Aldi's Best Kitchen Essentials That Totally Pass For High-End Brands

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Aldi has made a name for itself in the realm of bargain grocery shopping, particularly with budget shoppers with an eye for a good dupe. Aldi's uniquely nicknamed Aisle of Shame is arguably the best place for stocking a cash-strapped kitchen with seemingly high end products. From odds and ends to popular kitchen appliances, some of Aldi's attractive takes on luxury brands are real winners.

The chain has a number of house brands under its umbrella, but Crofton reigns supreme in the realm of kitchen utensils and aids that look more expensive than they are. I'm a regular at Aldi and frequently use the store's products in my kitchen. In addition to filling my fridge, Aldi products have found a home on my kitchen shelves and drawers.

Between my experience with the German grocery store and reviews from other Aldi-goers, I've compiled a list of kitchen essentials from Aldi that could pass for high end brands. Take this list with a grain of salt, though, because products come and go at Aldi. While your local store may keep some of these items stocked for a while or may even restock down the road, some could have been quickly cleaned out by avid Aldi shoppers. You're unlikely to go wrong nabbing anything Crofton that catches your eye, though!

Every kitchen needs a good stock pot, and Aldi carries one that is cute enough to sit right on your stovetop. Too pretty to hide away in a cabinet, you'll want to display this sleek Crofton pot. It can be found on Aldi shelves in a number of colors, usually complementing the brand's Dutch oven color releases.

As visually pleasing as the 12-quart porcelain enamel stock pot is, its real selling point is its usefulness. Aldi goers have used this stock pot to stew up a whole lot of soup. A decent-sized turkey carcass can even fit in it to slow cook the meat off the bone, and lobster lovers can utilize the stock pot for their next seafood feast.

The Caraway and Le Creuset dupe is only around $30, which is a steal compared to the over $100 price tag of both high-end brands. The Crofton stock pot can fit right in between these brands that may already be living on your shelves, adding value and utility to your kitchen.

Kitchen essentials don't just end with tools that actually cook the food you're making. You need a way to store all those dry goods, and Aldi's Crofton brand has a nifty way to gussy up your pantry. Crofton has released a few pantry organizer sets, each available in a number of manageable sizes to meet different storage needs. In addition to a color-coded set of various-sized containers, there is an air-tight set of rectangular organizers. There's also a hanging version that brilliantly allows you to turn the underside of shelves into a storage area.

These sets from Aldi are great at keeping dry ingredients fresh and organized, but Aldi lovers have found other uses for them as well. Some have found them to be ideal for food storage in the fridge and for keeping prepared foods fresh. Prices vary depending on the exact set, with a set of three containers costing around $12.99. These kitchen storage solutions are consistently more affordable than those at The Container Store, yet they would look right at home on its shelves.

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A good sheet pan is one thing that chefs claim they can't live without in their kitchens, and you could find yours on a shelf at your local Aldi. Crofton comes in clutch again with a stainless steel cookie sheet that is not only huge but also comes with a cooling rack of the same size. In fact, the downside of this sheet pan is that you may have trouble storing it, depending on how large your cabinets are. However, this large baking sheet could likely replace a few of your old, burned-to-a-crisp sheets that have been plaguing your cabinets for the better part of a decade.

The Crofton cookie sheet would fit right in with your Nordic Ware at just a fraction of the luxury kitchen brand's price. Even if this large sheet pan weren't 21-by-15 inches, the fact that you can grab it for under $10 at some Aldi locations blows Nordic Ware's almost $20 baking sheets out of the water.

The apple of seemingly every kitchen's eye is a standing mixer –– specifically a standing mixer from KitchenAid. Everyone who has ever glanced down a kitchen aisle with the feeblest amount of wonder has had a desire for the kitchen status symbol. Some people who enjoy baking even a little bit have had their preferred color of KitchenAid mixer picked out since before they even had a kitchen to put one in. Thankfully, Aldi has stocked a stand mixer that would look right at home displayed in the dreamiest of kitchens for a fraction of the price.

