It wouldn't be fair to say that all summer rentals have poorly equipped kitchens. But if you've ever tried to make, oh, I don't know, a pie or even a simple salad dressing or a marinade in a friend's kitchen, let alone a rental house that might go unoccupied for half the year, you know the feeling of opening drawers and peering into the darkest back corners of cabinets looking for some kind of vinegar or a cutting board or salt, of all things—and coming up empty.
While you don't want to have to pack a whole extra suitcase just so you can make dinner, it's worth it to put a couple of your kitchen standbys on your packing list (or your buy-as-soon-as-I-get-there list) so that you know you'll be able to pull off whatever you're hoping to cook before heading back to the beach. (Psst—it also helps to have a sense of what you're going to be cooking before you embark, so you know that if you are planning on making a pie, you can add a rolling pin or at least a bottle of wine for repurposing to your rental-cottage-kitchen-survival-bag.)
Here are the 10 things we won't enter a rental kitchen without:
A Knife You Love and Know Is Sharp
No more sawing at herbs or pressing firmly and hopefully into fruit or a loaf of bread. Pack the knife you use every day and you know that what's perhaps your most essential, most all-purpose tool will be up to snuff. Bonus points: If you have space, pack your go-to cutting board, too.
The Spices You Use Most
Salt and a pepper grinder are both smart packs. But beyond that, pack whatever else you reach for daily—red pepper flakes? hot sauce? vanilla extract? cumin? cinnamon?—so you're not left in the lurch.
Foil
Clean off the remnants of the last renter's grilling projects. Wrap up any leftovers. Make packets of vegetables to grill over a fire. Use it as a makeshift baking sheet. Foil will step into the fray for you over and over when your kitchen lacks tools.
More: How do we love thee, foil? Let us count the ways. (Fifty. Fifty ways.)
A Spatula
Something to turn fish or pancakes, to stir caramelizing onions around, or to nudge a pizza off the grill—or, in a pinch, to toss together a salad or a bowl of pasta.
A Strainer
A collapsable one is especially packing-friendly, but any strainer you have will help you wash berries, rinse clams, or strain pasta (which you can make with almost nothing else in the kitchen at all).
Cast-Iron Pan
Yes, it'll be heavy. It might not be the best choice if you need to walk for a ways to get to wherever this rental kitchen is. But with a cast-iron pan, you can fry eggs. You can make a frittata or pancakes, a stir-fry or a steak. You can put it on the grill, put it over a fire, slide it into the oven to make biscuits. You can make a whole meal in a skillet! It is your baking sheet and your skillet, your cake pan and your sauté pan. What we're saying is that it earns its (heavy) keep.
All this can be yours! If you have a can opener.
Can Opener
A can opener is the key to the city. Your rental kitchen might have one—but if they don't, there's the scary task of MacGyvering into a can of tomatoes or beans.
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Or, if you're really tight on space, the ones you use the most—maybe just the cup measure, a teaspoon, and a tablespoon. You'll save yourself a lot of finger-crossing and eyeballing.
Some Kind of Multipurpose Oil
If you can pan-fry something (egg, fillet of fish), dress a salad with it, and grease a pan with it, it should join you on vacation. Pick it up on your first visit to the grocery store in Vacation Central, USA. Make sure it tastes good!
Vinegar of Some Sort
This, plus the oil you smartly packed (or purchased once touching down), means you have salad dressings. Sprinkle some onto hot potatoes and you have potato salad (practically). Make switchel or shrubs for post-beach refreshment purposes. Pack whichever one you use the most! My vote: apple cider vinegar.
A Few Smart Extras You Could Add to Your List
A Corkscrew
It's pretty hard to get into that bottle of icy white if you don't have one. Although, you could always use our Design & Home Editor Amanda's Hail Mary technique:
Plastic baggies, jars, or other food storage containers
For snacks on the go or any leftovers that resist being wrapped in foil.
Tell us—what's the tool you truly could not cook without for a week? Or tell us which tools you've been glad you carried with you on vacation.
Written by: Caroline Lange
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8 Comments
It at least will sharpen the cheap knives that most rental places seem to have, so you can use them safely.
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