Kitchen Knives

Today I want to talk about kitchen fundamentals. When assembling your kitchen equipment a key tool in your cooking arsenal is going to be a good set of knives. Of course there are several key tools we could look at, but I have to begin somewhere so knives it is.

Having a good set of knives can make all the difference to basic prep work in the kitchen, and what constitutes a good set is very much a personal choice. How a knife feels in your hand, the balance and grip, the length, width and thickness of the blade, and of course the sharpness. Keeping your knives sharp is very important. For one thing, a sharp knife makes cutting, slicing and chopping a much easier process and actually a safer one too. With a sharp knife less pressure is required to make the cut and there is less likelihood of the blade slipping off the food and causing possible injury to fingers etc.

When purchasing kitchen tools it is better to spend a little bit more and buy good quality products if you can afford to. The adage that you “get what you pay for” is generally true and it is preferable to buy one or two good quality knives than a whole block full of cheap rubbish. Mind you, the block might come in handy! Ideally starting out you will want to have a 3 ½” to 4” paring knife, a 6” sandwich knife and a minimum 8” chef’s knife. Later on you can add a bread knife and a Santoku knife, (thin blade Japanese style chef’s knife) which is hollow ground and ideal for dicing.

To maintain the edge of your knives it is better to treat them with care. Hand wash and dry them rather than placing them in a dishwasher and always use an appropriate cutting board to protect both the blade and your counter or table surface. Proper storage is also important and keeping the knives in a block or on a magnetic rack is preferable to putting them in a drawer, especially if they are loose and thus easily damaged.

Keeping the blade sharp is accomplished in several ways. If you are a perfectionist then a whetstone is your best choice and will give you the finest edge. Normally you would need three grades of stone from a coarse grit for taking out nicks and damaged edges with a 500-1000 grit size, a medium grit stone (3000-5000 grit size) for normal daily sharpening and a fine grit stone (6000-10000 grit size) for honing and polishing.

Soak the whetstone in water for 15-20 minutes, place the stone on a towel to keep it from slipping and then place the blade lengthwise down and across the stone with the cutting edge pointing toward you. Angle the blade at approximately 15 to 20 degrees to the stone surface and draw the blade toward you (Tip: Place a spring steel paper clip along the top edge of the blade to act as an angle guide, or you can buy angle guides at many hardware stores).

The right hand should be holding the handle with the blade held firmly between the thumb and forefinger and the fingers of the left hand resting lightly on top of the blade. Draw the blade towards you and then push away with a gentle rhythmic action until you get a burr appearing evenly along the length of the cutting edge. Reverse the blade grasping the knife in the other hand so that the opposite face of the blade is against the whetstone and repeat the process. Final honing and polishing to a razor edge is achieved on the fine grit stone.

As I said, this is for the person who is prepared to go the extra distance for the perfect edge, but you can still maintain a sharp edge, previously sharpened on a whetstone, using a traditional sharpening steel. There are videos available on YouTube that can demonstrate these various techniques.

Another alternative is to buy an electric sharpener. These sharpeners also offer three levels of grinding, from coarse to fine but have the advantage of setting the angle for you so that all you need do is draw the blade through the sharpener a few times, with one pass for each side of the blade.

Many people who use these electric sharpeners swear by them and get excellent results. Others feel that there is the danger that they can remove too much material and wear the knife out faster. If used according to the manufacturer’s instructions. they should give years of good service and make keeping your knives in top shape a breeze.