---
title: Kitchen Notes
sort: 150
section-id: site
keywords: kitchen tips, equipment, seasonal produce, substitutions, cooking notes
description: Tips, equipment recommendations, notes on seasonal produce, and a substitutions guide for The Kitchen Table recipes.
language: en
---

# Kitchen Notes

Accumulated notes on equipment, seasonal produce, and practical matters that come up across the recipes on this blog. Updated regularly.

## Equipment I Actually Use

**Knives:** Three knives cover everything. A 20cm chef's knife is the most important; I use mine for probably 90% of all cutting tasks. A small paring knife (8cm) for fine work and peeling. A serrated bread knife. These three cover everything. I sharpen my chef's knife on a whetstone every two weeks and hone it before every use. See my knife skills post for the full guide.

I prefer German-style knives (heavier, more robust) for most tasks. Japanese knives are sharper and more precise but require more careful maintenance and are not forgiving with harder vegetables.

**Pans:**
- A 28cm stainless steel frying pan: for searing, making omelettes, pan sauces. Do not use non-stick for tasks that require high heat or where fond (browned bits) is needed.
- A 24cm non-stick frying pan: for eggs. That is mostly what a non-stick pan is for.
- A 30cm cast iron frying pan: for searing large pieces of meat, for cooking that goes from stovetop to oven.
- A 5-litre saucepan: for stocks, pasta water, soups.
- A 2-litre saucepan: for sauces.
- A 28cm or 30cm Dutch oven / cocotte: the most useful single piece of equipment in my kitchen. For braises, sourdough bread, soups, anything that goes in the oven.

**Other equipment I reach for constantly:**
- Kitchen scales: weight measurements are more accurate than volume for baking and are how professional recipes are written.
- An instant-read thermometer: for checking the internal temperature of roasts and bread. Removes the guesswork.
- A spider/skimmer: for pulling pasta, blanched vegetables, and fried food from boiling water or oil without draining away everything.
- A bench scraper: for transferring chopped food, handling pastry, and cleaning work surfaces.
- A mortar and pestle: for spices, garlic paste, and pestos. Better than a food processor for small quantities and for maintaining texture.

**What I do not have:** A stand mixer, a food processor, a sous vide machine, a pressure cooker. These are all useful tools; I choose not to have them because I prefer to cook with fewer, simpler tools. The absence of a stand mixer means I knead bread by hand; this takes longer and I find the process satisfying.

## Seasonal Produce Notes (Northern Europe)

The seasons I cook by are for Northern Europe (UK, France, Germany, Benelux). Adjust for your location.

**Spring (March-May):** Asparagus (the main event of spring; eat as much as you can afford for the 6-week season), purple sprouting broccoli, watercress, wild garlic, spring onions, radishes, new season morels. Lamb (the seasonal spring meat).

**Summer (June-August):** Tomatoes (peak in July-August; buy from farms, not supermarkets), courgettes (in abundance — the recipes are for using them before they become marrows), cucumber, broad beans, French beans, sweetcorn, basil. Stone fruits (cherries, peaches, apricots, plums).

**Autumn (September-November):** Squash and pumpkins, mushrooms (wild mushroom season; also when cultivated mushrooms are at their best), apples and pears, quince, root vegetables beginning, walnuts and hazelnuts fresh from the shell, game season begins.

**Winter (December-February):** Root vegetables (parsnips, swede, celeriac, carrots — all improve after a frost), brassicas (cavolo nero, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage), forced chicory, blood oranges from January. Citrus fruit generally.

**Year-round:**  Good onions, garlic, potatoes, leeks, spinach (but prefer to use in season), celery.

## Substitutions Guide

A selection of substitutions that work well when you cannot find the original ingredient:

**Guanciale → Pancetta (not streaky bacon):** Guanciale (cured pork cheek) is used in authentic carbonara and amatriciana. Pancetta is an acceptable substitute; it has a similar fat ratio and cures cleanly. Streaky bacon, smoked or unsmoked, is not a good substitute — the smoking and different fat structure produce different results.

**San Marzano tomatoes → Good quality tinned plum tomatoes:** Any tinned plum tomato from a reputable producer will work. Avoid cheap tinned tomatoes in recipes where tomato quality is paramount.

**00 flour → Plain flour for fresh pasta:** In a pinch, plain flour works for fresh pasta. The texture will be less silky but perfectly acceptable. Not recommended for pizza dough, where 00 flour's specific protein content matters more.

**Parmesan → Grana Padano:** Very similar in flavour profile. Grana Padano has slightly less intensity and is generally cheaper. For finishing pasta or using as a condiment, Parmesan; for cooking into sauces where it will melt, Grana Padano works equally well.

**Fresh herbs → Dried (factor):** Not all herbs substitute equally. For robust herbs like oregano, rosemary, and thyme: use one-third the amount of dried compared to fresh. For delicate herbs like basil and parsley: no substitute. Dried basil bears no relation to fresh basil and should not be used in the same way.

**White wine (in cooking) → Dry white vermouth:** Vermouth's higher concentration of flavour compounds means you use slightly less, and it keeps in the cupboard indefinitely. I use it for any recipe that calls for white wine in a sauce.

**Buttermilk → Milk with lemon juice:** Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white wine vinegar to 240ml of regular milk, stir, and let stand 5 minutes. The milk will curdle slightly. This works well for baking recipes.

## Notes on Heat

The most common mistake home cooks make is not getting pans hot enough before adding food. When you add food to an insufficiently hot pan, the food steams in its own moisture rather than searing. Chicken skin does not crisp; meat does not brown; vegetables go soft rather than caramelise.

Test heat with a drop of water: it should dance and evaporate within a second. Or use an infrared thermometer if you have one.

The corollary: do not leave food unattended over high heat. High heat gives excellent results quickly; it also burns food quickly.

## Notes on Salt

Professional kitchens season throughout cooking, not just at the end. Each layer of cooking is an opportunity to build flavour.

I use flaky sea salt (Maldon, or fleur de sel for finishing) and fine sea salt for cooking. I do not use table salt; the iodine imparts an off-flavour.

Salt pasta water generously — it should taste pleasantly salty, not like sea water. This is the only opportunity to season the pasta itself.
