Kitchen Equipments - Identification, Selection And Types

Kitchen Equipment - Identification, Selection And Types 

Equipment related to culinary art is kitchen appliances. Different kitchen appliances are used ranging from manual to mechanical, small to large in a professional commercial kitchen.

The selection of kitchen equipment directly affects output and performance of Kitchen so the selection of kitchen equipment usually begins along with planning and designing of the layout of Kitchen. 

Several factors should be considered before purchasing equipment which is:-

1. Appearance- Equipment should look nice and fit well

2. Durability- Equipment should be durable. They should give value for  the money and should be able to run for a long time

3. Ease:-  It should be easy to use for handling properly 

4. Noise:-   It should have an acceptable Noise level.

5. Maintenance:- kitchen Equipment should be easy for maintenance and cleaning.

6. Spare parts:- spare parts should be easily available.

7. Attachment:- Extra attachment and facilities are also preferred for convenience.

8. Kitchen equipment should also be easy to identify.

Kitchen equipment is divided into two groups :

1. Large Equipment:- 

Large appliances are differentiated from small ones because they are larger, difficult to move and fixed in one part of the kitchen. They cannot be moved from one place to another easily. They are major appliances used in for food preparation and cooking in a Commercial kitchen.

It includes both mechanical and manual. Mechanical equipment is a device that uses energy to perform the activity.  Some large kitchen equipment are:- 

1. Deep fat fryer

2. Electrical oven

3. Cooking range 

4. Refrigerator

5. Deep freezer

6. Tandoori oven

7. Dough mixer 

8. Microwave oven 

A refrigerator maintains Temperature few degrees above the freezing point of water while freezer maintains Temperature below the freezing point of water. These equipment are not new to us as we have seen them often in kitchens. 

Dough mixer may be new to us. It helps us to make the dough in large quantity as big star hotels can't prepare a large amount of required dough with hands. 

A microwave oven is mainly used for thawing and re-heating food. It is one of the safest methods of thawing foods.

Tandoori oven and electrical oven are slightly different. Usually, tandoori ovens are clay made, heated with charcoal and wood while electrical ovens operate either by electricity or gas cylinder. Tandoori items are prepared in the tandoori oven after marinating food first. 

2. Small Equipment:- 

Small Equipment is a device used for holding and serving food in the kitchen. They are easier to move and are smaller in size. Similarly, they are easily movable from one place to another. Some name and use of small Equipment are:-

1 . Wok:- It was originated in China. They are mostly used for stir-frying. 

2. Saucepan:- It is a deep and thick bottomed pan with a long handle used for the preparation of sauce, soup.

3. Frying pan:- It is used for frying.

4. Toaster:- Toaster is used in a commercial kitchen for toasting

5. Pressure cooker:- pressure cooker is very vital to any kitchen as it saves both money and time. Moreover, the food items cooked in pressure cooker also helps to retain Nutrients.

6. Chinos:- it is a conical strainer. We mainly used it for straining. It is made of metals with a cone shape and small pores.

7. Colander:- it is a small tool but very useful and also used in the kitchen to wash things, separate water from them. 

10. Grater:- They help in grating various herbs, spices, vegetables. 

11. Squeezer:- They are used to squeeze the juice out.

12. Chafing dish:- buffets are incomplete without them as buffet dishes are laid upon them. 

13. Mixing bowl:- variety of mixing bowl is found in Kitchen. 

14. Soup ladle and spatula:- They are used for soup items. Usually, for making soup and portioning.