Healthy Cooking Columns
Your Most Important Kitchen Tools: Knives
Whole books have been written about knives. There are multi-disc DVDs sets that teach knife skills. At cooking schools and in training, the first lessons learned by chefs are knife care, handling and skills.
Step one: Which knives?
You are better off to purchase a few selected high quality knives than a complete set. For practical purposes, even the most demanding chefs use only three or four knives regularly.
Those knives are a Chef’s knife (often called a French Chef’s knife), a paring knife and a long serrated knife. After you are comfortable with your knives you should consider adding a boning knife.
Chef’s knife
This is your workhorse knife. The triangular geometry has the top of the knife flat and the cutting edge with a deeper curve to it. At the hilt of the knife it will curve to about 2 1/2 inches deep. The curve allows for an efficient knife tip to handle rocking motion while slicing. Some Chef’s knives have deeper more rounded, curving geometry and others a shallow arc.
Depending on how large your hands are, a knife between 6 and 10 inches long will likely be the most comfortable for you. An 8 inch Chef’s knife works well for most people.
Paring knife
Your paring knife will be used for smaller tasks – peeling, cutting smaller items, detail work and the like. They come in many different shapes. Some have a slight curve to the blade like a Chef’s knife and others have a flat cutting surface. Look for a paring knife about 4 inches long.
Serrated knife
Purchase a long flat serrated knife to round out your collection. Having a serrated knife is essential if for nothing else but slicing bread. Most people think of this as a bread knife but you can do so much more with it. You can slice tomatoes with your “bread knife” and when carving poultry or a roast you will find the task made much easier using a knife with a serrated edge. A slightly longer blade may work better for you – at least eight inches – and you might consider a ten inch serrated knife.
Boning knife
Boning knives are of intermediate length – five to eight inches. The blades are generally thinner and often slightly flexible. The geometry does not have as deep a curve to the blade as with a Chef’s knife. Where a Chef’s knife will be 2 1/2 inches deep, a boning knife is more like a paring knife: no more than an inch thick at the handle.
Better quality knives are drop forged. Knives that are hand made are “forged” by heating the steel and hammering (forging) the blade into the shape of the knife.
Mass produced knives are made by heating pieces of steel and placing them in a form in the shape of the knife. Half of the form, or die, is fastened to a large anvil and the other half of the die is attached to a ram which acts like a hammer. The ram is dropped onto the steel, forging the pliable steel into the die to give it the shape of a knife blade. The drop hammers can be as high as twenty feet and the ram can weigh over 1000 pounds (best to keep your fingers out of the way). Cooling the hot forgings under controlled conditions helps eliminate stress points in the steel. This method creates a stronger, sturdier knife than those made of rolled steel and it is worth making sure that your new knife is drop forged.
The blade is then welded to the tang – the metal part of the knife that forms the handle. (Some knife blades / tangs are forged in one piece.) The blade is then shaped and sharpened.
The next consideration for you will be the type of handle you are most comfortable with. There are three basic choices. The traditional wooden handle is made from carved wood that surrounds the tang and is riveted in place. There are also many different types of plastic or other synthetic handles. Finally, some knives have a metal handle that is welded to the blade – basically the handle and tang are one and the same.
Your choice of handle type will partly be a matter of preference, but will also depend on any experience you may have with using a kitchen knife as well as what you are willing to pay for your new knife.
Another important feature of a knife is the material that it is made from. For the most part, the knives that are most available to you will be stainless steel. You can purchase a carbon steel knife and the advantage is that it is easier to sharpen. Many chefs prefer carbon steel knives, but the blade will rust and requires more diligent maintenance.
As a result the most popular knives are made from stainless steel. The quality of the steel does vary with the cost of the knife, but there are excellent knives available to you for a very reasonable price. Remember that this will be your single most important tool in the kitchen (except for maybe the dishwasher).
There are now knives that are made from ceramic polymers. These are more expensive knives (a paring knife starts at about $80.00), but they are purported to never need sharpening. While this may be true for general use, they do lose their edge and at this time the manufacturers recommend that you return the knives to their maker for honing.
You’re going to find an amazing array of knives from dozens of manufacturers. Go to more than one kitchen store (like Sur la Table or Williams-Sonoma). Look at the different brands and see what might fit your price range. Knives with wooden handles are generally cheaper and make great first knives.
The key is to go and look at and hold the knives. How does the knife feel in your hand. Is the handle too large for you? It’s not a good idea to have the grip be over or undersized for your hand or you won’t be able to grip it well. Likewise the length of the blade (as well as the total length of the knife) shouldn’t feel too large for you. If the blade feels too long it can affect how well you are able to handle the knife. Some cooks feel very comfortable with a 10 inch Chef’s knife but others with smaller hands might be more at ease with a 6 or 8 inch blade.
The weight of a knife can be very important in how much you will enjoy using it. Some Chef’s knives have blades that are much thicker at the base, with heavier handles. For a first knife this can be an advantage, giving you more control than a lightweight knife.
Balance is a factor as well. The best knives have a well balanced feel with the handle being just a little heavier than the blade. If you drop the knife, having the balance slightly weighted to the handle means that the knife is less likely to fall point down. Not only will your feet (and your floor) thank you, but you’ll preserve your investment in the knife.
Spend some time handling each brand of knife. Focus first on the Chef’s knife. If you are more comfortable with a wooden handle, then by all means buy that one. Don’t let the latest fashion in knives influence you. Ask about the store’s return policy. A lot of kitchen stores recognize that you will be a repeat customer and that making sure you are happy with an important purchase like your knives will keep you a customer for life.
1. Having a knife block is good, but the point of having one (if you’ll excuse the pun) is to protect the blade from being knicked or gouged by another kitchen tool. If you are going to keep your knife in a drawer, place it in a small bin of its own.
2. Wash your knife carefully in warm soapy water and rinse it clean. Don’t clean your knife in the dishwasher no matter what the maker of the knife may say (or the manufacturer of the dishwasher, for that matter).
3. Keep your knife sharp. The best way for you to do this is to go on and buy a good sharpener when you purchase your knives. You can find countless types of manual sharpeners and here’s a good video on sharpening. The best electric alternative is the Chef’s Choice electric knife sharpener.
This is their top of the line model and has three sharpening wheels. They make great models that are slightly less expensive with only two wheels. The difference is that the extra wheel on the Model 120 is used rarely for grinding the surface of very dull or pitted knives. If you buy a two wheel sharpener when you purchase your knives, this won’t be as important to you.
The best part is that you can use the sharpener any time and it’s so easy you will want to. Having a so-sharp knife that will slide through a tomato and let you cut slices as thin as you wish is a great joy. There’s the old adage that dull knives are more dangerous because of the chance that you might slip because of having to use more pressure when slicing. This may or may not be true, but there is simply nothing more time saving than a well honed knife.
Eat Healthy
Eating healthy is easy and less expensive than most people think.