Cutlery Reccomendations? (shopping today)

Cafe Society
1

I feel kind of dumb for needing advice about knives, but here goes.

I was one of those people who was late to the game in learning to cook–I’ve been cooking for one year now. Now I really enjoy cooking and try new recipes every week. This often requires lots of vegetable preparation and occasional meat slicing.

I have three chopping knives, all of them cheap. The only one I really like is this cool little gizmo which was $5. It’s great for spices.

Anyway, my three blades are all dull. I was thinking about getting a knife sharpener, but I think those throw sparks, don’t they? I live in an apartment and don’t know the first thing about them or if that’s a practical thing to have right now.

Either way, I think it’s time for me to get a new cutlery set. I’d like a set in one of those fancy blocks like they have in TV kitchens (we have no room for storage outside of a block.) I’d like a set that makes the food prep easier. I don’t really want to spend hundreds on a new knife set, but I want something of reasonable quality that will give me the tools for basically any kitchen job.

So… educate me. What have you got? What do you love? Brand recommendations are welcome, but I’m actually most interested in types of cutlery and different blades and what combination is best for general kitchen use. I’m like totally ignorant about kitchen knives and which ones are used for which purpose.

Also, how long does a good set usually last before it must be sharpened?

Thanks!

Christy

2

I’ll be the first to say it: you really don’t need all the knives in a set. Good cutlery is a lot like good cookware - buy only what you need, when you need it, but avoid the sets as they include things that you’ll never use.

I recommend getting yourself a good quality chef’s knife, probably 8 inches long. (I think the 6" are too short; the 10" too long.) Go to a dedicated cutlery or cooking store and try it out - you want to get something that fits your hand and feels good. The fit and feel is more important than the brand, really, and don’t be afraid to mix and match. The more expensive brands will cost you $80 - $100 for a good chef’s knife, tho’ I’ve heard of cheaper ones that have gotten a number of recommendations from serious cooks, like Cooks Illustrated and such - maybe someone will pop in with a link. Myself, I prefer Wustof. I have some of their classic line. I use my chef’s knife for easily 90% of all my prep in the kitchen - it’s really worth the money to get a quality one.

A knife that’s often recommended as the next purchase is a paring knife, but I kind of disagree. I have one, but I rarely use it. (Probably because I don’t peel much of anything - the potatoes are unpeeled, the cukes unpeeled, and so on. Can’t remember the last time I peeled anything. And then when I do, I usually use a veggie peeler - never got the hang of peeling with a knife, really.)

After that, it varies. I’d get a nice breadknife and maybe a cleaver (ooh - or maybe a tomato knife. That’s probably the knife that does the other 10% of the cutting in my kitchen), but others might recommend a boning knife or steak knives or what have you. That said, if you can find a set or block that includes only 3 knives (like the chef’s, paring, and bread or some such), it might be worth it. Just don’t get a set that includes 10+ knives, as there’ll be a bunch in there that you probably won’t use. Start small.

One thing that is worth the purchase: kitchen shears. I bought the Wustof shears and use them constantly. And they weren’t expensive; maybe $10? I know they’re not of the same quality as my knives, but they’re shears - they’re meant to get beat up and be replaceable.

I’ve heard that knives should be resharpened every year. You can buy sharpeners for your knives that take any guesswork out of it and help maintain the edge, but it’s probably worth getting them professionally sharpened every 2-3 years or so. (That said, I haven’t gotten mine resharpened, and it’s going on probably 5 years now. I need to do that, obviously.) Using the steel will help maintain the edge as well, but I have to admit that I’m not so great at that either.

Other than a tomato or bread knife, stay away from serrated edges. Serrated knives are difficult, if not impossible, for home chefs to resharpen - you end up just grinding down the serrations. They’re great for tomatos and bread, but regular old knives will work for everything else. And your tomato and bread knife are probably best served by being professionally resharpened.

3

Thanks for your thoughtful reply, Snickers. I guess one reason I was interested in the block (other than the fact we have storage issues) is because we don’t have any steak knives, either. I thought it might be time to get some.

