The Cook Who Has Everything
Think they have everything? Think again—these gifts will keep them surprised.
Flavor King Pluot Jam
There are a lot of artisanal jams out there, some good and some grossly overpriced. Though we've tasted hundreds of them, we still haven't had any as good as those made by Oakland's June Taylor, who has been making what she calls "conserves" out of superb Northern California produce for more than 25 years now. The Dapple Dandy pluot conserve tastes like you're taking a bite out of the juiciest pluot in the world, with just enough acidity to offset the sweetness.
Set of Two Rectangular Grill Grates
If you've ever used a gas grill and grown frustrated with unfixable hot and cool spots and overall weak performance, this tool is for you. Made from hard anodized aluminum, the GrillGrate system sits directly on your existing grate, amplifying and evening out the heat, which allows for more even cooking, flare-up resistance, and exceptional sear marks.
Island Creek Oysters by Mail
Few things get us as excited as a good raw bar, but most of the time, we eat far too little because after the first couple dozen oysters it just gets to be too expensive. That's even truer when the oysters are top-notch, like the briny little suckers from Island Creek up in Massachusetts. But you can order their oysters online by the 50- or 100-count for much less than they cost at most restaurants for an at-home shucking extravaganza.
Punch Bowl Set
We have this 10-piece punch bowl set in our office, and it's been put to very good use. It's big and impressive while still being affordable, which are the best qualities you can hope for in holiday-party decor.
Dansk Kobenstyle 2-Quart Casserole
A few months back, Kristina's mom stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted a pair of Dansk Kobenstyle pots in the window of a cookware store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. "Can you imagine doing a fondue party out of one of those?" she squealed. If there's one thing Kristina's mom loves, it's a themed party, especially one with cheese involved. And Kristina has to agree that these little guys are perfect for all your entertaining needs—they look great on a table, and the lid doubles as a trivet to protect surfaces while you're serving.
KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment
The great thing about buying a meat grinder attachment is that you already know that the hardest-working part of your grinder—the motor—is going to be a workhorse that can power through even the toughest grinding projects. Stand mixer attachments are a great option if you make a lot of sausage. You can grind the meat directly into the processor bowl, then attach the bowl to the machine and immediately start mixing it with the paddle to develop protein. It's a real time-saver.
Dyson Handheld Vacuum
We like to keep our kitchens very clean. This handheld vacuum (which a few of us have, use, and swear by) ensures zero crumbs left behind, whether in that small space under the dishwasher or in the crevice between the stove and the cabinets.
Rancho Gordo Beans
A bean is a bean is a bean. Or is it? Once you go down the rabbit hole of eating quality dried beans, you'll fall in love with their variety of flavors, textures, and colors. Some are starchy, some are nutty, some are earthy, and some are slightly sweet. Rancho Gordo is one company that sells some really cool ones to try.
Precision Coffee Maker
While you can get it brewing with just the push of a button, the Breville offers layer upon layer of fine-tuned control for the coffee geek who wants to tweak brew variables. Finishing near the top of our taste tests, this spendy machine allows you to control brew-water temperature and time and the blooming phase. It can also make cold brew, and it’s compatible with popular pourover devices like the Hario V60 and Kalita Wave.
Pianogrillo Tomato Concentrate
This tomato “extract” is concentrated tomato dialed up to 11, a cheat code to better pasta sauces, soups, stews, braises, and more. Think of it like tomato miso. It puts those”double-concentrated” tomato pastes to shame. Do yourself a favor—get one jar of this umami bomb for yourself, and one as a gift for a special someone.
Small Baking Steel Griddle
We like to keep this solid slab of steel permanently atop one of the burners of our stove. One side has a pebbled surface—ideal for getting extra-crisp, better-than-a-baking-stone crust on homemade pizzas. And, unlike a baking stone, this thing is going to last forever. The griddle arrives as shiny steel, but with just a few uses, it seasons up into a dark, slick nonstick surface that can be used for everything from pancakes to eggs to hamburgers to grilled cheese.
Smeg Toaster
After years of putting up with a cheap toaster that she picked up at the supermarket, Stella recently upgraded to this super-fancy Italian job in cool mint. Its sleek design and soothing pastel color transform the kitchen's most boring appliance into a statement piece, and it does a great job with the toast itself. Plus, it's really dang pretty. If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to read this toaster's priceless reviews.
Cuisinart ICE-21 Ice Cream Machine
Homemade ice cream tastes better than almost anything you can buy in a store, and it's a snap to make. This ice cream maker, from Cuisinart, is all the gear you need: an easy-to-use workhorse that makes delicious ice cream every time. The simple construction means that there are few moving parts to break, and the wide mouth at the top makes it easy to add mix-ins and scoop out your ice cream when it's at its fresh, creamy best.
