One of the main elements of working in the kitchen is a kitchen knife. It would seem, what could be simpler? But not every housewife knows what they are and why to use one or another type.
Especially for you, we have prepared a selection of the main types of kitchen knives and their purposes with photos and brief characteristics. Let's try to figure out which of them are really needed in the kitchen, and which ones will be useful only occasionally and will simply take up extra space.
Main types of kitchen knives
Despite all the diversity, three knives are rightfully considered the main chef's troika, without which the cooking process seems extremely complex and labor-intensive. Let's take a closer look at each of the knives.
Chef's knife. Universal tool, which can replace most other knives - except, perhaps, a bread knife. However, many chefs make do with only them - a matter of technique. A fairly large, heavy knife, despite its size, is easy to use. Shredding vegetables, slicing meat, peeling fruit... All this can be easily done with a chef's knife.
A wide blade, eighteen to twenty-five centimeters long, should be perfectly sharpened and quite durable. Durability is essential for handling frozen foods.
Considering that the highest demands have always been placed on the quality of this knife, we have prepared for you.
Another important component of the “big three” is a bread knife with a serrated blade. The length of such a knife is about twenty-one centimeters. His characteristic feature- a blade similar to a hacksaw, processed using the serrated sharpening method. The specially serrated blade easily cuts the bread pulp, but does not crumble it.
Last mandatory tool- small knife for peeling vegetables, with a blade of about seven to eight centimeters. Its small size allows you to hold it comfortably in your hand and thoroughly peel potatoes, zucchini and other vegetables or fruits - something that is difficult to handle with larger knives.
Popular types of knives
Of course, these are not all types of knives for use in the kitchen. If you go to a specialty chef's store, the variety of knives will amaze you. We suggest studying in more detail those of them that may become a good addition to the main chef trio.
Perhaps first on this list should be utility knife, which is found in almost every home. Blade classic shape usually reaches fifteen centimeters. This knife is suitable for both meat and vegetables. It is easy to use and does not require special skills.
However, such a knife will not cope with soft or, on the contrary, too hard products.
Few people know that the potato peeler found in almost every home is actually also a type of knife. A vegetable peeler, to use the official terminology, thanks to two blades facing each other, is very convenient for peeling vegetables and fruits. Floating blades provide additional ergonomics - the hand from such a knife gets tired much less than if you were trying to peel potatoes or apples with a regular knife.
Another useful knife - kitchen hatchet. A wide square blade up to eighteen centimeters long is indispensable for chopping meat. Due to its high strength, it allows you to easily cut through large pieces of meat, including frozen ones.
Its peculiarity is also interesting: if most knives need to cut along the product, such a hatchet should be lowered deeper.
Important: if you decide to purchase a kitchen hatchet, pay attention to the handle! It should be comfortable and not slip in your hand - otherwise you may get injured.
For a non-professional home kitchen, it would be a good idea to purchase a small sandwich knife with a slightly rounded blade shape. Who among us doesn’t like to make a couple of sandwiches for breakfast or for evening tea?
The unique shape of such a knife will allow you to conveniently spread butter and other soft foods on bread: pates, processed cheese, soft cottage cheese or mousse, jam...
A wide eight-centimeter-long blade will make it much easier for you to prepare sandwiches.
A fillet knife with a narrow and long blade of twenty centimeters is also useful in the kitchen. The shape of the knife and the raised tip make it easy to fillet the fish, separate the fillet from the bone, and cut the meat into thin slices. But be careful: this knife is not suitable for hard foods, so avoid cutting frozen meat or fish.
The Japanese santoku knife is not very popular here. Oddly enough, this convenient wide twenty-centimeter knife is not very famous. But Americans have long appreciated it - many professional chefs are switching from chef's knives to santoku. And in almost every home you can find such a model.
Thanks to the lowered tip, the knife is more ergonomic than its chef counterpart. It is convenient for chopping or shredding meat. The tip allows you to delicately cut even the most capricious products, including bread.
