Milk Street Santoku
A safer and more effective all-purpose kitchen knife than the triangular European-style chef’s knife, the Japanese santoku is the ultimate kitchen tool for the home cook. Our exclusive Milk Street-designed santoku (which translates as “3 virtues”) features a 7-inch blade that is tall at the heel and retains a nearly continuous height to the tip thanks to the rounded sheepsfoot tip. That means there’s plenty of blade steel to protect your fingers when chopping, and it also works well for scooping up chopped vegetables to transfer to the skillet or mixing bowl.
The blade features a pronounced curve to the belly for easy rock chopping and mincing, while the pointed tip makes it all-purpose enough for prepping meats or mincing onions, garlic and shallots.
The comfortable “lock in” ergonomic handle, fashioned from durable matte-finished polymer, is broad at the top and narrows to the bottom for a palm-filling grip. It doesn’t twist or turn during heavy-duty use. The handle tapers towards the blade for a comfortable transition between handle and blade—a benefit that few knives take into account.
The heel of the bolsterless blade is scalloped, which makes the knife comfortable to choke up on for a controlled, confident pinch grip. And a patch of file pattern embossed into the blade adds even more grip between the thumb and pointer finger.
Mutti Triple-Concentrated Tomato Paste
Mutti Tomato Paste is tomato paste as it was originally intended. Traditionally, this ingredient was made by drying tomato sauce on wooden boards in the sun; likewise, Mutti's modern version has a sun-dried flavor and caramelized richness reminiscent of molasses. Yet the tomato paste is not overly sweet—as tomatoes cook, their amino acids break down, which produces savory umami compounds. And unlike most tubed tomato pastes which are double-concentrated, this version is triple-concentrated, so a little goes a long way. We far prefer it to other tomato pastes in tubes, not to mention canned varieties that inevitably have a metallic taste from reacting with acidic tomato juice.
BLiS Gourmet Barrel Aged Fish Sauce
This bourbon barrel-aged fish sauce is mellowed by seven months of sitting in oak, so the earthy, meaty funk that one expects from any fermented fish product is beautifully balanced by a complementary sweetness. BLiS's product is also rounded out with soft notes imparted by the seven-month aging process: warming spices, vanilla, and fruit woods, as well as a subtle smoky depth.
ChefSofi Cheeseboard
Create a stunning charcuterie tray in minutes using ChefSofi’s excellently thought-out cheeseboard. Complete with four ceramic bowls, four cheese knives and a two-layer swiveling acacia wood board, this German-made board has space for all the crackers, hard and soft cheeses, olives, meats, spreads and nuts that you’ve been dreaming of. We appreciate that the swiveling board reveals a storage compartment to keep all four knives safe, which is just as handy as the four ceramic bowls that are removable if extra space is needed to add more goodies. Take your entertaining to the next level or gift this board to the host/hostess in your life.
Sfoglini Rye Trumpets
Sfoglini’s Rye Trumpet pasta combines rye, a grain rarely found in store-bought noodles, and the hard-to-find trumpet shape for a toothsome, subtle pasta that clings beautifully to sauce (much like Sfoglini’s beloved Cascatelli). Stone-ground organic rye flour—milled in New York’s Hudson Valley—brings a subtly earthy, tangy taste to these flower-shaped trumpets without adding any grittiness. Sfoglini’s high-quality pastas are made traditionally, using just three organic ingredients and traditional bronze dies and plates for extruding, which helps sauce cling to the pasta. If you don’t have a local fresh pasta shop nearby for handmade specialty pasta, cooking with Sfoglini is the closest thing we’ve found to fresh noodles.