The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science
A New York Times best-seller! The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, by J. Kenji López-Alt, is his column by the same name on this very website, blown up to 900-plus pages (and seven-plus pounds) of concentrated culinary science. Gorgeous color photos, detailed how-tos, and elaborate explainers cover ingredients, technique, gear, and the secrets of the universe underneath it all. May include puns.
Sagaform Gold Loop Candle Holder
Adding candlelight to your table makes dinner feel just a little fancier and more special. We love the physics-defying appearance of these candleholders, which fit two pillar candles apiece.
Snow's Barbecue Brisket
Even if you live in Texas and want to avail yourself of the incomparable brisket at Snow's BBQ in Lexington in person it's not easy to do. You see, they're only open on weekends (Saturday and Sunday) from 8 am until the 'cue runs out.
Terra Cotta Cazuela
Daniel's owned these terra cotta dishes in several sizes for many years now. They're attractive enough to go straight from the oven to the table, and versatile enough to be used as baking dishes for cooked foods or as serving dishes for snacks when you're hosting guests.
Removable-Cup Spice Grinder
The high-capacity removable bowl and lightning-fast grinding speed make the Cuisinart the ideal spice grinder for the spice fanatic. The grinder cup easily locks into place with a twist and is dishwasher-safe for fast cleanup. The cord tucks away into the base for tidy storage, and the grinder is activated simply by pressing down on the lid.
Sizzle Platter
Rarely found in the home but extremely common in restaurants, sizzle platters are one of the most useful pieces of kitchen gear around. We reach for them any time we want to cook or reheat small portions of food, like one or two pork chops, chicken breasts, or steaks. Even small roasts, like a pork tenderloin or lamb shoulder roast, will fit on one, saving you from having to use larger pieces of cookware (and clean them up) for jobs that don't require them.
Noodle Basket
If you make a fair amount of noodle soups at home, particularly for multiple people, you should pick up a couple of these baskets. (They're also great for blanching small quantities of vegetables.) The baskets are cheap yet sturdy, and they're smaller than a lot of the fancier ones out there, so they'll fit in pots that are more home kitchen–sized.
White Piggy Otoshibuta
An otoshibuta is, in essence, a lid; the original ones are made of wood. But it's not just any lid: It's submergible. That means you can set an otoshibuta directly on the surface of the food you're cooking, which is handy for simmered foods and pickles that require keeping everything covered in liquid. Since they're not made of metal and fit a variety of diameters, they're also really handy as bowl covers when you're reheating food in the microwave.
Black Matte Dinner Plates
Get these if you want to up your Instagram game! These are the plates we use the most in our photo shoots—the matte texture makes a great surface on which to make any food pop.
Chef's Press
If you love beautifully seared steaks, golden-brown grilled cheese sandwiches, and crispy-skinned fish and poultry, this is a great thing to have in your kitchen. Chef's presses help you get even contact between ingredients and your skillet. They're vented, so you won't accidentally steam your food, and they're stackable, so you can get a couple for weighing down heftier items.
Le Creuset Stoneware Canister
If you're looking for a stylish way to store ingredients, coffee pods, matches, and more, pick up some of these attractive Le Creuset canisters. They come in a variety of sizes and colors (in true Le Creuset fashion). Tuck them away, or leave them out on display for a kitchen that's organized, streamlined, and elegant.
Searzall
This simple attachment will transform your blowtorch into a handheld, high-octane broiler. It's perfect for searing steaks, lighting charcoal, and finishing roasts. It provides even and intense heat, without the off-putting aroma of a traditional blowtorch.
Waffle Cone Maker
For us, a waffle cone–maker is an investment that brings tremendous personal satisfaction and one that will more than pay itself off in a lifetime of freshly made ice cream cones, waffle bowls, and other treats—it's the gateway gear needed to make truly homemade Drumsticks and Chocotacos from scratch, not to mention waffle-adjacent desserts like homemade Kit Kats, Sugar Wafers, and stroopwaffles.
Serious Eats X Murray's Holiday Gift Box
We're pretty serious about cheese at Serious Eats, so we're excited to be partnering with Murray's this holiday season to offer a gift box full of some of our favorite varieties. Pick up a box for a pre–holiday dinner cheese plate, or send it to someone you love (who also loves cheese).
Tortilla press
To make good tortillas at home, you'll need a tortilla press. You might find lightweight aluminum presses out there but this one, which is made of cast iron, is heavy enough to easily press your masa mixture into perfect flat little tortillas with minimal effort on your part.
