(Part two of “Sometimes Things Need To Be Chopped In Two”. )
Did some door to door sales putz sell you a 37 piece knife set? Give it to someone you secretly dislike and give yourself a slap for being a sucker. Knife sets contain a bazillions knives you don’t need and likely don’t have the ones you do need.
These are the knives you need, in order of importance:
1) 10” chef’s knife. (or if you’re really cool, a 10” Japanese Gyuto, which translates to “Cow Sword”) This knife will be the one you use most. If you have little girly arms and can’t handle a 10” knife you may use an 8” chef’s knife or a 7” Santoku, but no smaller. You can chop more things with less effort using a larger knife and proper technique. There is almost nothing you cannot do with a 10” knife but try chopping a watermelon or pumpkin in half with a 5” knife and you’ll see, size does matter.
My Hattori Gyuto. Hand finished, imported directly from Japan. Amazing knife.
2) 10” Bread knife. A sharp chef’s knife actually does a better job of cutting bread than most serrated bread knives. Still, there are reasons to have a bread knife: Most people don’t have a sharp chef’s knife, and if you use your chef’s knife for everything it will need more frequent sharpening. So I recommend you get a serrated bread knife for your kitchen. Get a 10” because it does a better job on small loaves and is the only effective way to cut a big round artisanal loaf.
3) Paring knife. There are some delicate cutting tasks that can be done easier with a small paring knife, so you might as well have one.
4) Tard knife. Keep one of your large knives from your old set of knives and let guests use it. Since people don’t seem to know much about knives anymore, they do Dumb Things with them. Don’t let anyone do anything dumb with your good knives, give them the Tard Knife instead. If you primarily use a Japanese knife you can also use the Tard Knife for things that might chip it, like cutting things with bones,
5) Boning knife. If you have a beautiful Japanese knife and cut a lot of meat with bones, a boning knife might be a good thing to have so you don’t chip your thin Japanese blade.
There are many acceptable variations of this basic knife setup. For example, I don’t personally use a bread knife or a paring knife. I use my Gyuto for everything that lesser mortals use lesser knives for. I have several Tard Knives though, to keep other people (including my wife) from using my Gyuto. (And because I love finding good knifes for cheap – my knife rack keeps changing inventory.)
My wife uses a 10” Victorinox, a 7” Messermeister Santoku, a 10” Messermeister bread knife, a 5” Victorinox paring knife, and the 7” MAC knife I found at a thrift store for $1.
My Mom’s knife rack is pictured below, with a list of the knives she uses. In each of these cases 3-5 properly chosen knives covers all your kitchen cutting needs.
Keep it sharp.
As you use a knife it’s edge will wear and eventually require sharpening. If you start with a good quality knife and don’t do Dumb Things with it, it will last longer.
Using a glass cutting board is Dumb Thing #1. Only use wood or plastic cutting boards. Glass and ceramics are harder than the steel in your blade and will dull it in no time flat. I’d like to find whoever invented glass cutting boards and beat them.
Washing knives in a dishwasher is Dumb Thing #2. Putting your knives in a dishwasher will cause the knife to bump against other hard objects, ruining the edge. The heat is also hard on the handles.
Storing knives loosely in a drawer is Dumb Thing #3. Your knives should be stored so that the knife edges do not touch anything hard. A wooden knife block is OK, a magnetic knife rack is my favourite.![DSC_1427_thumb[10]](file:///C:/Users/Tyrone/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter1286139640/supfilesE4C93C/DSC_1427[4].jpg "DSC_1427_thumb[10]")
This is my Mom’s knife rack. I made the rack from a leftover piece of her hardwood flooring.
Knives from left to right – paring knife, Victorinox 10” chef’s knife, MAC 9” knife, Shiki 18cm Santoku, Victorinox 10” bread knife.
The 10” Chef’s knife and 9” MAC exist to save the Santoku from bones and harm, so they serve the function of the Tard Knife and Boning Knife.
To clean your knife, put a little dish soap on the blade to help lift the grease, rub it over both sides with your fingers, a plastic brush or a dish cloth. Then scrub it and rinse under running hot water. Don’t put it into the sink, and never let the edge bang against hard things like dishes or utensils.
I think sharpening a knife is an essential life skill. If I were Emperor there’d be a class in school entitled “Knife Sharpening 101”. It would replace a useless class, like Social Studies. I’d also have courses like “Marksmanship, Motorcycle Riding, Remedial Manliness, and Basic Cast Iron Cooking.”
I digress.
I like to sharpen my knives while watching TV. Watching TV is so mindless that I can barely stand it, but sharpening a knife helps make it a tolerable way to spend time.
There are a few options for people who don’t know how to sharpen their own knives. If you bought durable but inexpensive knives like Victorinox, you can take them to someone who will sharpen them on an electric grinder-thingy. This will bring them to a reasonable level of sharpness and wear off a lot more steel than is necessary. When the knife starts getting so thin that the blade shape is no longer correct, toss it out and buy a new one.
If you bought a more expensive knife like a Japanese knife or a Messermeister, you will not want to let some clown with an electric sharpening abomination touch your knife. Find someone who knows what they are doing and will hand sharpen it, This guy is one such person:
http://www.japaneseknifesharpening.com/
If you take care of your chef’s knife it should last 6 months to a year between sharpening.
Serrated knives can be thrown out when they get dull. Paring knives are easy to sharpen, but inexpensive to buy new ones too, so it’s your call whether to re-sharpen or dispose of them.
If you take my advice you’ll have better, more functional kitchen knives than 98.2% of all households.
If you don’t take my advice you’ll have dull knives, and I’ll laugh at you while a sabre-toothed tiger is chewing on your head.
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Thanks for stopping by my site. I’m glad, because I found yours. My boyfriend’s best friend is his cast iron skillet (and his kitchen knives). I’m just glad he lets me play with them. I’ll have to direct him to this site too!
Thank you, I’m glad you stopped by!
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