Another less popular knife will come in handy for many cheese lovers. That's what it's called - cheese. It is better to use it for soft varieties - a universal or chef’s knife can handle hard ones. The grooves or holes on the knife blade allow you to cut soft cheese without deforming or sticking. A nice bonus is that there is often a small fork at the tip of such a knife to carefully transfer the cheese to a plate.
Unusual knives
If you really love to cook without being intimidated by experiments and unconventional dishes, you should be interested in the following types of knives. They are not used that often home kitchen, however, they can make life much easier for an enthusiastic cook.
For lovers of stuffed vegetables, it will undoubtedly come in handy knife for cutting out the cavity. The oval shape of the blade looks unusual, but once you pick it up, you will understand how convenient it is. The pointed edge allows you to quickly remove the pulp from zucchini, eggplant and other vegetables. If you wish, you can even prepare pieces of meat for stuffing - but for this it will be more convenient to slightly freeze them.
One more interesting model- cucumber knife. However, with its help you can quickly cut any hard vegetables or fruits into thin, neat slices. Seven parallel blades ensure a clear and precise line, so your plate of fruit or vegetable slices will look perfect.
The so-called chopping knife is also interesting to use. The semicircular blade is crowned with two handles. It is recommended to work with it with both hands. This knife is suitable for cooking chopped steaks and quick shredding large quantity meat or vegetables and so on.
The knife is often used in professional kitchens, but amateurs are wary of it. And in vain. Yes, working with chopped meat requires certain skills - but after spending a couple of hours training, you will notice how much easier it has become to work with chopped products.
Popularity Japanese cuisine could not but affect the Russian kitchen appliances market. If you love sushi bars, why not try making their menu at home? A kitchen sashimi knife, thanks to its flexible long blade (about twenty centimeters), will allow you to cut salmon and any other fish into thin, almost transparent slices. Your sushi will look perfect!
The eternal competitor of sushi is pizza. Fans of hot flatbreads with cheese are familiar with trying to cut a hot product fresh out of the oven. The cheese stretches unsightly and sometimes falls along with the filling... To avoid such troubles, purchase round pizza knife. The rotating blade with fine teeth allows you to quickly cut pizza into neat, aesthetic slices.
Of course, we could not describe all types of knives - experts number up to two hundred. However, we hope that the selection will help you decide the necessary minimum, which will greatly facilitate the cooking process and make work in the kitchen quick and enjoyable.
A knife is perhaps the most necessary item in the kitchen. Many people traditionally use the same knife to cut everything they can get their hands on, complaining that the bread crumbles or that carving up a chicken is an adventure. This is understandable, because almost every product requires different knives.
We will conduct a short educational program on the topic of popular species. Information about knives was provided to us by the online store.
The first and most popular type is universal kitchen knives. They are suitable for cleaning, chopping and cutting almost any food. As mentioned above, the quality of the cut from a universal knife will not be the same as from a specialized one. It is best to use a utility knife for slicing vegetables or fillets when the final shape of the ingredient is not important.
Features of a utility knife:
— Straight blade of medium width with a pointed end.
— Long straight handle with a tapering end.
A chef's knife is used for cutting vegetables, chopping herbs, and also for boning and cutting meat. It is often chosen instead of a universal one because of its heavier handle, which allows you to cut not only poultry, but also meat and fish. Most often, not one, but three chef’s knives with different blade lengths (45, 35 and 25 centimeters) are chosen.
Characteristics of a chef's knife:
— Wide blade from 2 to 4 millimeters.
— Total length about 50 centimeters.
— Heavy handle with a convex bottom. As a rule, the handle is made of non-slip plastic, sometimes stainless steel.
The best choice for preparing neat appetizers is a thin slicing knife. With this knife you can make thin slices of meat and fish. This is especially important when preparing dishes that require a certain thickness of ingredients. Anyone who likes to make sushi or rolls should buy a knife for thin slicing.
Characteristics of a knife for thin slicing:
— Narrow and long blade up to 1 millimeter wide.
— Smooth edge or slight rounding.
— Straight handle with a slight extension at the end.
A bread knife is suitable for even cutting of baked goods. One of the advantages is that practically no crumbs are formed when slicing. In addition, even baked goods with a soft structure do not wrinkle. Due to the shape of the blade, this knife is well suited for cutting certain fruits, such as pineapples.