Bamboo Steamer
Bamboo steamers are particularly useful when you're steaming largish things—say, a small whole fish, like a porgy or small sea bass. They're also super easy to clean.
Annelies Cheese
Leave it to the former owner of Murray's Cheese Shop, Rob Kaufelt, to come up with a cheese that is both global and local at the same time. Kaufelt's crew discovered cheesemaker Walter Rass's extraordinary Annelies cheese in a small village in Switzerland. Wheels of the stuff are shipped to the New York shop, where they're aged for nine months in the Murray's cheese cave before being sold to the public. The result is a nutty, caramelly, toasty cheese that needs no cracker for completion.
Jono Pandolfi Serving Platter
Now that Ariel finally has some space in her apartment for entertaining, she's been on the lookout for attractive and affordable serveware. She received this Jono Pandolfi serving platter as a gift and has been stocking up on beautiful items from the brand ever since. This platter comes in a few different sizes, depending on your needs. The best part? It's dishwasher-safe, making cleanup after your glamorous meal that much easier.
Otherland Candle
This hand-poured soy-wax candle will look beautiful on your kitchen table—and the scent of Champagne, saffron, and leather is just fragrant enough to offset any accidentally burnt foods that no one needs to know about. Plus, the packaging, which comes with a customizable matchbox, makes the candle an impressive gift that's also affordable.
Misono Travel Knife
After experiencing one too many Airbnb kitchens with terrible knives, Daniel invested in a travel knife: a small, sharp blade to take with him so that cooking can be a pleasure even when he's not at home. The wooden sheath makes it safe to keep in a bag, but remember not to fly with it in a carry-on.
Donabe Cooker
Not only can you cook perfect plain rice in this traditional Japanese clay pot, but it doubles as a vessel for flavorful one-pot stews and hot pots, and an infinite variety of noodle and rice dishes. Anyone interested in Japanese home cooking should have one.
Pedra Artisan Oval Platter
A large platter is a must-have for any household, especially during the holiday season. This oval platter has high enough sides to accommodate saucier dishes, while the gray-and-white hand-glazed finish gives it a one-of-a-kind feel.
Round Griddle
Kristina's mom's signature dish is her homemade lefse, a Norwegian potato flatbread rolled gauze-thin and cooked on a round griddle, just like this one, at a blazing-hot heat. If you're not into the Scandi thing, you can use this griddle to make crepes, injera, or regular old pancakes.
Label Maker
Cooks who do a lot of preserving, or keep several types of flour, rice, or other dangerously similar-looking ingredients around the kitchen in plastic or glass jars, need a practical way to identify the contents of all those vessels. The Brother P-Touch label maker—which prints and slices off labels quickly, in your choice of 14 fonts, and even on multiple lines—does the job admirably. But that's not the only reason, or even the most important reason, this device should be on your gift list. The real reason is that, for a certain type of organization freak whom you probably know (or are), labeling everything, from bottles of homemade syrups and dressings to recipe files to kitchen cabinets, is a particularly habit-forming kind of fun. Of course, a label maker is handy for all sorts of non-kitchen-related tasks, too, so there's no need to be prescriptive—just let the fastidious recipient's imagination run wild.
Le Creuset Pitcher
Pitchers are great home multitaskers, and this beautiful one by Le Creuset is no exception. We love the meringue color, but choose whichever tone suits your fancy. Then use it to pour coffee for a cozy breakfast, hold margaritas for your next party, or act as a nice little vase for a holiday bouquet.
Wildfish Cannery Smoked Salmon
On a recent press trip to Alaska, I was introduced to this fancy canned salmon. The king and white king versions blew my mind—hands down the best canned smoked salmon I've ever had. It's pricey, making it more of a special-occasion indulgence than a daily canned-fish option, but one taste will prove its worth.
Anson Mills Grits
We know: It might sound nuts to mail-order cornmeal and grits, given that they're found on any supermarket shelf. But we'd argue that you haven't experienced the best cornbread, grits, or other classic Southern dishes until you've had them made with the kind of high-quality stuff Anson Mills is selling. It'll change how you understand those foods and what they can be.
Anova Precision Cooker
Sous vide cooking—cooking foods in vacuum-sealed pouches in precisely controlled water baths—is no longer the exclusive preserve of fancy restaurant kitchens. The Anova Precision Cooker is one of the best home water bath controllers on the market, with an easy-to-use interface, Bluetooth support, rock-solid construction, a sleek look, and an affordable price tag to boot.