Can Aldi's Ambiano Classic Stand Mixer totally replace the need for an expensive KitchenAid mixer? The avid baker may say no. For casual bakers, however, this is the perfect low-cost alternative. The Ambiano stand mixer is about $50, which is on the higher end of Aldi's kitchen price points. It's also slightly smaller than an actual KitchenAid. However, compared to the KitchenAid's price tag of several hundred dollars for a KitchenAid, the smaller size and off-brand name would be all well and good for many budget-conscious chefs.

There are a few kitchen essentials that Crofton regularly releases, and dinnerware is one of them. The Aldi brand sporadically puts out new sets and colors of dinnerware, always at an amazing price and with great quality. Typically, plates, bowls, and glasses will be packaged and sold separately. It's not unusual for a set of four dinner plates to cost just under $4, and the same goes for its bowls and glasses.

These are some serious dinnerware sets, with a good weight and feel to them. For the price, they can't be beat. The low price allows Aldi goers to purchase new sets as they release, and Crofton loves to put out holiday sets around Thanksgiving and Christmas. For the most part, sets look like what you'd find at upscale stores like Anthropologie and Crate & Barrel.

In addition to regular dinnerware, some sets are released with serving platters and other matching ceramic specialized plates. Be warned, though, that since pieces are sold separately or in packs of four, it may be hard to track down a whole set.

My kitchen has a few Aldi Crofton pans at home on the shelves, and they put in some major work. All of my pans purchased at Aldi have lasted a few years with daily use and have never cost me more than $15. None of my everyday pans are cast iron, though, so Crofton's $25 cast iron pizza pan has a major leg up on them.

You don't typically think of heavy-duty kitchen wares when you picture a budget-friendly store like Aldi, but they really outdid themselves with Crofton's 15-inch cast iron pizza pan. The pan is solid, and if you properly season this real cast iron pan, it will likely provide perfectly cooked pizza for generations. Actually, you could cook anything that needs a nice crisp crust in this pan.

You could compare this pizza pan with Lodge's collection of cast iron pans or even higher-end brands, but the comparison would stop at the price. The Crofton version halves even Lodge's price points.

Aldi goes viral (at least amongst the Aldi lovers) relatively often. Whenever it drops a new Le Creuset dupe, you can expect people to come out in droves to scoop up the latest dutch oven or bread oven, no matter the color or size. The heavy duty Dutch ovens come in various sizes and an array of colors, but you'll be lucky enough to nab any of them at your local Aldi.

Thankfully, I have one of the coveted Dutch ovens, and it's what dreams are made of. I can attest to how well the classic Crofton Dutch oven bakes a loaf of sourdough bread, but the brand has also released a specific bread oven as well. In addition to the two classically styled Dutch ovens, Aldi even has a dupe for the highly sought-after Le Creuset pumpkin Dutch oven! Plus, these Dutch ovens are safe for both the oven and the stove top.

Le Creuset Dutch ovens are expensive, but forget spending hundreds on one if you can find one of these at Aldi. At around $30 for the largest size, the Crofton Dutch oven will become the crown jewel of your kitchen.

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As an avid Aldi shopper, I have extensive experience with a lot of Aldi brand products. I'm lucky enough to own several of the items on this list, and have been happy with most of the kitchen essentials I've purchased from my local Aldi. As a budget grocery store, though, not everything you'll find on the shelves here will be high quality. After years of eyeing the products that come and go at Aldi, though, I'm a decent judge of which products get the job done.

In addition to my own experiences, I've used the testimonies of other Aldi lovers to develop this list of solid high-end dupes from Aldi. The online Aldi community is a passionate one, with the Facebook group Aldi Aisle of Shame comprised of over 3 million people who share their hauls and honest feedback. They don't hold back when it comes to lackluster products, so their opinions on all things kitchen essentials can be trusted. The downside, though, is that any Aldi lover-approved product is bound to sell out of your local Aldi at a rapid rate, so be quick to grab them up when you spot them!