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8 Cheap(ish) Kitchen Essentials to Make Thanksgiving Prep a Little Smoother

By Marguerite Preston and Marilyn Ong
Updated
A cutting board with chopped onions, herbs, and a sliced baguette on it, surrounded by an apron, kitchen sheers, a pyrex measuring cup with liquid in it, and a kitchen scale.
Photo: Marki Williams

Cooking a full Thanksgiving feast, whether for a crowd or for just a few loved ones, can be equal parts thrilling and fraught. There’s plenty of joy to be found in a bustling kitchen, revisiting beloved traditions while enveloped in the comforting scents of butter, herbs, and turkey drippings.

But there’s plenty of anxiety, as well: the stress of too many cooks (or too many recipes) for one kitchen to handle, the perennial fear of a dry turkey or a tough pie crust. No amount of preparation or gear can fully banish the pressure. (And that’s kind of part of the thrill, isn’t it?)

We’ve collected some last-minute items for your toolbox that will make the day run just a little smoother. These are the kitchen all-stars we wouldn’t want to cook Thanksgiving without, though they’ll serve you well the rest of the year, too.

This durable multi-timer is easy to program and comes with an ingenious feature that allows you to customize the alarms with your own voice recordings.

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Trying to manage the whole feast with just one kitchen timer, or even juggling timers on your microwave, oven, and counter, can quickly devolve into chaos on the level of the Christmas episode in season 2 of The Bear. To avoid a total meltdown—or worse, scorched stuffing—consider a multi-timer.

Sure, you could use your phone, but it’s not ideal to be fumbling with the touchscreen with buttery, floury, or otherwise messy fingers. We much prefer a dedicated multi-timer like the ThermoWorks TimeStack. Designed for commercial kitchens, the TimeStack is big, but it can run four timers at once, and it has a large digital display with a backlight, so you can see your remaining time from across the kitchen.

Separate buttons for setting the timers and turning them on or off, plus a number keypad, make it quick and easy to use, and you can adjust both the volume and pitch of each alarm to make it audible above the din of a full kitchen.

The alarm sound for each timer is unique, but for the chaos of Thanksgiving, you have an even better option: The TimeStack lets you record your own message for each alarm so that you’ll know exactly what it’s for (“Pie!” for example, or “Check the turkey!”). These recordings don’t get quite as ear-piercing as the standard alarms do, but we found them perfectly audible at full volume.

We’re fans of ThermoWorks devices in general because they’re well made, accurate, and durable, and they usually come in a bunch of fun colors. The TimeStack is splashproof, and ThermoWorks covers it with a two-year warranty. Rubberized feet keep it from sliding around the counter, and magnets on the back let you stick it to your fridge.

Our pick

This plastic board resisted warping, staining, and odors better than the other plastic boards we tested. The rubber feet keep it stationary, and the juice groove does an excellent job of collecting liquids.

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This beautiful, eco-conscious teak board requires more careful cleaning than a plastic board, but it felt better under a knife and was easier to maintain than the other wood boards we tested.

If you’ve been toiling over a too-small cutting board, with bits of chopped onion tumbling off in all directions, now is the time to go big. A spacious board, in the realm of 20 by 15 inches, can make a huge difference in how efficiently you prep ingredients. You can work your way through a mountain of brussels sprouts, for instance, or chop carrots, celery, and onions for a mirepoix without having to pause to transfer anything to a bowl.

For a less expensive, lightweight, dishwasher-safe option, we like the plastic OXO Good Grips Carving and Cutting Board. It’s durable, it doesn’t slip around on a counter, and it has a juice groove to collect liquids.

If you’re ready to invest in a hefty wood cutting board (which looks better and is easier on knives), we recommend the Teakhaus Medium Professional Carving Board. It’s one of the best deals you can get for a board that’s thick enough to stay in place and resist warping—and with proper care, this board can last you years. It also looks nice enough to double as a serving board for a cheese spread before dinner.

Just know that you can’t put it in the dishwasher and will occasionally need to oil it, though the teak wood fights off moisture better and can go longer between oilings than other materials like maple (which often cost more too).

Our pick

The favorite among our testers, this apron is comfortable, soft (yet sturdy), gender neutral, and adjustable to fit a wide range of sizes.

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This loose-fitting pinafore is absurdly comfy, and the thick linen keeps you protected yet cool.

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Most kitchens have a basic, around-the-neck apron or two, which may do just fine at the task of keeping you clean. But those can grow uncomfortable during marathon cooking sessions, with the strap tugging at your neck and causing tension or irritation. Yours might also be covered in stains or a goofy novelty print that you’d rather not don in front of guests.

You have better options—they might require some investment up front, but they’re comfortable and durable enough to serve you for years to come.

Consider a crossback-style apron like the Hedley & Bennett Crossback Apron, a crowd favorite in our apron tests. The fabric is thick yet soft, and the pockets are generous. Best of all, the crossback straps adjust to fit a wide range of body types and rest comfortably on the shoulders instead of tugging at the neck.

Or you might prefer a breathable, loose-fitting linen pinafore like the Rough Linen Bella Linen Pinafore-Apron, which is so comfortable that you might forget you’re wearing it.

You can find lots of other stylish options to choose from in our guide to aprons, too.