I think because we really need a block to put them in I may still look for a set, but perhaps a smaller set? Then I could be getting what I need without sacrificing higher quality or paying for something I won’t use.

I heard this set was highly recommended, but it doesn’t include steak knives.

ponders

4

There really is no substitute for going someplace that you can pick up knives and try them out, so to speak. We all have different hands, different grips, etc, and a knife that may feel like a natural extension of my hand may feel like a lumpy rock to you.

If you don’t like how it feels, you’ll never use it. It’s just that basic. :smiley:

If the budget allows, don’t get stainless steel knives or anything that’s labeled as “never needs sharpening” as that’s really just code for “never can be sharpened.” Thin, flimsy blades are dangerous - they will flex off to the side if you’re not careful.

5

What kind of knife is used to cut meat? Is there a certain knife for that? I slice boneless meat fairly often and want to make sure I have a good knife for that.

6

Heh, I don’t have any steak knives either. My husband bought me a block yonks ago (it was one of the “block + 3 knives” sets I mentioned), and there’s space for them, but we don’t have any. I think about buying some every now and again, but then something else distracts my buying dollar. (For steak knives, we use a couple of random paring knives; works great!)

You can always buy a block separately from the knives, too - there’s a ton of empty blocks on Amazon, and none seem too expensive.

I saw that BBandB also has starter knife sets that include 2 or 3 knives. Maybe buy a starter set and a separate block? I think you’d still be money ahead.

Definitely make sure you can try them out, like **gotpasswords **recommends.

7

Chef’s knife will definitely cut meat - I use it for chicken (boned or boneless), beef (just chopped up a sirloin for dinner earlier this week), pork, whatever, as well as for veggies. If you’re into fish, a boning knife works well for removing the skin; probably better than a chef’s knife.

8

Okay, I’m liking the idea of handpicking my knives to go into a separate block. I didn’t realize blocks were sold separately. :smack:

Where can I go to try out a knife? I was just going to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond to see what they have, but I’m not sure I would be able to get a feel for them there.

9

I know that you said you don’t want to spend hundreds on knives. However, I’d like to put in a good word for the knife set my parents bought us last Christmas, which is this Henckels set.

I had to call my mom up the first time I used the chef’s knife on a chicken. The balance of it, the way it fit my hand, was like magic. And it glided through that bird like a freakin’ lightsaber. I bet if I tried, I could cut through time with this thing. Best knife I’ve ever owned. So, echoing the above, a good chef’s knife will make your heart sing.

10

This was a really excellent post and I couldn’t say anything differently except that I personally use my paring knife a lot and I think knives should be sharpened every 6 months if possible.

Also, in terms of storage, have you considered and ruled out a magnetic knife holder that attaches to your wall? http://www.amzn.com/B001N107RG

11

If there’s a shop near you like Sur la Table, they’ll have knives you can try, but I’m pretty sure that BB&B even has knives in a cabinet that they can unlock for you to hold.

Instead of a block, consider getting a magnetic strip that mounts on the wall. I got rid of my block to save on counter space, and it lets me store oddball knives. The only downside is that now my husband likes the ceramic knives from Kyocera, and those don’t work on the strip.

I have a hodgepodge of knives - a Global serrated knife for tomatoes/bread, a Calphalon paring knife, and I had a Chicago Cutlery chef’s knife that I replaced with a Martha Stewart Santoku knife (the kind with little “divots” cut in the side, which lets food fall off the blade easier) but I’m not so impressed with the quality of it. Then I got a Wustof steel, and a long Forschner knife for meat carving. Oh, and Kuhn Rikon kitchen shears; they come apart for easy cleaning.

