Milk Street Wok Skimmer
When using a wok, mise en place isn’t just about your ingredients—it’s about your tools, too. Draining liquids and oils away quickly while stir-frying, frying or boiling requires sturdy but agile equipment with enough surface area to easily get under your ingredients, while keeping your hands at a safe distance. The right tools can make all the difference in how your dinner turns out.
Milk Street’s Wok Skimmer is custom-designed to work seamlessly with the Milk Street Hammered Wok. This well-built, stainless steel tool features the right handle length and bowl size for nimble and efficient use, unlike flimsy, poorly made tools that aren’t big or wide enough to be effective in a wok. It scoops, strains and drains effortlessly—and excels when used in tandem with the Milk Street Wok Spatula. The satin-finished steel is dishwasher-safe, rust-proof and nearly impervious to wear.
And despite its name, the Milk Street Wok Skimmer is terrific beyond the wok. Its uniquely perforated head makes it an ideal tool for lifting blanched vegetables or deep-fried foods out of hot water and red-hot oil. Or use it to strain delicate stuffed pastas, like tortellini or spaetzle, out of a simmering pot to avoid breaking them. It’s even great for skimming broths and stocks.
🐰 Milk Street Sofrito
We created our sofrito to be the perfect building block to cook a wide variety of recipes in less time, based on the tradition of Italian and Spanish grandmothers who make this by the jar to simplify cooking and boost flavor. After much testing, we came up with an aromatic base of sautéed onions, carrots and celery, complemented by the bright tones of tomatoes, white wine and vinegar. For additional depth, it has earthy, umami notes from mushroom powder, aromatic notes of rosemary and thyme, and just a hint of heat from black pepper and Kashmiri chili powder. A few tablespoons of this jammy sofrito is all it takes to spread rich, concentrated power into soups, sauces, stews, braises and nearly anything else that needs a boost of big flavor.
Milk Street Non-Slip Cutting Board Mat (Flex Mat)
There’s nothing more unsettling than your cutting board sliding around while you chop or watching your stand mixer wobble across the countertop while kneading elastic bread dough. That’s why we developed this dishwasher-safe, heatproof and nonslip cutting mat to keep things stable, safe and secure. It’s large enough to accommodate a full-sized cutting board, but can also be cut to size for more specialized shapes. Unlike flimsy, thin foam mats, wet paper towels or dishtowels, this cutting mat actually locks tools into place, thanks to its grippy, heatproof and dishwasher-safe silicone construction. It’ll keep things where you need them.
Milk Street Limited Edition Premium Nakiri — Cocobolo Wood
What if we told you there is a Japanese knife specifically designed for vegetable prep that will make your cooking safer, easier and faster? It is vastly better than the all-purpose European chef’s knife, which is clunky, heavy and too thick to precisely slice and dice onions, cut carrots into perfect coins or reduce chard into feathery ribbons.
The solution is the Milk Street Nakiri. It’s light, thin and sharp, with a design that resembles a mini cleaver—2 inches deep with a squared-off tip. The very thin blade, just 1.5 millimeters at the top, tapers down even thinner toward the end so it slices through even tough ingredients effortlessly without sticking. The broad blade shields your fingers when you chop and works as a bench scraper to transfer chopped veggies to the simmering pot. The blade’s heel gently curves to accommodate your fingers when choking up tight for control.
This is a limited edition, premium run of our tried-and-true Milk Street Nakiri knife. It features a high-end Japanese AUS8 steel blade specially treated with a nonstick “Tsuchime” hammered surface—foods slide right off—and a gorgeously grained cocobolo wood handle. And it comes with a custom saya, or knife guard, to keep your blade keen and protect it in storage. Consider it an heirloom-quality tool to pass on to the next generation.
🐰 Milk Street Flex Spatula
The Milk Street Flex Spatula is an indispensable and endlessly useful kitchen tool for sautéing, stir-frying, grilling and more. The 6.5-inch flexible paddle is lightweight and easy to manipulate, yet it's sturdy enough to lift half-pound burgers and whole grilled cheese sandwiches. The sharp, angled edge and ultrathin design will easily slide underneath delicate foods like eggs, pancakes or its namesake fish fillets. Plus, the spatula’s slats make it perfect for lifting frying foods from the pan as the cooking oil drips right through. And it might be the world’s best tool for serving light, crumbly cakes.
Kitchen Note: This spatula isn’t designed for nonstick cookware and can scratch those surfaces.