The BoardSmith Maple Carolina Slab Butcher Block
A fine piece of woodwork, this maple end-grain board from The BoardSmith is thick, solid, and gets all the details right. It's also been time-tested by the author for three-plus years of heavy home use, so we know that with proper care, this board can last. It comes in a variety of useful sizes, and by default has feet attached, but you can request for them to be left off (you can also add a juice groove and other customizations, if desired).
High-End Blender
Oh, man, do we love our Vitamix blender. Whether we're making super-quick smoothies or the creamiest, smoothest purées and soups imaginable, the Vitamix is unparalleled in its power.
Serving Bowl
There's no such thing as too many serving bowls, and this simple two-tone piece goes with virtually everything. At 11.5 inches across, it's the perfect size for side dishes, so it'll quickly become your go-to for salads, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, and pasta.
Incredible Beef Ribs
Louie Mueller's beef ribs are so good, we feel comfortable comparing them to Aaron Franklin's brisket. These gargantuan specimens of flesh and bone give new meaning to fall-off-the-bone-tender, and they have such a concentrated beefy flavor, you'll think you're eating beef confit (which, in a way, you are). How big are they? One rib feeds two people, easily.
White Serving Platter
This simple, affordable serving tray from Williams-Sonoma will be a boon to even the most minimalist of cooks: The generous size of the large version (14 by 18 inches) holds a dinner party's worth of side dish or pasta, the classic white goes with everything, the handles and surprisingly light weight make it easy to maneuver, and it's dishwasher-safe on top of it all.
American-Waffle Maker
The Breville produced crispy brown waffles the fastest and with the most consistent color of all the batches we tested, making it the best option if you prefer thinner waffles. Although it makes only one waffle at a time, it reheats and cooks rapidly, so you can crank out waffle after waffle with ease. The built-in drip tray, nonstick surface, and minimal design keep cleanup effortless.
Misono UX10 Chef's Knife
A deft and nimble blade, Misono's UX10 is one of the lightest-weight knives we tested. It's razor-sharp right out of the box and handled every task we threw at it with ease, dicing an onion as if it were as soft as a blob of Jell-O and making paper-thin slices of smoked salmon as if the knife were a true slicer.
Cacao Barry Extra Brute Cocoa Powder
It's almost impossible to find good-quality Dutch cocoa in supermarkets, so make it easy for your favorite baker to whip up the best possible chocolate treats. This cocoa powder is unusually dark, with an earthy chocolate flavor for out-of-control brownies, devil's food cake, and ice cream.
Baking Steel
Unlike crackable baking stones, the Baking Steel is a solid sheet of steel. Not only will it last forever, but, with superior thermal properties, it produces the best pizza crusts we've ever seen in a home oven.
Miracle-Gro Twelve Indoor Growing System
After previously lauding Aerogardens for how easy they make it to grow herbs at home (and how having a constant supply of fresh herbs has changed her cooking), Ariel's upgraded to this larger system from Miracle-Gro. The increased size—it's about as big as a side table—and bright lights allow you to grow a bounty of lettuces, herbs, and other greens, and you can program the app to turn the lights off and on according to your schedule. An expensive but excellent gift for anyone who loves fresh produce and fears their own black thumbs.
Wusthof Classic Chef's Knife
If you're dead set on a traditional German knife profile—characterized by a more curved blade that's bigger and heavier than the Japanese options—the Wüsthof Classic continues to be a stalwart. It weighs more than most of the other knives tested, giving it a solid and sturdy feel, but it still handles well and has a sharp edge.
Metal Pizza Peel for Retrieving Pizzas
Wooden pizza peels are too thick to easily slide under a pie once it's hit the oven. For that, you'll want a thin-bladed metal peel. Basic models made of thin-gauge aluminum, like this Kitchen Supply peel, are just fine for the occasional baker, but they'll bend and warp eventually. If you're going to be making pizza multiple times a year for many years to come, you might want to spring for something a little more heavy-duty. We recommend the KettlePizza Pro Peel, which has a thick-gauge aluminum body that extends fully past the solid teakwood handle.
Baratza Virtuoso Coffee Grinder
Baratza's Virtuoso coffee grinder is routinely picked by pros as the home grinder to beat and for good reason: Its well-made conical burrs produce a wide range of grind sizes, the results are consistent, the machine is solidly built from both metal and plastic, and it's all backed up by good customer service.
