The Ultimate Kitchen Equipment List Everyone Needs

Years of experience eventually reveal the tools and appliances that best serve our family’s different needs. This kitchen equipment list is based on personal favorites – quality items that simplify my kitchen routine and stand the test of time.

You already know I’m a big proponent of real food. Give me all the fresh herbs, grass-fed beef, fermented veggies, and raw dairy. 

No kitchen of mine ever looks complete without a bubbling bowl of sourdough starter, a mason jar of milk kefir, and homemade pickles fermenting in the corner.

Some of the tasks of a traditional foods kitchen can sound daunting, but with the right routine and the right tools, they become second nature. 

Today, I want to share some of those tools that make these tasks flow smoothly in our home. While this is a list of ten items, I did not attempt to rank them. It was hard enough to limit myself to ten!

These essential kitchen tools are workhorses, durable and long-lasting, serving many different purposes. I try desperately to avoid the unitasker in my kitchen. Multi-purpose kitchen appliances make the most sense to me.

My Top Ten Kitchen Essentials

1. Mason Jars & Glass Storage

The humble mason jar. Adored by many for its rugged simplicity and various sizes, the mason jar serves so many purposes in our real food kitchen. I kid you not, I have seven different shapes and sizes of mason jars gracing my cabinet shelves. 

For instance, I use wide-mouth pint jars for drinking, the half-gallon size for fermenting, and a half-pint size for homemade vanilla and whipped body butter. My traditional food kitchen wouldn’t survive one day without mason jars.

I appreciate that they are made of glass, not plastic, and the wide-mouth jars are so easy to clean.

They are multifunctional and accommodate many interchangeable accessories! I have Mason Top fermenting lids and Ball Sip and Straw Lids that fit the wide-mouth jars. The standard jars also fit directly into my blender base.

For baking, the glass Pyrex 9×13 baking dish is my go-to. Its classic size is great for ground beef pot pie, sourdough coffee cake, or French toast casserole. Plus, the coordinating lid is perfect for storage and transporting.

I also keep my sourdough starter in a glass jar to avoid residual smells that might occur with a more porous option. Glass allows me to observe my starter, as well, which is super helpful in feeding and maintaining sourdough.

Lastly, glass food storage containers are essential if you don’t have a microwave. They can be used to store food, then placed straight into the oven to gently reheat leftovers. 

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2. Blender

For daily milk kefir smoothies, raw milk butter, homemade salad dressings (think poppy seed dressing or homemade honey mustard), or even homemade potato soup, the Ninja Professional smoothie and food blender is a staple in the kitchen. Tip: If you don’t have a lot of space, consider an immersion blender for its compact size and ease of use.

3. Food Processor

I make homemade sauerkraut regularly, so my Hamilton Beach 14-Cup Food Processor is an essential around here. I also use it to chop nuts for my easy homemade granola and it’s handy for homemade applesauce or other recipes that require processing.

4. Instant Pot

This is relatively new to my kitchen, but has quickly become an essential. It’s a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, and also functions as a yogurt maker. It works beautifully for gut-healthy bone broth, and I prefer it to a crock pot because it can do so much more. I have read questionable things about lead in some slow cooker inserts, so I love the Instant Pot’s stainless steel insert. It may take up precious countertop real estate, but it earns its keep. 

I have the 6-quart 9-in-1 Multi Use Instant Pot.

5. Cast Iron or Stainless Steel Cookware

I use both, but my cast iron skillets live on my stovetop. I use a cast iron frying pan to fry eggs nearly every morning, and these pans are perfect for vegetable hash, chicken fried steak, and even sourdough discard cinnamon rolls. Cast iron makes for a perfectly nonstick pan when seasoned correctly, and they are incredibly versatile. Don’t forget the Dutch oven for all kinds of soups, stews, and bread baking!

If you’re new to cast iron, read my post on how to care for and cook with cast iron.

While a few of my skillets are thrifted, I also use this 12″ Lodge cast iron skillet and this waffle iron.

As far as stainless steel cookware goes, we received a set for our wedding shower years ago, and I still use it to steam veggies, simmer soups, and cook up quinoa. I imagine our set will last us a lifetime. Even if it costs a little extra, quality wins every time.

6. Coffee Maker

Coffee is non-negotiable. I try to avoid heating plastic to make my coffee as much as I can help it, so I use my stainless steel French press daily. I also enjoy this luxurious Espresso machine for a fancy coffee here and there. But everyone knows the key to good coffee is the coffee grinder, so that gets put into this category, as well.

7. Water Filter

Clean water is essential to the health of your body, as well as successful fermentation for sourdough and all other fermented recipes. Chlorine can kill the good bacteria in fermented vegetables and sourdough starter, and who knows what it’s doing to our bodies. I have been using a Berkey water filter for many years now. After a lot of research on water filters, I decided on this one because it filters out the most dangerous chemicals for the best price per gallon.

I have the Royal size Stainless Steel Berkey Water Filter and the optional fluoride and arsenic filters. 

8. Mixing Bowls

Mixing bowls of all different sizes are a must-have for any kind of food preparation. Whether you prefer stoneware mixing bowls, glass Pyrex bowls, or stainless steel bowls, they are a necessity for the home cook.

9. Heavy-duty Mixer

My KitchenAid stand mixer is great for smaller batches of bread or typical, everyday recipes. It’s probably going to be the most useful to the average kitchen. 

However, if you’re mixing up multiple loaves of sourdough for the week (I’m talking up to fourteen loaves at once!), then the Bosch mixer is what I drag out. It’s a game changer with such enormous capacity.

10. Grain Mill

I have the Mockmill grain mill. I use it to grind hard wheat berries for baking loaves of whole wheat sourdough and soft wheat berries for lighter recipes like whole wheat biscuits or sourdough blueberry muffins.

Honorable Mentions

• Corelle plates and bowls
• A good chef’s knife & paring knife
• A wooden cutting board
• Metal utensils

Shop my Top 10 Kitchen Essentials 

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