Hey! don’t knock ceramic knives! They are great for vegetable and fruit work! I highly recommend a ceramic paring knife and ceramic santuko for such things. They really do keep a keen edge. That coupled with the lack of oxidation or metallic flavoring to fruits and vegetables cut with them make them worthwhile knives to own.
They do have limits. You don’t want to pry with them, or use them to chop things with bone in them. You also need to use them on a wood or bamboo cutting board, but there are things they do better than anything else.
If ou want to try out a carbon steel knife at a reasonable price, get this guy from Lee Valley for $20. I have one and it is hands down my favorite- light of weight but goes through everything like butter. I use something like this to keep the edge on.
I just upgraded to some Henckels Four Star II pieces at BBBY this afternoon. I had a gift card and a fist full of the 20% off coupons. Despite the coupon having small print language saying they could not be used for top line cutlery products, they still took accepted them without question Very helpful staff, allowed me all the time I needed to “try” each of the available lines they carried. I won’t hesitate in taking my repeat business to them in the future.
Pieces I selected:
8" Chef
7" Santoku
5 1/2" Boning
4" Paring
There was just a nice article in the NY Times food section the other day about outfitting a kitchen for a reasonable price and the authors recommendation was to go to a good restaurant supply place. You’ll find high quality stuff that is meant to be used hard day after day, at very reasonable prices. It might not look as chi chi as the stuff in the department store, but it does the job quite well.
Their knife recommendation? Plastic handled, stainless steel chef’s knife - costs under $20.
That said, I have a Henckle’s chef knife and I like it a lot. However I also have a cheapo Henckle’s International that I got at Target for $11 (intended for car camping trips, no way I’m bringing my good cutlery along) and that thing is great.
So yeah, definitely handle the knives to get a feel for them and to check out the construction, but don’t assume that you have to pay $100+ for a nice knife.
I bought all my knives from thrift shops; old carbon steel knives. I have a sharpening stone I bought at a hardware store for $5, because the same one goes for $30 from a kitchen supply joint. And all my knives are professional quality, brilliant knives. (I’m a knife snob, and carry them with me when I cook at someone else’s house.)
I’ve got two big knives, a Global vegetable chopper (Basically, a long, narrow meat cleaver) and a serrated Betty Crocker knife I got at a grocery store. “Betty” kicks ass. A girl I know got suckered into selling Cutco knives one summer and did her presentation for me. “Betty” outperformed Cutco’s best for the little “Cut the Rope” demonstration.
The Global is very nice, but I only chop so many onions a year and it’s useless for slicing.
Funny story about the Global: My brother mailed it to me as a Christmas present. I lived in an apartment building and all packages got received at the front desk, so every day for a week I kept checking to see if there was a package for me. Finally, it arrived. The sweet little old lady at the front desk asked me what it was. I smiled and said “It’s a meat cleaver!” She looked at me like I was Hannibal Lecter or something, so I said “Oh, I shouldn’t have said that. It’s, um, a gourmet utensil!”
I have, and use, al different brands. I have three Globals, as well as two knives with ceramic blades. My wife prefers the ceramic blades for cutting soft skin items such as tomatos.
We also like the Globals quite a bit. I’d like to get some more, but I like to handle them before purchase and don’t know of anyplace in the St. Louis area that stocks them.
We got ourselves a set of Wusthof’s a couple of years ago, and can’t imagine how we got by on lower-quality knives all these years.
By all means, check them all out in person and see how they feel.
I’ve got a copy of Cook’s Illustrated from within the past year and a half or so where they rated knives, I’ll have to see if I still have that lying around somewhere.
My everyday-use knife is my ultra girly, pink knife. Those knives are color coded to prevent cross contamination, but I don’t care-- I still use it on my veggies as well. I think I’d still come back to the pink knife if I had the whole set. Just feels good in my hand.
I’ve bought a few nice knives in the past, but honestly I just don’t have the discipline to care for them properly. I know I should, but I just don’t.
So my solution? Ikea. I just go and buy 5 or 6 chef’s knives for about 30 bucks. Use one, sharpen and steel it when I remember to, when it’s not getting the job done anymore? Chuck it and unwrap another one.
By the way, you know what I’m waiting for Inventor-Dopers? Here you go, this one’s on the house: You know how they have those automatic cleaning/charging stations for electric razors? I want something like that for my chef’s knife. Use it, rinse it, wipe it down, stick it in the automatic knife block and it goes ahead and sharpens and steels it so it’s perfect next time I pull it out. You could make millions.
Very helpful staff, allowed me all the time I needed to “try” each of the available lines they carried. I won’t hesitate in taking my repeat business to them in the future.