Equipment

I’m lucky that I am well stocked with kitchen equipment but when use electrical machines there are other ways to mix and chop etc. using a wooden spoon to mix and a metal spoon to fold flour in to cake mixes along with elbow grease. Food processor can be substituted for knives it will just take a little longer. Plus you don’t need a lot of knives either but I would rather invest in good couple rather than a cheap set even if it is only one first and then another later. I use a medium sized (4” blade) for most things and certainly the most useful but a larger one is sometimes preferred for some meat jobs.

Although not necessary I do like my ‘Y’ shaped peeler it gets nice thin skins off fruit and vegetables better than knife.

As long as you have a teaspoon and a dessert spoon or even just a teaspoon you have measuring spoons.
1 teaspoon = 5 ml
1 dessert spoon = 10ml = 2x teaspoon
1tablespoon = 15ml = 1xdessert spoon + 1x teaspoon = 3 teaspoons

A set of measuring scales can be purchased from a supermarket for as little as £3, I do like ones that measure in either metric or imperial so recipes can be used without having to convert.

A measuring jug is also I think quite essential preferably again one jug that has both metric and imperial measurements is handy.
Some recipes use cups as a measurement however 1 cup is = 8floz = 240ml then it is easy to measure out ¼ cup = 2floz = 60ml, ½ cup = 4floz =120 ml, etc so no special cup measures needed.

I also think that a few bowls are essential as 1 recipe may call for more than 1 bowl often dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another before combining the two. A third is handy just in case. Plus I rarely make just one thing at a time I might well have an oven full of baking and I don’t want to be washing up bowls and then dirtying them again in seconds. However cereal bowls and side plates can be handy for setting all ingredients out before starting, especially when trying a new recipe or if you are making sure you have all the right amounts of something before starting. I would also recommend cracking eggs into a separate bowl before putting into a mixture to check they are fresh.

For the oven a roasting tin is handy but if pennies are really tight then a swissroll tin and the rack out of the grill pan is ample as well as being able to be used as a baking sheet. A baking sheet for scones cakes biscuits and loaves. I also like to have a loaf tin handy for tea loaves, meat loaves, pasta bakes and small lasagnes. I like a bigger dish for pies and larger lasagnes. A very precious to me item is a small loaf tin that is for baking bread it was given to me by a friend in the late 1970s and is now over 100 years old. It is well seasoned makes a nice sized loaf for my liking. I have several cake tins and sandwich tins but I would have thought that a pair of sandwich tins and 1 cake tin would be all that is needed for cakes and puddings. For steaming a pudding I do like a plastic pudding basin rather than a pot one.

I do love my slow cooker, a crock pot that fits into a metal casing with a simple temperature control (high, low and keep warm). This uses up the same amount of energy to run as a light bulb and is far better economically than a slow oven. I use it constantly from September to April and often in between. It makes the excellent one pot dishes like stews, curries and soups and desserts like rice pudding it is even possible to bake potatoes in them and cook a cheesecake. I swear by mine it is also handy if you are out all day and you can come home to a hearty warm meal.