As people who write about food and kitchen gadgets for a living, Bon Appétit editors are constantly surrounded by a wide range of products. Between our own purchases and the endless stream of samples sent our way, it means there’s always something new coming across our desks and into our homes. Every month, we’re rounding up the standouts we’ve tested or bought ourselves that changed the way we cook and eat.
This month, an adorable limited edition Dutch oven, a test kitchen-approved sponge, and a loaf pan that came to the rescue on this most recent snow day.
Read on for all of the products we’ve been obsessing over this February.
Goldilocks Dutch Oven
After two snowstorms dumped over 10 inches each on New York City within a month, I stopped bothering to put my Dutch oven away. It got me thinking: if it's going to live on the stovetop, it should earn its visual real estate. This charming pot from Goldilocks, the brand behind our favorite budget cookware, does exactly that. A collaboration with illustrator Joana Avillez, the design features quaint depictions of a Portuguese home, terracotta roof and all. When I brought it to the Test Kitchen to make a batch of chili, the editors huddled around asking for details about the whimsical colorway. But don't let the looks fool you: it's just as functional as it is beautiful. I got nice, even browning on my beef thanks to a wide surface area, and the oversized loop handles kept it from overheating on my gas burner, an issue I've had with other Dutch ovens. At a third of the cost of Le Creuset, it's the perfect snow day soup pot. —Olivia Tarantino, senior commerce editor
Fiera Garlic Chili Oil
I’m of the opinion that most dishes are made better by a touch of heat. I often opt for chili crisp or hot sauce, but when it comes to meals where I don’t necessarily want the flavor of fermented soybean, Sichuan pepper, or vinegar, I’ve been leaning on Fiera’s garlic chili oil. It’s excellent drizzled over pasta, boxed mac and cheese, grain bowls, or soups, just flavorful enough to amp up a dish without leaving the taste of garlic in my mouth for hours on end after I’ve finished my meal. I also love that it comes in a cute little bottle (I never understood why most chili oils, which you’ll use only a drizzle of at a time, come in such giant quantities!) and is available in both mild and hot varieties. —Alaina Chou, commerce writer
Victorinox Swiss Classic 4.5" Serrated Round Tip Paring Knife
Now that my daughter is two, I spend an excessive amount of time cutting up food into bite-sized pieces throughout the day. Cheese quesadillas are sliced into inch-long planks, crusts are trimmed off sandwiches to stave off a potential meltdown, and even grapes are halved. The knife I use for all of these chopping endeavors is my Victorinox Swiss Classic Utility Knife. The blade is 4½ inches long and serrated, so it's the perfect size for the tiny foods I'm prepping. The knife is lightweight and comes in fun colors like lime green, hot pink, and bright yellow, making it easy to spot in the sea of utensils in my makeshift junk drawer. I've become so accustomed to having it in my hand that I often forgo dirtying up a cutting board and dice up food right onto my daughter’s plate. —June Kim, executive editor
Realm Fresh Poplin Air & Fabric Spray
As someone who cooks dinner at home almost nightly, one of my most consistent daily gripes is that my apartment kitchen doesn’t have an exhaust fan. That means that anytime I want to cook anything fragrant or smoky, especially if it’s on the stove, I’m plugging in the air purifier next to the stove and getting ready to open a window or wave a towel to stop the smoke detector. Lately, I’ve been loving spritzing Realm’s fresh poplin air and fabric spray in my kitchen after dinnertime. The clean, floral scent releases in a fine mist and is subtle enough that it doesn’t give me a headache. Plus, it’s formulated with natural ingredients, so I worry less about spraying this in the place where I cook and eat. The true marker of success? It manages to neutralize odor enough that my bedroom doesn’t have to take on the secondhand smell of salmon the next morning. —Kate Kassin, editorial operations manager
Forest Water
