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It can be hard to buy gifts for people's homes, yet so many occasions call for us to do just that — the challenge doubles when you don't know the recipient well. So we've curated a list of respected and durable classics and a few modern appliances any committed home cook can appreciate.

If you're not sure whether your new homeowner hosts 5-course dinners or simply has the same easy meals on rotation, we've got you covered. Any home cook worth their salt knows and appreciates the value of a time-honored classic, so if you're unsure which end of the spatula your new homeowner lands on, go simple and timeless. Even if it's a duplicate, they'll appreciate it — you can never have too many high-quality tools at the ready.

Also available at Nordic Ware and Target.

It seems like baking sheets — which are simply rectangles of metal designed to be used in a hot oven — should all be pretty similar. But they aren't! Nordic Ware wins the baking sheet war hands down. Its baking sheets are leagues apart in terms of thoughtful design, quality of material, and ease of clean-up and storage.

Designed like professional restaurant sheet pans, Nordic Ware's Natural Aluminum Baking Sheets come in full, half, and quarter sizes. Most domestic ovens can't handle a full-size sheet pan, which means a standard cookie sheet is a "half sheet." We recommend that home cooks have Nordic Ware's half sheets and quarter sheets on hand, allowing them to turn their oven into a puzzle board of several simultaneously roasting and baking items during peak holiday baking or while preparing a multi-course meal.

Also available at Nordic Ware and Target.

As noted above, Nordic Ware's Natural Aluminum Baking Quarter-Sheet is affordable, durable, and well-designed sheet pans are a kitchen must for any homeowner. Made of aluminum, these sheet pans will never rust. Thanks to a three-quarter-inch lip, your giftee won't have to worry about items dripping onto the bottom of the new stove. They can even easily bake shallow recipes, like a genoise sponge cake for a jelly roll or a grandma-style pizza crust. Quarter-size sheet pans are convenient for singles or couples.

Also available at Target and Cuisinart.

Nothing completes a new kitchen like a quality saucepan. Its nonstick interior and contoured body ensure it's as easy to stir its contents as it is to clean it thoroughly. This design choice makes the Cuisinart Contour 3-Quart ideal for making pate choux, sweet or savory cream-based sauces, and other recipes that require consistent, thorough stirring. It's also heavy-duty enough for everyday use. Its broad base means its contents come to temperature quickly, and a safe grip handle ensures an oven mitt is not required.

Also available at Bed, Bath & Beyond and Macy's.

Another kitchen tool used frequently and therefore requires that it be designed for everyday use, as well as ease of cleaning and storage is a frying pan. The Anolon Advanced Home Nonstick 2-Piece Aluminum Frying Pan Set will be a favorite for any new homeowner building their kitchen essentials. As a 2-piece set, it includes a 10- and 12-inch pan and features a nonstick interior.

Also available at Walmart and Everything Kitchens.

All of Berard's olive wood spoons are lovely, but with its angled head, this pointed spoon is hard to beat. Ideal for baking and cooking, it gets into the corner of any pan or dish, ensuring through mixing. A chef friend gave me one of these after hearing me lament that my favorite wooden spoon had gone missing. That was 12 years ago, and I've not only committed myself to several Berard spoons in the intervening years but now give them as gifts. Purchasing a few — or even a couple in different sizes — will equip any new kitchen with the only wooden spoon it will ever need.

Also available at Webstraunt Store and Katom.

Like the Nordic Ware pans mentioned above, this cutting board is one you'd find in a professional kitchen. In short, that means it's durable, good at its job, and cleans up easily. It also comes in a variety of colors and sizes. Its silicone feet hold this board securely to its surface, and it doesn't dull knives like glass boards. Moreover, since San Jamar Cutting Boards are durable co-polymer plastic, your homeowner can pop them in their new dishwasher.

Also available at Chicago Cutlery and JCPenney.

Buying kitchen knives is one of the most challenging tasks an experienced home cook faces. Take the pressure off your favorite new homeowner and make the decision for them. At 18 pieces, you can consider this a full set.

