The cook who has everything still wants something more. Here are gifts — practical, beautiful and edible — from the staff of Food and NYT Cooking to please those who spend the year pleasing you.
1. ESPRESSO TAMPER
Reg Barber
About $64 | coffeetamper.com
As adorable as espresso spoons are, your home barista really doesn’t need another set. Delight her instead with a coffee tamper from Reg Barber. The tamper firmly packs and evenly distributes espresso grounds for a better shot of espresso. These Canadian-made tampers are a favorite among competitive baristas; the wooden handles and metal bases are customizable, and personalization is also available. The price is a conversion from the price in Canadian currency, $84.
— Margaux Laskey
2. “Heirloom Harvest”
By Amy Goldman; photographs by Jerry Spagnoli
$85 | bloomsbury.com
The astonishing beauty and variety of the heirloom fruits and vegetables that Amy Goldman cultivates in her gardens in Rhinebeck, New York, live on in books of photographs. Her latest volume gives Asian pears, long beans and frilly cabbage vintage allure. Photos of the farm and its story are included.
— Florence Fabricant
3. Wooden Spoons
Dara Artisans
$140 | daraartisans.com
Can a cook ever have enough wooden spoons beside the stove? This gift set of 13, handmade from beechwood in India, guarantees a constant supply. Better still, split them among the entire family.
— Florence Fabricant
4. Chef Timer
Piq
$11.95 | piqproducts.com
I have three digital timers in my kitchen, but the one I use most is an old-school tick-tock-ding! that is much easier to snatch up and reset in the midst of a busy cooking session. This one sports the classic high white toque and long waxed mustache, a quaint touch in this age of bearded chefs in beanies. (His expression is far more benign than those of French chefs of yore.) And unlike the classic front-dial timers, it is just the right shape to grab, twist and set.
— Julia Moskin
5. Triangle Dinner Bell
Schoolhouse Electric
$65 | schoolhouseelectric.com
Gathering the family around the table has become a national imperative, and nothing calls them to attention like the tough-love clang of brass on steel. This update of the prairie home contraption has a modern sleekness. The striker stores securely in the leather hanger.
— Patrick Farrell
6. “The Antarctic Book of Cooking and Cleaning”
By Wendy Trusler and Carol Devine
$40 | harpercollins.com
This chronicle of an environmental expedition to the South Shetland Islands celebrates the trials and triumphs of cooking in an underequipped kitchen on the far side of the world. One recipe begins, “Collect living kelp”; another features chicken bouchées attached to a board with nails, with a note that toothpicks may be used at home. All will be of interest to the adventurous cook.
— Ligaya Mishan
7. Thermapen
ThermoWorks
$99 | thermoworks.com
A good thermometer is one of the few kitchen tools that is truly indispensable, and the Thermapen has the rest beat by a mile — or by two seconds, actually, since that’s how long it takes to give an accurate internal temperature reading. When dealing with a pricey piece of meat or fillet of fish, those saved seconds matter. It comes in 10 colors, so one should suit your favorite serious cook.
— Cate Doty
8. Beeswax Candles
PollenArts
$30 for three | etsy.com
Beeswax candles are the most indulgent of table tapers, and this makes them the perfect hostess gift. Their wonderfully subtle smell — a little sweet, a little earthy — is worth the expense (100 percent pure beeswax costs more than the everyday variety). Look for beeswax candles at the honey stand of your local farmers’ market, or order a whimsical creation from PollenArts.
— Melissa Clark
9. Red Velvet Cake
Sugaree’s Bakery
$55 | sugarees.com
As Christmas approaches, card tables on screened-in porches throughout the South fill with cakes: coconut, fruit, Lane and more, each on hand for family or the unexpected guest. Sugaree’s Bakery in New Albany, Mississippi, lets us all in on the Southern tradition. The caramel cake is the classic, made by melting sugar in a cast-iron pan. The red velvet is not too sweet and terrifically tender, and these cakes arrive in perfect condition, frozen and on dry ice.
— Kim Severson
10. Spiralizer
KitchenAid
$99.99 | kitchenaid.com
For someone with a gadget itch, give a spiralizer. In addition to cutting fruit and raw vegetables into long ribbons, this new attachment from KitchenAid also peels, cores and slices. So if the delight of noodles from zucchini, beet, celeriac, rutabaga or carrot fades, you can peel and slice apples for a galette. Or cut potatoes for latkes or Hasselback gratin. Did someone say curly fries?
