whether your steak is cold, warm, or hot in the center. As
accurate as a thermometer? No. Good in a pinch? You bet.
You can go all out and pay the $5 for a cake tester from
OXO, which has a grippy black handle, but you may risk
being made fun of for being too fancy-pants. The cake tester
from Fox Run ($1.29) is the cheapest I’ve found online.
- Lots of Squeeze Bottles
I’m guessing a good 80 percent of you have read Anthony
Bourdain’s proclamation of love to his squeeze bottles in
Kitchen Confidential:
The indispensable object in most chefs’ shtick is the
simple plastic squeeze bottle, . . . essentially the same
objects you see at hot-dog stands, loaded with mustard
and ketchup. Mask a bottom of a plate with, say, an
emulsified butter sauce, then run a couple of concentric
rings of darker sauce—demi-glace, or roast pepper
puree—around the plate, and . . . drag a toothpick
through the rings or lines.Sure, it’s a good tool to have if outdated, overwrought
plating is your thing. But there are better reasons to own a
squeeze bottle than aesthetics. Namely, they’ll make you a
better cook and a better eater.
Before squeeze bottles made their appearance in my
kitchen, I’d eat salads perhaps once or twice a month, and
only when I was hosting a dinner party. The hassle of
making a fresh batch of vinaigrette just for myself and my
wife was simply too much (forget about using bottled