Stainless Steel Boning Knife
This knife is perfect for those who want to experiment with specialty Japanese blades without shelling out too much cash, or for those with aspirations of understanding how to make yakitori at home. Unlike a true honesuki, or Japanese poultry knife, this blade has a double-beveled assymetrical blade, so it is a little more multipurpose—it can be used for boning out poultry and other meats, and it can even be used for slicing and chopping in a pinch—and it is easier to maintain for novice knife sharpeners than a single-beveled blade. But it really shines at boning out chickens, and if you're used to using a flexibe western boning knife, it is nothing short of miraculous to experience the ease with which this knife's tip can maneuver around a bird's bones; it sometimes feels as if the knife is willing the bones to rise up out of the meat.
Wild Pecans
Level up this year's pecan pie by giving the bakers in your family or social circle a big bag of fat and buttery wild pecans. Their freshness, flavor, and tender texture will ruin everyone for those limp and withered supermarket brands.
Fixed-Cup Spice Grinder
The sleek and minimalist design of the Krups means it's easy to hold, handle, and store—perfect for anyone tight on space. Even without a removable bowl, cleanup is a cinch because spices never get trapped beneath the blade, and there are no unnecessary ridges or notches to clog with spices. The one-touch operation makes it easy to use, and it quickly yields a fine and consistent grind in both large, tough spices and smaller seeds.
OXO Food Mill
Whether you're making fresh tomato sauce or fluffy mashed potatoes, a food mill is an indispensable tool.
Cutie Pie Onesie
A cute, punny onesie for the baby and future food lover in your life.
Kuhn Rikon Stovetop Pressure Cooker
We tested dozens of stovetop pressure cookers before settling on Kuhn Rikon's Duromatic. It has a heavy sandwiched-aluminum-and-steel base that gives you even heat, and a pressure gauge that makes telling exactly how much pressure has built up inside visual and intuitive.
Hands-Free Soap Dispenser
Messy cooks—or germaphobes—will love this easy-to-use soap dispenser. Unlike other models with finicky settings, this Simple Human dispenser changes how much soap you get based on where your hands are: Keep them up high for just the right amount to wash your hands, or move them lower for enough to clean a few dinner plates.
Fish Scaler
A hefty weight and a narrow head design make this an extremely efficient fish scaler. We've used it on smallish porgies, bigger black sea bass and fluke, and just about everything in between. It's a significant improvement over the clamshell we used to use, and something about its design reduces the spray of scales.
MAC Professional Santoku Knife
This santoku from MAC's professional line is an absolute pleasure to use, no matter the task. It's lightweight, well balanced, sharp as can be, and comfortable to hold. It made perfect carrot cuts, broke down a chicken with ease, and filleted a whole fish as if it were a fish-shaped block of butter.
Breville Pizzaiolo
We are pretty blown away by the Breville Pizzaiolo. It's a very intuitive-to-use piece of equipment, and it produces pretty spectacular Neapolitan pizza in a home-kitchen environment.
Benton's Country Ham
Benton's country ham is an exemplar of American charcuterie. We recommend the deboned and trimmed smoked ham (just $3 more than the whole smoked ham), but the cured, unsmoked ham is also fantastic. With shipping, it's about $90, which is still a steal when you consider the quality and quantity, and the fact that the trimmings can be used to make many, many super-smoky pots of beans. Fry slices up with brown sugar and brewed coffee, and eat them with a stack of parathas—trust us.
Milk Frother
Many of the milk frothers out there do a poor job of emulating the thick, creamy foam produced by a good espresso machine's steaming wand, over-aerating the milk to the point where it gets a light sudsy texture. Nespresso's frother is different—it whisks the milk but manages to get much closer to the ideal cappuccino-foam. Plus, it has a nonstick interior that's easy to clean, and a hot/cold setting for hot or iced drinks.
Meat Cleaver
This meat cleaver has a well-balanced weight, sharp edge, and solid construction—a boon since a lot of more-affordable cleavers like this one feel very cheap and after repeat use get wobbly around the handle.
Marble and Acacia Wood Cake Stand
Like a pretty Bundt pan, a beautiful cake stand has an aesthetic value of its own, even without a cake—but present it with Mom's favorite cake on top, and it will also be a nice reminder of the day.
Recchiuti's Chocolate Mendiants
These thin chocolate disks have a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth texture and a complex, pleasantly fruity bitterness. But it's the scattered cacao nibs on top that take them from memorable to exceptional. The crunchy bits of bean are toasty and flavorful in their own right, but Recchiuti goes the extra mile, tossing them in caramel and fleur de sel for a brightly salty-sweet finish that electrifies each bite.
