It's ever so much fun to diss on all those newfangled single-use tools—you know, the impulse-buy tomato slicers by the cash register, the all-edge brownie pans you see on TV, the avocado pitters and pizza-reheating sleeves that make you genuinely wonder whether kitchenware companies are trying to rob and infantilize us at the same time.

But that doesn't mean all single-use tools are lame. There are a slew of old-school tools that don't just cut down on your work—they can actually make your food taste more delicious. Bring a few of these tools into your kitchen, and your cooking might just start tasting as good as Grandma's.


1. Cookie Press

We've all received a round tin or two of those Danish Christmas cookies, right? The best (and pretty much only) way to make those elegant, sculptural cookie shapes is with a cookie press. The good news is, if you've ever played with Play-Doh (um, played with Play-Doh?), you know just how easy it is to extrude a squishy dough through a press, and how hypnotic it is to see it take shape on the other side. Believe me, your friends will be equally astonished when you present them with a platter of cookies that look like they come straight from that tin—but taste so, so much better.

BUY IT: Kuhn Rikon Clear Cookie Press, $30 on Amazon**


2. Food Mill

Who needs a food mill? Who doesn't? And don't even try to say that puréeing food in a blender or a food processor is pretty much the same. With its switchable discs, the food mill allows you to control how rustic or refined you want your applesauce, creamy vegetable soup, or tomato purée to be, and as Marcella Hazan pointed out in her cookbooks, only a food mill allows you to remove the skins from tomatoes as you purée them (the skins stay behind as the purée passes through).

BUY IT: OXO Good Grips Food Mill, $50 on Amazon


3. Meat Hammer

Setting aside the obvious psychological benefits of having such a cathartic tool on hand at a moment's notice, the meat hammer (aka meat tenderizer) makes short work of pounding thinly sliced chicken breast or veal scallopine into evenly thick slabs that cook up juicy and delicious. Use the flat side to pound out schnitzel, and the bumpy side to tenderize pork chops or flank steak before you marinate them—the flavors will penetrate even more deeply that way.

BUY IT: KitchenAid Meat Tenderizer, $18 on Amazon


4. Spurtle

At first glance, you might assume this wooden tool is a chair leg or a rolling pin. But it's something far more strange and delightful. The original, dowel-shaped version of this humble wooden tool is traditionally used in Scotland to stir porridge, allowing cooks to stir all the way to the bottom of the pot without scraping (or smooshing) their precious oats. In fact, the spurtle has spawned a number of useful hybrids, like the "spurtula," an elongated sort of spatula that's especially useful for folding egg whites, scraping batter out of mixing bowls, and serving cheesy casseroles.

BUY IT: Tala Beechwood Spurtle, $8 on Amazon


5. Cherry Pitter

I know what you're going to say. "But I don't make cherry pies/jam/ice cream. Why would I need a cherry pitter?" Ah, but you are missing the point. If you did have a cherry pitter, you would be much more likely to have cherry pies, jam, and ice cream in your life. That's because this super-satisfying tool makes short work of that tedious pitting task, leaving you with a pile of perfectly pitted cherries in just a few minutes. Buy one now, and whip it out the moment that cherries hit your local market—you probably won't put it back in the drawer all summer long.


BUY IT: Ionox Heavy Duty Zinc Alloy Cherry Stoner, $8 on Amazon


6. Potato Ricer

The potato ricer is the age-old solution to the mashed-potato conundrum: How do you get perfectly smooth mashed potatoes, without the lumps you inevitably get when using a potato masher? Many have tried to nail that perfect smoothness by puréeing potatoes in a food processor, only to end up with gluey wallpaper paste. The ricer, on the other hand, effortlessly creates purée as the potatoes pass through its tiny holes—with far less elbow grease than the potato masher. Bonus: The ricer is also ideal for gently squeezing the liquid out of grated raw potatoes for latkes, grated zucchini for patties, and cauliflower rice without getting a kitchen towel dirty.

BUY IT: Potato Ricer and Masher, $20 on Amazon


7. Stovetop Toaster

Long before the invention of the toaster oven, home cooks from Argentina to Italy (and beyond) toasted their bread right on the stovetop using this handy tool, which has the footprint, as Epi's editor David Tamarkin points out, of a small, thin plate instead of a hefty appliance. Even better, the slightly charred grill marks you get on this toast make bread even more delicious with a generous application of butter and jam.

BUY IT: Stainless Steel Stovetop Toaster, $16 at Fante's


8. Meat Grinder

Ah, ground meat. If you're smart about avoiding ground turkey breast, there's nothing wrong with supermarket ground meat. Right? Well, sure. It's perfectly fine. But when you grind your own meat to make burgers or sausage patties or meatloaf, you unlock a whole new level of juiciness and flavor. Even better, you can choose a single cut of meat to grind, rather than eating pre-ground meat that could come from dozens of different animals (if that's something you're concerned about). And now that handy electric models are super-affordable, there's no need to bother with the tedious hand-cranked models that your grandparents had to endure back in the day.

BUY IT: Homeleader Electric Meat Grinder, $60 on Amazon


9. Pickling Crock

There's always a reason to have a pickling crock in your kitchen. First of all, it invites you to make pickles or kimchi or sauerkraut inside it. And with a little bit of research, you'll soon see that the process usually just involves putting vegetables, salt, and some other seasonings in the crock, weighting them down, and leaving them alone for a week or two. And if that's too much trouble, you can always use the crock as a handy stove-side container for your most-used spatulas, wooden spoons, and tongs.

BUY IT: Humble House Fermentation Crock German-Style SAUERKROCK, $50 from Amazon


10. Pie Bird

This hopelessly adorable, insanely useful ceramic bird is the secret weapon that every pie-baker needs in her arsenal. When embedded in a pie, the venting action of the bird helps prevent soggy bottom crusts, minimizes filling spillage, and helps anchor the top crust so it doesn't sink. Pro tip: Place the bird on the bottom crust before filling the pie, and then cut a slit in the center of the top crust before placing it on top of the pie so that the bird's head can easily peek through.

BUY IT: Le Creuset Stoneware Pie Bird Funnel, $12 on Amazon


11. Salt Cellar

This old-school salt receptacle harkens back to a time when salt was bought in bags rather than branded containers, and needed to be transferred to a container at home for easy access while cooking. But as soon as you set one up by your stovetop, you'll wonder how you cooked without it—it's a pleasure to pinch exactly the amount you need without having to futz with a salt shaker. It's especially nice to fill it with crunchy crystals of flaky Maldon sea salt. Okay, that's probably not the salt your grandparents would use, but the 21st century has some perks, too.

BUY IT: Bee House Salt Box, $24 on Amazon
