Today we’re going to focus on knives. Now I’m not going to deep dive everything you should have. If you want that, I highly recommend the book “Food Lab” by J. Kenji López-Alt. He does a great overview of what he keeps in his kitchen and recommends for other home cooks. This is 101 and targeted at the person who wants to become a home cook or the home cook who needs some help getting back into the kitchen. That said, there’s some good information in here, but we’ll do a deeper dive on more knives later on.
So let’s talk sharps.
One of my most favorite food authors, the aforementioned J. Kenji López-Alt, will tell you that every good cook needs something like…8.5 knives and I don’t really disagree with him, but most people really only need three….and a half. He counts peelers, so I will too. For instance, should you own a fillet knife? A Joint Cleaver? Do you have time but not money? Then yes, you probably should, but it’s not going to be your daily knife, so I’m not going to cover that just yet. For your day to day, all you really you need three. I’ll get to what they are in a minute. Before we talk about what we’re buying, lets talk about what we’re looking for when we go shopping:
Full Tang: This means that the steel of the blade runs all the way through the handle in an uninterrupted piece. This will mean no weak spots where the blade meets the handle. This is a tool that should be used a lot and repetitive action will find flaws in a blade rather quickly. Full tang. We won’t even talk about other options. They’re not worth your time.
Balance: If you’re shopping online, it’s hard to tell balance, but usually a knife is blade heavy. An easy way to fix this is with a bolster. That’s a hunk of metal where the knife meets the handle. That’s there for weight and stability. No bolster? Lighter handle. That said, balance is all up to the user. Go fondle some knives. A good knife shop will have demo models, but might be a bit pricier. Alternatively, Amazon has a good return policy.
Material: There’s two real options. Stainless and Carbon Steel. Both are great, both have drawbacks.
–Stainless: It holds a good edge, it’s easy to clean, won’t rust and they’re practically abusable. is due to it’s softer nature, which sounds like a flaw, but isn’t.
–Carbon: will hold a better edge for longer, but if used on acidic material without cleaning will discolor and can corrode if left wet. It’s also harder, which is why it holds an edge better, but means it’s prone to chipping or breaking if abused.
As you can see both have their uses. For instance, while I GREATLY prefer Carbon for a chef knife because I use it so often and want it to hold it’s edge, a boning knife or anything that should be flexible will probably wear better out of Stainless.
“What about Ceramic” I hear you cry, I personally dislike ceramic as it’s unrepairable and brittle. One good chip, not hard to acquire in a ceramic blade and it’s now trash and if for no other reason I’m not a fan.
Height: For most knives you want to make sure that the handle is far enough away from the cutting edge that you’re not going to rap your knuckles on the cutting surface. If you’re constantly bruising your hand, you’re not going to want to use that knife, if you don’t want to use the knife, you’re not going to want to cook. If you have a knife in your kitchen currently that raps your knuckles, consider…getting rid of it.
Okay, now lets talk about the KINDS of knives you might want.
One: Most folk’s workhorse, the one MOST people will probably use 80% of the time; the chef’s knife. The Chef Knife is your standard kitchen knife. Should be long enough to slice nicely through a large piece of meat, sharp enough to slice vegetables without bruising them and has a sloped blade that comes to a point that is good for rocking to chop or mince small things, as well as making long draw cuts and slicing through meat.
For most people, an 8-inch chef knife is about perfect. Choosing a knife is an almost intimate decision and I can’t make it exactly for you, but If you’d like an example of what to look for, or frankly knives I’d recommend if you simply said “m’dude, please, just tell me what to buy” here are two. One at a “mid-level” price, around a hundred dollars that’s a great knife that I’d keep in my kitchen and one that’s an “entry level” knife that’s going to be about half that, still a great knife, but one you might outgrow in time.
https://www.amazon.com/ZWILLING-Professional-Razor-Sharp…/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DT1XFSQ
Two: A vegetable knife. For me, this means a Chinese style vegetable cleaver which I use as my workhorse knife. For some it might mean an Aussie style cleaver, for others a Japanese Santoku or Nakiri.
What you’re looking for here is something with a larger, slightly heavier blade with a nearly flat cutting edge where the balance actually rides forward but is not so heavy you can’t swing it with mostly wrist strength, these are the signs of a good chopper. You still want to keep this sharp. You want to cut your food not break it. Dull knives are why you can’t cut carrots without accidently sending chunky orange confetti across your floor, or why your vegetables oxidize so quickly.
This is also one of those places where when I want stainless steel, this is where I’ll get it because these are what I’ll use more often than not on highly acidic food like lemons, tomatoes and the like. One of the nice things about these is that they tend to be cheap. You can go down to your local Asian Market and they’ll probably have a range and as long as they meet the criteria on balance, height and tang, they’ll probably last you 10-20 years on a cheap investment.
https://www.amazon.com/SHI-BA-ZI-ZUO-Professional/dp/B07QF7ZXQ8/
https://www.amazon.com/MASAMOTO-Professional-Japanese-Double-Bevel-Stainless/dp/B08577X22G
3: Something smaller. This is up to you and what you’re comfortable with. This is what you reach for when you need precision. Need to get a chicken breast off the bone? This will do well enough. Want something for taking just the stems out of your tomatoes? This guy. Want to score your bread dough, but don’t keep a razor on hand? This’ll do.
Probably something where the cutting edge is in alignment with the handles like a slicer or a paring knife. This knife won’t get used nearly as often as the other two, in my experience, but when you need it, it’s practically invaluable. You’ll probably want something with a short, straight blade that comes into a torpedo of a tip.
You’ll notice what I’ve done here is created a grouping of Medium, Large and Small knives and for most people, that’s what you’ll see. Now eventually as you use these more and more often you’ll run into limitations in your limited selection of knives. You’ll realize at some point that you want a boning AND a utility knife for your small knives. Then you’ll borrow someone’s Santoku and go “daggonit, potatoes don’t stick to this when I slice them like they do my flat edged cleaver, this is a dream!” and those are great jumping points to get you into new knives, but if you’re on a budget or only have room for a few, this is how I’d personally shop.
IF, for whatever reason, you need to pick ONLY one knife, I’d say the most versatile knife on this list is the Chinese Vegetable Cleaver. With practice this will be the only knife you reach for 80% of the time. Ask me how I know. It’ll do near whatever you want if you keep it sharp and learn to use it. I even use mine as a make-shift spatula on my cast iron and wok.
On the Subject of Knife Sets:
I’m sure you’ve seen the knife block sets on Amazon or your local Ross Dress for Less or someplace similar and I’m here to tell you they’re cheap for a reason. They’re usually plastic handled, poorly balanced and made from Stamped blades, which are fine, but won’t last you as long.
Yes, this includes Cutco. “They’ve got a lifetime guarantee, Zach!”, I hear you moan. Yeah, because they’re cheap enough that replacing the set three times over still doesn’t equal the cost you’re paying for them.
Anyway, if you must go in for a set, I advise getting sets from knife makers, German Steel (or Japanese, but they’re almost ALWAYS more expensive) and something that has a good range. You could do worse than the following: