Kitchen Knives?

[Gaelen]

I found this article on kitchen knives (http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/newsletter/lclnewsvol05-no02-pg9.html) (complete with pictures of each style) in an old archive issue of Low Carb Luxury e-zine, from 2004.

I only have a few kitchen knives, but find that I use five knives (two are the same type) for just about everything...

6-in Wusthof high carbon forged steel chef's knife
8-in. no-name Japanese santoku knife that I picked up at Marshalls, with a faux-bamboo handle
7-in Cook's Essentials high carbon steel santoku...wider than the other santoku, almost as wide as a cleaver, but I'm not sure I like this one yet
basic 10-in serrated bread knife
3-in no-name paring knife


Then I have a few miscellaneous knives that mostly sit unused in the knife block (I tend to use the chef's knife or a santoku for just about everything.) And I've never owned a sharpening steel--although I'm pretty serious about keeping my knives sharp. I have fine and coarse ceramic sharpening rods and hones that I use for both my cooking and pocket knives.

I found the article on knives when I was searching for info on ceramic blade knives (don't have one, just thinking about trying one). Has anyone tried a ceramic blade knife, or any of the other ceramic blade kitchen tools (peelers, parers, etc.)?

[Mitra]

I haven't tried the ceramic knives. Like you, I have a few knives that are used all the time, and some more that rarely see service. We also use sharpening rods and don't have a steel, though my husband drools over some Japanese ones in our local kitchen shop, so we may acquire one at some point.


Bread knife;
8" cook's knife (one carbon steel, one stainless, both Sabatier - I use the stainless one for acid things like lemons and tomatoes);
carving knife (Wusthof), which is a bit longer and narrower bladed than the cook's knives;
fixed blade potato peeler - peels tomatoes, lemon/orange zest, peppers, apples, pears ...There's also a larger cook's knife that I use sometimes for heavy duty jobs like cutting a large, solid cabbage in half, or cutting a chunk off a big block of parmesan, but it's not used daily like the others. I very rarely use any smaller knives.

[Missy]

I personally have liked and used knives from the Rada company.

Especially this knife, my favorite:

http://www.radamfg.com/Product.asp?SRCH_CATEGORY=Cat09&SRCH_ID=R134

There pairing knives, potato peeler and ...well...all of their knives are good as far as I'm concerned! lol I finally bought their knife sharpener, and man it works great! These knives are quite inexpensive and last forever. They are all metal.

[backpacker]

Several years ago a friend of mine went over seas for almost a year. I let him store all of his belongings in my basement. At the time I was just starting to get into "gourmet" cooking, and I told him I was going to use his kinves and pots/pans while he was gone.

He had a nice set of Wüsthof knives and All-Clad pots/pans. I fell in love with both the knives and the pots/pans. After he returned, I was stuck back with my old knives. :( They drove me nuts!

Shortly after his retruen I sold that house and moved, my wife (then girlfriend) picked up a nice 7 piece starter set of Wüsthof knives for me. Ever since then, I've been eyeballing pieces to add. :)

Also, when we got married about a little over a year ago, my parents got us a 10 piece All-Clad pot/pan set! So now I'm really set! :)

Here is an incredibly comprehensive page on keeping your knives sharp:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=26036

[Gaelen]

Wow, backpacker, that IS a great site...kind of a chef's knife skills course online. Thanks for posting it.

Lynn, the new Santoku I just got is also all metal...and that's the part I'm not quite sure I'm used to yet. I love the feel of my Wusthof chef's knife, the way it balances in my hand. It was my first 'good' knife about a dozen years ago, and it's still going strong; you can really tell the quality. I think it's just a process of getting used to the different way that the Santoku, which is also a bit longer and a lot wider, handles in my hand...I find myself reaching for it more and more, but I do still prefer my smaller chef's knife for many tasks. It's not as big as the 8-10 inch chef's knives you watch celeb chefs flipping around on TV, but I've got small hands and it works really well for me.

The only knives I really would like to acquire are a mezzaluna (for chopping herbs; I'll be doing a lot of that in a couple months as the herb garden starts to grow up) and another cleaver...lost my first one when I moved house eight years ago and just never replaced it. But a good cleaver does have a weight and purpose that other knives just can't really match. I've never really had a knife set; I've just acquired various knives over time, and either continued to use them or given away what I didn't like.

[Mitra]

I have smallish hands, too, and another consequence of not being very tall is that my sleeves are often a bit too long, so I find I'm always trying to stop the handle of the knife from getting caught in my sleeve - which, when it happens, does not improve knife control! But still it's very rare for me to use a knife smaller than the 8" cook's knife. I'm not sure if it's habit, or if at some point in the past I found I was happier with the larger knives. The 10" one I only use for occasional larger jobs, but still, it gets used more than any of the smaller knives.

[Inez]

I've done all my cooking for years with a paring knife -- my husband got me a beautiful set of knives last year (they were sharp, which made a big, big difference right off the bat!) and I've been teaching myself to use the different knives. I've recently been trying to learn how to use the chef's knife -- it really is amazing what an effect using the right equipment and the right techniques has on your cooking!:rolleyes: