Most of the time, we like the "buy once, cry once" philosophy and tell people to buy the best quality kitchen products they can afford. But this isn't always the case. Sometimes people spend money they don't have to. You don't need high-end products for everything, and some products you may not need at all. Here we give you some options on how you can save money without sacrificing quality and performance.
An Expensive Bread Knife
Miyabi Birchwood bread knife: beautiful, but at over $300, completely unnecessary.
When somebody purchased an expensive bread knife from our site, we got the idea for this article. We want to help people learn that there are certain products that they don't need to spend a lot on to get years of use.
Bread knives are firmly in this category. Now, if you have the money to buy an expensive bread knife, there's nothing wrong with doing so. And maybe a bread knife came with an expensive set you bought, and that's fine, too. But you don't need an expensive bread knife, and you probably won't notice much difference between an expensive one and a cheap one.
Serrated knives keep their edges for a long time, and you can get good performance from a $40 bread knife as good as that of a $200 bread knife. You don't really need hard steel or steel that's been treated and tempered to hold it's edge, which always adds to the price. You also don't need heft, or a heavy handle, or even particularly good balance in a bread knife. You just need something that's going to cut smoothly through soft breads without crushing them, which most serrated blades do well regardless of what you pay for them.
It's fine if you want a Damascus steel blade or a fancy handle--but it's not necessary. So if you want to save some money, a bread knife is a great place to do so.
Our recommendations:
Mercer Culinary M23890 Millennia Offset 9-Inch Bread Knife
About $29
This, along with other Mercer Millennia bread knives, is one of our favorites. With a plastic handle and a stamped blade, it's far from fancy, but the steel is decent quality, and the knife holds up well and is even a favorite of many professional chefs.
There are other options, including Victorinox (about $40), Henckels (forged blade, also about $40, but at 8-inches, shorter than most bread knives), and Tojiro (about $55, with a wooden handle; a favorite among home cooks, but a little long with a 14-inch blade--be sure you have the storage space).
When you choose a bread knife, here are some features to consider:
We'd love to tell you that you need a high-end bread knife because we'd make more money if we did. But you don't.
Nonstick Anything, Especially Expensive Nonstick
A whole set of nonstick cookware is a waste of money.
We've reviewed nonstick cookware on our site, and we actually like some of it. But the more we learn about it, the less we like it, for a number of reasons.
First of all, nonstick cookware isn't great to cook with. You have to use low heat to preserve the nonstick properties, and that, combined with the slipperiness of the cooking surface, means that it's hard to get good browning on your food--and browning is where flavor happens.
You have to be extremely careful to not overheat PTFE pans because they can emit toxic fumes at about 500F. This probably sounds like a very high temperature, but in our testing, it took less than five minutes for an empty nonstick pan to reach 505F on a medium gas flame. So even though PTFE is "safe when used correctly," it can be tricky to use it correctly! And you must make sure that everyone in your household who uses it knows this.
And as everyone probably knows by now, nonstick cookware has serious health and environmental issues associated with it. PTFE cookware, despite claims of being "safe" and "PFOA free," still contains PFAs, the dreaded "forever chemicals" that persist in water and soil for generations and are associated with several serious health issues, including cancers. Even if you never overheat a pan, buying PTFE cookware supports an industry that has polluted the world's water supplies with dangerous toxins (and continues to do so).
Also, because nonstick cookware has such a short life span, it's a landfill issue, too.
Ceramic nonstick cookware is marketed as the safe choice, but we don't know enough about it to know if that's true (just as we didn't know for decades that PTFE cookware had serious health and environmental issues). The nonstick properties are also short-lived--usually even shorter than PTFE pans--and these pans require low heat to remain nonstick (no higher than medium), so it's really no better to cook with than PTFE pans. In fact, if a nonstick surface is the most important thing for you, you're better off with PTFE, because ceramic nonstick isn't really nonstick: at best, it's semi-nonstick, and most (probably all, actually, but we haven't checked so we can't say for sure) manufacturers recommend using cooking oil for "best results." Well, if you need to use cooking oil, then why buy pans that claim to be nonstick?
Here's the truth: you don't need nonstick cookware for anything, and there's no reason to buy it. Once you learn how to cook on clad stainless steel and seasoned cast iron, you won't miss your nonstick pans. Not even for eggs.
