Vietnamese Cooking Equipment Guide
Vietnamese cooking is built on two technical pillars: long-simmered clear broths and fresh herb-heavy garnishes. Pho bò (beef pho) demands a large pot and eight to twelve hours of low simmer to extract a clean, deeply flavoured stock from beef bones and charred aromatics. That same stock patience is what separates restaurant-quality pho from anything you can make with stock cubes. This guide covers the core equipment for cooking pho, bún bò Huế, bánh mì fillings, and fresh Vietnamese salads at home.
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Essential Kit
- Large stockpot (8–12 litre, stainless) — the anchor
piece for pho. Authentic pho broth is made from beef knuckle and leg
bones simmered for 8–12 hours with charred onion and ginger. A pot
this size handles the volume for 6–8 servings and fits a full set of
bones without crowding, which keeps the broth clear rather than murky.
Find stockpots on Amazon.de → - Rice cooker (1.5–3 litre) — for steamed and broken
rice. Vietnamese broken rice (cơm tấm) is a daily staple — shorter
grains that cook faster and absorb more sauce than standard jasmine.
A rice cooker with a keep-warm function handles both. Look for a model
with a steamer tray included; it doubles for steaming fish.
Find rice cookers on Amazon.de → - Mandoline slicer — for julienne salads. Green papaya
salad (gỏi đu đủ) and daikon-carrot pickle (đồ chua) require uniform
thin julienne that a knife cannot produce consistently. An adjustable
mandoline with a julienne blade is the correct tool. Use the cut-resistant
glove that comes with it.
Find mandoline slicers on Amazon.de → - Granite mortar and pestle (18+ cm) — for aromatics.
Lemongrass, galangal, garlic, shallots, and fresh chilies are pounded
into pastes for marinades and dipping sauces. A granite mortar is heavy
enough to do this efficiently; marble and ceramic are too smooth. Size
18 cm minimum for a full marinade batch.
Find granite mortars on Amazon.de → - Fine mesh spider strainer — for garnish blanching.
Vietnamese soups are served with a large volume of fresh garnish:
bean sprouts, fresh herbs, and lime. Bean sprouts are briefly blanched
for texture; a spider strainer pulls them out fast without losing a
single sprout in the pot.
Find spider strainers on Amazon.de → - Bamboo or stainless steamer (28+ cm) — for rice rolls
and fish. Bánh cuốn (steamed rice rolls) are made by pouring a thin
rice batter onto a cloth stretched over a steaming pot — a bamboo
steamer over a large wok approximates this. The steamer also handles
whole fish, sticky rice portions, and steamed egg custard (chả trứng
hấp).
Find bamboo steamers on Amazon.de →
Nice-to-Have Upgrades
- Carbon steel wok (32–36 cm) — for Vietnamese stir-fry (bò lúc lắc — shaking beef) and deep-frying spring rolls (chả giò). Vietnamese cooking uses wok technique less than Chinese or Thai, but a wok is indispensable for these dishes.
- Herb scissors (multi-blade) — for chiffonade of Vietnamese herbs. Rau thơm (herb plate) typically includes 5–8 varieties: mint, Vietnamese coriander (rau răm), perilla (tía tô), saw-tooth coriander, and more. Multi-blade herb scissors halve prep time.
- Clay pot (1.5–2 litre) — for caramelised pork belly (thịt kho tàu) and clay pot fish (cá kho tộ). The clay retains heat slowly and develops a fond that concentrates the fish sauce caramel base.
Where to Buy
Amazon.de covers the essentials. For the stockpot, a basic Edelstahl (stainless) model in the 15–25 EUR range is all you need — Vietnamese pho technique depends on low-and-slow, not precision heat control. The mandoline is the one item worth spending on — look for a Japanese-style model (Kyocera or Benriner) for consistent julienne blades. Budget 10–20 EUR for the mandoline; 30–60 EUR for the stockpot; 20–40 EUR for the rice cooker.