Behind many professional stoves, tongs are pooh-poohed as bad technique, a lazy and even disrespectful way of cooking. But the truth is that tongs are advantageous for just about anything you'd do in a home kitchen.
Turn to tongs for stir-frying noodles, dressing salads, flipping steaks without puncturing them, pulling hot dogs out of a beer bath, roasting vegetables over a flame, even coaxing out bread that's been stuck in a toaster. Note that all kitchen tongs are not created equal, though. If you're looking for a new pair, OXO is a great place to start, particularly with its Good Grips 9-inch tongs, which cost $12. They're solidly constructed, with non-slip grips, a pull-tab lock, scalloped edges, and even thumb rests, so you're comfortable holding onto them for long periods of time. The lock has a hole in it for hanging (or try storing them in a drawer this way for maximum space). The shorter 9-inch length allows for the most controlled movement, so they're a great starter pair, although you may want to invest in longer 12-inch or 16-inch tongs if you spend a lot of time, say, flipping food in front of a hot grill.
In addition to their foremost function as a heatproof pair of hands, locking tongs are also great for a lesser-known set of tasks both inside and outside the kitchen. While prepping food, tongs can do double duty as a citrus reamer (push the cut end of a citrus half into the scalloped edges of a pair of closed tongs), or, in a pinch, a beer opener (use the long arms of the tongs). They're also an excellent way to get a better grip on lemons before juicing.
Beyond the kitchen, use them to grab things from hard-to-reach shelves, to go after for something that's fallen into a hard-to-reach place, or to toss things you're too grossed out to touch with your bare hands. Oh, and hey: back scratcher, anyone? We can hardly say the humble kitchen tong doesn't deserve respect.
Photo by Incase.
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