Bread knife characteristics:
- Serrated blade.
— Equal blade thickness along the entire length.
— Long and wide handle.
A boning knife is used to cut the loin from the bones. Good boning knives are especially valuable in small meat production facilities that do not have special machines. In addition, this tool is essential in any cafe or restaurant kitchen. It is recommended to use the boning knife only for its intended purpose and not to use it for slicing hard vegetables and fruit or for chopping.
Boning knife characteristics:
— Medium blade thickness with a sharp taper at the end.
- Curved edge.
— Straight handle medium length.
A hatchet knife is best suited for chopping bones, cartilage and tendons, as well as cutting meat and fish into large pieces. It is most often used for cutting carcasses, and a boning knife is used to separate meat from bones. But you need to keep in mind that even a large hatchet knife is not suitable for chopping large bones, such as beef.
Characteristics of the hatchet knife:
- A short and wide blade with a rounded edge or a slight protrusion.
- Smooth edge.
— Straight handle with finger grooves in the European version or round handle in Japanese.
You can buy these knives in the online store HerePoware. The site presents not only classic kitchen knives, but also professional ones that are used in cafes and restaurants. Note that the store has representatives from both well-known European manufacturers and Japanese knives, which are a must-have in the sous-chef’s kitchen.
By the will of fate I became lately I cook a lot and therefore got a new set of knives. Because some of them are of very exotic shape, I was puzzled by the study of the issue. Previously, everything was simple: knives were divided into small and large, and a little later the chef’s knife became a favorite. But no, there is a wild variety of them.
On this occasion, suddenly here is an article about knives. And then suddenly you cut salmon sausage out of ignorance. :-L
Types and purposes of traditional Western (European) knives.
Chefs consider their knives to be the most important tool in the kitchen. In progress professional kitchen Many types of knives are required, each used for a specific task. Knives are distinguished by the thoughtful shape of the blade, the length and location of the handles, the presence of teeth, and blunt or pointed tips. All this is necessary for convenient and correct cutting and slicing of food.
Let's try to understand this diversity!
Peeling knife (Potato)
Paring knife (6-9 cm). The curved shape of the blade is ideal for peeling any fruit or vegetable with a rounded surface (potatoes, apples, pears). The knife is also known as a beak.
Paring knife
Knife for cutting, peeling and slicing fruits and vegetables. A light, convenient and sharp knife with a short, rigid blade up to 10 cm long. The tip is usually centered, but can also be lowered.
Utility knife
A universal knife with a 12-18 cm blade for slicing raw and cooked meat, ham, cheese, bread and vegetables. This is the most popular knife in most kitchens! It is used for cutting vegetables, fruits, sausages, cheese, herbs and small pieces of meat.
Tomato knife
Tomato knife. For delicate cutting of fruits and vegetables that have a hard skin and a soft center: tomatoes, oranges, lemons, etc. The serrated blade (up to 13 cm) will allow you to cut even the most ripe tomato, and the forked tip of the blade will help in decorating the dish. Sometimes used as a small bread knife.
Steak knife
Steak knife. The sharp blade (up to 13 cm) of this knife is suitable for cutting any meat dishes. Often the blade has a sharpening in the form of a very fine saw. Typically used as a serving knife meat dishes.
Boning knife
Boning knife (12-15 cm). Helps cut raw and cooked meat from bones. The knife is medium wide, tapering towards the end. Has a curved cutting surface. The narrow and raised end can easily separate tendons, bones, and fat.
Fillet knife
Fillet knife. Knife for cutting meat and fish fillets (can be used for preparing Japanese fish dishes). The knife has a long, narrow and flexible blade up to 25 cm long. Its design allows you to cut meat or fish in one motion, separate the skin, and fillet. A special blade will prevent the product from crumbling, and the cut will be thin and even.
Bread knife
Bread knife. Thanks to its serrated blade (up to 23 cm), it will easily cut the crispy crust on fresh bread without crushing the crumb or breaking the crust. Ideal for slicing all types of bread and pastries. Can also be used to cut pineapples.