But if you're going to buy nonstick despite our advice, at least listen to this: don't get a whole set: a skillet is really the only place nonstick makes a difference (though not enough of one that we recommend it), and it's much cheaper to replace one pan every few years than it is to replace an entire set.
It's logical to think that paying more for expensive brands of nonstick cookware (such as ScanPan, Swiss Diamond, and Caraway) will buy you safety, longer life, and better cooking results, but this isn't the case. Expensive nonstick pans (including hybrid brands like Hexclad) usually have a better build quality, so they're thicker, with better heat distribution, but the nonstick qualities are about the same no matter how much you spend.
All nonstick, no matter how much you pay for it, lasts an average of 1-5 years. Expensive brands may last closer to five years than one year, but compared to cast iron and stainless steel, which last for decades, this is pretty pathetic. (And again, a landfill issue.)
Anolon Nouvelle Copper skillets are well built, has excellent heating, and isn't too expensive.
Some people want one nonstick pan just for eggs. If you must have one, then we recommend Anolon Nouvelle Copper, which is impressively high quality for a middle-of-the-road price (about $60 for an 8-inch/10-inch set). But the best option is to learn to cook on safer, more environmentally friendly cookware like cast iron or clad stainless steel.
Green Pan Lima skillet.
Ceramic nonstick doesn't last very long and may have health issues we don't yet know about (just like PTFE was considered perfectly safe for about 50 years), but Green Pan is decent quality without being too expensive (or too trendy). The Green Pan Lima line is affordable, has stainless steel handles, and is thick enough to heat evenly. It's currently about $35 for the 10-inch skillet (but prices are subject to change).
Electric Knife Sharpeners
There are better ways to sharpen knives, but the Chef's Choice is a good quality product if you choose this method.
This is another product that we've given a fairly decent review, but if you have expensive knives or just want your knives to last as long as possible, then you shouldn't use an electric sharpener.
On the other hand, they're not the worst thing in the world, and they may be the best choice for some cooks, especially cooks who don't want to invest a lot of time in keeping their knives sharp (and sharp knives are essential!)
Here are some pros and cons about electric knife sharpeners to consider:
Pros
Cons
If you don't have expensive knives, and all you want is a fast way to get a knife acceptably sharp (not razor sharp), then an electric sharpener might work for you. We like the Chef's Choice Trizor XV. At about $140 (prices vary by model, though they all do basically the same thing), they're not cheap, but they have a powerful motor that should last for several years. The "XV" stands for 15 (in Roman numerals), and refers to the cutting angle, so the Trizor XV will put a 15 degree cutting angle on every knife you sharpen with it. This isn't an issue with cheap knives, or knives that are made with this angle, but some expensive blades--especially Japanese blades--have a much thinner cutting angle, and you really don't want to mess with this.
When using an electric sharpener, don't press too hard, or it will put a huge amount of wear on your blades.
"Waterless" Cookware
Saladmaster is good quality but overpriced cookware.
We think waterless cookware is one of the biggest scams in the kitchen product industry. Yes, we know there are many people who disagree with us on this, and we're the first to admit that most waterless brands are high quality and will last a lifetime. It's just that there are equally high quality brands that will also last a lifetime that cost a lot less--and can be used exactly the same way as waterless brands that costs hundreds or even thousands more.
For more information, or if you're not sure what waterless cookware is, see our detailed article about waterless cookware, or our review of Saladmaster, which is one of the most popular brands of waterless cookware.
There are some affordable brands. We like 360 cookware (see our 360 review), which is marketed as a waterless brand yet has all the features of good quality clad stainless steel. But for the most part, any decent quality brand of clad stainless steel cookware does the job just as well. Check out our Cookware page to see our many reviews of clad stainless brands.
Tramontina Tri-Ply Clad is as good as "waterless" cookware costing $1000's more.
All-Clad, Heritage Steel, Tramontina Tri-Ply Clad, and Misen are all excellent choices without the waterless gimmick. And they do everything that waterless cookware can do.
Expensive Cast Iron (Bare)
This Smithey 12" skillet is beautiful, and at about $220, it's one of the less expensive boutique brands.
