10 Must-Have Chinese Cooking Utensils

10 Must-Have Chinese Cooking Utensils

Tasty Chinese food relies heavily on both chefs' cooking techniques and the utensils they use. With the right cooking tools, you can prepare many of your favorite Chinese dishes at home:

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1. A Cleaver

Chinese: 剪菜刀 /qiēcàidāo/

The Chinese cleaver has a rectangular shape, designed to chop through bone. It features a heavy, thick blade with a handle made of wood, plastic, or stainless steel.

Chinese chefs use cleavers for slicing un-boned or boneless meat, chopping, slicing, dicing, and mincing vegetables, cutting vegetables into delicate shapes, and crushing garlic or ginger.

Materials: A cleaver can be made from stainless steel or high carbon steel.

2. A Cutting Board

Chinese: 切菜板 /qiēcàibǎn/

A cutting board protects the worktop when cutting vegetables and chopping meat. It’s often useful to lift the board to push prepared ingredients into a wok or bowl. There are three types of cutting boards: wooden, bamboo, and acrylic. The best choices are wooden or acrylic.

3. A Wok

Chinese: 炒锅 /chǎoguō/

The wok is the most widely used and essential cooking utensil in Chinese cuisine. It’s found in almost every Chinese kitchen.

Woks are multi-functional pieces of cookware used for deep-frying, stir-frying, roasting, steaming, stewing, braising, and boiling.

Material: Most woks are made from carbon steel or iron.

Variations: Types include round-bottom, flat-bottom, electric, stick, and non-stick.

4. A 'Wok Shovel'

Chinese: 锅铲 /guōchǎn/

A good wok shovel is crucial in Chinese cooking. It’s more than just a spatula or turner...

Designed for wok stir-frying and scooping, the mini shovel perfectly fits the wok’s curve. It’s convenient for scraping the last bits of food from the wok’s bottom.

Materials: They are usually made from metal, wood, or bamboo.

5. A Chinese Scoop Strainer

Chinese: 漏勺 /lòusháo/

A Chinese scoop strainer is used for straining, skimming, and deep-frying. It’s convenient for lifting fried fish, pieces of meat, and chips from hot oil, or removing noodles, wontons, and dumplings from boiling water.

Materials: Made from wire or perforated stainless steel heads with bamboo or metal handles.

6. A Ladle

Chinese: 汤勺 /tāngsháo/

A ladle serves soups or stews from a pot or wok to a bowl.

Materials: They can be made from stainless steel, aluminum, silver, plastic, wood, bamboo, or other materials.

7. Long Chopsticks (and Ordinary Chopsticks)

Chinese: 长筷子 /cháng kuàizi/ (筷子 /kuàizi/)

Cooking chopsticks are used for fishing food from a steaming wok or pot. They are longer than eating chopsticks, more than 30 cm (12 inches).

Ordinary chopsticks are used in the kitchen for stir-frying, beating eggs, and mixing ingredients.

8. A Rice Cooker

Chinese: 电饭锅 /diànfànguō/

A rice cooker is an electric utensil used for boiling or steaming rice. Chinese people, especially in southern China, prefer to eat rice daily.

Modern rice cookers offer various settings for different cooking functions, such as stewing meats, cooking porridge, steaming eggs, and heating milk. They are more heat-efficient than hob cooking and maintain steam pressure well.

They are also safer and more reliable than a pressure pot on a hob, switching to a keep-warm mode after cooking, ensuring no burnt food.

9. A Pressure Cooker

Chinese: 高压锅 /gāoyāguō/

Pressure cookers cook food faster than conventional methods. Some are electric, while others use hob heat.

Used to cook rice, porridge, and spare rib stew, pressure cookers employ steam pressure to cook food quickly.

Note: Never open a pressure cooker before the steam pressure has been released, as it is dangerous. Typically, the lid won't untwist until the pressure release valve is used, so be careful of the steam.

10. Steaming Baskets

Chinese: 蒸笼 /zhēnglóng/

Not everything is stir-fried in China. Steaming baskets are used extensively, steaming dumplings, buns, fish, pancakes, meat, and vegetables.

They allow for cooking multiple dishes simultaneously by stacking layer upon layer of tray-like baskets, often used with a wok.

Materials: Types include bamboo basket steamers and metal basket steamers, with metal steamers being easier to clean.

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Chinese Cooking Equipment - Cheap Dinner Ideas

Each cuisine has unique cooking equipment, and Chinese cooking is no exception. While these utensils can be used for other cuisines, they help achieve authentic taste and presentation.

Essential Items for Chinese Cooking

Here is a list of basic equipment needed for your Chinese cooking journey, starting with essential basics and gradually adding more:

Wok

The traditional Chinese wok is made from carbon steel and needs seasoning before use. Once properly seasoned, it's never washed with soap and water. The seasoning makes the wok non-stick and capable of withstanding high temperatures.

Non-stick woks are also available. Choose the size based on your needs—small for individual meals, large for family cooking. A lid helps retain heat.

Cleaver

While not essential, a Chinese cleaver's weight and size are effective for cutting through bone and cartilage. It can also scoop chopped ingredients into the wok.

Steaming

If you plan to make traditional dim sum, a Chinese bamboo steamer basket is necessary. It also steams fish, cakes, desserts, rice, and vegetables, retaining nutrients.

Cutting Boards

A good cutting board is essential, especially if using a Chinese cleaver. Ingredients are prepared before heating the wok. Similar sizes ensure quick and even cooking.

Cooking Utensils

The wok shovel helps move ingredients around, preventing burning. It fits the wok's contour perfectly, aiding in serving food. A wooden spoon will do, but it’s not quite authentic. Metal shovels suit carbon steel woks, while plastic or bamboo versions prevent damage to non-stick woks.

Additional Chinese Cooking Equipment

Rice Cooker

A rice cooker is an electric utensil used for steaming or boiling rice, which is a staple in Chinese cuisine. It can also be used for stewing meats and cooking porridge. Cooking rice a day in advance for fried rice improves texture by reducing moisture.

Pressure Cooker

Pressure cookers cook food faster with steam pressure, whether electric or hob-based. They are used for rice, porridge, and various stews.

Wok Brush

The bamboo wok brush effectively cleans woks made of sticky materials without detergents, preserving the surface.

Ladle

Chinese ladles, like 汤勺 /tāngsháo/, serve soups and stews. They come in various materials, including stainless steel, aluminum, and bamboo.

Chinese Scoop Strainer

A scoop strainer lifts fried fish, noodles, dumplings, and other dishes from boiling water or oil, making it essential in Chinese cooking.

Clay Pot / Earthen Pot

Clay pots, used for centuries in Chinese cuisine, produce unique flavors due to the alkaline nature of the clay, which neutralizes food acidity.

Mandoline Slicer

The mandoline slicer cuts and slices foods quickly and conveniently. It's vital for stir-fried dishes, offering various thickness options.

Cooking Chopsticks

Long cooking chopsticks manipulate foods during boiling or frying and pick up cooked items. They are longer than typical eating chopsticks, reaching more than 12 inches.

Stock Pot

Stockpots make homemade stocks used in braised and stewed dishes, including master stocks that flavor various recipes. Foods cooked in master stocks are called lou mei.

Chinese Rolling Pin

Essential for making Chinese buns, dumplings, noodles, and cakes, rolling pins come in various lengths and thicknesses, each serving different purposes.

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