastry, your first attempt with a sand filled bottle as a rolling pin could put you off for life...

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food has a great basics list but I think it goes way beyond basics:D

I think we can assume that anything electric (other than fridge/freezer and oven) is a luxury. Therefore my list of absolute essentials would be:

Sharp knife (small veg and main cook's knife if you can have two)
Veg peeler (less waste if you're not great with a knife)
Grater
Wooden spoon and/or turner
Min. 2x saucepans - I would go for one milk pan and one large enough to cook pasta for 2-4 people in
Oven tray (for sweet things you can make biscuits/meringues on an oven tray; you can also do free form pies on a tray).
Something to cook in the oven with (casserole dish or stoneware lasagne style dish)
A few bits and pieces of tupperware/storage
Colander

Things that are all but essential:
Stockpot
frying pan
dish that can go in oven and hob

Not so essential but nice to have:
loaf tin/cake tins etc
electric whisk
potato masher
etc
etc

Alison_Funnell

ceridwen wrote: »

Oh well - I'll knock the toaster off the list then. Shame about that - as I've checked out Argos and they have a Basics one for less than £5.

However - we'll assume they use the grill (not an unreasonable assumption then - as my own mother uses her grill - despite having a perfectly good toaster in her kitchen).

Having bought the cheapest one for my Mum yesterday they were nearly £6 for a basics one.

I have used a grill pan with no handle on as a baking tray. Makes fabulous huge quiches for family parties, large traybakes etc, and can still be used under the grill.

Alison_Funnell

I would say 3 saucepans. 1 small and 2 bigger. One for rice/pasta/potatoes and veg, the other for chilli/curry/bolognese/mince etc. Then you still have one for gravy/custard etc depending on your needs.

My MIL for years cooked Yorkshire pudding/cakes/round loaves of bread etc in a saucepan that had no handle ( it had broken) could also be used for crumbles/puddings/small shepherds pies and the like. Even a deep pie.

I have used a sweet tin for cake baking (roses heart shaped metal one) worked perfectly with no fumes.

zippychick

angeltreats wrote: »

My mum has always just used a fork for mashing potatoes! Even if it was for three of us. Needless to say her mash was always very lumpy.

In the Hairy Bikers Mums Know Best programme, they got one of the mums to put together a 'baking kit' for under £25 which was to include ingredients for making cakes plus all the necessary equipment. Probably not quite what you had in mind but it's here if you fancy a look.

Glad you pointed that out, as I've been sitting here wracking my brains as to what programme that was on1 I thought it was £20 ? Good job though on remembering

Not got to the end of the thread yet. In the past I have used a fruit bowl as a mixing bowl My mixing bowls were 99p from tesco - when they do the picnic sets in bright colours.

I have got a lot of cooking stuff off freecycle including a food processor, and a large box of baking stuff - pyrex, all shapes of tins, pastry cutters,baking trays etc. I am sat here thinking about the gadget drawer beside my cooker and how much is in it! Also trying to narrow it down to pure essentials which is interesting as my kitchen has been built up very gradually. I will think more and report back in.

I got a pyrex pie plate from a charity shop for 50 p (but broke it booo hoo) . My Mum has also passed on some cooking bits and pieces - are you able to factor in friends nd family giving a small token, or is that just daft? I mean, any friends I have who are starting out like this, I usually buy some sort of token contribution to their kitchen - whether its some basic utensils or herbs and spices and SC basics .

Oh, hi to Lynzpower:hello: - not seen you posting much round here lately

Can't you sharpen knives with brillo pads? I don't have a knife sharpener. One of my male friends does them every so often

lynzpower

Mini size cakebaking tins = small food tins (eg mini size baked bean tins)

The other issue to point out ( Im trying not to be Miss Negative too!)

That if you buy the mini tins of beans they are significantly more expensive than normal tins of beans.

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/frameset/redirect.jsp;GROSESSIONID=LTyPv7ShRvwJT34B30HvRcPT1ZWZsnLg5HCm4N8wBXGg4P5TQwHD!-368193342!1009752479?bmForm=deep_link_groceries_search_javascript&bmFormID=1267968143779&bmUID=1267968143779 420g Basics 29p a tin


Heinz Baked Beans In Tomato Sauce 150g
Price Promotion Quantity and add to trolley
£0.38/unit
£2.53/kg Is a smaller tin useful for the little cakes.

As you can see it is significantly more expensive- and goes nowhere near as far as normal tins of beans.

It would be cheaper over a couple meal of beans on toast to buy a buntray- after all these are often got for less than a £ and last forever.

pelirocco

It would be cheaper not to make cakes lol

ariarnia

I've used a tin of tomatoes before now when rolling out pizza dough (in the last couple of weeks in fact) and it worked quite well.