5 Cooking Essentials You Need for a Worry-Free Thanksgiving

It’s time to talk about your cutting board. Does it slide all over you counter? Has it worn thinner than your patience? Has it collected so many memories with you over the years that is qualifies as a biohazard? This thick, substantial board from Epicurean is not only made with a mega durable, nonporous, and dishwasher-safe material, it also has a moat around the edges for collecting turkey juice, which makes it the perfect surface for carving.

Buy It: from $45; amazon.com

It’s surprisingly easy to fall into complacency with a dull knife. The decline is so incremental that you don’t notice until a disaster occurs and your knife is irretrievably wedged into a butternut squash like the sword in the Sorcerer’s Stone. This whetstone is not only super affordable, it makes sharpening your knives accessible and easy. In fact, chopping Brussels sprouts and slicing beets might even seem fun.

Buy It: $23.50; amazon.com

Whether you’re in our test kitchen or looking inside our food editors’ home fridges, you’ll find these commercial kitchen deli containers. They’re lifesavers when you’re preparing for dinner days before. Plus, they’re reusable for months and so much more affordable than the sets you’ll find marketed to home cooks. With matching lids, there’s no more stretching plastic wrap over mixing bowls and the ensuing spills and leaks.

Buy It: $12.90; amazon.com

While weekday cooking often means preparing savory and sweet dishes separately, on Thanksgiving there is multitasking between a sweet potato pie and a green bean casserole. Having an extra set of measuring cups and spoons on hand can help you keep your momentum instead of spending time washing them out in between each step-- lest your casserole have a touch of cinnamon.

Buy It: $7.65; amazon.com

There’s nothing that will slow you down faster or leave room for more accidents that transferring just-cooked dishes to serving plates and bowls. This option from Lodge cooks like your favorite skillet on the stovetop or in the oven, but is pretty enough to put out on the buffet.

Buy It: from $31.72; amazon.com