Posts Tagged ‘kitchen knives’
Cutting It Up
Having a proper knife set is a crucial component to having a good kitchen. Some people buy knives at a big box retailer or try to get by on pairing knives alone, which is a big mistake. Those people also tend to be bachelors, so I suppose that goes without saying.
Personally, I recommend going to a kitchen store or website and looking through their chef knife sets that come in a knife block. You can find something excellent at such a resource and get set that will cut your food cleanly and with ease. There are some great websites that are worth your time; after all, you want to have a complete kitchen, right?
Chopped Chocolate Made Easy
The best pastry chefs know to use fresh chocolate when making tasty treats like brownies and fudge. But, fresh chocolate comes in blocks and must be finely chopped in preparation for the melting process. Chefs hate nothing more than spending a valuable hour prepping chocolate.
Serrated knives are a pastry chef’s best friend. The grooved “teeth” on a serrated knife work perfectly to chop brittle chocolate blocks. Serrated knives also tend to be sharper than typical chef’s knives because they’re used less frequently.
Kitchen Knives 101
Contrary to what some of us may believe, kitchen knives are not divided into two basic types – sharp or dull. In reality, kitchen knives are to the kitchen what handsaws are to a woodworking shop. There are numerous types of kitchen knives, each with their own purpose and design. In the same way you wouldn’t use a chainsaw to trim a picture frame, you wouldn’t use a meat cleaver to peel potatoes, for instance. Each blade performs a specific task, so knowing the different types of kitchen knives can help a cook work more efficiently and safely.
There are boning knives, carving knives, pairing knives, and an oyster knife among other types out on the market.
Knife Makes Cutting Bread More Easy
We all know that there are many different kinds of knives that we should have in the kitchen to make our food preparation a lot easier. Some of the types of knives are boning, filleting, chef, cleaver, ceramic, paring and your bread knives. Bread knives are a special type of knife that is serrated and comes in different lengths. This knife can be used to cut foods that have a hard crust and a soft interior like bread. The serrated edge makes small saw cuts to enable you to cut the hard crush. A regular knife will slide through the hard crust and with applied pressure, you will end up smashing the bread since the interior is soft; therefore, your appearance will not look appetizing even though you don’t change the taste.
This type of knife can also be used for cutting fibrous fruits and vegetables like tomatoes which will enable you to cut through the skin without having to smash the tomato. Based on your budget will determine whether you want to buy one that is less expensive and replace it once the serrated edge becomes dull or you rather invest a more expensive one that needs to have the edge taken care of.
What Knife Should I Use
Have you ever been in a situation and can’t figure out which kitchen knife to use especially when cutting through a bone on a cut of meat whether it’s beef, poultry or any other type of meat. I have found that a meat cleaver works the best. It’s a large wide-thick dull blade that varies in size. Because of its weight, the cleaver is able to cut through tough food with a chopping motion.
A meat cleaver can also be used as a mallet to flatten your meat such as veal for very thin slices as well as crushing seeds and mashing garlic.
Get Dependable Blades
A good ceramic blade is about 50% harder than stainless steel. Thus, ceramic knives have started gaining popularity. The ceramic material is made of heated zirconium oxide. The process is called sintering where ceramic powder particles are bonded together.
High quality ceramic knives won’t need to be re-sharpened for years. Since they’re made of very hard materials, the blades won’t yield to the wear and tear of daily use unlike stainless steel. Ceramic also has no effect on the flavor or appearance of food. Moreover, there will be no transfer of taste or smell between different types of foods.
Paring Knives – What I Use the Most
Paring Knives are knives that every household must have in their kitchen. These knives are small & precise in cutting, peeling and slicing all types of vegetables and fruits. Everyone has their favorite paring knife. I have a variety of these knives but I have found that the set of paring knives with the colored handles, red, green, brown & yellow, are the ones that I use the most.
I have had these for 15 – 20 years and the best thing about these is that they are always sharp. I have never had to sharpen these. I use these paring knives for peeling vegetables, coring fruit such as apples, chopping & slicing all kinds of vegetables – you name it.