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