Manual Meat Grinder
Manual grinders are the cheapest way to get good-quality freshly ground meat at home, and are a great choice if you don't own a stand mixer. Our favorite is this suction-mounted grinder from Gideon. The suction cup provides as firm a base as bolt-mounted models we've owned, and it does such an excellent job grinding meat that we often reach for it instead of our stand mixer attachment.
Wooden Pizza Peel for Launching Pizzas
Wooden peels absorb excess moisture and have a rougher surface than metal, which means that your stretched and topped pizza dough will remain loose and easy to launch far longer, saving you from potential pizza-spilled-all-over-the-oven accidents. Though there are cheaper options around, the Perfect Peel Baker's Board is handcrafted to last a lifetime from gorgeous solid cherrywood. They'll even put initials or a logo on it if you'd like!
Toaster Oven
The Breville Smart Oven performs consistently and is very intuitive to use. It scored high marks in each round of testing, producing one of the better pieces of toast, baking frozen pizza to yield melted cheese on top and crispy crust below, cooking a frozen chicken pot pie, and baking perfect cookies. The styling is handsome, and the bright LCD screen is easy to navigate with just a few dials and buttons.
Tagine
Daniel's been lusting after one of these hand-painted ceramic tagines since seeing one in a cookware store a couple years ago. They require some special care, and possibly a heat diffuser to prevent cracking from intense direct heat, but they're worth it just to look at, even if you never cook in them. If you do, a future of flavorful North African stews, presented beautifully at the table, awaits. They also come in a variety of designs and colors, meaning you can find the perfect option for any home.
Vacuum Sealer
Interested in sous vide cooking? You're going to want this. And it's handy for way more than just sous vide cooking. A vacuum sealer makes it really easy to save meats or other foods in the freezer, and it keeps air (read: freezer burn) off it all. The Oliso sealer uses a unique resealable-bag system, which means far less wasted plastic than a conventional cut-and-seal vacuum sealer.
Paleta Iberico de Bellota
The best ham on earth doesn't come cheap, but this is the caviar of pork: jamón ibérico puro de bellota, from purebred Ibérico pigs raised on acorns for a ham that's nutty and sweet, with meltingly soft fat.
Ceramic Grater
Grating ginger is a minor pain in the ass—rub it on a Microplane and the grater's holes quickly become clogged with the ginger's long, tough fibers, making the tool less effective and difficult to clean. A porcelain or ceramic grater, like this one from Kyocera, has tiny little pointy teeth that do a miraculous job of rapidly reducing the ginger to a purée, while separating out those annoying fibers. When you're all done, it's a lot easier to clean, too.
Breville Smoking Gun
Equipped with an assortment of wood chips, the Smoking Gun allows you to easily smoke anything indoors with just the flip of a switch. It's instant fun right out of the box.
ThermoWorks Thermapen
The Cadillac of kitchen thermometers is indispensable when you're roasting meat, cooking steaks, making candy, deep-frying, or carrying out any other task where precise temperature control is needed. It's got a big display and a blazing-fast measuring time of under two seconds.
OXO Pop Containers
Not all food storage containers are built the same. OXO's Pop Containers stack neatly in the cabinet, make it easy to see exactly what's inside, and have a neat push-button top that forms a perfectly airtight seal, keeping your dry pantry goods fresher for longer.
AeroGarden Harvest
Cooking with fresh herbs makes every recipe better. Cooking with fresh herbs that you grew all by yourself makes life better. The AeroGarden takes the guesswork out of growing herbs inside, with an automated light to keep your parsley and thyme thriving and weekly reminders for water and nutrients. Just prepare yourself for epic amounts of basil.
Magimix 14-Cup Food Processor
The Magimix impressed us with each slicing, chopping, grating, and pureeing test we tossed at it, especially with pizza dough, which it combined so well no additional kneading was required.
GelPro Floor Mat
If you love to cook and host parties, you'll know that a lot of prep time is spent on your feet. Why not make at least the cooking part a bit more comfortable with one of these gel mats? It'll provide some nice cushion under your feet, so when it's time to put on your party shoes, you'll be ready.
KitchenAid Pasta Attachment
This KitchenAid attachment takes all of the frustration and fussiness out of making fresh pasta, and, unlike the manual alternatives out there, it's incredibly easy and efficient to operate on your own. Hello, homemade ravioli!
Effie's Oatcakes
They may not come in the most festive or glamorous packaging, but you can't go wrong with Effie's Oatcakes. Buttery, crumbly, nutty, and salty-sweet, they're insanely addictive.