🐰 Zulay Kitchen Metal Manual Citrus Press Juicer
This two-in-one manual juicer is the top choice of our kitchen team. Its lever-style design is much easier on the hands than a typical reamer style, which requires difficult pressing and twisting, and it’s more efficient than other similar juicers, which require you to buy and store multiple to get every size you need. Made from durable, industrial-grade aluminum, the Zulay’s unique dual-cup design can easily accommodate both lemons and limes. It also inverts the citrus as it juices, accessing spots inside the fruit that other juicers can’t quite reach and catching large pulp pieces and stray seeds along the way. Plus, it directs the juice stream downward, so no more splatter on countertops and clothing.
🐰 Milk Street Ginger Confit
The worst thing in any recipe is seeing, “2 tablespoons of ginger, grated.” Ginger is one of the most annoying ingredients to prep. It’s a pain to peel, grating takes forever and by the end, you’ve probably dirtied a spoon, plate and a grater—which gets packed with stringy fibers. Instead, reach for Milk Street Premium Essentials Ginger Confit, the closest thing to fresh ginger you’ll ever taste out of a jar. Supermarket ginger pastes can be stinging-sharp, packed with additives and unpleasantly fibrous, so we developed this product to solve those problems to produce a fresh, clean ginger taste. Never grate ginger again!
🐰 Milk Street Funayuki All-Purpose Prep Knife
Once an essential tool of Japanese fisherman, the funayuki (literally “boat-going knife”), is designed as the original do-it-all knife for fish, meats and vegetables. The 6½-inch long, leaf-shaped blade is tall enough to safely chop through large amounts of ingredients at one time like a cleaver, yet it tapers quickly to a fine tip for precision tasks. The strongly arced blade and forward stance excels at cutting meats, though it minces and rock chops vegetables equally well. The curve extends the blade length for cleaner slicing in a compact package.
🐰 Milk Street Nakiri
What if we told you there is a Japanese knife specifically designed for vegetable prep that will make your cooking safer, easier and faster? It is vastly better than the all-purpose European chef’s knife, which is clunky, heavy and too thick to precisely slice and dice onions, cut carrots into perfect coins or reduce chard into feathery ribbons. The solution is the Milk Street Nakiri. It’s light, thin and sharp, with a design that resembles a mini cleaver—2 inches deep with a squared-off tip. A very thin blade, just 1.6 millimeters at the top, tapers down even thinner toward the end so it slices through even tough ingredients effortlessly without bending. The broad blade shields your fingers when you chop and works as a bench scraper to transfer chopped veggies to the simmering pot. With the help of veteran industrial designer David Lewin, we added a few special touches. The blade is embossed with a nonstick file pattern that replicates the kourochi (blacksmith) or tshuchime (pear skin) finish to traditional nakiris, so sliced ingredients fall right off. A gentle curve accommodates fingers when choking up tight for control, and the handle has been designed to provide a nonslip grip.
Milk Street Season 7 Cookbook
The new edition of the Milk Street Cookbook contains over 600 recipes, 300 photos and 730 pages of recipes that deliver big, bold flavors with less work and less time, every recipe from each one of our 167 episodes is included.
In a southeastern Asian restaurant in Paris, we came across garlicky lemon-grass chicken wings and the crispest, easiest crispy pork belly to top rice bowls. In Rome, there are so many simple pasta dishes that we do not make here but should, including Pasta with Ricotta, Tomatoes and Herbs. Everybody loves meatballs but in Morocco, they simmer them in a spiced sauce and add olives. If you love banana bread, our recipe for Banana Hazelnut Bread, which we discovered in a small bakery in Berlin. We traveled to Venice to rethink a simple Spaghetti with Clams recipe—fast and briny. And fried chicken from Bangkok is ramped up with ginger, garlic and fermented chili paste.
Want to change the way you cook to become the best cook you know? Get your copy of the Milk Street Television Cookbook today. Join us on our culinary quest to transform the way America cooks—and eats.
Milk Street Julienne Peeler
Shredding vegetables into a fine julienne turns tough vegetables tender and opens up their flavor. However, it usually requires the hassle of hauling out the food processor—and finding the shredding attachments, or using a box grater, which will tear at your knuckles if you’re not paying keen attention. Or, you can try your luck with any number of the cheap, gimmicky shredders on the market, which dull quickly and buckle under use.