— Susan Edgerley
11. Apron
Les Toiles du Soleil
$75 | lestoilesdusoleilnyc.com
Bring sunshine to the darkest corner of your kitchen with these vibrant, colorful aprons from southwest France. Les Toiles du Soleil means “cloth of the sun,” and these are made of a sturdy cotton that conjures warmth. The aprons are also available in a children’s version.
— Tiina Loite
12. Cabbage Leaf Bowl
Williams-Sonoma
$69.95 | williams-sonoma.com
Soon after founding his kitchen emporium, Williams-Sonoma, Chuck Williams featured a line of cabbage-leaf pottery pieces from Portugal, including this handsome and generous salad bowl. To commemorate Williams’ 100th birthday, the company is selling the bowl again in limited edition with a commemorative stamp.
— Florence Fabricant
13. Grill
Santa Fe Cooking School
$29.95 | santafeschoolofcooking.com
The best way to add smoky flavor to salsas and moles is to blister chilies over a stovetop flame, but that can be messy, and chilies may be sacrificed to the fire. This smart grate fits over the burner and ensures that none of those serranos fall through.
— Sara Bonisteel
14. Smoked Goose
Schiltz Farms
About $100 | schiltzfoods.com
A whole smoked goose runs about $100 from Schiltz Farms in Sisseton, South Dakota, and provides about twice that in flavor and thrift since the sweet and salty meat serves more people than you’d imagine, and the stripped carcass is an ideal base on which to build a smoky pot of beans or gumbo. It’s essentially a kosher ham and phenomenally delicious. Preorder for the holidays, defrost in the refrigerator, then heat through in the oven for about an hour.
— Sam Sifton
15. Studio Mug
Heath Ceramics
$30 | heathceramics.com
The low oval handle may seem odd on this mug, but it’s at just the right spot through which to loop a finger and cup the vessel with both hands. The piece is part of the Heath Ceramics Coupe line, made in its studio in Sausalito, California, since the 1940s. There is a choice of 14 glaze combinations.
— Cate Doty
16. Table Runner
Orvis
$85 | orvis.com
Table runners are as central to some families’ holiday feasting as wreaths or menorahs, and we’ve found the gifting of them to be a special year-end joy. Orvis has an awesome one, pure linen patterned with cock pheasants and hops. It is designed for a “sporting table” but works as well or better as a contrapuntal decoration for a table that features modern elements as well as early-20th-century ones. Pair the old with the new, or simply use the thing to tie a table together in celebration of two American icons: game birds and the flowers that help make our beer.
— Sam Sifton
17. Salt and Pepper Set
Berard
$60 | amazon.com
This concrete and olive wood salt-and-pepper set (or salt-and-salt, or pepper-and-pepper, given the lively varieties on offer these days) is neutral and elegant enough for any dining table. It works in the kitchen, too. The design is intuitive: The wood top pulls easily up and off for refills, the ceramic grinding mechanism is smooth, and the grind is easily adjusted with a screw on the bottom.
— Julia Moskin
18. Sky Planter
Boskke
$59 | boskke.com
Yes, upside-down planters save space and water. But that’s not why they’re fabulous. It’s their gravity-defying style that makes them a gift beyond the usual flowery bouquet. Plant them with herbs and present them to your favorite cook to hang in a sunny spot. It will produce a winter of green garnishes in an attractively postmodern vessel.
— Melissa Clark
19. “Senegal: Modern Senegalese Recipes from the Source to the Bowl”
By Pierre Thiam (with Jennifer Sit); photographs by Evan Sung
$35 | lakeislepress.com
The pages of "Senegal” pulse with images of fonio and moringa and red palm oil; getting lost amid this lively marketplace is like taking a vacation that leaves you feeling intoxicated and irrevocably changed. The chef Pierre Thiam delivers the most welcome of winter gifts: a ray of African sunlight that brightens and warms.