Slicing, Carving knife
Carving knife. A cutting or gastronomic knife with a narrow, long, hard blade up to 25-30 cm long. Used for removing skin, slicing meat or poultry, cutting large vegetables (cabbage, beets, zucchini, pumpkin), slicing watermelon and melon.
Allows you to thinly and accurately cut delicate meat products: ham, boiled pork, sausages. Thanks to air pockets - relief depressions on the blade - the pieces do not stick to the knife.
Cook's knife
"Chief." The Japanese equivalent is called GYUTOU. No kitchen can do without at least one of these knives! This is one of the most sought after knives in the kitchen. Suitable for cutting all types of products. They can be used to cut meat, butcher poultry, chop cabbage and herbs. This knife is a must-have for any chef in a restaurant or cafe. A chef's knife ("chef") has a heavy handle, a wide, hard blade (16-23 cm) with a central point. Perfectly balanced and fits comfortably in the hand.
This knife allows you to:
using HEEL (backdrop) chop greens, onions, garlic, etc.;
using a TIP (tip) cut leeks, celery, onions and vegetables;
Using the middle part, cut large vegetables (cabbage, whole celery root, turnips, etc. You can also cut meat and poultry;
Using the flat part of the blade, crush the garlic.The main part of the work performed by this knife is shredding and it is best suited for it. (I would like to note that the majority of a chef’s time in a restaurant is spent on shredding; as a rule, this is where his working day begins.
Salmon slicer
Salmon knife. It has a very flexible thin long blade 30 cm or more long. Designed for cutting large fish into very thin slices.
Offset handle bread knife
The special shape of this knife allows you to easily cut a cake, baguette or prepare a sandwich.
Santoku – Oriental cook's knife
Santoku. The knife has the traditional shape of a Japanese chef's knife. A Japanese knife is convenient for cutting sushi and sashimi rolls. The knife is also suitable for cooking European dishes. The universal cutting edge and wide blade (20 cm) allow you to use this knife for cutting almost any product, including herbs, mushrooms and spices.
Santoku bōchō– a universal kitchen cutting tool from the Land of the Rising Sun. The name is translated from Japanese as “three uses” (or “three good things”). This means that the knife copes well with three main functions: cutting, chopping, crumbling.
“Santoku” owes its appearance to an ordinary chef’s knife, which appeared in Japan back in Meiji times. The chef's knife was used mainly when cutting meat or fish. After all, there are simply no products beyond his control.
Japanese cuisine at that time was dominated by grains and greens. And, as a consequence of this, the vegetable knife became widespread in the country. It was convenient for them to chop and cut finely. You could even fillet it. However, with large products that required cutting special effort, the vegetable knife could no longer cope. There was a need to create a universal cutting tool. This is how “Santoku” was born.
Having processed and adapted the Western model to their needs, the Japanese created a new kitchen attribute that is excellent at cutting, chopping and chopping food, for which the Santoku knife, in general, is needed today.
So, having a santoku in your kitchen, you can:
cut and slice meat, poultry and fish;
chop the greens;
cut vegetables;
cook crabs;
cut bread, etc..
Cheese knife
Cheese knife. Most often this is a knife with a serrated cutting edge and a forked edge. A rather narrow, slightly curved blade (up to 13 cm) allows you to cut a slice of soft cheese without crumbling it. The handle, raised at a rather sharp angle, makes it possible to cut a slice in one movement from top to bottom, due to which the slices are even in thickness. The slots on some knives are air pockets that prevent the cheese from sticking to the blade of the knife.
Cleaver
Kitchen hatchet. It has a thick, wide blade 15-18 cm long. A powerful tool for cutting large pieces of meat (including frozen), cutting joints and joints.
Straight meat fork
A meat fork will help you when preparing and serving meat dishes.
Sharpening steel
Musat is necessary to maintain the cutting edge of the knife in perfect working condition.
Rules for using kitchen knives
– do not wash knives in dishwasher and after washing, wipe them dry thoroughly;
– do not store knives together with metal objects (dishes, cutlery, etc.);
– do not cut food on a glass or marble surface; not a single sharpening and not a single knife can retain its properties on them for a long time, despite the aesthetic beauty of such boards.
