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I have always loved Fall. But never ever ever has it been so welcomed and so anticipated as this year in California, in which wildfires have scorched over 4 million acres, it hasn’t rained in over 120 days, and for months the air has been too unhealthy to play outside, all while being home with the family 24/7 due to the pandemic!!
I am so looking forward to cold damp morning, rain, snow, hot tea, soups, and slow-braised dishes that fill the home with warmth and delicious aromas all day long! Soups, braises, casseroles and big roasts to share at family gatherings are my favorite things to cook. As I pace my house and daydream about all the things I’m going to cook as soon as the weather changes, I’ve been noticing, I need restock and prepare my kitchen for Fall and Winter cooking.
This is my 10 Must Have Kitchen Items for the cold weather months. When choosing items for my kitchen, I go for economical, durable and utilitarian. All of these products have been put through the paces in my home kitchen or at the restaurant and have stood up to heavy use.
10 Must Have Kitchen Items for Cold Weather Cooking
A Brazier
A brazier is a short wide oven proof pot (really all cookware should be oven proof) with a lid that is perfect for browning and braising meat, and cooking casseroles or sauces. I have this enameled cast iron one and I love it.
A Dutch Oven
I use my dutch oven primarily for making sourdough bread and during the colder months I do this several times a week. It’s essential! Dutch ovens work for anything you would cook in a crock pot but you can also sauté vegetables and brown meat in it which means you don’t need an extra dish to do this! Running the oven on low all day with your dutch oven in it warms up the home in colder months. I love dutch oven cooking! This one has a lid that doubles as a cast-iron skillet.
| Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Double Dutch Oven With Loop Handles, 5 qt |
Buy Now →A Kitchen Scale
A kitchen scale is a necessity for baking bread and weighing salt for cured meats, sauerkraut and fermented vegetables.
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A Pie Pan
A pie pan is essential for the holidays, but really, I don’t make pie often enough for this to make my top ____ list. I do however use this pie pan for cornbread, breakfast casseroles, roasted vegetables, and other side dishes. It’s a perfect size for my family of 3-4 (3 eaters and 1 baby). It retains heat and keeps food warm for a long time, and looks nice enough for buffet lines and serving at the table.
| Camp Chef Cast Iron Pie Pan |
Buy Now →A Spool of Kitchen Twine
I use kitchen twine all the time. I use it to tie herb bundles together that I put in soup pots for easy removal. I truss chickens and turkeys with it. I use it to tie off piping bags, to wrap up my knives in a towel when I travel with them, and for arts and crafts.
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A 10-12 Qt Soup Pot
This is my main workhorse in the kitchen, especially in the fall and winter. I use it to make big pots of soup which I freeze for later, to boil pasta, blanch vegetables, steam lobsters or crabs, for canning, and as my biggest mixing bowl. I like this one. It’s economical, sturdy, and oven-proof.
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A 2” Full Size Hotel Pan
In the restaurant kitchen, this is a standard item that I used every day. At home, this is what I use for roasting Turkeys, Rib Roasts and Whole Pork Loins. Don’t buy a turkey roasting pan. You’ll use it only once a year! This hotel pan also works great for large lasagnas, big batches of stuffing, cornbread, roasted vegetables and sheet cakes.
| 2 1/2″ Stainless Steel Hotel Pan |
Buy Now →1 or 2 Cooling and Roasting Racks
These racks will fit both your sheet pan and your hotel pan (albeit imperfectly) and shouldn’t rust or corrode. These are a must when cooking a roast in your hotel pan or cooling your Christmas Cookies.
| Ultra Cuisine Stainless Steel Cooling/Roasting Rack |
Buy Now →A Leave-In Probe Thermometer
A Probe Thermometer is a must for cooking large roasts. I’ve worked with a lot of chefs that acted like they were above using a thermometer and then went on to overcook a $150 piece of meat! There is no shame in relying on a this piece of technology. An instant-read thermometer won’t do. You want something you can set, leave-in during cooking, and it will alert you when your roast reaches a specific temperature. That way you don’t have to open and close the oven door or smoker to check on it and you won’t forget about it when you’re 4 cocktails into Thanksgiving prep.
Over the years in the restaurant, I’ve gone through a lot of probe thermometers. I’ve found ThermoPro thermometers to be the most durable and most accurate without paying a ton for it. (You just can’t leave them out in the rain, whoops!). They make single and dual probe thermometers. I like the dual probe one below.
| ThermoPro Dual Probe Meat Thermometer |
Buy Now →A Crock Pot
I use a Crock Pot for pot roasts, chili, beans, and making broth overnight. Crock Pots are also great for taking for keeping food warm on a buffet line at your Holiday Feast or pot luck. I like this manual 8 qt Crock Pot. I find that I often use the full capacity. Some come with settings that you can program but what I like about my Crock Pot (versus an InstaPot) is its simplicity. Warm, Low, and High are the only settings you need.
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