13 Essential Utensils You Need For Your First Kitchen

Moving into your first apartment or home is such an exciting time for so many reasons. It usually means independence, establishment, a decent-paying job, and — the best part — decorating and stocking your new place. When it comes to the kitchen, the first thing you might think of is filling your fridge and cabinets with food, but there's not a whole lot you can do with it if you don't have the proper equipment to cook. This can be overwhelming, so in an effort to help you out, Daily Meal has come up with a list of 13 absolute necessities you'll reach for time and time again when you're preparing meals.

Our list was established with convenience and necessity in mind. While we love a unique kitchen gadget (like meat claws for easily shredding chicken), we tried to include items that perform many tasks and that most people use multiple times a week whether they're making a soup, pasta, salad, a stovetop-cooked, or oven-roasted meal. As you put together your home and kitchen and begin to cook on a regular basis, you'll of course discover specific tools you want for your cooking style and your favorite dishes. But until then, these should get you by comfortably.

There are a lot of knives to choose from, and while we know how convenient paring, serrated, and boning knives can be, there's almost nothing a sturdy, sharp chef's knife can't handle. Not only can you mince, slice, dice, and chop meats, fruits, herbs, and vegetables, but you can also crush garlic cloves and even scoop up your ingredients with the wide blade. This indispensable tool will become a favorite, even years into your kitchen ventures.

You're going to need a solid surface to prep your ingredients, so having a cutting board is a necessity for any kitchen. There are plastic, wood, and glass board options to choose from, but we like wood because it's gentle on your knife edges and doesn't hold onto bacteria when it's cleaned and dried. Go with a size that is convenient for you, fits on our counterspace, and stores away effortlessly. If you want it to last, follow these tips for taking care of your cutting boards and keeping them clean.

Over time, you'll probably collect several pan sizes, but with a large one, you can fry a single egg, cook a steak, fry some chicken, caramelize onions, or sauté an entire bag of spinach. Consider a material like stainless steel or cast iron that you can transition from the stovetop to the oven, especially if you don't yet have roasting pans.

Yes, a stockpot is big and bulky, but it's incredibly convenient to have around. You can make soups, stews, and mashed potatoes in it, but it's also the perfect vessel for boiling pasta, blanching vegetables, steaming, and even making popcorn. If you like to can and preserve foods, a stock pot is a must-have.

Can you make hot chocolate and heat up a single serving of pasta sauce in a stockpot? Sure, but that's pretty awkward to do. This is why having a smaller saucepan in your kitchen is another excellent choice. It's great for heating up frozen and canned ingredients, plus you can make rice, boil eggs, melt butter and chocolate, and heat up leftovers in this smaller vessel.

Sets of cooking utensils are widely available in grocery stores, kitchen stores, and big box stores. The smaller sets might contain a couple of spatulas and spoons, while larger sets might come with soup ladles, whisks, and pasta servers. All of these are super-handy for a variety of tasks, especially the spatulas and spoons, which you'll probably use every single time you cook.

While tongs sometimes come in larger sets of cooking utensils, they're also often sold on their own. Either way, you'll definitely want them in your cooking-tool repertoire. These are great for grabbing and flipping hot food while the long handle keeps your skin away from the heat. You can toss pasta, serve salads, and mix stir-fries with a good set of tongs.

Whether you cook a lot or not, you likely have plenty of canned goods in your pantry, and, honestly, the easiest and safest way to open them is with a can opener. There are a lot of brands and styles to choose from, including electric openers, comfort grips, and those that take the lids off without leaving a sharp edge.

If the stockpot you purchase comes with a colander insert, then you've got two great tools in one. But if not, buying a colander is a worthwhile investment. You'll use it to drain cooked pasta and boiled vegetables, wash fruits and vegetables, and drain canned beans, fruits, and veggies. You've probably never thought about it, but you can even use it as a makeshift steamer basket.

The great thing about a box grater is that you have four different shredding styles to accommodate your ingredient prep. With a box grater, you can shred cheese and vegetables like potatoes and zucchini, slice veggies and fruits, take the zest off citrus fruits, and finely grate hard ingredients like nutmeg and parmesan cheese.

This is the ideal tool for tasks like roasting vegetables and meats in the oven, and for baking cookies. But a half sheet pan comes in handy for a lot more tasks. Use it as a lid for pots and pans, make an entire dinner right on a single pan (just make sure the ingredients are about the same size), bake a pizza, make a sheet cake, and use it to soak bamboo skewers, since the pan is large enough to fully immerse them.

If you're following any kind of recipe, you'll see that it almost always calls for measuring specific amounts of ingredients. This is where measuring cups and spoons come in. Exact measurements are particularly vital in baking. You can use measuring spoons to create meatballs that are all the same size, and measuring cups come in handy when pouring out pancake batter or scooping muffin or cupcake batter into baking tins.

If you're a home cook, you know that combining ingredients is a big part of the game, and a mixing bowl is an essential piece of this. You can use a mixing bowl to toss and serve salads, mix your baking ingredients, whip cream, marinade meats, fill with ice and cold water to make an ice bath for blanched veggies, or an impromptu ice bucket; it's also great to use as a popcorn bowl or a general serving bowl.