The kitchen begins with knives, just as the theater begins with a coat rack. How to choose this useful tool in all respects.
Of course, if heating a finished pie in the microwave is the height of culinary skill for you, then you can easily get by with one kitchen knife, inherited from your grandmother.
If a man likes to cook, then he will undoubtedly like forged knives made of the highest quality steel with handles made of elk horn or valuable species masterdamask tree reviews of which are very, very positive. High class manufacturing makes them not only pleasant to use, but also extremely practical (universal) in everyday activities. These knives are certified and are not edged weapons; their purchase is completely legal. Forged knives can be successfully used not only when camping or fishing, but also at home when preparing certain dishes. It will be convenient and comfortable.
In general, the choice of cutting and cleaning items should be approached more thoroughly.
“Young housewives often ask me: which knives are better - long or short, with a smooth blade or a saw blade?” said Tatyana Novikova, founder of the “Cooking Tasty at Home” courses. “This question is not entirely clear to me, since there is no universal knife for the kitchen for all possible occasions. For example, for slicing bread, a fairly long saw knife would be best, and for peeling vegetables, a short one with a smooth blade."
Let's figure out what basic knives every housewife needs
“You need to have at least three main knives,” says Tatyana Novikova. “A large, so-called chef’s knife (or chef’s knife), a utility knife (or kitchen knife) with a 15-20 cm blade, as well as a small peeling and slicing knife with a blade 6-9 cm".
A chef's knife is used in the most different cases. The thin part of the knife is used to cut fillets, chop greens, the middle part is used to chop cabbage and other vegetables, and the thicker part is used to cut meat and chop thin small bones. The flat part of the blade is used to crush garlic. The butt of the knife also comes in handy: you can use it to beat meat if you don’t have a special hammer at hand. Since a chef's knife has a wide blade, it is also used as a spatula for carrying food into a pan.
The utility knife is used for cutting raw and cooked meat, ham, cheese, bread and vegetables. With this knife it is convenient to make an even cut with just one movement.
The smallest of the main knives is used for cleaning.
“Given the peculiarities of our diet, our housewives will need special bread and fillet knives,” continues Tatyana Novikova.
A fillet knife is the narrowest and longest. This kitchen knife is designed for cutting thin and even pieces of meat or fish. Due to the flexibility of the blade, it can be removed thin skin, separate the fish fillet from the bones.
A bread knife has a long, strong, uniform width, wavy or sawtooth blade. It ends approximately at right angles to the cutting edge. This knife “saws” the bread crust and cuts the flesh like a regular knife.
“A bread knife allows you to cut products made from puff and pastry dough without crushing them,” explained Tatyana Novikova. “By the way, it can be used not only for bread. This kitchen knife is also good for cutting pineapple, watermelon, and melon into slices.”
These are the main types of knives. But if desired, the kitchen arsenal can be expanded almost indefinitely.
“When choosing your next knife, you should focus on your culinary preferences and not buy everything,” warns Tatyana Novikova. “There are knives for pizza, for ham, cheese, sausages, tomatoes, etc. For wet products Knives are produced with special blades with grooves. There are also traditional Japanese knives, without which it is difficult to prepare Japanese dishes, such as sashimi and sushi."
How to choose kitchen knives
“Personally, I think that buying knives in sets is not very practical. So, some knives from the set are not used at all, and others are not always convenient due to their size. It is better to buy knives one at a time,” recommends Tatyana Novikova. “Then you need to decide how many "You are willing to pay for a knife. It is clear that a good knife cannot be cheap. Be sure to hold the knife in your hand - the handle should fit your palm. Besides, I prefer knives with a wooden handle."
You should also pay attention to what the knife blade is made of and how the blade is sharpened (see infographic).
“And in order for your knife to serve you longer, remember that knives need to be sharpened correctly, they cannot be washed in the dishwasher. And most importantly, do not store knives with metal objects (cutlery, other kitchen utensils).”
For the convenience of housewives, special knives have been invented for cutting tomatoes or, for example, peeling mushrooms.