I’ve been sipping a lot of forest water in the office lately. Part of me wishes that I meant that literally, but sadly, there’s no grove of trees and babbling brook near our office building. The Forest Water I am talking about is a botanically infused soda, and it’s a superb alternative. The alpine flavor has fresh juniper and elderberry notes that are great as is, but would pair nicely with gin. The meadow flavor contains a medley of florals and birch that tastes like a more nuanced Sprite. Some people on staff weren’t as crazy about them—I think mostly because they are definitely different than typical soda. But anybody who enjoys complex botanical flavor profiles will appreciate these. —Wilder Davies, commerce writer
USA Pan Pullman Loaf Pan
As I write this, we’re having a snow day at my house in New Jersey. That meant making sandwiches for my kids the rest of the week was going to be a problem, as I was out of bread and the grocery store was inaccessible. So I thought it would be a great time to get my kids into a baking project to solve it. I was mostly wrong because they decided they wanted to go listen to podcasts instead (shoutout WBUR’s Circle Round), but I have a bread solution in place thanks to my trusty Pullman pan. For the uninitiated, it’s a long loaf pan with a tight-fitting lid to give loaves a perfectly uniform shape. Maybe next time I’ll get them kneading. —Noah Kaufman, senior commerce editor
Jetz-Scrubz
When senior test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic tells you something works, you listen. Whether it's about using cream cheese in your pie crust or making pasta sauce out of bitter greens, she’s just never wrong. So when she said she’d found her holy grail sponge, I placed an order before I left the test kitchen. The Jetz-Scrubz sponge (awkward to say, easy to use) quickly works up super fine suds from your dish soap, making for a very satisfying and effective cleaning experience. It’s soft and flexible enough to squish and mold itself into the corners of baking dishes and tiny crevices in lids, but sturdy enough to slough baked-on cheese off of my baking sheets without tearing or shedding. And it doesn’t hold onto bits of egg! My white whale! I hate picking scrambled egg out of the scrubby side of a sponge, and I don’t have to anymore. I sanitize mine once a week in the top rack of my dishwasher, and it’s still odor-free and as strong as ever after a month of dish duty. Thank you, Shilpa! —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor
TRUFF Mild Sauce
While my sister is the kind of person who actively seeks out hot sauce shops, I'm the person asking for no more than level two in my Thai curry. So when TRUFF told me they were launching a mild “hot” sauce, I knew I needed to get my hands on it. Don't get me wrong, the brand's original sauce isn’t that spicy, but sometimes all I want is a bit of flavor that pairs nicely with everything else on the plate. Crafted with Anaheim peppers, this truffled pepper sauce is a balance of vinegar, garlic, spices, and real black truffle (not the flavored stuff). It's tangy, umami-forward, and silky enough to slather on a crispy-skinned chicken thigh, swirl into a hearty kale salad, or use as a dip for homemade truffle fries. —O.T.
Burlap & Barrel Cardamom Extract
Cardamom is one of those spices that rockets me in memory to specific times and places. Like the time I sipped deeply fragrant, bitter coffee brewed with cardamom under the drapings of a Bedouin tent in Israel two decades ago, or when, as a young adult traveling in Stockholm, I tested the limits of how many cardamom-studded pastries a single person could consume in 24 hours. For that reason, I’m especially enamored with Burlap & Barrel’s new Cardamom Extract, which shoots a wave of nostalgia through me without requiring a plane ticket. I’ve been dripping a pipette’s-worth of the stuff into the chia seed pudding I prepare for myself each morning, lending my breakfast a complex, nearly resinous scent that feels quite indulgent. The ritual is becoming a cherished memory in its own right. —Rachel Tepper Paley, site director
Ghia Le Spritz Sumac and Chili
It’s no secret here that I am a Ghia super fan: the aperitif, the Le Fizz, the cans—I love it all. Something I’ve noticed about my Ghia drinking as of late is that I like to rotate the flavor of my cans of choice with the seasons. In the winter, I’ve been reaching for the Sumac & Chili. It has a sharp heat from the chili, sourness from the sumac, and it’s just the right level of dry. I like to drink it straight from the can any night I’m cooking at home and on the coldest of evenings, each sip warms my body (in a good way) from the heat. —K.K.