Buy A Knife!
Jan 30 '00
When shopping for knives you should always insist on handling the knife. This will help you feel the balance and weight. The handle should feel comfortable in your hand and fit just right. Not all handles on knives are the same. These are a few of the types:
-riveted: which means you can usually see the knife handle sandwiched between two pieces of poly that are riveted into place. This
is a traditional look. It has a square-ish feel. Look for a tight fitting rivet, meaning turn the knife sideways and
look for any spacing. There shouldn't be any.
-molded: means just that. This is a handle that is slipped on over the handle end of the knife. This has a contemporary look and feels more rounded. Make sure the handle does not seem loose, it will only get looser.
-forged: the knife and handle appear to be made as one piece of metal.
The handle is usually hollow and is sometimes filled to achieve an ideal balance.
Most knives are made of a high carbon non-staining steel. Every manufacturer has a slightly different combination of metals but they mostly fall under this category of description.
Many knives come with something to sharpen it with. Usually it is a sharpening steel. It is generally a good idea to always use the same one the manufacturer makes because it will accomodate the metal composition of that knife the best. If you maintain your knives with the steel, you can expect to have to replace the steel a few times in the lifespan of your knives.
A lot of people fall into the trap of knives that are advertised as "never needs sharpening" but that is usually not true. Those knives are generally serrated and they do start out sharp but since they are not sold with anything to sharpen it, most people don't. After a while the knife does get dull and while it does an okay job on slicing soft items, you won't be able to get a good, thin slice out of it. Used to be that you could not sharpen a serrated knife. Available on the market right now is an electric knife sharpener that will handle serrated knives.
I would recommend getting mostly fine edge knives with 1 or 2 serrated knives to handle bread, tomatoes and so on. A sharp knife is a safe knife. The less you have to struggle to saw your way through something the better. Or as a chef, on a show I saw, once said "A fine edge knife makes a clean cut and heals faster. A serrated knife will shred a bit and takes a lot longer to heal." Sorry if that was a little gruesome but it makes sense.
Now, do you need to spend a fortune on knives? That depends on how much you actually use your knives. If you only use them occasionally then you don't need the top-of-the-line stuff. But don't buy the bargain basement cheap stuff either. Those are usually made with very poor quality metals that don't hold an edge very well, no matter how many times you sharpen it. If you are starting to become very interested and involved in cooking then go ahead and invest, you won't regret it.
What types of knives do you need? This also depends on personal preferences. If you find yourself using the same knife for almost everything, then buy that size knife. But if you are starting from scratch then you'll need at these:
- 8"-10"cook's knife
- 7"-9"bread knife
- 3"-4"paring knife
- 8"-10"slicing knife
I personally have a 4" paring, 8" chef, 8" slicer, 8" bread and a Chinese cleaver(can't live without it!). So you don't really need a lot of knives to have a well equipped kitchen. Also don't put your knves in the dishwasher! The heat of the drying cycle causes the metal to expand and when it cools down, you will have lost a bit of the edge.
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dadeva
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Location: san francisco ca
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