"KITCHEN EQUIPMENT & UTENSIL epsd August 22nd 2017
Chinese wok
Name of
item : Chinese
Wok
Function
: Place
for cooking Asian dish
Material
: Iron
How to
cleaning : Use
liquid soap and clean water
The wok is a versatile round-bottomed pan
which originates in China. In the country of it’s origin, it is considered to
be one of the most common cooking utensils, and is even used in East Asia and
Southeast Asia.
Since being invented around 2,000 years ago
(although some will disagree, saying no more than 500 to 1,000 years ago), this
versatile piece of cookware has become a very popular niche cooking tool
throughout a large part of the industrialized world.
When you hear the word ‘versatile’ you think
of something that does a lot of different tasks, at least in reference to
cooking ware. You may not fully grasp just how much you can do with your wok.
You can use them for stir frying, steaming, pan frying, deep frying, poaching,
boiling, braising, searing, stewing, making soup, smoking, and even roasting
nuts. Actually, the word ‘wok’ literally translates to “cooking pot” in
Cantonese. The same pot is called a Kuo in Mandarin, and a Kuali in multiple
Asian languages.
The wok is made out of two primary materials:
either carbon steel, or cast iron. Traditionally, cast iron
has always been favored, but in recent years, both materials have become
increasingly popular. You may also find woks which are created with non-stick
coatings, such as PFA or Teflon, and also aluminum. Now that we know what a wok
is, and its most basic facts, let’s delve further into it’s history.
The very first known woks were thought to be
recreated from little pottery models on the pottery stove modes in the Han
Dynasty tombs. The Han Dynasty lasted from roughly 200 BC until 200 AD.
Historians and metallurgists are still unsure,
however, if this versatile cooking pot was an original Chinese invention, or if
the idea was borrowed from some other culture. Many agree that it was most
certainly the second- that is, that it was borrowed from elsewhere. The reason
behind this is that the same sort of pan is used throughout India, and
Southeast Asia (such as Thailand, Laos, Khmer, or the Malay Peninsula), and so
many scholars assume it was borrowed from one of those places, where it is
almost universally called a Kuali. This route of thinking continues, thinking
that the word ‘kuo’ must have developed from the word ‘kuali.’
The big fact here is that Central Asian nomads
were notorious for adopting the technologies of the surrounding sedentary
cultures in order to use them for their own benefit. One of the most famous
amongst these were the Mongols, who unified all of these disparate tribes in
the thirteenth century. These Mongols carried woks, since they were portable,
and as such, very well suited for the nomadic lifestyle. Other big bonuses
which made them perfect for the constant traveler were the fact that they
required very little fuel, and even less maintenance. The popular consensus is
that this was the era during which the wok gained such a high level of
popularity. As these nomads carried the wok along with them, many cultures were
introduced to the easy, versatile cooking pot, and then adopted it into their
own kitchens and cultures.
What actually prompted the invention of the
wok though? While no one is entirely certain, most people believe that a
driving need to preserve the limited amounts of fuel in these early regions is
what first prompted the wok to be invented. Others believe it had something to
do with a lack of food, and the fact that the wok made it possible to easily
create wide varieties of dishes out of a limited number of food
ingredients.
Yet others believe the wok was invented due to
the simplicity and ease of cooking an entire meal in one singular pan. It could
have been a combination of two, or all three, of these needs, but whatever the
reason behind it’s invention, the wok has continued to be an integral part of
cooking. It promises to continue it’s rise in popularity, and we are sure to
continue seeing this uniquely versatile cooking pot in the years to come.
Source : https://wokhistory.wordpress.
Mandoline slicer
Name of
item : Mandoline
Slicer
Function
:
To help slicing vegetables with really thin
Material
:
Stainless steel
How to
cleaning : Use clean
water and dry towel
At the very beginning, the slicer was not yet
called the mandoline. But it without any doubt has very old origins.
Effectively the first illustrated culinary book was published in 1570 by
Bartolomeo Scappi who was pope Pius VI's cook. One of his book's illustrations
shows a small board with a central cutting blade and with other small
perpendicular blades to cut vegetables into thin sticks. We are not able to
give an exact date but, given the details of the drawings, such a slicer had
probably existed for a long time. The musical instrument, the Mandoline, was
created in Italy near Naples. Its ancestor, called the "Mandorre" was
an instrument with stiff strings. This name was probably used for the cooking
instrument before the Second World War. However, it was well-known from
1949.
Then, a man from "Haute-Savoie" born
in Morzine, made the first metal version. In this way, a wooden vegetable
slicer invented by Mr. Marcel Forelle, from Toulouse in the south of France, in
1930 was modernized. The cooking instrument was given the name of the musical
one because cooks "play" their mandoline in the same way as
musicians. It is often said that at the beginning, the mandoline didn't have a
folding stand. The cook simply held it pressed against his chest to slice the
vegetables directly above the dish. It is interesting to notice that in
professional cooking, other equipment takes the name of musical instruments
such as the piano and the guitar.
Source : http://chefharvey.com/
Alumunium foil
Name of
item : Aluminum
Foil
Function
:
To help cover the food when baking or roasting
Material
:
Aluminum
How to
cleaning : You only
can use aluminum foil once
Aluminum foil is an aluminum alloy made in the
form of thin sheets. The thickness of aluminum foil ranges from 0.2 mm and
contains about 92% to 99% aluminum. Aluminum foil is available in various sizes
and characteristics and is mainly used for packaging various items. Aluminum
foil is sometimes also coated with plastic so it makes it stronger.
At the end of the 19th century and early 20th
century tin foil was commonly used. Tin foil has a harder nature and tends to
give a 'tin flavor' to the food wrapped in it. Tin foil was replaced by
aluminum foil in 1910 and its use soon spread throughout the world.
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