Chad

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I'm doing a couple of guest pieces for the food website Leite's Culinaria. Click on LC Blog in the navigation header bar for Part 1 of So You Wanna Buy a Knife.

Shameless self promotion, I realize, but I'm having a lot of fun with these articles and thought y'all might enjoy them, too. Later in the month will be a longer, more serious how-to piece on basic knife skills.

Take care,
Chad

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Chad Ward
An Edge in the Kitchen
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BlindLemonLars

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But I LOVE my mango slicer...

BierMuncher

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Nice write-up Chad.

I won't ever own a decent knife as long as there is a friggin dishwasher in the house.

I can't convince my family to save my life, that you can hand wash knives just as easily.

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Silviakitty

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Nicely done. And lemme tell you, you're exactly right...I have a block of knives on my counter and I use two of them. Occasionally I'll use the shears.

I had the fortune of gaining a gourmet as a friend, and she's learnin' me.

Get good knives, people!

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Professor Frink

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Great article Chad. I thought you should buy the shiniest ones

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EvilTOJ

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I love it! It's a very nice write up. Now after those three cooking knives, what about steak knives?

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ohiobrewtus

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mmmmmmmm, steak.

Very well written article. I must say, I'm guilty as charged... except mine aren't even in a fancy block, they're just laying in a drawer. DOH!

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Funkenjaeger

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Guilty of the block here as well... though in my defense, the only relatively useless knife in the block is the fillet knife - besides that it's a chef knife, bread knife, two small paring knives, and half a dozen steak knives along the sides. No shears, no mango slicer, etc. Granted, all the knives are pretty cheap, but what can I say, I'm a college student - I'll buy a $100+ chef knife as soon as I have a real job

Very useful article though, thanks - I will keep your advice in the back of my mind until I am ready to step up to real cutlery.

hetkind

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very good and well written piece on buying kitchen knives...we have a draw full, bought one at a time, with chef knives ranging from 8"-12" with the 10" most commonly used.

While the chef's and paring knife are best for kitchen use, butchering meat requires a different set including cleavers, boners and skinners. Kind of hard to skin or bone with a chef's knife.

For those on a budget, the carbon steel Old Hickory brand will hold a decent edge and some of the Sam's stores will sell NSF rated white plastic handled kitchen knives geared towards the commercial user, those are pretty decent.

Now just thinking what to make my lovely wife for breakfest, chocolate chip muffins? waffles?

Howard

the_bird

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You wrote a book on this topic, didn't you?

Real nice writeup. I *do* have a block, but if it mitigates any of my blame, it *was* a wedding present. You're absolutely right, though - the only knives I ever use are my chef's knife, paring knife (pretty rarely use that) and the bread knife. I'm assuming parts 2+ will get into things like what to look for in a knife, how to care for and sharpen a knife, etc?

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