Quick Tip: Improvising Kitchen Utensils

Improvisation.

That is the key word that all good chefs need to know. Whether it is substituting one ingredient for another, or making your own recipe using leftovers from the fridge, you have to know how to improvise - especially when you are cooking on a budget.

 Today I want to talk about the tools you are using in the kitchen.

Kitchen utensils can be expensive - especially when we are talking about high-quality ones. Compound this with the fact that most colleges won't allow you to bring most appliances and utensils on campus and you can see why improvisation is so important.

So, I will give you a couple of tips about how to substitute certain utensils with commonplace items.

Whisk/Hand Mixer - This one is incredibly simple - just use a fork. It should work for most things. For the longest time, I used a fork before I had my own electric hand mixer or whisk.

Measuring Cup - You may or may not realize this, but most standard-sized coffee cups hold the equivalent of 1 cup if they are filled just below the brim. This won't help you if you need to measure water to exactly 1/4 of a cup, but in a pinch you could always eyeball it by using the coffee cup.

Bottle Opener - This one will only work if you have a Mac, unfortunately. I recently read that you can use a Mac laptop adapter cord to open a bottle. Just take the little box off of the end of the adapter that has the two prongs on it that go into the wall and use the larger part of the adapter box to pry off the cap (the part of the adapter with the metal circle that protrudes when you remove the pronged piece).

Can Opener - With this method, you need to be extremely careful. It is quite possible to open a can with a sharp knife. Simply puncture the can at the top along the edge (where you would normally use a can opener), then turn the knife so that the blade is facing up, put the tip up the knife into the hole you created and apply downward pressure to the handle. By slowly repeating this, you can work your way around the edge of the can to get it open. But I will say this again, be extremely careful!


I will keep adding to this as I come up with more ideas.

Please comment and share some of your own improvisations!