Holiday Home Kitchen AIBU

[KitKatastrophe]

We are staying in a holiday home this week, which has a lovely big kitchen (house sleeps up to 8), but the equipment in the kitchen is weird. For example there are only 2 small frying pans and no electric scales. On the other hand there is a flan dish, a sieve and 3 or 4 very big knives!

AIBU to think nobody is making flan or butchering a chicken in their holiday home!

Natch 😂

Having said that - I tend to go on holiday with my parents so it is a shopping board when we need supplies. At the last place I actually had to buy a wooden chopping board and a grater because they (bless them) weren't happy with the existing chopping board and thought there was no grater. Then we found one after I'd been. So I now have 6 graters at home. In conclusion shopping boards are deeply unhelpful and to be avoided - shopping dictatorships are far superior.

I would expect scales! If it sleeps 8 we’re probably staying with another family and taking it in turns to cook and probably doing puddings so I might easily need to weigh things.

@CounsellorTroi this! I always buy screw top bottles now. Just a shame my favourite red is a cork.
I always take a corkscrew now, for this reason. Although o accidentally had it on my hand luggage last time I went abroad and got it confiscated at security

We stayed somewhere that had one of those fancy electric hobs that don't actually get hot. there was a whole cupboard full of saucepans all of which were copper bottomed and which didn't work on the hob we eventually found an old very small saucepan at the back of a cupboard that did work to cook some pasta luckily the bolognaise was already made and we heated that up in the oven. We were only staying one night, so it wasn't too bad. I can't imagine how others staying longer coped.

Ohhh I love and induction hob. Provided you have pans for it!

Always take my own electronic scales sad cow that I am

i always make a quiche on holiday.
I wouldn't expect electronic scales either.

We once stayed in a holiday cottage and the only kitchen equipment was:

Small saucepan
Larger saucepan
Vegetable knife.
Rolling pin.

Rolling pin? What the heck was I supposed to do with pastry? Boil it?

Another one promised ‘kitchen cupboards stocked all your essentials including a full range of herbs and spices.’ In this case a full range of herbs and spices meant salt, pepper and three jars of nutmeg.

The website also breezily informed me I could ‘forget about packing your toiletries. Our bathrooms are stocked with a luxury range of spa-quality items.’ There was nothing in either of the bathrooms other than a half used bottle of Palmolive hand wash.

I wouldn't expect electric scales. How big are the frying pans?

Our agent has an insanely long list of items that we must supply. I swear the cottage kitchen is better equipped than my kitchen. Two full sets of every single piece of crockery, cutlery and glassware you could possibly imagine, endless pans, saucepans, colanders, and sieves, (all in varying sizes), baking equipment (scales, bowls, food processors etc), coffee maker etc etc. It's madness. A top chef could cook xmas dinner for 12 quite happily.

Surprise, surprise, as one person upthread complained, all this stuff leave very little room in the cupboards for actual food. We thought we had solved this by moving all the duplicate items to a sideboard in the living room.... but no, guests don't look in there, and complain they don't have enough stuff!

To the PP who mentioned things getting damaged or walking... absolutely. We buy high end knife sets. The ones that have lots of 00s on the price tag. They go, regularly. Just one or two knives at a time - usually the paring knife and the carving knife. We've lost expensive pans too. Or once someone swapped our induction hob pans for some beat up old non-induction hob pans. It's a shame, but there seems to be an attitude that the hospitality industry is fair game. We've learnt to check certain items before releasing the deposit.

cutlery and glassware you could possibly imagine

Snail forks?

@MiddleClassProblem snail forks? Are they a thing? Please, don't say so out loud or the agent will require them. There will be emails.

We do have corn on the cob ones though. Any good? As a substitute? Bit common maybe....?

🤐

This is why my gin goblet and Dhs whisky glass go everywhere with us 😬

We stayed in a wee Scottish Lodge that was so stuffed full of stuff we had to move loads of it into the twin room so we didn't feel claustrophobic. There was a fish mould for salmon mousse or some weirdness. A plastic carafe with matching plastic glasses, drawers and cupboards full! But only one shelf in the oven.
We brought our own cafetiere, always travel with it. I agree with the stock of stupid little coffee cups, so annoying.

@BewareTheBeardedDragon

I'm a bit baffled by how you find the things they have weird. Lack of large frying pan is annoying though.

Confused by the logic that says you won't make a flan, but do need electric scales (for what?). I only use scales for baking, which is similar to flan making in complication for holiday cooking.

I would use scales to measure out things like breakfast cereal, pasta, rice.

We went to a holiday cottage in France many years ago. No scales but they had a glass tala measure. I loved it so much that I bought one for myself on our return but mine was metal and only lasted a few years. Huzzah 🎉 when I found glass ones in Tiger! We now have a glass measuring cup which we use for most of our daily cooking.

The last "holiday" I went on was Pontins. I know. I know.
Our accommodation was apparently for 6. We had a sofa that seated 2 and 4 dining chairs. We could just about fit 4 of us round the workbench to eat. We had 3 glasses, none if which held more than 2 mouthfuls. 2 mugs and 2 coffee cups and saucers. 3 bowls, 5 or 6 dinner plates and 3 side plates. A random amount of cutlery, including no sharp knives. 2 saucepans, neither of which were big enough to cook more than 1 portion of anything. A tin opener that didn't work. A grill pan but nothing else for the oven. And a colander.

I don’t think I’ve ever used electric scales in my life. What’s wrong with normal ones?

To be fair I don’t think I would need scales on holiday at all - I don’t normally bake a cake while I’m away!

I've never stayed in a holiday cottage where flute glasses were provided. We take our own cheap ones now.

I have stayed in several holiday cottages that didn’t have a teapot. We have ended up buying one in a charity shop and leaving it. Always take my own now!

Lack of large frying pan is the only annoying thing. I wouldn't expect electric scales and would like to have a few knives and a seive.

Electric scales are good because they’re accurate to the nearest gram and you can use any container rather than having to put what you want to weigh into the scale pan.
I don’t think they would be a good idea for a holiday cottage though as you would have to check the battery didn’t need replacing which would be extra faff.
If I am going to do a lot of cooking I take my own (in the box containing sharp knife, pepper mill, oven thermometer and wooden chopping board because some cottage agencies make the cottage owners provide glass ones for spurious hygiene reasons.)

I would not expect electric scales, but it does annoy me when a property sleeps 8+ people and the only saucepan can take about two potatoes.