Wine Carafe with Oak Stopper
I spent most of 2018 getting into wine, and one of my biggest takeaways was that most wines could benefit from a decant. Does a wine feel closed—like it has only one note on the nose or the tongue? Then it definitely needs to aerate in a decanter. This one is an inexpensive glass model with a chic wooden topper, from the Scandinavian brand Sagaform. It looks just as good on your bar cart or shelf as it does on the dinner table, and will give your Bordeaux a little room to breathe.
Chinese-Style Cleaver
A Chinese-style cleaver is an all-purpose knife for the kitchen, just as good at carving up meat as it is at chopping vegetables. The large blade surface is quite useful for transferring chopped ingredients from your cutting board to a bowl or a pan, and is particularly efficient at smashing things, like garlic cloves and cucumbers. While they take some getting used to if all you've ever used is a Western chef's knife, once you get the hang of a Chinese-style cleaver, it can do almost anything a Western chef's knife can do. This knife is made from carbon steel, which needs to be cared for with a little more attention than stainless, but it's easier to sharpen and will hold its edge like a champ. A perfect gift for your knife-curious loved ones.
Breville Electric Countertop Pressure Cooker
A pressure cooker is a cooking vessel that just keeps on giving: Once you discover the time-saving feats it's capable of, you'll never look back. A countertop electric model gives you set-it-and-forget-it convenience. Breville's Fast Slow Pro Cooker gives you complete control over your pressure cooking but also works as a slow cooker and a rice cooker.
Manual Pasta Machine
Fresh pasta is incredible, but unless your rolling pin skills are in the 99th percentile, there's no real way to get pasta dough thin enough without a pasta machine. We own and occasionally use a KitchenAid stand mixer attachment, but we find a clamp-on manual countertop model to be almost as easy to use (and far cheaper).
Granite Mortar and Pestle
A large mortar and pestle is one of the most underutilized kitchen tools. Not only is it faster than a spice grinder for small amounts of dry spices (particularly when it comes to cleaning), it draws out more flavor by crushing rather than shearing. It's also the perfect tool for making pastes out of moist ingredients, like herbs, garlic, and shallots.
A 10-Day Tour of Umbria With Sasha Marx
If you're looking to pull out all the stops this year, send your favorite food lover on a once-in-a-lifetime, 10-day food tour in Umbria next March, led by Sasha Marx, Serious Eats senior culinary editor and resident Italian-food expert. The itinerary is packed: cooking lessons and demonstrations, wine tastings, chocolate-making, and a fishing trip, plus visits to cheesemakers, a porchetta master, olive oil producers, and organic farms in the “green heart of Italy"—even a lecture on the history of pasta. Accommodations in a 15th-century castle certainly won't hurt, either. It’s going to be an unforgettable experience.
Louie Mueller's Brisket
Slow-smoked brisket is Texas's best-known contribution to barbecue culture, and, though you can now get it in just about every major city, you still need to go to the source to get brisket so good it will make you cry. But if you can't make it to Texas, ordering Louie Mueller's brisket is the next best thing—they ship the whole brisket, which means you get plenty of the critically important fatty half.
Grow-Anywhere Herb Growbar
If you live in a small apartment, you know the struggle of growing your own herbs—likely not enough space for one of those big grow-light setups, and almost certainly no outdoor space or adequate light for an actual garden. This sleek grow light solves all those problems. It’s the perfect shape and size for tucking beneath a row of cabinets in your kitchen, so you can have fresh herbs at the ready whenever you please.
High-Tech Propane Grill
If you're looking for proof that the future of grilling involves technology, look no further than Weber's Genesis II line of gas grills, which come preconfigured with a dedicated spot for the installation of their latest iGrill3 Bluetooth-enabled digital thermometer. This speaks volumes to us, because a mass-market brand as big as Weber has never before built this kind of tech right into the grill itself. The signal is clear: Weber believes better temperature-monitoring technology is the future of grilling.
Handheld Seltzer Maker
If you're short on space, this compact soda maker fits snugly into any refrigerator door. The iSi Sodamaker Classic can carbonate 0.9 liter of water at a time using recyclable, 15-gram CO2 cartridges. This unit also maintained the carbonation level of the water over the long term better than the other models we tested.
Serious Eats X Gustiamo Gift Box
Gustiamo is one of our favorite Italian-food purveyors, and this year, we got the chance to create a Serious Eats custom gift box featuring a collection of our go-to pantry items, from a silky pistachio spread to a funky colatura. Pick one up for yourself, and send another along to an Italophile friend.
Zingerman's Gift Certificate
It's hard to find a better-curated food catalog than Zingerman's. They are righteous folks, they know seriously delicious food when they come across it, and they sell it at a fair price. Nothing in the catalog is cheap, but then again, good food rarely is.
