Issue #81: Better-Late-Than-Never Gifts
A Last Minute, Very Personal, Totally Random Holiday Gift Guide for the Cooks, Canners, and Bakers in Your Life
A little something different this week. We are in the midst of Hannukah and it is about to be Christmas. Here’s a totally biased, perfectly random collection of gift ideas for the cooks, canners, and bakers in your life. (That is, for those family and friends to whom you’ve already given a gift subscription of this newsletter!) These items range in price from $5 to $500. They reflect my appreciation of very practical things that I know cooks might want, but perhaps wouldn’t buy for themselves. They are things I have and use a lot, things I love. I am not paid by the people who make or sell them. I’m not even linking to an Amazon page to get a kickback for recommending them. Inflation is high and time is tight, so you will want to find the cheapest, fastest place to purchase them. I’ll leave that to you. Just trust me that these things work and that people who really cook will really like them. All the best for the holidays and the New Year. —Mitchell
The following list is in no particular order.
Danish Dough Whisk
If you know someone who bakes a lot of bread, you might consider gifting this handy, oddly-shaped device, a sturdy “whisk” that is designed to help mix very stiff doughs (such as the one for rugbrød or Danish rye, one imagines). I use mine all the time to mix the flour and water for my breads just enough to be able to set the dough aside for the autolyze phase (ask your baker friend what that means). There are a few different shapes, but don’t be tempted by anyone who claims theirs with an extra loop or other frills is an improvement. I was suckered once and found the simplest ones are the best because they limit the places your dough can stick. If your baker friend doesn’t have a Danish whisk already, they’ve probably thought about getting one, ergo, it makes a great gift.
Silicone Canning Rack
It was late one hot and humid summer Friday night when we had houseguests at the lake and we realized after going to bed we probably could use another fan. Nate and I got up and got dressed to drive to the nearest Walmart, just a few miles down the road. Having pulled ourselves out of the secluded, wooded patch of the Cayuga lake shore where the house is situated, we were surprised to see so many people up and about and shopping at Walmart late on a Friday night. We found the fan and several other things we needed. On our way to the cash registers, I spotted a display of these flexible, resizable pieces of silicone packaged by Schroeder & Tremayne you can put on the bottom of any pot to water-process canning jars without having to use a giant canning kettle and bottle rack. I make such small batches of preserves for the two of us, I almost never use a big pot, and thus I usually just put the jars directly on the bottom of the pan where they shake and rattle while they boil. I’m always a little anxious they might explode. This rack was less than $5. I bought two. I love them. I should have bought more.
Single-Piece Canning Jar lids
I realize this is a particularly geeky gift. It probably isn’t nice enough to even qualify as a gift. But if you know anyone who makes preserves, it’s possible they aren’t aware that there are many options besides the old-fashioned-looking, two-piece mason jar lids you see on the preserves submitted for judging at state fairs. For that person, you might consider a gift of these single-piece mason jar lids. They come in a variety of colors, such as white, red, gold, and silver, and they make a more attractive and more practical closure for preserves, especially those you will store in the fridge once they are opened. You can decorate them with custom stickers to personalize them. The lids from Köök come in a nice, giftable box, though I also buy these lids in bulk bags at an Amish store in the Fingerlakes.
To note, one uses single lids a little differently than the two-piece variety. They have a tab in the center that pops inward when the bottle is sealed. To ensure a good seal, I find it best to first tighten them and then unscrew them a quarter turn, as you do for the two-piece lids. Then you process your jars in a water bath for as long as you normally would. The loosened lid allows the air in the headspace to escape when it heats and expands, thereby creating a vacuum when it cools and contracts. As soon as you remove the jars from the water bath, though, you need to tighten the lids (verboten when using the two-piece variety), which helps to provide enough resistance to make the seal. You should hear the button pop. If not, press it to see if it sucks in. If so, it’s sealed. If not, you’ll need to refrigerate whatever’s inside.
Challenger Bread Baking Pan
When I first learned to bake sourdough bread (thank you Laurent Gras), I was a little terrified to use the searingly hot Dutch oven method of creating steam for a bake, requiring you, as it does, to stick your hands into that hot pan. The Challenger Bread Pan intrigued me with its more sensical design—a shallow base and easy to use handles—but it was relatively expensive. I ordered one and have used it to bake pretty much every hearth loaf since. I preheat the pan for an hour at 500°F. and then I use a peel to insert my bâtard or boule, bake it covered for 22 minutes to get the most amazing oven spring and crust formation before removing the top, lowering the the temperature slightly to 475°F. or 450°F. for another 22 minutes or so to bake the perfect loaf. If you have a bread baker in your circle, they have likely considered this pan, but perhaps balked at the price. Another great gift.
UFO Bread Lame
It feels a little like cheating not to use the classic French bread lame (that’s French for blade) to slash my loaves. But I just love the control and portability of this little guy created by Wire Monkey, the preference of all of those TikTok and Instagram bakers who make intricate patterns on their loaves. I don’t do that, but I still love this little lame. Plus, it looks like an Oreo cookie, albeit with a razor blade in it, like those apples as a kid you were warned about on Halloween.