Cast iron cookware has become hugely popular in recent years. Several small, American-made boutique brands have come on the market to challenge older, more established brands like Lodge (also made in the US). Now, some of this high-end cast iron is beautiful, and it will perform beautifully, too. But the thing is, cast iron is pretty much cast iron, no matter how much you pay for it, so there's no really good reason to spend a few hundred on a cast iron pan when you can buy a Lodge pan for a fraction of the price.
Like all products, if you want it and you can afford it, then by all means get the pan you want. But expensive cast iron doesn't do anything that cheap cast iron can do. Yes, it's prettier, and yes, the cooking surface is usually smoother out of the box than a cheaper brand like Lodge. And most of these boutique brands are made the old school way, with better craftsmanship than a Lodge pan. But none of this results in a better pan; not really. They still need to be seasoned, and they still rust if you don't dry them thoroughly after use. And all cast iron is brittle, meaning it can crack if dropped or heated too quickly (especially when new).
The question to ask yourself is this: "Is a smoother out-of-the-box cooking surface worth the much higher price?" And if it is, then go ahead and buy a fancy brand. But if you have patience, your Lodge, or even a cheaper Chinese import, will develop that smooth surface with time, and there's no reason to spend more than about $30 on a Lodge skillet (or less if you go with a Chinese brand).
This Lodge skillet is nothing fancy, but will last just as long and perform just as well as more expensive brands.
This handmade Northwest Skillet 10" pan is stunning, but costs about $240.
The same thing happening in the cast iron skillet market is happening in the carbon steel market, too: there are some gorgeous high-end pans made by boutique brands that cost hundreds of dollars. Or, you can buy a standard brand for a fraction of the price. There are inexpensive brands made in the US like Vollrath and Lodge, but our favorite carbon steel pan is the French brand Matfer-Bourgeat. It's affordable, high quality, and the handles are welded on so there are no rivets on the cooking surface.
Matfer-Bourgeat skillet: plain, but lasts forever, and most sizes are under $100.
The Matfer-Bourgeat 10" skillet is about $75 and not nearly as beautiful as some of the boutique brands, but just like the cheaper cast iron, it will perform just as well and last just as long as fancier, more expensive brands.
If you don't like the French design of the Matfer-Bourgeat and would prefer a more American type skillet, the Misen carbon steel pan is a good option, but the 10" size goes for about $100, which is quite a bit more than the M-B pan in a larger size. Unfortunately, the Misen pan has a silicone handle, and these don't last long if used on a gas burner or in the oven.
For more about carbon steel skillets, see our article The Best Carbon Steel Pans.
Any Pan with a Gimmick
Our Place Always Pan: trying to be everything makes it excel at nothing.
Misen Dutch oven with grill lid and silicone lid: just a bad idea.
By gimmick, we mean a pan that's marketed as having more than one use, such as "all-in-one" pans, or pans that have a griddle for a lid. Above we show two popular examples: the Our Place Always pan, and the Misen Dutch oven with a lid that's also a grill (which also includes a silicone lid that you can't use in the oven).
These pans might sound like a great idea because you're getting more than one function--but they're not.
Here's why.
The Always Pan may be able to do everything it claims, but it doesn't do any of these things well. It's really just a slightly deep sauté pan, but it's too small to use as a Dutch oven, and even for a sauté pan it's on the small side. It's a decent frying pan, but the thick handle--square and flat on the top to hold the included wooden spatula--is clunky and uncomfortable, and the large lid hole, required to fit the spatula (this is probably the most gimmicky part), makes it pretty much impossible to steam food. The included steam tray is tiny (because the pan itself is on the small side and also fairly shallow), and not easy to grab when hot because the handles lay flat.
So, the overall design is more for looks than for actual use. You're better off owning a few different pans, including a deep sauté pan, sauce pan, and/or Dutch oven for steaming veggies and making pasta.
We think this pan falls short on every front. But it's popular, so there are a lot of copycats out there now, with every cookware company trying to come up with a competitor to this social media favorite. Some are larger, which is good, but none of them are good at everything as they claim to be. They are a classic example of "jack of all trades, master of none."
As for the Dutch oven with a grill lid, we don't mean to pick on Misen because there are many brands that make such a pan, including Lodge, another of our favorite brands. But think about it: a grill pan that's also a lid:
- Doesn't have a lid pull because it has to be flat
- Will get discolored from heat, especially on gas stoves and grills.