Of course, only standard knives you can't get by in the kitchen. Moreover, modern industry offers devices of all shapes and sizes for cleaning, cutting and cutting anything. These knives are highly specialized. That is, as a rule, they can only cut what they are intended for. But they cope with their task brilliantly.
In general, there are a great variety of knives. Literally for everything. There are special knives for cleaning mushrooms. They are short and usually plastic. They have a flat, hard brush on the handle for cleaning caps and plates from everything that has stuck to them in the forest. And someone will probably have special knives for opening oyster shells... You never know - they got them from their grandmother, the countess.
I have a huge number of special knives in my kitchen. Most of them were gifts to me from family and friends. As a result, the purpose of some devices (even after a long search for analogues on the Internet) is still not clear to me. For example, these two knives in the photo. Maybe someone knows why they are needed? The round one is not sharpened, and the knife in the shape of a fairy hatchet is very sharp.
But now I don’t know how to cope without others.
For example, an important assistant in our cheese-loving family has become special knife for slicing this product. A cheese knife resembles a spatula. But it has a special slot. With its help, cheese can be cut into thin pieces, and not into terrible pieces, as often happens in not the most best houses. But we almost never use a different type of cheese knife (with holes in the blade). Maybe our cheese is somehow inappropriate?
In our family, an apple knife does not lie idle. By the way, it doesn’t look like a knife at all (see infographic). However, it is equipped with very sharp steel blades. Using such a knife, you can remove the core of the apple in one motion and divide the fruit into eight parts. It is quite possible that those who like to chew a whole apple will find such a device useless. But for us - connoisseurs of freshly squeezed apple juice- this device has become an important assistant. After all, you can’t put a whole apple, and not even peeled, into a juicer!
We also cut bread with a special bread knife. It has a long blade, the width of which is the same throughout. The cutting surface is wavy. Only this knife can accurately “saw” the crust fresh bread. And the pulp is cut as usual. By the way, we use the same knife for cutting cakes.
Or recently I lost a potato peeling knife - small, with a slot along the entire length of the blade - as a result, potatoes peeled with a regular knife irritated me terribly. The peel was cut too thick, and the potatoes themselves came out somewhat uneven. And the whole cleaning process took a lot of time.
There are a few other knives that we use (since they were given as gifts anyway), but indispensable assistants they didn't. These are a pizza cutter (a toothed wheel attached to the handle), a knife for coring apples (without cutting into slices) and kitchen scissors. A paring knife also belongs to this category - one in which the blade is placed between two holders and has a hole. The technology for cleaning with such a knife is somewhat different from the traditional one. I usually use it to process jacket potatoes, carrots, and beets.
I also have an electric slicer. Its purpose is the same as that of ordinary knives - to cut food evenly and thinly. But more on that next time.
Do you need a ceramic knife in the kitchen?
Which knife should you prefer - a glamorous ceramic one or a familiar metal one?
In 1984, a real revolution in the field of knife production took place in Japan. A similar thing happened five thousand years ago, when our ancestors switched from bone and obsidian blades to metal ones.
However, ceramic knives have not been able to displace the usual cutting tools from the kitchen. And still many housewives cannot understand why a ceramic knife is needed and what its advantages are.
"VB" asked chef Marina Gasparyan to compare a ceramic knife with an ordinary kitchen knife.
I would like to note right away that this knife has a very comfortable, so-called ergonomic handle,” said Marina. - For professional chefs and housewives who spend a lot of time in the kitchen, this is very important. A ceramic knife is convenient for cutting soft vegetables, such as tomatoes, beets, and cucumbers. But it may not pierce the skin of a watermelon or pumpkin - it will break. In addition, it is inconvenient for them to cut such products, because the blade length of such knives is no more than 16-17 centimeters. You cannot cut fish or chicken with it - because of the bones, on which the knife can break. It is not suitable for frozen meat either.
Marina also emphasized that a ceramic knife remains sharp longer than a metal one, but special equipment is required to sharpen it.
