Iām a type A planner who loves tiny prep bowls. When Iām on dinner duty, I have my vegetables chopped, spices measured, and all my other ingredients ready to go before cooking. But sometimes a tiny prep bowl just isnātā¦tiny enough. So many of the ingredients I need for cooking appear in minuscule quantities, like a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar, a few teaspoons of ground spices, or a knob of soft room temperature butter to finish a pan sauce.
It seems silly to keep a tablespoon of something in a bowlāeven the smallest prep bowls feel too big for the tiny amount of an ingredient I need to have measured out. Plus, itās annoying to have your entire kitchen counter covered in so many bowls that you can barely see the surface of your worktop. Whatās the point of streamlining cooking with mise en place if it means sacrificing precious dishwasher space?
This is where tiny mise cups (also referred to as condiment or sauce cups) come in handy. I recently found a set of these little vessels hiding away in my kitchen. Theyād been given out at my culinary schoolāprecisely for storing small amounts of chopped vegetables, herbs, and seasonings while cooking. Not to be dramatic, but being able to lay out my ingredients in appropriate-size containers has drastically improved my quality of life. Thanks to these mise cups, I no longer have to use every single bowl I have for the purpose of making dinner. Cooking and cleaning up afterwards has become more efficient, easier, andādare I say itāeven enjoyable. These cups barely take up any space on my kitchen counter and in my dishwasher, and because theyāre stackable, theyāre easy to store too.
Like my colleague Noah, I feel like a weeknight superhero when I have everything prepped in their respective containers. I keep the cups on a quarter sheet tray next to me while I cook, add the ingredients as needed, then shepherd the cups straight into the dishwasher as they become available. Theyāre also great to have around for serving: put condiments, sauces, sprinkles, or herb garnishes in them for dipping and topping.
If you, like me, are tired of using every single possible vessel in your house to measure out minute quantities of ingredients in order to make dinner (or if youāve been meaning to become the kind of organized cook who does mise en place), having a set or two of these cups will make dinner prep and the cleanup afterward feel like a breeze. And shouldnāt we be making life easier for ourselves whenever we can?
