Knives

A good chef is nothing without her knife! A well maintained blade can last a life time. If you do a lot of cooking it's probably worthwhile spending some money to get a good quality Chef's knife. While the higher end options can cost over $200, with a bit of research you can often find good comparisons that are less than $100.

Forged Knives are made from a slow and methodical process of folding steel into a blade that will hold its edge. They are generally more expensive but often last a long time.

Stamped Knives are machine made and stamped from a piece of steel. The edge is sharpened afterwards and the knife maintains the same thickness from the edge of the blade to the spine. These are often less expensive but still get the job done even if they need more frequent sharpening and replacing.

A good indicator of a knife's quality is how often it needs to be resharpened. The more dull your knife becomes the more dangerous it is to you as a dull knife is prone to slipping through the cut and can be unpredictable. Some other subjective things you should take into consideration when buying a knife are its weight, balance, and comfort. There are many options and styles available - try out your friends' knives before buying your own!

Hand Tools and Small Equipment

There are many types of Small utensils in this kitchen. They help you measure, prepare, cook, and serve food. It is very important to know what they are called, where they live in our kitchen, and how to use and clean them.

Offset Spatula (top): has a broad blade and is bent to keep the hand off of hot surfaces. Used for turning and lifting eggs.

Rubber Spatula (bottom): is used to scrape bowls and pans. At Stelly’s (red handle only)it can be used for hot food and on stove top

Pie Server (top): A wedge-shaped offset spatula used for lifting pie wedges from the pan.

Bench Knife (bottom): is used to cut pieces of dough and to scrape workbenches.

Colanders, strainers, chinois: all have their own unique uses for physical separations: draining vegetables, sifting flour, achieving a smoothness in the liquid all are great uses for these specialized tools.

Other Tools: like our well-stocked trades shops down the hall, our culinary department is well equipped for nearly every kind of cooking job. We have graters, mills, can openers, tomato slicers, olive pitters, egg slicers, citrus juicers, pasta wheels, salad spinners, baking pans, and pastry decorators. To learn more about our wide variety of tools please check here and here.

Measuring Tools

There are many things to careful measure in the Stelly's Kitchen including volume, mass, and temperature. We have specialized equipment to help us be confident in our preparation.

The portioning scale is used for measuring ingredients as well as for portioning products for service. It is spring operated and usually has a dial to indicate weight.

The digital scale is more accurate in its digital readout and is electrically operated.

Liquid volume measuring tools (left) have lips for easy pouring and are sized for pints, quarts, half-gallons, and gallons.

Measuring spoons are used for measuring very small volumes and come in sizes ranging from 1/4 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon.

Ladles (right) are used for measuring and portioning liquids.

Meat Thermometers (left) are inserted before cooking and left in the product during cooking. Stelly's digital thermometer is pictured left and reads from 0° F to 220° F.

Instant Read Thermometers give readings within a few seconds of being inserted in a food product.

At Stelly's we are very careful with cooking time and NEVER ASSUME the food is cooked fully. We always check chicken, casseroles, pork and any other hazardous food.


For more information on measuring equipment please click here.