Major Kitchen Equipment
Well, we've talked about basic cooking skills, knives I and knives II, pots and pans, bakeware, and gadgets. I guess it's time to talk about the big pieces of equipment.
Many people practice survivalism every single day--they just don’t think of it that way. Survivalism is more than just learning what to do if the apocalypse comes. Survivalism is knowing how to make the best of any situation. It’s knowing how to make do with the resources at hand. And this is where survivalism intersects with the notion of “sustainable living.” Living sustainably is survivalism. In this group, we’ll not only talk about how to survive TEOTWAWKI--we’ll talk about how to survive from day to day. We talk about everything from fixing a broken zipper to knowing how to stockpile food. Join us for the whole wide range of practical survivalism and sustainable living.
Water. The sink. We have indoor running water, hot and cold, which is very, very nice. The modern trend is towards a single bucket sink, but I prefer the double sink and wouldn't mind at all a triple sink. The sink is where we get our water, wash the food before preparing and eating it, and wash up afterwards. Some of us have dishwashers (the newer ones are energy saving and use less water than hand washing does). If we didn't have running water, we'd be dependent upon living on land that had a well or a spring or pond or river or other water source nearby. We'd have to rig a way to get the water from the source to the house. And if the water wasn't "sweet" (good tasting, free of contamination), we'd have to rig a way to make it so.
The refrigerator. We all think we can't live without a refrigerator, but people did for hundreds of years. They ate differently to account for the lack of refrigeration, but they managed to eat and keep food for centuries without refrigerators. We don't have to, because we have the knowledge and the ability to fuel our refrigerators with multiple methods. Electricity, gas, propane, even steam, will work. One way or another, we'll find a way to keep our refrigerators. So that's an important piece of big kitchen equipment. The refrigeration side needs to keep foods cooled to around 40ºF and the freezer portion needs to be set between 5ºF and 15ºF. Everything else like size, ice makers, in-the-door water and ice, shelves, drawers, and all that is optional.
The freezer. For most people, the freezer compartment of the refrigerator is sufficient, but those who do the once-a-month cooking, a separate freezer may be needed to store the quantities of food. Also, if you hunt or garden heavily, a larger freezer may be needed. I use my freezer to help with brain tanning the hides of game friends and I hunt. The freezing process helps soften the hides and makes tanning them easier. The chest freezer is more energy efficient, the upright freezer easier to access. It's your choice which you prefer.
The range. This is the cook top - gas (propane or natural) and electric are our most common choices. I prefer a gas range because I can better control the temperature, and I can "jazz up" one burner to burn much hotter and "cool down" one burner to be a simmer burner. The most common range, gas or electric, though, is one large burner and 3 smaller burners, although some come with a center griddle (mine is like that). I know people like the electric cook tops that are sealed so they can wipe the spills up easily, and if that's what you like, go for it. There's also the induction cook top. I've cooked on my sister's but she's already had to replace it twice in the last 5 years, so I'm not too sure about its durability. Mine has to be a real work horse, capable of handling huge stockpots and canners, and I don't think her induction top can do that.
My ideal stove, the one I really, really want, costs more than I'll ever be able to afford. What I have works well; it does everything I ask it to do (with some tweaking); it's just that if I ever win the lottery, I'm buying that stove! Of course, I'll have to buy another house to put it in because it won't fit in my current house without extensive remodeling, so I might as well sell this house and buy another one suited to The Stove.
Many ranges also come with ovens, but you can also buy ovens separately, like wall ovens.
The oven. Built into many modern ranges, the oven is where baking and roasting and such happens. Electric and convection ovens give the greatest consistency in baking, but gas is also very good. Whether the oven is built into the stove or a separate oven that goes into the wall, they all work pretty much the same - heat surrounds and cooks/bakes the food.
There are counter top ovens, too, called toaster ovens. These are good for small baking and toasting - garlic bread, for instance. Or for firing small Sculpey/Fimo sculptures. They're good for broiling and instead of using a culinary torch, I often put my creme brulee under the broiler of a toaster oven - works nearly as well.
Counter tops. Most people don't think of the counter top as "equipment", but honestly, you need a surface on which to prepare your foods and place your small appliances. I have decentish counter space, probably about 8' combined. It's a nasty laminate that was old and nasty (warped, stained) when I bought the house and is now much older and broken, thanks to the plumber. But it works. It is still solid, however much I grumble about it. If you don't have enough counter space, you can supplement it with a rolling butcher's block, a rolling kitchen island, folding tables, the dining table, and even ironing boards.
Cabinets. Cabinets are used for storing your dishes and serving ware, glasses, cups, mugs, plates, and so on. In small families and tiny kitchens, they may also be used to store pantry items like food and spices. A sideboard, buffet, or china cabinet can take the place of cabinets or supplement them.
Pantry. The pantry is where the food is stored. It can be in the kitchen cabinets, a free standing pantry, a pantry system in one end of the kitchen, or a room of its own.
Other kitchen areas that aren't common anymore include stillrooms, root cellars, and such. Perhaps some of them will make a comeback, at least partway.
Stillroom. This is the room where medicinals were made, along with perfumes, household cleaners and toiletries, and the canning and preserving of food. Since this process was once a year round endeavor, it wouldn't do to have the kitchen, where daily meals were prepared, filled with racks of drying herbs and dehydrating fruits and vegetables, shelves of empty canning jars waiting to be filled, and piles of produce waiting to be preserved, so a separate room was set up with a sink and a heat source to do all of this without interfering with the daily needs of cooking and eating.
Root Cellar. This is kind of like a pantry, but was a cool room, usually underground, where fresh produce was stored: bins of potatoes, carrots, apples, winter squashes, barrels of pickles and sauerkraut, and so on. Some people have basements they can convert to this. I've seen old bomb shelters converted into root cellars. I've seen half buried (new, metal) trash cans doubling as root cellars.
Ale room. This is the room where beer, ale, mead, wine, and sodas were made and bottled and stored. The equipment was permanently set up for that, with a water source and a heat source, the huge carboys and the aging barrels.
Outdoor kitchen. This actually is making a comeback, with wood fired earthen ovens, and even with fancy outdoor sinks and refrigerators. The purpose was once to help keep the house cool, now it's an entertainment area, that also helps keep the house cooler in summer.
The smokehouse. This is the place where the cows and pigs and game were taken to butcher up and smoke, where sausages were made and hung until eaten, where games birds were aged. Modern ones are small and don't have the space to store things, but once smoked or cured or aged, the meats could be moved to the pantry or root cellar for longer term storage.
Springhouse. This was what we used for refrigeration before refrigerators. The springhouse stored foods that needed to be kept chilled - meats, dairy, tender fruits and vegetables. We have refrigerators now, but if we didn't have them, we'd need something like a springhouse.
Cheese cave. Modern refrigeration gives us a lot - without it, we might need a cheese cave in addition to the springhouse and root cellar.
I'm sure I've left something out, but this pretty much covers