A pair of kitchen shears should allow a home cook to cut through chicken bones as quickly as they snip tiny buds from a thyme stem. Cutco Super Shears are made in America from German steel. Its handles are incredibly comfortable, even when intense pressure has to be applied for some time. They also come apart at the bolt, allowing for thorough cleaning, which can be a genuine concern when working with raw meat, poultry, or fish. A lifetime guarantee and free sharpening make these kitchen shears a worthwhile investment and a tool your new homeowner can rely on for a lifetime.

Also available at Home Depot and Walmart.

A Dutch Oven is one of the most useful tools in a home cook's arsenal. A casual cook may use it on the stovetop to boil water for pasta or make a stew, but more experienced cooks prefer one that can be used both on the stove and in the oven. For this reason, a Dutch Oven made of cast iron covered in enamel has more utility than the simple metal pot that comes in a set of cookware. We love this Lodge Enamel 6-quart. It can braise meats, bake bread, or cook off a casserole. Dutch Ovens range in price from $15 for a simple metal pan that is stovetop-only to several hundred dollars for the most refined version. The Lodge Enamel 6-quart Dutch Oven offers all the utility and value.

Related: Every Home Cook Needs a Dutch Oven — Here Are 10 of the Best

Also available at La Tienda.

At first glance, a Spanish cazuela is just a beautiful casserole dish suitable for baking, roasting, and serving; that alone makes it a lovely gift. But a cazuela is more than just a vessel for the oven or table. They come in many sizes. Some are small enough to serve as an olive dish; others are massive and intended for stews.

My favorite — from a Spanish supplier of food and cookware, La Tienda — is handmade, 15-inches in length and 3-inches deep. It's glazed on the inside, which creates something akin to a non-stick surface. The terracotta holds heat and keeps your food warm at the table longer than other casserole or serving dishes. Once you cure it at home (see directions), it becomes a valuable tool for roasting, braising, and baking as well as cooking on a grill or a stovetop, with careful handling. For a housewarming gift, consider a 15" Terracotta Cazuela like this or a series of smaller ones; the options are nearly endless.

Also available at Crate & Barrel and OXO.

Sure, people can buy pre-shredded cheese. We don't judge. But when a grater is called for, it needs to be sturdy — one your recipient can put in the dishwasher. And don't forget that a good box grater can do much more than shred mild cheddar. Slicing, grating, and zesting vegetables and fruit for salads or recipes is a cinch with a box grater that catches everything sliced, grated, or zested in a handy compartment. Most people would consider a $33 box grater a luxury, so wrap this grater up with a beautiful wedge of fine parmesan and give it as a gift!

Also available at Pyrex and Target.

No kitchen is complete without these time-tested, grandmother-approved measuring cups. Made of Pyrex's tried-and-true non-porous temperature resilient glass, they can be used in the oven or microwave, the fridge, and the freezer. This 3-piece Pyrex Glass Liquid Measuring Cup set includes a 4-cup, 2-cup, and 1-cup measure and will likely be a set your homeowner-friends bring with them from home to home.

For measuring dry ingredients, All-Clad Stainless-Steel Measuring Cups & Spoons have a classic aesthetic (and would make a great gift paired with the 3-piece Pyrex Glass Liquid Measuring Cup set). Made of heavy-gauge stainless steel with a polished finish and wide bottoms, they're more stable and less likely to tip over during use than measures with less-straightforward designs.

Also available at Walmart and Made in America Store.

The Ez-Duz-It Can Opener is the only can opener you'll ever need. Once I bought it, I regretted falling for all the promises made by the fancy can openers I'd purchased in the past. This no-frills opener of cans features thick, rubberized handles in black, forest green, and yellow, though in all three cases, the bulk of the tool is stainless steel. The opener can be placed in the dishwasher, but the blade is made of carbon steel, which can rust, so we'd recommend hand washing and drying it quickly.