Midnight Slice
For thin and medium crust pizzas, the Midnight Slice is a heavy-duty slicer that performs flawlessly and lasts a lifetime. After testing six pizza slicers to find our favorite, we found this sturdy pizza cutter sliced the most cleanly on the first try without the need for additional passes. The Midnight Slice comes equipped with an easy to turn, removable, large cutting wheel that’s sharp and stays in place. Plus, an ergonomic rotated handle allows you to press forward instead of pull backward, so you use less elbow grease to slice those extra crunchy crusts. And, there are finger grooves on the underside of the handle that take pressure off your wrist when cutting. Besides pizza, this cutter works just as well on quesadillas, flatbreads, pasta, pastry dough or pies.
Milk Street Kitchin-to™ Knife
Standard chef’s knives are big and heavy because they evolved from Middle Ages daggers, which were designed for defense. It stabs fine, but how well does it handle standard kitchen tasks such as chopping and slicing? Our solution was to look toward Japan, where knives are based on the design of the featherweight samurai sword. Japanese knives are thinner and designed for the task at hand. Based on these lighter, safer knives and our own cooking experience, we developed an all-new modern chef’s knife that’s remarkably easy to use. It’s the Milk Street Kitchin-to, part Chinese cleaver and part vegetable knife. It can handle small jobs such as slicing garlic but also makes heavy-duty jobs a breeze. With the Kitchin-to, you let the knife do the work!
Milk Street Precision Peeler
Please allow 5 business days for this product to ship
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!
Milk Street Közmatik
This Turkish tool is the secret to perfect char-roasted vegetables, especially if you don’t have a grill or fire pit. The disk fits perfectly over the grate of a gas grill or the burner of a gas stove, so no more painstakingly monitoring vegetables under the broiler or accidentally setting them on fire. The design lets heat circulate evenly around the vegetables, so you are truly roasting, rather than searing (as you would on a skillet). The holes in the közmatik are spaced close enough to hold even small veggies, so there’s no struggle to keep a bulbous eggplant steady or keep slender spring onions from falling into the fire or rolling off. It’s also less messy than trying to char directly on the burner: The közmatik catches nearly all of the bits of charred vegetable skin and juices that would otherwise leak onto the surface of the stove; and, once cooled, it can be thrown in the dishwasher for easy cleanup. Virtually impossible to track down in the U.S., this tool is essential for achieving luscious roasted eggplant and smoky-sweet roasted peppers.
Graza Co. Squeeze "Drizzle" and "Sizzle" Olive Oil Set
Enjoy the best of both worlds with Graza’s “Drizzle & Sizzle” combo pack of extra-virgin olive oils. Grown and made in Jaen, Spain, the country where about half the world’s olive oil is produced, Graza uses 100% picual olives for both their blends of extra virgin olive oil. Use “Drizzle” for finishing, made from olives harvested by hand in October when they are still young, green and not fully ripe. The younger olives make an olive oil that is full of attitude, grassy and peppery, with a spicy zip that finishes a dish beautifully. “Sizzle” is for everyday cooking, made from picual olives harvested in December and January, when they are more mature and juicy. Once pressed, “Sizzle” is a bit more mellow and milder in flavor—though still with a grassy, peppery bite—perfect for roasting, searing, poaching, pan frying, baking and marinating. Both versions also come packaged in an easy to use squeeze bottle, so you can emulate exactly what chefs do in restaurants.
Aux Co. Ltd. Gassiri Tongs
Though upon first glance Aux Co. Ltd’s Gassiri Tongs seem just like any other pair, our kitchen team was blown away after testing them. The rounded shape makes it easy to pick up spherical items like meatballs, eggs or potatoes that may run away using a normal pair of tongs. But the sides of these tongs are what really set them apart—one is designed with slits and the other with a scoop that can hold about a tablespoon of liquid. Use the slotted side to strain out unwanted liquid, like when rendering bacon, or use the scoop side to add pasta water to your sauce. Sturdy stainless steel construction—complete with a sufficient handle length—also makes these tongs strong and safe so you can pick up heavy, hot ingredients without any problems. However, they can still be used delicately—they work just as well picking up a strand of spaghetti or a soft boiled egg.