And let me dig up my oft-told tale of why you need to hold a knife, maybe pick it up and put it down a few times to see what it’d be like to actually use it. I love Global knives, so at one point I got a knife from them that I used as a paring knife. Now this is a small knife, so do you see that little divot and bump in the handle right before the sharp part of the blade starts? It’s not very large in my hand. Hard to notice, even. So when I’d lay the blade down on the cutting board, I’d put it down such that the knife’s blade was facing to the right. When I would pick it up? I tended to reach down without really looking, and would end up picking it up such that the blade was facing up. The handle was pretty symmetrical. At the time, I sometimes had the bad habit of putting out my right index finger on top of the knife blade’s “spine” to steady the knife. I never did it with that knife, but I came close often enough that I said this obviously was not a good knife for me. (Note this site says the replacement model has a better handle - the blade also juts out a bit near the base, making it a much less “symmetrical” knife than the one I had.) The Calphalon paring knife that I replaced it with has a very obviously shaped handle, so no more of those mistakes for me.

12

As much as I would absolutely love to spend $350 on a knife set, my husband would murder me in creative and diverse ways with said investment (he’s a spendthrift.) I’m trying to keep it around $200 though I know the reality is it will be closer to $250.*

However, even if I can’t afford the whole set, I can definitely keep that brand in mind for the few knives I do end up purchasing. I think I will forgo the steakknives for now. We haven’t needed them yet (because my meat is so tender, of course… okay, fine. We don’t cook steak.)

*He’s coming around. His reaction to my recent $200 purchase of new Egyptian cotton sheets and a matching comforter bordered on physical pain, but all I’ve been hearing about for the last three weeks is how great our new bedding is. It’s almost as if… spending more money yielded greater quality. Amazing!

Okay, that’s awesome. Definitely under consideration.

I am off to the mall. There are at least a few cooking stores there that carry different kinds of knives and I am going to see what I can find!

13

I HIGHLY recommend Sani-Safe commercial chef’s knives from Dexter-Russell. If I was starting from scratch, I wouldn’t even consider “gourmet” brand knives. I have fancy Henckels knives and I’ve also used the Sani-Safe knives extensively. If the Henckels are better, it’s by a VERY small margin. They also come in multiple colors!

I’m pricing off of the Hubert site, but it tends to be a little pricey.

To start, you need 4 knives:

–Chef’s knife, 8"–30.49

–Paring knife–6.69 Not just for paring. It’s good for any small work.

–Utility knife–12.79. This is a 6" serrated knife good for anything from cutting sandwiches to slicing tomatoes. If you get decent steak knives, then you can keep one handy and use one of those instead as it’s functionally similar.

–Bread knife–You can go cheap on this if you like.

You also need:

–Good shears

–Sharpening steel

Get some kind of holder. I like the magnetic ones too as they don’t take up counter space and they’re more sanitary than the wood ones. You can get a big magnetic strip for holding tools at Home Depot.

You can add to the selection as you identify additional needs. I love my long slicer because I love watermelon. I also like having 2 paring and 2 utility knives for my own convenience. But I could easily get by with just the 4 I mentioned.

14

  1. Global knives have dimples in the handle where food particles can become trapped. This is very, very difficult to clean well, and is the number one reason I will not recommend them.

  2. Henckel knives have a sharp blade, but generally speaking are overweighted towards the handle, resulting in loss of control.

  3. Wusthof makes great knives for a solid price. For a beginner, I would recommend an 8" chef’s knife, but personally I and most of my fellow chefs can’t stand anything smaller than 9.5".

  4. There is no need for a “tomato knife.” A sharp knife will cut tomatoes perfectly well.

  5. Steak knives do not need to be sharp. If a cheap steak knife can’t cut through the food you’ve prepared, you did something very, very wrong.

  6. Also, Dexter-Russel makes very adequate knifes for dirt cheap.

15

I’ve never had a problem with it. The dimples are large and shallow. I’ve seen more issues with (cheaper) knives getting food stuck around the area where the knife blade’s base meets the handle. Depending on how that’s constructed, there can be little gaps for food particles to get in. Global’s single-piece construction definitely avoids that issue.

16

Regarding sharpening: I wouln’t recommend the electric sharpeners. You tend to remove too much material with them and the edge will not be what you want. A steel is good for maintaining the edge you put on a knife, but is not meant for actual sharpening. There are a lot of options out there, but I like the Spyderco Sharpmaker, although that may not make sense for someone starting out. I’d check some websites to see what might fit in your budget.