Korean Fermenter Crock
These fermentation crocks come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but they all have the same smart design: An inner lid can be pressed down against the surface of the brine, ensuring the vegetables remain submerged (and thus don't rot), while the lids lock into place to keep bugs out.
Belgian-Waffle Maker
This All-Clad model features extra-deep divots for maximum syrup capacity, makes two small waffles at a time, and contains a drip tray for minimizing spills and messes. The heavy stainless steel body and plates heat up quickly and evenly for consistent browning. The machine is compact in size and features cord storage and locking handles, making it easy to tuck away into any cabinet or on any shelf.
Tiffin
This two-layer tiffin is neat and attractive without being too cutesy, and it's small enough that it won't occupy too much space in a shared office fridge. In the warmer months, it'll do just as well for packing sandwiches and individual portions of salad or fresh fruit for a picnic.
REC TEC Wood Pellet Grill
REC TEC offers high-quality pellet smokers featuring excellent digital controllers and sturdy construction. With a 40-pound pellet hopper, a 680-square-inch cook surface, and nine inches of headroom, the REC TEC 680 is a large, smartly constructed pellet smoker. It also looks awesome.
Deluxe Digital Electric Smoker
The Char-Broil's WiFi-enabled digital electric smoker is very easy to use and has WiFi connectivity, so you can monitor and control the smoking session from a paired smartphone. Electric cookers lack serious heat and combustion gases, because of the electric element, making them better suited for imparting a light smoke flavor, especially on bigger cuts of meat.
Broil King Professional Portable Nonstick Griddle
The Broil King was the top-performing electric griddle that we tested in terms of consistent heating and cooking results, turning out batches of perfectly browned pancakes. What's more, the legs of the Broil King can be adjusted to pitch the cooking surface, which helps drain fat into its grease trap.
Portable Pizza Oven
Backyard-pizza enthusiasts who enjoy working with live fire, including all the joys and headaches involved, will be rewarded with truly wood-fired Neapolitan pizza.
Whirley Pop
The Whirley Pop is the fastest, most convenient way to make popcorn, popping out cups of the stuff in under a minute, with virtually no un-popped kernels. It also produces fluffier popcorn than any other stovetop method (air poppers might have it beat in that department), and it's excellent for distributing toppings.
Breville Induction Cooktop
When the Serious Eats test kitchen was without gas for several months, we relied on these induction burners for almost all of our recipe testing and video and photo shoots. They're not cheap, and they're not for everyone, but boy, can they do a lot. My favorite feature: a temperature-control probe that essentially lets you turn the unit into a deep fryer (just set the oil temp and let the cooktop do the rest) or a sous vide cooker–like water-bath controller (we use it to poach meats and seafood at precise temperatures, directly in a flavorful broth).
Work Sharp Ken Onion Knife Sharpener
We've long enjoined home cooks to learn to sharpen their knives on a whetstone. But we've finally come to admit that it's just not realistic for most people. The learning curve required, plus the need to do it frequently to maintain the muscle memory, makes it unlikely most home cooks will ever get good at it. Sadly, most home knife sharpeners suck, making it difficult to offer any alternative aside from finding a good knife-sharpening service. But after using this sharpener, we've been converted. It's not the absolute simplest to use, but once you learn its features, it will give you by far the best sharpening job most people will probably ever get at home, and it rivals (and, truthfully, even bests) the quality many sharpening services deliver.
Char-Griller Kamado Smoker
The Akorn is a double-walled, insulated steel egg that is much lighter and in some ways more durable than the popular Big Green Egg. It performs fairly close to traditional kamados at a fraction of the cost, so you can spend your saved bucks on getting some great meat.
Mercer Serving Bowl
With a neutral color and simple silhouette, this serving bowl is versatile enough to complement any table setting. It's also big enough to accommodate a big salad or crowd-sized portion of stew.
High-Output Torch
Forget those puny kitchen torches designed to make crème brûlée for ants. If you want some serious torching power in the kitchen, for putting the final touch on fancy desserts or for finishing off a sous vide steak, you want a high-output torch like this one. You'll get a deeper char than you'll ever be able to get from using a skillet alone.
Frigidaire Ice Maker
Some folks have fancy refrigerators that generate ice on demand. But for the rest of us, options are limited to ice cube trays and trips to the supermarket or gas station to buy ice in bulk. For avid cocktail makers and frequent backyard-barbecue hosts (particularly those with storage space to spare), this machine offers great peace of mind. It produces ice at a steady clip—it takes just six minutes to produce a batch of ice—and can churn out up to 26 pounds of ice a day.
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