We’ve talked about knives, but what about other sharps. Here we’re gonna talk about other bladed tools that will likely be useful to you for one reason or another. We’ll talk about what to look for and what they’re used for. To start with, what I find to be the “essential” sharps in the kitchen:
ESSENTIAL SHARPS:
Peeler:
Peelers are great, not just for peeling but for making ribbons. Ever take a peeler to carrots and make a bunch of ribbons and use them as the base of a salad? Or ribboned cucumber to make little vegetable rolls? How about make reliably thin slices to make potato chips? No? Try it some time. You can use it as a prep cutter for “ribboning” foods and do fun things with them. When looking for a peeler you’re looking for something inexpensive, but with a good grip. OXO is a great company for this as they started life as a tool company that specialized in making things for people with dexterity disabilities such as Parkinson’s. If they make a product, you can be
https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Prep…/dp/B07K51YG5P/
Kitchen Shears:
Who says scissors are only for crafts? Need to finely cut up that bundle of herbs? Shears. Need to cut the backbone out of a chicken? Shears! Need to open that package of brussels sprouts? SHEARS! Okay, I guess I think everyone should have 4 knives in the kitchen, if you count shears as another half a knife. Once you start using them you’ll be astounded how many more uses you’ll find for shears that just…make your life easier than you anticipated.
https://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid…/dp/B07PZF3QS3
Box Grater:
Grater/Shredder/whatever else you want to call this, it’s a great tool for cheese and much, much more. The secret to good biscuits? Shred your frozen butter before trying to incorporate. Want to quickly incorporate carrots, onions or other firm veg into a stir fry, salad or fresh roll? Shred them! Zucchini bread? Shred! Maximize surface area for aromatic extraction into a broth as quickly as possible? SHRED THAT! Oh and that weird “Super fine” side that looks like little metal puckers? Great for pasting garlic, ginger horseradish really quickly, though there are better tools for the job. Look up “paste plate” to learn more about that.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CN5
NON-ESSENTIAL SHARPS:
These are tools that I like, but I wouldn’t say belong in every kitchen, but might belong in yours if they’re a thing you’ll use regularly!
Microplane/zester:
Think grater but with TINY holes. For some people these will be overkill, but for others a ‘must have’. If you thought you could get maximum surface area off a grater, let me explain to you how wrong you are. These things will pull SUPER fine shreds of whatever it is you’re trying to disassemble. Hard cheeses will come out cloudy, zest will be JUST the outer layer of zest with no pith, Chocolate will come out like powder and so forth. Perfect, by the way, for fresh grated spices like cinnamon or nutmeg. These things are great for garnishing near anything as well. A great way to take your cooking up one notch in the world of fancy plating.
https://www.amazon.com/Microplane-38004-Professional-Stainless-Construction
Mandolin Slicers:
Not the music instrument, these things look like washboards of death. A long, flat plane of metal or plastic with a blade in the middle so that anything run against the board will get sliced to the exact same thickness every time. Again, overkill to some but for people who need to prep large values of ingredients at a time, these things are a real time saver. The only thing better is a good food processor, but even then there’s some mandolins that are more useful. Some mandolins will not just take slices, but can matchstick for you as well. Some are adjustable so you can pick your thickness. All that said, these are dangerous tools. You’re rapidly pushing food into a razor sharp blade and if you’re not aware of how much of that food is left, it’s very easy to accidently catch your finger tip in one. For this reason many of these will come with safety guards or recommend wearing a glove. Not for the easily distracted.
Meat or Carving Fork:
People tend to be really divisive on the subject of carving forks. These are just long, two pronged forks that are good for stabbing meat and either used to flip it or hold it still while you run a knife through it. They’re fine to use on a cooking piece of meat (stabbing extra holes in your food will not make it noticeably drier, I promise) though I don’t know why you would use one over a pair of tongs. But for carving, they can be really helpful. Large, unwieldy turkey? Whole roasted eye of round? Sure, break out the fork if you want to look fancy. Again, I tend to prefer a large pair of tongs, but your mileage may very.
Channel Knife:
Okay, this is TECHNICALLY a knife, but frankly, it’s such a niche tool that it doesn’t belong in the Knives article. These are “knives” in so much that they’re a blade on a handle, but have more in common with a peeler, in my opinion. The knife looks like one large hole on a grater, because in essence that’s what this is. A single, precision shred. There are a few versions to be found. They don’t seem to have proper names but I’ll call one the “swing” version which usually has the channel perpendicular to the handle and usually includes a thread zester on top. The other popular version I call the “Pull” variety, is my preferred knife which has the channel in line with the handle. Personally, I find these to be easier to control and you get better, more consistent cuts. “But what is this used for?!?” I hear you ask. Well, mostly they’re used in bars. You know those nice, pretty strips of orange zest you get on your cocktail? This is how they’re made. They can also be used to hollow out, cut garnishes or texture firm vegetables like carrots, radishes, cucumbers and so forth.
https://www.amazon.com/triangle-Channel-Knife-Rectangular-Garnishing/dp/B00V6GG3D0/