Cookie Stamps
I admit, I was watching an early episode of the Great British Bake-Off for which contestants had to make Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls as their technical challenge and I wanted to make them, too. So, I ordered a set of three cookie stamps from NoridcWare, thinking I’d probably never use them again. The whirls were just okay. But it turns out the stamps are a lot of fun. Now that I regularly make digestives (also from GBBO, see Issue #77), they get a real work out. You’ll find a wide selection of stamps at the NordicWare link provided.
USA Pans
Strangely, the first time I became award of USA Pan was at a very special reception at the U.S. Department of State back in 2012. That’s when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a Diplomatic Culinary Partnership with us at the James Beard Foundation to create the America Chefs Corps, a collection of more than 200 chefs committed to serving as cultural ambassadors for the U.S. in projects around the world and at home. State (as insiders call it) hosted a very large, beautiful reception for the ceremonial signing of the documents in the stately room atop their Truman Building home. (We were later told that the Office of Protocol and their caterers were nervous about hosting and cooking for all these famous chefs.) Upon leaving, guests were given a few random pieces of swag, including the much-sought-after Obama administration M&Ms that are sitting next to me on my desk as I type and a metal pie plate by USA Pan. Besides the appropriateness of the name, I have no idea why we got that pan. It was an odd gift. But it turned me onto this manufacturer of the most amazing baking pans. Everything they create, from bread pans, to cake pans, to pizza pans, and more, is heavy-duty, sturdy, heat-conducting, seamless, and often magically nonstick. I love their pans and so will any friends who bake. If it wasn’t too wasteful, I’d replace every baking pan I have with one of theirs.
Madura Plus Nonstick Cookware
I had been using the same All-Clad nonstick pans for 15 years or more, long past their expiration date, which I knew because my eggs stuck to them like Milo sticks to Nate. Still, it irked me to throw away otherwise perfectly good, sturdy pans, even if they no longer performed their main function (which they never did that well in the first place tbh). When I was finally frustrated enough to consider new pans, I did some online research, not much of which seemed credible, I must say. But one brand that appeared on most of the Best Nonstick Pans of 2021 lists was the Zwilling Madura Plus. It’s the only one I ordered, so I can’t really compare it to the others, but I really like it: heavy, a good heat conductor, and so nonstick it made me regret not replacing my other pans sooner. One caveat is that I recommended the pans to friends who have an induction stove because the pans are supposed to work, but their performance spotty and unacceptable.
Breville Smart Oven
I realize that the Breville smart oven is up to five times more expensive than competing countertop ovens. But I think it is great. It holds a steady, even temperature across the entire temperature range, from 100°F. to 500°F. It toasts well, it reheats well, it dehydrates well. I often use it to bake or roast without having to heat up the big oven. I recently replaced my ten-plus-year-old mini Smart Oven that still worked perfectly well with a slightly larger new one that has a few more options and convection. (I didn’t dispose of the old one, I brough it up to the lake house.) Breville is a top-line appliance maker, but to be honest, sometimes I find they make their products do too many things that I don’t want or need and that always strike me as susceptible to breakage. Not this oven. I highly recommend the whole line of Smart Oven products.
Spoonulas
GIR makes great silicone products, but the combination spoon and spatula they call a spoonula is the most-used utensil in my drawer. It’s my go-to for mixing sourdough starter, stirring and scooping pancake batter, and scrambling eggs (in my new Madura Plus nonstick pans, see above). I love to mix with it. Despite having read a lot about it, I have no idea if silicone is any better for the environment than plastic. Seems the same to me. So if that is a concern of yours, as it should be of everyone’s, you are better off with a wooden spoon or a natural rubber spatula with a wooden handle. The edges of the spoonula are flexible so it’s not good for scraping the last peanut butter out of the jar or even getting into the tight edges of a blender or food processor. But all love comes with compromise.
Spices
It seems that all of a sudden there are a lot of specialty spice purveyors offering all kinds of top-quality, community-supportive, specific-origin spices. They aren’t cheap, which is why I think a selection of them makes a great gift. Let’s remember that spices were once so prized and valuable that they led to global exploration, war, and colonization. I used to rely on Penzey’s, whose politics I still love, and Kalustyan’s, who has the largest selection of everything, but whose freshness always worries me a little. But newer entries like Burlap & Barrel, La Boite, and Curio have really wonderful products and interesting collaborations with chefs and others. Of special note is a pepper purveyor, The Reluctant Trading Experiment, whose Tellicherry peppercorns are uniquely aromatic.
Cookbooks
There are too many good cookbooks published every year to keep up. But in 2022, the two books I’ve cooked from most often and with great success are both by friends who are wonderful cooks. Don’t Worry, Just Cook by Bonnie Stern and Anna Rupert is full of mouth-watering recipes that paradoxically seem at once very contemporary and also timeless. And everything I’ve made from Anita Jaisinghani’s Masala has been a hit with Nate and friends. Both books would go great with a selection of fine spices from any of the purveyors listed above. And maybe a couple of pans. And a spoonula. And….