With Christmas soon to be on the horizon, the kitchen is set become the hub of the home. As preparations get underway, from making the mincemeat for your mince-pies through to trying out new recipes for homemade soup and desserts, you may find that you don’t have the accessories you require.

Thankfully, in such instances, eSpares have you covered. To help ensure that you don’t get caught short in the kitchen this festive period, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 kitchen essentials you should have…

Meat Thermometer

Worried about undercooking the turkey, beef or gammon? Fear not. A meat thermometer will enable you to perfectly cook meat, not just over Christmas but all the time.

Ice-Cube Tray

Despite the temperature traditionally plummeting during the festive period, you’re likely to find that you’ll increase your usage of ice-cubes – from whiskey on the rocks through to keeping soft drinks cool for your younger guests.

Instead of spending money purchasing ice from your local shops, have them whenever required by keeping an ice-cube tray (or two) handy.

Bottle / Wine Rack Shelf

Space at Christmas can often be at a premium, not just in making sure that everyone has a seat; but also to store food and drink.

Ease the problems when it comes to drink, by introducing a bottle / wine rack shelf into your fridge; helping you to utilise the space available and keep the white wine cool.

Blenders

Considering making homemade soup for your starter this Christmas? Not got a soup maker? Fret not, as a blender with the right attachments will make the job just as easy.

Extendable Oven Shelves

With numerous dishes being cooked on Christmas day alone, it can be difficult to get everything out on time; particularly if you’re struggling for shelf space in the cook.

Extendable oven shelves can help make such a worry a thing of the past, by providing you with the extra shelf required to fit more baking trays and alike into your cooker.

Mixers (table or hand)

A lot of time spent in the kitchen is spent preparing the food. This time can be reduced by investing in a mixer.

Mixers significantly reduce the time it takes to whisk various dishes you may be preparing; whilst they also help to get the right amount of air into the mixture, helping it rise when being baked.

Chopping Boards

We all know that when it comes to preparing meals we should cut our meat and vegetables on different chopping boards. But very few of us regularly replace our old chopping boards for new ones.

Your chopping board should be replaced at least every three years. But ideally, it should be changed the moment that it begins to become covered in grooves from your knives; as bacteria can hide in these little crevices. So with Christmas on the way, give your chopping board a once over – and if its stained or covered in scratches replace it.

Cooking Timers

When it comes to cooking big meals do you struggle with timings? Are your roast potatoes often burnt whilst the meat remains too far on the pink side?

If you’ve answered yes to either of these questions, then you could benefit from a cooking timer.

Baking Trays

From pigs in blankets to roasted vegetables; from pavalova to gingerbread men, at Christmas you can never have enough baking trays.

In reality, it’s likely that in the past you’ve been running low on having enough baking trays to cook all your gourmet delights; so it’s a good idea to make sure that you’re stocked up with plenty of trays ahead of the Christmas rush.

Silicone Oven Gloves

Over time traditional fabric oven gloves can wear and become thin, causing the heat to travel through them when in use. Whilst some of you may be comfortable getting hot dishes out of using a tea-towel; but we wouldn’t recommend this.

Instead keep your hands protected and ensure that you’re able to remove those hot dishes from the cooker by using silicone oven gloves.

Each of the kitchen essentials listed above, should help reduce the stress levels you may experience whilst cooking this Christmas. These 10 essentials, all available from eSpares, will also help to make sure that you’re able to cook those culinary delights perfectly.

Tags: Christmas, eSpares, Kitchen Essentials