Most American kitchens have measuring cups and can openers, but tools like zesters and mandolins are more likely to be owned only by professional cooks.
These are some of the findings from a recent YouGov survey of 1,000 US adults about what tableware they have in their kitchens. Some of the highlights:
Some kitchen appliances are almost universal
In addition to measuring cups and can openers, at least 90% of Americans have spatulas and measuring spoons in their kitchens. Of the 25 cooking utensils YouGov queried, another nine such as steak knives, cutting boards, whisks and peelers are present in the kitchens of more than 80% of respondents.
Meanwhile, 6 of the 25 items are chopsticks, garlic press, juicer, zester, mandolin, and ricer, owned by less than half of all respondents.
Experienced cooks are likely to own all types of cooking equipment
21% of Americans who call themselves “great” cooks are more likely to own all 25 types of cooking equipment than Americans who rate their cooking skills less highly. Become. (46% of Americans say their cooking skills are “good,” 25% “fair,” 4% “bad,” and 3% “terrible.” 2% say they're good at cooking.) Ability to answer if you don't know what to do.)
Steak knives and tongs are nearly ubiquitous among self-proclaimed great cooks, with 94% owning tongs and 95% owning steak knives. These utensils are still common in other kitchens, but not as much. Only 85% of less confident cooks said they owned tongs, and 84% said they owned a steak knife.
The difference is especially large for some rare tableware. Only 30% of Americans who say they are not good cooks own a mandolin, but 55% of self-proclaimed good cooks own a mandolin. Zester is owned by 37% of insecure cooks, but 65% of good cooks.
Most tableware is owned by older Americans rather than younger Americans, but not chopsticks or rice bowls.
Having a fully stocked kitchen and enough kitchen space to store all of those tools takes time and money. Not surprisingly, many tableware items are more likely to be owned by older Americans.
However, this doesn't apply to everything. Some unusual types of kitchen appliances are more likely to be owned by young Americans. This includes chopsticks, which are primarily used in East Asian cooking, as well as tools such as ricers, mandolins, zesters, and juicers.
— Taylor Orth contributed to this article
See the results of this YouGov poll
methodology: The poll was conducted online among 1,000 U.S. adults from November 1 to 6, 2023. Respondents were selected from her YouGov opt-in panel using her matching sample. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, turnout and presidential vote count in the 2020 election, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets are based on the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is a respondent's most recent response given before November 1, 2022, weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democrat, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the entire sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty (peter stark)