Also available at J.B. Prince and Walmart.

Another favorite of mine — and a favorite of American chefs everywhere — is the classic Kunz spoon by J.B. Prince. Named after Swiss chef and owner of NYC's famed Lespinasse, Gray Kunz, this spoon was designed to meet his need for a spoon that could serve every need a fine dining chef might have. From balance and affordability to usefulness and ease of care, the spoon Kunz had in mind needed to work for a pro performing myriad tasks with a series of spoons in a single night.

From tasting countless items and mounting butter dozens of times over each piece of fish in a sauté pan with just a flick of the wrist to scooping quenelles of ice cream and plating delicate sauces, J.B. Prince Kunz Spoon is perfectly balanced, perfectly sized, and expertly designed. Available in sizes from small to large and in variations from slotted to pierced, a selection of these spoons is a gift that is both utilitarian and thoughtful.

Also available at Crate & Barrel and Macy's.

Every home cook has a list of qualities that make for the ideal mixing bowl, but that list can shift based on what the mixing bowl is used for. In the interest of offering highly useful and high-quality gift suggestions for the new homeowner in your life, we recommend the OXO Good Grips 3-Piece Stainless-Steel Mixing Bowl Set. Widely available, made of stainless steel, and featuring non-skid bottoms, this set of mixing bowls covers all the bases. Each set of 1.5-quart, 3-quart, and 5-quart bowls is dishwasher safe and nests together for compact storage.

Also available at Target and Walmart.

For only $100, this tool may have seemed like a fad upon its introduction — and perhaps because of its name — but it's a handy and sensible addition to any homeowner's (or chef's!) kitchen. An air fryer can crisp food with minimal oil better and faster than your homeowner's new oven. Want to reheat last night's takeout fries and chicken fingers after a long day of unpacking? No problem! Want to make homemade wontons and spring rolls for the big game without the vat of hot oil in the newly painted kitchen? An air fryer is great for that, too. Because of its compact size, the Ninja 4-Quart Air Fryer fits inside a kitchen cabinet when not in use, keeping those new countertops clutter-free.

Also available at Target and Best Buy.

An instant pot is just a pressure cooker engineered for everyday use. Instead of heating on a stovetop, it's electric. This, along with other controls, makes an Instant Pot more predictable and safer than the older stovetop models. Not only is this new take on a pressure cooker more reliable and safer, but it also pairs with most new homeowners' lifestyles, accelerating cooking time and nets faster results.

Also available at Bed, Bath & Beyond and Macy's.

As stylish as it is capable, this finely designed and finely tuned 4-slice beauty is the ideal gift for new homeowners. It's a splurge they'll appreciate and an item that will conjure your thoughtful generosity and expert gift-giving every time they use it. The Zwilling Enfinigy Cool Touch 4-slice Toaster offers the option to slice 1-4 items simultaneously, with extra wide slots to accommodate bagels or buns. With seven different settings, any toast fan will find the one that suits them best. We think its soft-lift feature, auto shutoff, and defrost setting are nice touches, too.

Also available at Macy's and Kohl's.

Sometimes machines with more than one function turn out to do none of those functions as well as a single-function machine might. In the case of this one-and-done drip brewer and grinder, that's not the case. Cuisinart DGB-400 Automatic Grind and Brew 12-Cup Coffeemaker looks good, grinds good, and brews good. Thanks to its preset feature, this coffeemaker can brew 12 (or fewer) cups before your new homeowner wakes up to their new home — a self-cleaning option sweetens the deal.

After extensively researching this topic, we used personal recommendations on the best gifts for new homeowners. We then read hundreds of reviews, compared their responses, and created our final lineup.

With over 15 years of food writing experience, contributor Christa Glennie handpicked recommendations and tools she has used in her kitchen for no less than a decade (and in some cases, more than two!). She has also purchased them multiple times for both herself and as gifts. She wholeheartedly endorses these tools and is excited to share them with you.