I also have a ceramic knife in my kitchen. I received it as a gift from a relative who traveled to Japan. I liked the gift first of all appearance- shiny blade and green handle. The knife itself is inserted into an equally green sheath-stand. Very beautiful!
I've had this knife for over a year now. It must be said that so far he is doing his job well. However, it should be noted that I use it exclusively to cut vegetables and sushi (the “sausage” itself - rice with filling, wrapped in nori or “paper”).
And one more thing. This knife is really very sharp. So in the beginning, while working with him, I cut myself quite noticeably a couple of times (which doesn’t usually happen to me).
So, to summarize, we can say the following. If you are used to working with a pair of utility knives, then you definitely shouldn’t spend money on a ceramic knife. If you like to have a separate cutting tool for each category of food, then a ceramic knife for cutting vegetables fits better others.
However, it should be remembered that production ceramic knives expensive and labor-intensive, so such a knife cannot be cheap.
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A sharp knife flashes like a silver fish in the chef’s hands. Greens in small scatterings, meat in juicy layers, bread generously in slices. Nice knife in a confident hand, it changes the very process of cooking. And sometimes it fixes everything. When everything doesn’t go well, it burns and boils over, it cuts crookedly or crumbles inappropriately - just change the knife, and a sharp blade will quickly restore order.
According to statistics, eight out of ten knives in our kitchens do not meet basic quality standards for these products. You ask what they should be quality knives?
Every chef is familiar with the magic of a sharp knife - cutting performance.
A set of knives in the kitchen is practically a portrait of the housewife, only made of steel with a sharp sharpening. A sophisticated cook collects a collection for all imaginable tasks, a practical woman will choose 3-4 knives and will be satisfied. But these must be correct knives.
How to choose the right kitchen knife
Undoubtedly, you can cope in the kitchen even with one knife, as long as it is sharp. There are a lot universal knives- longer and shorter, wider and narrower, made of steel or ceramics. With this knife you can cut raw fish for sashimi, baked veal, and vegetables for salad.
But a utility knife is not the only one possible choice. If you always use one knife, some operations will simply be difficult to perform. And the knife will have to be sharpened more often than usual. That's why modern housewife keeps a set of knives in the kitchen that wouldn’t put a Michelin-starred restaurant to shame.
Let us select our own collection.
Chef's knife
Chef's knife- a serious but peaceful weapon. Wide, of medium length (usually about 20 centimeters), with a protruding rear edge of the blade. The shape of the blade is convenient for shredding. You can apply a lot of force and even chop. The butt can be used for beating meat - its thickness can reach 1-2 millimeters. The protrusion of the back of the blade protects the hand from hitting the cutting board or table.
Chefs often use these knives as their main tool, doing most of the work with them. The wide blade is very convenient for collecting freshly chopped products and immediately pouring them into the frying pan. You can crush a clove of garlic or press a lemon onto cutting board squeezing out the juice. This knife is often used to cut in a special manner - with the tip resting on the board, vegetables are cut with small short movements, moving the knife up and down like a guillotine.
U European knife The chef has a Japanese brother - santoku. It is similar in form and purpose, but still a little different. Santoku has a straighter blade. Which one to choose - European or Japanese? Decide for yourself, we like both.
But we took the knife again universal purpose. I would like to choose something professional, under different types products.
First, let's collect meat knives.
Meat knives
Let's start with hatchet. This is for bones that can't be easily dealt with and chopping large pieces of meat. Wide hatchets are found in both European and Oriental cuisine.
Further - boning knife. The boning knife must be chosen carefully - both the blade and the shape of the handle are important. It deals only with raw meat, the blade must resist corrosion well, and the handle must not slip in the hand.
Do you have in your collection fillet knife? No? How do you fillet fish and meat? A thin, flexible and sharp knife is a must-have in the kitchen. In addition to meat and fish, you can use it to cut vegetables and other products, but such a knife is ideal for cutting raw meat and fish.
(!) According to sanitation rules, knives and cutting boards for raw and cooked food should be separated. Therefore, you should only take out your boning and fillet knives when you start cooking. If you like how the knife “behaves” when cutting other products, choose another one of the same kind. Or wash your knives very carefully when changing products.