It's less of an issue if you go with a bare cast iron option because discoloring won't be an issue. But if you buy a pretty blue or yellow or red pan with a grill lid, that pretty color will be ruined pretty much on the first use.
And it is really a pain to remove a hot lid from a Dutch oven that has no lid pull.
What should you buy instead? How about just basic cookware: a skillet, a sauté pan, a sauce pan, a Dutch oven, a steamer, and possibly a griddle or grill pan if you'll use it. Clad stainless steel is the best material for most pans, and an enameled cast iron Dutch oven is a great choice--just get one with a lid pull, and buy a grill pan separately if you really want one. Each piece will do what it was meant to do, with no compromising.
Gimmicky cookware can look good on social media, and it might seem like a good idea at first. But if you think it through, you'll realize that you're better off with standard kitchen equipment that's been around for a few centuries, and none of the "all-in-one" options have improved on the original design.
Expensive Baking Sheets
Baking sheets are extremely useful in the kitchen, from making cookies to one pan meals to catching drips from a casserole pan or pie. But you don't need to spend a lot of money on them. We recently sold one on our site that was (gasp) $120! This is crazy expensive, and completely unnecessary.
You don't need super sturdy baking sheets, or high-end brand baking sheets, or baking sheets with a nonstick coating, or baking sheets that come in pretty colors. No matter how much you spend, your baking sheets are going to get stained and discolored, and this is just fine. In fact, America's Test Kitchen did a study and found that stained baking sheets heat food more evenly, most likely because the shiny reflective coating isn't an issue anymore.
You can get aluminum baking sheets in the standard half-size (13" x 18") for around $10, and you can get stainless steel baking sheets for not a lot more. If you have a restaurant supply store near you, you can probably find them even cheaper. There's no reason to spend more than this.
Plastic Cutting Boards
This one isn't about cost or performance, it's about safety.
The more we learn about plastic, the less we like it. So we've done positive reviews of plastic cutting boards, which do have some nice features, but we've changed our views. The amount of plastics that human beings ingest is alarming, and it's becoming clear that we should avoid plastics as much as we can. It's not always possible, such as with product packaging, but we can certainly choose wooden cutting boards, glass storage containers, and steel or wooden utensils.
People have been avoiding phthalates ("BPA") for years, but evidence now shows that all plastics contain potentially dangerous chemicals that build up in our bodies and can cause all kinds of health problems. Every time you cut on a plastic cutting board, tiny shards of plastic are released, and they can end up in your food, then in your body.
There are a lot of plastic products that we should avoid, but switching from a plastic to a wood cutting board is an easy way to reduce the amount of plastics you ingest.
And no, you can't put a wooden cutting board in the dishwasher, but the couple of minutes it takes to wash it is worth the knowledge that you're not ingesting any plastics.
Some wooden cutting boards are very affordable.
Unitaskers
Nobody needs one of these.
"Unitaskers," a term popularized (or invented) by Alton Brown, are tools that are only good for one task. Unitaskers include cherry pitters, ravioli cutters, egg cookers, and garlic presses, among many others.
You don't have to avoid all unitaskers. It's up to each individual cook if a unitasker is worth it to them. For example, not all cooks will get much use out of a cherry pitter, but if you grow cherries and make dozens of cherry desserts in a year, a cherry pitter is probably a good investment because it will cut your time doing an unpleasant task to a fraction of the time it would take with a paring knife. And a lot of people feel garlic presses are indispensable, although many chefs prefer to use a knife.
Our point is not to prove anybody wrong or argue with someone who has a unitasker they love. By all means, use it if it works for you. But think before you buy, because there are a lot of unitaskers that are pretty worthless. You probably don't need an butter slicer, or a pineapple cutter, or--shown above--a bell pepper corer. You're much better off improving on your knife skills, which will take you a long ways on your cooking journey.
Small Appliances You Don't Need
Instant Pots can be useful, but a lot of them end up collecting dust in a cupboard.
Making an argument against small appliances is probably an uphill battle in these days when everyone loves their Instant Pots, air fryers, and toaster ovens, to name just a few of the most popular. And some small appliances can make cooking quicker and more convenient, so they're not all bad. But how to decide?
