Kitchen Gear and Tools We Think You Should Have Two (Or More) Of

You’ve probably heard cooks or food people (and maybe we are guilty of this here at Serious Eats) lament the use of unitaskers, e.g., things with one very specific purpose, like avocado slicers, bagel cutters, or meat claws.

But what about the tools that are so useful and necessary that you need more than one? Have you ever started boiling pasta only to discover that your one and only strainer is in the dishwasher—and then abruptly stopped the dishwasher mid-cycle because you have nothing else to strain with? I sure have. Have you had to repeatedly wash and rewash a tool as you prep a recipe, stretching out what was supposed to be a 30-minute meal into a much longer affair? Yup, that’s been me on a hurried weeknight.

Here’s a list of items we find highly useful to have multiples of. Note: we didn’t include cookware (that’s a whole separate list!) or knives.