Milk Street Tri-Edge Knife
The typical bread knife tears its way through loaves and mashes tomatoes to pulp. So we spent months re-engineering the bread knife from the ground up, testing competitors’ knives to learn what we wanted and discarding what we didn’t. The result, the *Milk Street Tri-Edge Bread Knife*, perfectly handles it all, slicing easily through any style of bread, delicate pastries, overstuffed sandwiches and tough tomatoes. It's also the perfect knife for difficult tasks, like chopping nuts and chocolate, handling dried fruit, and cutting up large blocks of butter.
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.
Christopher Kimball for Kuhn Rikon: Ratchet Grinder
Most pepper mills (this model also grinds spices) take forever to grind just one tablespoon. This new design—which we developed with Kuhn Rikon—is easy to use and produces all the spice you need quickly. Its innovative back-and-forth ratchet action is simpler than a twist-style mill, especially for those with hand issues. The precision ceramic grinder is effective and durable, and the front-loading hopper is far better than top-loading grinders, where half the spices inevitably spill during filling. Perhaps our favorite feature is the removable bottom container, which makes it easy to measure and transport spices to a stovetop pot or mixing bowl.
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 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.
Suncraft 9-inch Seseragi Bread Knife
With three unique blade edges, this smartly-designed serrated knife combines the function of two knives in one—slicing through any and all loaves with ease. The blade is 9 inches, so long enough to cut the largest loaf cleanly without sawing back and forth. And the tapered blade features a gently curved belly to facilitate clean slicing. A 2-inch section of wide wave serrations located closer to the tip of the knife dives in and saws through a crunchy, rustic outer crust, while the smaller teeth cleanly slice through the inner crumb. It’s also ideal for delicate foods like soft sandwich breads and juicy tomatoes. The knife features a small length of straight blade at the tip to pierce through tough crusts, tomato skins or melon rinds. Plus, the handle is specifically designed for a comfortable grip, with a slight curve to it.
Milk Street Noodles Cookbook
Nearly every culture serves some sort of noodle, from fettuccine, ramen and spaetzle to lo mein, gnocchi and udon. So we traveled the world to learn the secrets to the best pad Thai, Italian ragù, spicy North African couscous and buttery Turkish noodles flecked with feta cheese. In Italy, we were taught the real fettuccine Alfredo—so much lighter, simpler and satisfying than what we knew. In Sapporo, Japan, we learned to develop the deep umami flavors of miso ramen with minimal time and effort. And from Ho Chi Minh to Lima, we learned the art of the quick noodle stir-fry, from Vietnamese shrimp noodles to Peruvian chicken and pasta. Noodles are a perfect canvas for spring and summer vegetables, as well as hearty wintertime baked casseroles. And if speed is the need, try hoisin-ginger noodles or our cheesy one-pan cacio e pepe, both ready in 20 minutes. What’s for dinner? Use your noodle.
Akadi Marinade and Dipping Sauce
Beit Sitti Mixed Spice (Baharat)
Turn ground beef into kefta meatballs in an instant with just a spoonful of Beit Sitti’s Mixed Spice (Baharat). "Baharat," which means "spice" in Arabic, is an all-purpose seasoning blend from the Middle East, comparable to Moroccan ras al hanout. Different shops, regions and brands have their own proprietary blends; this version from Beit Sitti—a small, woman-run cooking school in Jordan selling authentic pantry staples—blew us away with its powerful aroma and intensity of flavor. Warming spices—like cardamom, cloves, allspice and nutmeg—dominate the mix’s flavor, but the baharat is underpinned with black pepper and a roundness from turmeric. Mastic (a ground powder made from gum mastic) adds a woody, earthy note that prevents this blend from tasting too sweet.
Ingredients: Black Pepper, Cardamom, Saffron, Turmeric, Cloves, Mastic, Allspice, NutmegAllergens: None[/accordion] Specifications [/title] Net Weight: 100 grams
Place of Origin: Amman, Jordan[/accordions-break] Sprinkle over meats and vegetable dishes to add distinctive Middle Eastern flavor—add 1 to 2 teaspoons to kefta, kibbe, stews, soups and with fish, red meat and chicken. Try it in Garlicky Spiced Chicken and Potato Traybake with Pomegranate Molasses and replace the spices in our Beef Kibbeh with 2 to 3 teaspoons of this spice mix. [/how-to-use-break]
Wet-It Dishcloths
In addition to being highly durable and effective, Wet-It Dishcloths are ridiculously easy to keep clean in a wide variety of methods: Wash them in the washing machine and dryer with the rest of your laundry; add them to the top rack of your dishwasher; soak them in a boiling pot of water; or wet the cloths then microwave for three minutes to sanitize.
