Monday, July 13, 2015

40 Years of Cooking Equipment

Jul 13 2015

This year we will have been married 49 years. We moved into our home where we still live in 1973. It had a small kitchen but what looked like plenty of cupboard space. My wife did most of the cooking back then and I was a week-end cook. I had a two car garage and moved a nice work bench in. It was not long until I took over the cooking and my wife did the cleanup.

In the summer I liked to cook on my gas grill and then got into smoking meats. I started with an electric water smoker then went through two gas fired round water smokers and a chest water smoker and ended up with a Traeger pellet smoker that I cook on now.

I got into cooking new things to try and that required different equipment, woks for Asian stir fries, and roaster ovens for holiday cooks, and every non-stick skillet that came out. My kitchen cupboards were full and then I built shelves in the garage to store some. At one time I had two 18 quart roaster ovens, a nine quart and a six quart; not to mention at least 2 Crockpots. I wanted to deep fry a turkey so my wife got me the pot to do one. I never did do one but I use it a lot to do shrimp boils.

After I got my pellet smoker I needed more pots and pans, they went into the garage and in some wicker baskets on our back porch. I had roaster pans, wire baskets and grill pans. I wanted to make my own sausages and brats so I had a meat slicer, meat grinder and sausage stuffer and all was stuffed into the garage! I did manage to make a few batches of sausage. Then I realized I was over 70 years old and my butcher had the best sausages and brats I could want so I sold my stuffer to my friend Brad at the Beer and Wine Depot.

It was about 20 years ago I added a replica pie safe to the right of my stove. I added wainscoting to the wall and added a section of overhead cupboard to make it look like and old kitchen hutch. I use it for canned goods and skillets in the bottom. I keep two Lodge and a De Buyer skillet I use all the time in my oven.

I told the wife to keep watch at sales and antique malls for a nice cupboard I could put in my back porch to get some of the equipment organized better. She found a pie safe the other day we got. It’s a little taller than I wanted; I think it is not an antique but a well-made replica. It doesn’t fit too well in my narrow back porch but I got stuff in it from the baskets and the garage that I use a lot. It makes it a lot easier for me to see and get my stuff.


I am 73 now and I figure by the time I get all my equipment arranged the way I want I will be too dam old to cook anymore!

Cupboard added in my kitchen


















The pie safe


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