Steak knife- a perfect work of art. This knife is used for cooked meat. Knives with a smooth blade are used to cut medium-rare steaks; a serrated blade is intended for medium- to deep-rare steaks. What kind of steaks do you prefer? If your family loves different steaks, you can choose a knife with a combined sharpening - a smooth blade closer to the handle is replaced by sharp teeth.
You can also add to the collection slicer- a knife for thin slicing of cooked meat and other products. The slicer is used to cut sushi and sashimi components, as well as the finest slices for sandwiches. The slicer should be long, it is designed for cutting in one pass. Pay attention to the bolster - a protrusion on the blade near the handle. It protects your hand from slipping. Do you need to cut smoked meats, sausages, or cooked meats? Get out the slicer.
But enough about the meat. Let's look at knives for other products.
Bread knife
Do you remember what it's like to cut a loaf of bread with a crispy crust? When does it crumble or crumple under the blade of an ordinary knife? But no - you haven’t thought about it for a long time, you have bread knife. It looks like a saw, the teeth of which easily cope with a dense crust and do not crush the bread when cutting. You need to use it in the same way as a saw - do not press, but smoothly move along the cutting line so that the teeth catch on the surface.
Cheese knife
Another difficult “client” is cheese. It just falls in love with the blade, sticks to it and interferes with cutting thin slices. Form cheese knife was invented a long time ago - the holes in the blade prevent the cheese from sticking, and the sharp teeth can be used to distribute slices of cheese. The cutting edge can be either smooth or serrated. If you don't have a cheese knife, use a narrow knife - the same as a slicer, or a knife with air "pockets" - sometimes notches are made in the blade of a utility knife that prevent sticking.
Paring knife
Not enough to complete the set vegetable knife. The little hardworking helper will cut, peel, and clean out the eyes from the potatoes. It can be either steel or ceramic. To peel vegetables, it is better to use a special vegetable peeler - it removes the peel thinner than any knife. A utility knife or shewa knife is suitable for processing large vegetables.
Ceramic knives: What if not steel?
How about ceramic knives? Modern ceramics are present in the kitchen not only in the form of plates and cups. A ceramic knife competes with the sharpest steel, and often wins.
Cutting with such knives is a pleasure. The main thing to remember is choosing a ceramic knife- that it is still ceramics. Inflexibility and fragility - but at the same time razor sharp and long work without sharpening. Housewives who are accustomed to a ceramic knife find it difficult to “retrain” to use regular steel. And you get used to protecting the knife from hitting a hard surface very quickly.
Recently, ceramic-titanium knives have begun to appear in kitchens. They are stronger than ceramic knives and just as incredibly sharp.
Japanese knives: Let's add a little Asia to the kitchen
If you want to decorate your kitchen with Japanese exoticism, you can place ikebana on the windowsills, hang a scroll with hieroglyphs on the wall and go out to guests in a kimono. But all this will be unconvincing - until you replace the forks with chopsticks, the chef's knife with a deba knife with a wide blade, and the slicer with a yanagiba. Nakiri is suitable for vegetables and salad.
Japanese craftsmen are excellent at working with metal. It is enough to say “katana” - and you imagine the elusive swing of a blade cutting a bamboo trunk. However, Japanese kitchen “weapons” are no less formidable and impressive.
Modern Japanese craftsmen make both European and traditional oriental knives. Multilayer Damascus steel, zirconium ceramics, ceramic titanium, various designs of blades and handles - the choice is even too wide.
Well, have you already chosen your knife?
Let's be honest - we were inspired Samura knives. Ideal geometry, finely tapered blade, fantastic cutting performance - this is what manufacturers say about their knives.
If you choose Samura knives, the choice is both simplified and complicated. Simplified - because you don't have to compare good and best, all knives are made to high standards, bringing together Japanese quality and European reliability. It gets more complicated - because you still have to choose, and Samura’s collections are so different, and each is good in its own way.
Products Samura- for those who value a knife in a knife, not status. It is intended for those who are not indifferent to the impression that remains after using the tool.
Samura knives are designed for living and cooking with pleasure.