— Jeff Gordinier
20. Scourtins
Lark Fine Foods
$6 | larkfinefoods.com
When a friend brought martinis to my 102-year-old mother, the cocktails were served alongside scourtins. These savory butter cookies have a sweet finish and get their brininess from black olives (scourtin is the French term for the circular filter press used to make olive paste). The cookies are perfect alone or, as my mother and I prefer, served with creamy Provençal goat cheese.
— Joan Nathan
21. Pie Carrier
Peterboro Basket Co.
$77 | peterborobasket.com
For a city dweller, transporting a dessert is a challenge, especially for those who have to transfer on the train. This basket from the Peterboro Basket Co. can hold two pies, and better still, is available in a dark gray, the closest a New Yorker can hope to fashionable black.
— Sara Bonisteel
22. Choucroute Garnie Kit
Olympia Provisions
$120 | olympiaprovisions.com
Making choucroute garnie, the bountiful Alsatian casserole of sausages, cured pork and sauerkraut, is simplified with this kit from the Portland, Oregon, charcutier Olympia Provisions. The gift is made for cold-weather entertaining, and with three packs of kielbasa, eight slices of bacon, two packs of bratwurst, one pack of uncured franks, eight slices of ham and 2 1/2 pounds of sauerkraut, there’s enough to serve eight.
— Florence Fabricant
23. Gochujang Korean Hot Sauce
Chung Jung One
$9.99 for 2 | gochujangsauce.com
Perhaps the only downside to the Korean hot-chili paste known as gochujang is in its application to a recipe: Because the sauce is thick and, yes, pastelike, it can be difficult to add only a little, or to use as a condiment. The Kentucky chef Edward Lee, in partnership with Chung Jung One, has stepped in with a squeeze-bottle version that has a terrific spicy, sweet and savory flavor that exceeds anything available in a tub. We’ve used it on burgers and as a swirl-in for soups, and to dot lettuce cups filled with bulgogi. It’s available online and in select retailers, at least for the moment.
— Sam Sifton
24. Pecans
Cleveland Organics
$14.95 | cleveland-organics.com
Pecans are the South’s great gift to bakers. The region grows several varieties, but the Elliot stands out for its buttery taste and the compact round shape of the nutmeat halves. The South is awash in Elliots, but few growers have found a way to produce them organically. Send the nut halves to cooks who want to roast and spice them for the holiday, or add them to a pie or confection.
— Kim Severson
25. English Toffee
Littlejohn’s Candies
$71.85 for 3 pounds | littlejohnscandies.com
Here is something to send that aunt you don’t see very often but think of with great affection: toothsome, crackly, intensely buttery English toffee in a classic foil-wrapped box. Littlejohn’s Candies, a Los Angeles institution, has been making its confections since the 1920s, and the English toffee is a favorite.
— Cate Doty
26. Hangry Ring
Snash Jewelry
$58 for brass, $118 for silver | snashjewelry.com
This hardware adds some dazzle (not to mention an IRL status update) to the touchy food lover. Hangry, of course, is the state of anger triggered by pangs of hunger, or what people should expect if they eat off someone else’s plate.
— Sara Bonisteel
27. Flavored Bacon Sampler
Nodine’s Smokehouse
$67.50 for 6 1/2 pounds | nodinesmokehouse.com
"Flavored bacon” sounds like an alarming new trend that could result in martinis or macarons. But the meats developed over years by Nodine’s Smokehouse open up real possibilities in the kitchen. Juniper bacon, with the scent of pine smoke, is in a traditional German style (the package smells delightfully of gin). Garlic bacon, studded with fresh cloves, is spectacular in pasta sauces and with beans. Apple bacon, the most like breakfast bacon, is smoked over wood and apple pomace (what’s left of the apple’s core, flesh and skin once it’s been pressed for cider), which adds sweetness without stickiness. All of them are fully cooked, lusciously meaty and need only to be crisped over low heat. “Overcooking will ruin our good bacons,” the owners caution. “Cook responsibly."
— Julia Moskin
28. Handmade Candy Canes
Hammond’s Candies
$30 for 12 | hammondscandies.com
A stocking isn’t complete without a candy cane on Christmas morning, and these handmade, deeply flavored canes are a gift unto themselves. Hammond’s Candies of Denver makes them in 26 flavors, including sugar plum and birthday cake — but stick with peppermint for a classic stocking stuffer.
— Cate Doty
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