The Milk Street Julienne Peeler makes shredding vegetables easy, safe and effective. We married our confidence-inspiring, ergonomic 304 stainless steel handle to a razor-sharp, 16-tooth julienne blade for a lifetime tool. Shred your way through soft and hard vegetables alike for salads, slaws, hash browns and more. And when the blade eventually wears out, its easily replaceable with the turn of the screw.
Milk Street Cast Iron Grill Plate with Detachable Handle
Here at Milk Street, we’re big proponents of cooking with cast iron to get a good sear on food—which is why we designed our Cast Iron Sizzling Plate. The thin yet sturdy construction heats up quickly—over any burner or grill—and holds its heat well. The cast iron surface, when taken care of, prevents foodstuffs from sticking, so you can get an excellent sear on scallops, fish, jumbo shrimp, chicken, pork, steak, vegetables and more. With its sturdy birch wood base and detachable handle, the griddle can also easily be brought to the table and used as much as a hot plate as a cooking pan. Heat it in the oven and fill it with appetizers like warm, spiced nuts or baked feta drizzled with fruity olive oil, herbs and pepper flakes. Or use it to serve sizzling fajitas or stir-fried noodles. Plus, the ingenious handle removes easily for serving and storage.
🐰 Milk Street Bunka Knife
The Milk Street Bunka Knife is the turbocharged take on what an all-purpose knife can be. Similar in size to the more widely known santoku, the bunka’s nearly constant 6.75-inch blade width functions much like a nakiri, ideal for precise vegetable prep, safety (shields the fingers when slicing) and scooping up foods like a bench scraper into your mixing bowl or hot skillet. But unlike the squared-off tip of the nakiri, the bunka’s blade tapers into a chisel-like kiritsuke tip (translates as “slit open”), which allows for piercing cuts and fine detail work when prepping ingredients like meat. The nearly flat blade profile arcs subtly to the tip, meaning it can be used for rock chopping or mincing. You know those instances where you thought you sliced a pepper into thin strips and it all stuck together, like an accordion? Not a chance of that with the bunka. The mid-sized, premium German steel blade is also the perfect compromise in length. It’s long enough to cleanly slice proteins or span a whole cabbage, but short enough to always be in complete control without feeling unwieldy. And the ergonomic handle provides a comfortable grip regardless of your hand size. No more slipping and twisting when you really just want to hold tight. It’s a knife you can use for everything from peeling garlic and onions to chopping a precise brunoise and peeling the tough silverskin off a pork tenderloin, then slicing it into fine cutlets. If you’re confident with a razor-tipped chef’s knife and precision handling, the bunka is your answer.
Milk Street Shallot Confit
Tired of trying to mince slippery shallots, or cook them to an even golden brown without the risk of burning? Slow cooking takes time and supervision, which is something few of us have the time for on busy weeknights.
Milk Street Premium Essentials Shallot Confit is a rich-tasting blend of minced shallots, olive oil and ghee simmered slow and low to a deep, savory flavor and jammy texture. White wine, bay leaf and a touch of spice add dimension to boost any cuisine. It’s designed to be all-purpose enough to replace cooked shallots in virtually any recipe. Try in soups, stews, sauces and sauces. Fold into grains or beans, spread inside grilled cheese and paninis, top burgers or dollop on to pizza. It saves valuable time and effort, getting a flavorful dinner on the table faster.
🐰 Milk Street Cleaver
Every cook needs a big, burly knife for the tough stuff. A big chuck roast to turn into stew meat? A soccer-ball sized cabbage to shred for coleslaw? Chicken legs need splitting? Tasks like these make most knives feel puny and insignificant.
Sometimes, you just need a big knife for kitchen tasks, but they often feel heavy, clumsy and downright unsafe in the hand. Often, the blades are ultra-thick—for only brutish, heavy-duty tasks—or are designed with unique blade shapes, which require a learning curve to master. Or, they have stubby handles barely long enough to grip.
Enter the Milk Street Cleaver, an all-purpose knife designed to work equally well for vegetables and butchering big cuts of meat. At 7 inches long, 3 inches tall and less than half a pound, this tool is an inch shorter than the average cleaver for a lighter, more nimble experience. However, it maintains full height for shielding fingers during chopping and using as a bench scraper to scoop up and transfer prepped foods to the pot. And, at only 2 millimeters thick at the spine, this cleaver is as thin as possible to maintain stiffness, yet slices with little force.