The truth is, a basic range can do pretty much everything that most cooks need. So one way to decide would be to only get small appliances that can do something your range can't. Such appliances are standard in most kitchens and include toasters, microwaves, coffee makers, and stand mixers. More serious or adventurous cooks might also have a blender and/or food processor, waffle maker, and sous vide circulator. If you're really into coffee or tea, you may also want a bean grinder and an electric kettle. The list goes on, and you can end up with a dozen or more of these appliances taking up space on your counter and in your cupboards. Some will get more use than others.
So once again, we're not saying you shouldn't own any small appliances. We're just saying that you should give it some serious consideration before buying the latest fad. You don't need an Instant Pot when you can buy a stove top pressure cooker, and they take up a lot of space--but some people really swear by them. And will you really use a slow cooker? (Some people do, but many people don't.)
If your oven has a convection setting, you don't need an air fryer, which is basically a tiny convection oven. And as easy as a toaster oven is to use, it's just a miniature version of your range.
A few small appliances we like and recommend. Two of these are vacuum sealers and rice cookers. Vacuum sealers can help you save thousands of dollars a year by allowing you to buy in bulk and preserve food for up to five times longer than other storage methods. And rice cookers are great because they make perfect rice and free you to focus on making the rest of the meal--you never have to worry about over- or under-cooking your rice again.
A vacuum sealer will pay for itself in less than a year: they are a fantastic tool if you want to waste less food.
Everyone is different, and will get use out of different small appliances. Many small appliances are fads, and their popularity fades quickly. Be sure if you get something, you'll really use it, or it could end up collecting dust in a cupboard, or getting donated to a thrift shop.
So What Should You Splurge On?
Here are a few kitchen tools that you should be willing to spend some money on; these are the tools that will serve you for decades and will never go out of style or lose their usefulness. If you invest in good quality products early, they can serve you for a lifetime.
There are more, which we'll add as we think of them. But these are basics that all cooks should have.
Kitchen Tool FAQs
Here are some common questions about kitchen products.
What's the Difference Between Kitchen Tools and Kitchen Equipment?
We don't make a distinction, but some sites consider kitchen equipment to be larger items like appliances and tools to be smaller items like knives, spatulas, cutting boards, etc.
How Do Kitchen Tools Affect Kitchen Safety?
It's important to know how to use your kitchen tools, especially if they are sharp (like knives, mandolines, and food processor blades) to avoid injury to yourself and others. Some kitchen tools are also potentially dangerous if used incorrectly, like pressure cookers. Be sure you learn about and understand your kitchen tools to avoid injury and also to get the best possible use out of them.
Do You Need to Get the Most Expensive Kitchen Products You Can Afford?
In some cases, you should be willing to spend a little more to get good quality, such as for skillets and knives. And most higher end tools are more pleasurable to use than cheap tools and will last longer. But you don't need to spend a lot on every item in your kitchen. Many inexpensive tools work just fine.
What Are the Basic Kitchen Tools You Need?
This varies depending on what you like to cook, but there are some basic categories: cookware, food preparation, food storage, and cleaning/maintenance. The basic cookware you need is a skillet, a sauce pan, a Dutch oven or stock pot, a baking sheet or two, and a glass baking dish for casseroles and roasting meats. You will also need bakeware if you bake. Food prep is the largest category and includes a multitude of products, from basics like knives and cutting boards to measuring spoons, graters, mixing bowls, stand mixer, and much more. Some people also consider a food processor or blender a necessity for food prep. Storage is the simplest category and includes storage bowls with tight fitting lids and possibly plastic wrap, aluminum foil, etc. We also strongly recommend a vacuum sealer as your best weapon in the fight against food waste. Cleaning and maintenance products include dish soap, disinfectants, sponges, and dish towels.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of ways to waste money on kitchen products, but there are a lot of ways to save, too. If you stick to the basics and invest wisely in them, you'll be building a good collection of tools that should last for many years or even decades. Then there are the non-essentials or semi-essentials, which you have to think through more carefully. Be sure you'll really use a product before you buy it.
Then there are things like nonstick cookware and unitaskers that don't really improve your life at all. And you don't have to get every new fad product just because everyone else has it. Try to avoid these products unless you really know you'll use them.
Thanks for reading!
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