17

The Cook’s Illustrated cheap knife recommendation is for Victorinox, yes, the Swiss Army people. I have their suggested knives - one chef’s knife and one paring knife. Originally these plus a bread knife were my only knives and it was just fine. Eventually somebody gave me two more chef’s knives and another paring knife from Henckels, and they’re nice too, but I wouldn’t have bought them knowing about the Victorinox ones. Seriously, I’ve never been displeased with them. I do also have an electric sharpener. And the paring knife is serrated - I sharpen it with the electric sharpener and if I’m ever disappointed with it, gee, I guess I’ll go drop that big ten bucks again. Five years and I’m very satisfied - I cook a lot, too.

I believe this is the chef’s knife, although it looks a little different from the one I bought five years ago. Also, if you put your knives in the dishwasher (I do, on the upper rack, where they won’t hit anything) the handle is dishwasher safe.

18

I really like the Victorinox knives, and they’re cheap. Personally, if I were starting from scratch, I’d get this8" chef’s knife, the victorinox paring knife (I use mine mostly for cutting up fruit), and maybe a bread knife. I’d just buy some steak knives as a separate set. I also like the magnetic knife holders.

And get a good sharpener.

19

Would your husband kill you if you invested in each knife one by one? Because the good knives really will last your whole life if you take care of them, rather than having to replace the cheaply-made ones repeatedly. And like Max Torque said, a good chef’s knife just makes your prep work so much faster.

I like the Shun knives personally–I got them based on Alton Brown’s recommendation as his favorite knives. They’re beautiful and effective. We get ours professionally sharpened once every 18 months or so–we started off with just the chef’s knife, but now have the bread knife, a smaller utility knife, the slicing knife (good for thinly slicing meats and veggies) and a paring knife. Got one of those cool koosh-style knife blocks for them, although we’re going to replace it with a magnetic strip shortly. They’re wonderful.

20

Thanks all for your input!

I ended up going to Crate and Barrel. I decided I was going to do the piecemeal thing and get fewer knives of higher quality rather than buy a set. After learning about the different kinds of knives online, I decided a good starter set for me would be a chef’s knife, a tomato knife (which will work for cutting bread too), and a paring knife.

Turns out they had a Wusthof Black Classic forged knife set on sale consisting only of exactly what I was looking for – a chef’s knife, a tomato knife, and a paring knife, as well as a pair of kitchen shears and a sharpener. All for $200. What a deal for basically one of the highest quality knives out there.

I got an awesome bamboo universal knife block – it’s fun because it doesn’t have slots, just a bunch of little strips of bamboo which separate and hold when you insert the knife. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s pretty cool and doesn’t take up as much counter space as the traditional block.

They were ridiculously helpful at Crate and Barrel and let me try the different knives. I was eying the Shun knives because I’ve heard such great things about them, but unfortunately they are dominant-hand specific. She would have had to order left-handed Shun knives for me and that means my right-handed husband wouldn’t be able to use them! I thought the Shun knives were nice, but the minute she put the Wusthof in my hand I was all ping! This is the one! It had a nice heavy handle and a comfortable grip, much more substantial than the Shun. The sales lady said she had Wusthof knives and loved them.

Great thing about the Wusthof blades is they come with a lifetime warranty which means as long as I treat them well, they will replace them at no cost to me when they need replacing. They also will professionally sharpen them for free once every year, forever. Knowing these will last me a lifetime doesn’t make them seem so expensive.

The chef’s knife I got is a mere 6’’ blade but I have small hands and I liked it. I might eventually decide I want an 8’’ inch blade or larger but for now this set seemed like the best deal for me.

My thinking is that I will use these and as I become more proficient at cooking any additional cutlery needs will become clear. I can add to my collection as I go. But I definitely feel off to a great start, very satisfied and appreciative of the help!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have the sudden urge to chop vegetables…