The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

Isn’t it annoying trying to chop carrots on your cutting
board when that little pile of parsley in the corner is getting
in your way? Or what about frantically trying to scoop up
the chopped ginger to get it into that stir-fry-in-progress
before your bok choy wilts? I use several prep bowls with a
small capacity (we’re talking 1-cup or less) pretty much
every time I cook to keep chopped aromatics, measured
spices, grated cheese, whatever, off my board, within easy
reach, and organized. This is what fancy cooks call their
mise en place. In the cabinet directly above my cutting
board, I have a couple dozen 25-cent ceramic condiment
and cereal bowls from IKEA for this very purpose. (If you
want to go fancy, you can get sets of Pyrex clear glass prep
bowls.)
Large mixing bowls are equally valuable. While the all-
glass ones look nice up on the shelf, they’re a total pain in
the butt to work with. I remember many days at Cook’s
Illustrated magazine when we’d have to search through
stacks and stacks of glass bowls while working on a photo
shoot to find the one or two that weren’t chipped on their
edges. Where do these glass chips end up? On the floor? In
the food? In my own kitchen, I’d rather not find out. Plastic
bowls seem like a reasonable solution until you realize that
plastic absorbs both stains and odors from oily and other
foods. Pour a batch of olive-oil-and-butter-based marinara
sauce (here) into a white plastic bowl, and you’ll find that
you’re now the proud owner of an orange plastic bowl.
Instead, I use inexpensive stainless steel bowls that I
picked up from a restaurant supply store (if you don’t have
a good one near you, try the ABC Valueline brand from