Kitchen tools

Staub 5.5 L round cocotte

The French braising pot: bourguignon, blanquette, choucroute, baeckeoffe and pot-au-feu all start and finish in it. 5.5 L feeds six.

Used in: Baeckeoffe, Blanquette de Veau, Cassoulet, Choucroute Garnie, Pot-au-Feu, Pork Rillettes, Sausages with Lentils, Beef Bourguignon

de Buyer Blue Steel crêpe pan, 24 cm

Steel browns crêpes and galettes with lacy edges that non-stick pans don't give. Season it once and it only gets better.

Used in: Buckwheat Galette with Ham, Cheese and Egg, Crêpes

Carbon steel tart pans with removable base, 24 cm (set of 2)

Metal, not glass: the pastry bottom crisps instead of steaming. The loose base lets you lift the tart out whole.

Used in: Tomato Mustard Tart, French Apple Tart, Alsatian Plum Tart, Quiche Lorraine

Shallow ramekins, 11.4 cm (set of 6)

Shallow beats deep for crème brûlée: more crackly top for each spoon, and a more even set.

Used in: Crème Brûlée

Fox Run kugelhopf mould, 22 cm

Traditional kougelhopf moulds are glazed clay from Soufflenheim and are hard to find in Canada. This metal one bakes faster, so tent the top with foil halfway.

Used in: Kougelhopf

Gobel tinned steel madeleine pan, 12 shells

Metal, not silicone: the edges crisp and the bump rises. Butter and flour the shells, then chill the pan before filling.

Used in: Madeleines

CHEFMADE 12-cup cannelé pan

Carbon steel browns cannelés much better than silicone, for a fraction of the price of copper moulds. Brush it with butter anyway: the crust comes out darker and the cannelés slide right out.

Used in: Cannelés

Emile Henry tarte tatin set

A cast-iron pan works too, but this set is made for the job: caramel, bake and flip in one dish.

Swissmar Lugano cast-iron fondue set, 2 L

Heavy cast iron keeps the cheese warm without boiling it, which is what stops a fondue from splitting.

Used in: Cheese Fondue

Swissmar classic raclette grill, 8 people

The whole point of raclette is that everyone melts their own cheese at the table; an eight-pan grill makes it a proper evening.

Used in: Raclette

Etekcity digital kitchen scale

French recipes are written in grams. For baking, a scale is the difference between a recipe that works every time and one that doesn't.

Used in: Apple Crumble, Choux Pastry, Gougères, Kougelhopf, Kouign-Amann, Country Pâté, Madeleines

Sondiko refillable kitchen torch

The only way to get a thin, glassy caramel on crème brûlée without warming the custard. Also good for browning meringue.

Used in: Crème Brûlée

Opinel Les Essentiels kitchen knives

Opinel is the knife in nearly every French kitchen drawer. Light, sharp and inexpensive, they're what you reach for to peel, slice and cut cheese at the table.

Francine farine T45, 1 kg

Cake and pastry flour works for most recipes, but for fine pastry and madeleines, real T45 is worth trying once.

Piment d'Espelette, 40 g

French cooks use it like pepper: on eggs, fish, brandade and roast chicken. A small jar lasts months.

Edmond Fallot moutarde à l'ancienne

Sharper and more aromatic than supermarket grainy mustard. For sausages and lentils, pot-au-feu and vinaigrette.