Our pick

No other thermometer under $50 can match the ThermoPop 2’s combination of speed, reach, reliability, and an easy-to-read display. It’s also waterproof, and it has a long probe to read into deep dishes.

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Don’t rely on that plastic pop-up thingy to tell you when your turkey is done. Instead, spend a little on a tool that will serve you well year-round: an instant-read thermometer. The ThermoWorks ThermoPop 2, our recommendation, is inexpensive, accurate, and lightning fast.

The ThermoPop 2 allows you to easily take the temperature of your turkey in multiple places, ensuring that both white and dark meat come out perfectly cooked. Especially great: The large digital screen lights up and rotates the display automatically as you change the angle of the thermometer, so you can read it quickly even when you’re maneuvering around a turkey leg or peering into a dark oven. Just be sure to start checking your bird at least 30 minutes before it’s supposed to be done.

Our pick

This compact scale is best for home cooks who want fast, consistent results when baking or cooking.

A kitchen scale makes cooking easier on a couple of fronts. For starters, it cuts down on dishes: Measuring every ingredient by weight directly into the mixing bowl or cooking vessel saves you from dirtying a bunch of measuring cups and spoons.

It will also help you follow recipes to a T, which is especially valuable for baking, as accurate measurements can make the difference between, say, a dry cornbread and a tender one. But that kind of precision inspires confidence in cooking any recipe, whether you want to get the right amount of bread in your stuffing or check the ratio of cream to spuds in your mashed potatoes.

The Escali Primo Digital Scale has been the top pick in our guide to kitchen scales for years and is a staple of restaurant kitchens because it’s sturdy, accurate, easy to use, and small enough to stash in a drawer. It also comes in several cheerful color options.

Our pick

This roomy, glass liquid measuring cup is microwave and dishwasher safe, and it pours cleanly from its spout.

When you’re juggling endless lists of prep tasks, every bit of streamlining helps, which is why we love using Pyrex cups (even if you’re mostly relying on a scale for measurements). The larger, quart-size Pyrex Glass Measuring Cup comes in especially handy on big cooking days, when you’re more likely to double or triple recipes.

Pyrex cups are made of tempered glass, so they’re known for their durability—they can survive bumps and drops. In addition, the measurements on their sides are accurate and don’t fade away easily. So when you need to warm butter and milk for mashed potatoes, for instance, you can confidently measure them straight into the cup and pop them in the microwave—no fighting for a spot on the stove. Once you’re done, you can put the measuring cup straight into the dishwasher.

When making biscuits or other batters (waffles for Friday morning, anyone?), we’ve found that a good strategy is to measure liquids in a large Pyrex cup and then weigh all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl using a kitchen scale. In doing so, you dirty only two vessels for the whole project, and the cup’s spout makes incorporating liquids into the dry ingredients especially easy.

Our pick

With sharp, strong blades and a handy herb stripper, these scissors can help you whiz through prep. And the blades come apart for easy cleaning.

When counter space, cutting boards, and knives are in high demand, having a pair of shears in the kitchen offers some much-needed flexibility. In our tests, the OXO Good Grips Kitchen and Herb Scissors had the best mix of sharp blades (one edge is micro-serrated to grip slippery items), large comfy handles, and pull-apart pieces for easy cleanup.

On T-Day, they can make quick work of crucial tasks, such as trimming extra skin and fat from the turkey or removing the spine for a spatchcocked bird.

Shears are also great for stripping thyme or mincing sage for your stuffing or for trimming the ends off the green beans for your casserole. And when a dish is ready to serve, you can grab a bundle of parsley or chives and use the shears to snip some fresh herbs right on top as a garnish.

Chefs everywhere love the brushed stainless-steel Gray Kunz spoon for its comfortable handle and its big bowl for saucing plates. It can double nicely for both cooking and serving.

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JB Prince’s Gray Kunz Sauce Spoon is a multitasking dream. Developed by chef Gray Kunz, this spoon is an essential tool for chefs and line cooks in fine-dining kitchens all over the world, whether for saucing, plating, cooking, or tasting.

At home it can go from basting the turkey to spooning a perfect dollop of whipped cream over your pie, while tackling plenty of tasks in between. The deep bowl holds a lot (2½ tablespoons, to be exact), and the spoon is lightweight and well balanced. And even though it’s a workhorse in the kitchen, it won’t look out of place as a serving utensil. For that reason, you might even want to buy a few.

This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Annemarie Conte. 

Meet your guides

Marguerite Preston

Marguerite Preston is a senior editor covering kitchen gear and appliances at Wirecutter, and has written guides to baking equipment, meal kit delivery services, and more. She previously worked as an editor for Eater New York and as a freelance food writer. Before that, she learned her way around professional kitchens as a pastry cook in New York.

Marilyn Ong

Marilyn Ong is a supervising editor for Wirecutter’s kitchen team, covering everything from ice cream makers and Instant Pots to toasters and trash cans. Prior to this, she was an arts and then restaurants editor in Beijing, and she also took time away from blinking cursors to be a caretaker for her three young kids. Cooking for her family gave her a healthy obsession with finding the best affordable tools for the kitchen—but when she’s cooking for herself, all she needs is instant ramen and an egg.

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