Things We Like: A Whisk, an Oven, and a Seasoning Trio

1. Multi-Purpose Sourdough Whisk​

If you bake sourdough bread at home, you should have a sourdough starter whisk. We recommend these handmade mini whisks invented by our friend Andrew Janjigian, aka @wordloaf, a baking teacher, writer, and author of the forthcoming cookbook Breaducation. He offers versions with ​new handles​ for $20, or ​with vintage handles​ for $24. Whichever you choose, they are also ideal for stirring peanut butter or tahini. (And while you’re at it, check out Andrew’s excellent bread-centric ​newsletter​, Wordloaf.). – Doc

2. ​Anova Steam Oven​

A couple of years ago, an ​Anova steam oven​ arrived at our house in Westport, MA. I was taken aback, since I didn’t know my partner Stephen had ordered it. It kind of made sense that he had, since our wall oven was minimally operative, and we were awaiting a kitchen renovation to replace it. But to say that I was skeptical would be an understatement. A countertop (assuming you have a large counter) oven that cooks with steam and (worst of all) that you control from your phone? Ridiculous.

Well, obviously I wouldn’t be writing this if I hadn’t been won over; it’s now just about my favorite appliance, and I use it constantly. The ability to add steam to the cooking process—at whatever percentage you decide—enables this oven to turn out perfectly moist vegetables from asparagus to broccoli to corn on the cob without having to boil a pot of water; to cook steaks and fish by a “sous vide” method that involves bathing them in steam and using a probe to track exact temperature of the interior; even to rehydrate stale crackers and bread or dehydrate fruits. You can, of course, also use it without the steam to do straight convection cooking, which is faster than conventional heating. The app includes a wide range of recipes specifically developed for this oven, as well as providing a function that will convert any recipe at all to work with its steam/convection cooking. It’s generally just all-round efficient and effective. Plus I have actually become a fan of the control by phone; for one thing, I find it consistently amusing when Stephen is in another city and, when I start preheating the oven, he gets notified and texts to see what I’m cooking.

The latest version, the ​Anova 2.0,​ has a number of updates, including an embedded camera that will recognize the food when you put it into the oven and instruct you how to cook it. Ridiculous! Or maybe… – Doc

3. Made In x Jacobson Seasoning Trio

Love Jacobsen Salt. Love Made In. And, as it turns out, I love this trio of flavored salts (and, for the record, I’ve snubbed flavored salts in the past). The Smoky Onion is good on anything you’d want onion on—pizza, sandwiches, pasta; the Pickle (my personal favorite) is fantastic in egg and tuna salad; and the Secret Sauce is a perfect pick for those of us who love pimentón (hello). Also nice is that these aren’t too salty—I find them to be really flavor heavy, so you can use more than you think. (Or at least I can. See how you feel!) – Kate