The humble ramekin is a kitchen workhorse

In a world brimming with an endless variety of kitchen gadgets baking pans, one of the items I turn to the most is a small ramekin. It performs many different tasks and it’s a rare day when I don’t use one at some point in my cooking or baking. I’m not alone in my love for these useful ceramic cups – Serious Eat’s Jesse Raub recently wrote about how ramekins are his kitchen MVP.

Ramekins come in many sizes, but in Jesse’s kitchen and mine the four-ounce size reigns supreme. The most obvious use for these dishes is to make crème brûlée or individual souffles, but they are not unitaskers, to borrow a phrase from Alton Brown. Ramekins make great mise en place/prep bowls, are the perfect size for individual portions of condiments (allowing for double-dipping), and hold small amounts of sprinkles or other decorations for making holiday cookies.

I’ve even used four ramekins as a make-shift cooling rack/trivet – they can handle the heat and are sturdy enough to hold up the heaviest of pans. Ceramic ramekins are dishwasher, oven, and microwave safe, plus they are durable and inexpensive. I’ve had my set of eight for 15+ years, and the only thing to happen in daily use (along with a cross-country move) is a small chip on the edge of one ramekin.

Ramekins are also great for toasting small quantities of nuts and melting butter and chocolate in the microwave. In addition to the round four-ounce size, I have a set of oval, eight-ounce ramekins. They are shorter than the round ones, and I like the proportions of crackly crust and creamy custard in crème brûlée made in these shallower ramekins. They are just as useful for all of the tasks above as the round ones. Both sets live front and center of my most frequently-used kitchen cabinet. No matter how much I may downsize my baking paraphernalia, the ramekins will remain.