Unlike most cleavers that feature a basic rectangular blade design, the Milk Street Cleaver boasts some distinctive design points. The blade arcs inward at the heel to allow for multiple grips, while keeping your fingers guarded and preserving the length of the blade. To feel and function like a smaller knife, the cutaway heel lets you choke up close and tight on the blade. Or slide your hand back on the handle for more clearance, leverage and power.
The blade’s edge differs as well. Compared to the typical cleaver’s perfectly straight blade edges, the Milk Street Cleaver gently curves tip to heel for a natural slicing and chopping motion. It’ll feel the same in use as your chef’s knife—but safer while requiring less effort!
The blade’s unique embossed file pattern creates a nonstick surface—air gets trapped between the food being cut and the blade, preventing foods from clinging. Food falls right off. And a full-sized, ergonomic handle, far longer than the stubby handles on most traditional Chinese-style cleavers, helps creates a neutral midpoint balance that feels more natural than the forward-leaning heft of most cleavers.
Milk Street Small Nakiri
Introducing the Milk Street Small Nakiri, a companion piece to our full-scale vegetable knife. In Japan, nakiris come in all shapes and sizes to accommodate a variety of hands and chopping styles. Small nakiris, called ko-nakiri, are perfect for those who prefer using small knives or for the cook who wants a reliable knife that stands in for a paring knife or prep tool. It’s every bit as essential a kitchen tool as the full-scale knife.
Like its big brother, the Small Nakiri is the perfect tool for vegetable prep. Super thin, lightweight and razor sharp, it’s a nimble knife for all your slicing and dicing. It’ll precisely slice razor-thin ribbons of shallots, carrot coins or garlic cloves and turn a fluffy pile of parsley into confetti.
Both large and small nakiris have their roles to play for effortless prep. The Small Nakiri excels at the little stuff that can make a big knife feel awkward and even dangerous—slicing garlic into paper-thin slices, mincing shallots or onion into tiny cubes, shaving radishes, slicing mushrooms, shredding fine herbs into a feathery garnish and more.
This isn’t just a shrunk-down version of our full-size Nakiri. It’s reengineered top to bottom for impeccable small-scale function. The blade is roughly 4.5 inches long (just a little longer than most paring knives), so it feels just right for all the usual prep. It’s tall though—1.75 inches—so that it has all the benefits of a big knife: Never bang your knuckles on the cutting board, chop through big veggies and scoop up foods like a bench scraper to dump into the pot. Of course, the tall blade also shields your fingers during chopping. Also, the blade shape is tapered to the tip and curved to make the smaller blade function as effectively as the large version for slicing. Our signature lock-in handle is slightly scaled down for the smaller blade but every bit as comfortable and secure, regardless of hand size.
Like the larger Nakiri, the blade is embossed with a nonstick file pattern that replicates the kurouchi (blacksmith) finish to traditional nakiris, so sliced ingredients fall right off. A gentle curve at the butt accommodates fingers when choking up tight for control, and the handle has been designed to provide a nonslip grip.
🐰 Milk Street Közmatik
When a recipe calls for charring vegetables, what do you do? Well, you can fire up the grill but that is a lot of work for just one eggplant or two bell peppers. In Turkey, however, they have a better solution called the Közmatik, a metal disk that fits perfectly over the burner of a gas stove. Evenly spaced holes allow heat to circulate around the vegetables, so you are truly roasting, rather than searing as you would on a skillet. The holes are close enough to hold even small veggies, like slender spring onions, and the disk is large enough to keep several bulbous eggplants from rolling off. It’s also less messy than charring directly on the burner: The Közmatik catches nearly all of the bits of charred vegetable skin and juices that would leak onto the surface of the stove. And, once cooled, it can be thrown in the dishwasher for easy cleanup.
🐰 Milk Street Precision Peeler
Most peelers do a lousy job. The blades are made of inferior steel so they do not peel easily and the peel itself is often too thick. The blades dull over time so you have to throw it out. Many designs have uncomfortable handles or the handles are awkward since they are not aligned properly with the blade. And when it comes to thick, tough skins such as butternut squash, you might as well give up before you start. That is why we just redesigned the peeler, using top-grade 420 stainless steel for the replaceable blade (why don’t all peelers have replaceable blades?) and a handle that is big enough for a firm, easy grip. Try it just once and you will find that it peels like cutting through butter. It’s that good!