It's Not The Sharp Knives You Should Be
Afraid Of, It's The Dull Ones
I'll be the first to admit that I have
way more knives in my home kitchen than I actually need. In my
restaurants, I had multiples of just three knives: a chef's knife, a
utility knife, and a paring knife. The only “specialty” knife I
kept around was a serrated bread knife because you could use it for
more than just slicing bread. For instance, it's also great for tomatoes.
At home, I've got every knife under the
sun. I have chef knives in 12-, 10-, and 8-inch varieties. I have
three or four (or six) different styles of utility knife and at least
four paring knives. There are two serrated bread knives on my racks
and I also have carving knives, cheese knives, boning knives and
numerous other assorted pieces of cutlery, including a butcher knife
and a Chinese cleaver I picked up somewhere. I have four mezzaluna
knives; two large ones for cutting pizza and two small double- and
single-bladed ones for chopping herbs and such. Oh yeah.....there's
also a mandoline slicer tucked away in a drawer. A visitor looking
over the naked steel hanging on two 18-inch magnetic knife strips
mounted on my kitchen wall once remarked that she was “afraid of
all those sharp knives.”
Thing is, it's not the sharp knives you
should be afraid of, it's the dull ones.
Offering to help a friend cut up
some vegetables, I was directed to the “knife drawer” and
immediately knew I was in trouble. I opened the drawer and found a
jumble of knives all thrown in together. I figured that finding a
sharp one was going to be next to impossible and I was right. The
chef's knife I wound up with was only slightly sharper than a common
table knife. I had to practically stand on it to get it to cut
through a raw potato. The work it took to chop up a carrot was
ridiculous. And dangerous. When you have to exert that much effort
and apply that much force and pressure to get a knife to perform, one
slip can be a trip to the emergency room. My knives pass through the
toughest of vegetables with the same ease as they do through soft
butter and the reason is twofold: first, I buy quality knives and
second, I take meticulous care of them.
Now, when I say “quality,” I don't
necessarily mean expensive. I love to go into the fancy kitchen
stores and drool over the Wusthofs
and the Shuns and the Henckels and the Globals. It's not uncommon to
drop hundreds of dollars on these cutlery Cadillacs. A 3-inch
Henckels paring knife can run you thirty bucks. Nice if you
can do it, but I can't do it. Maybe high-dollar chefs in high-dollar
restaurants wield such impressive and expensive tools, but in most
professional kitchens, you're far more likely to see knives by
Victorinox or Dexter-Russell. You buy them at restaurant supply
stores, where a Victorinox 8-inch chef's knife might cost you $30 or
$40 and a Dexter 3.5-inch paring knife will go for about eight bucks.
The trick is to stay far, far away from
the “bargains” you find at the big box stores. A friend went to
Walmart and came home proudly displaying a brand new twenty-three
piece set of Mainstays (Walmart's store brand) in a “natural”
block. He had shelled out twenty bucks for the whole set. Seriously?
Half the “23-piece” set was knives. The remainder were spatulas
and measuring cups and such. So, allowing that the “natural”
block and the cheap plastic accessories might have been worth four
dollars, he paid about sixteen bucks for twelve knives. That's a
buck-thirty-three per knife. I ask you, what kind of quality do you
really think you're getting?
The point is to buy a good knife and to take good care of it. Knife care can be broken down
into five simple rules:
Rule #1: Proper
storage
Banish the idea of
a “knife drawer” from your thought process. One of the quickest
ways to damage and dull a knife is to store it unprotected in a
drawer full of other knives or utensils. Every time you open and
close that drawer, you're banging the edge of your knife blade
against the blade of another knife or the handle of a spoon or even
the side of the drawer itself. How long do you think the sharp edge
is going to last? A knife is a precision tool. It's not like a hammer
or a screwdriver or a pair of pliers: you can't just throw it in a
box and let it rattle around.
The best way to
store your knives is on a magnetic strip. Inexpensive and simple to
mount, strips offer the maximum protection for your knives by keeping
them separated while still providing easy access. Just be careful in
the way you place and remove your knife from the strip. Don't angle
it or drag it; place it firmly and cleanly and remove it the same way
and you'll never have a problem.
Knife blocks are
okay, but they pose their own set of issues. For one thing, it's hard
to slide a knife into a slot and pull it out cleanly without
occasionally dragging the edge. And there's the issue of sanitation:
you probably don't want to know what's lurking deep in the recesses
of those nice, dark slots. Oh, you can turn the block upside down,
shake out all the obvious crud, get a can of compressed air and
squirt it down in the slots, dip a baby bottle brush in hot soapy
water and work it around in there, then rinse it all out and hope it
dries sometime this year or you've just opened up a whole new
bacteria breeding farm.
If you
absolutely must store
your knives in a drawer, invest in blade guards. These plastic
sheaths come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and styles. Some slide on
and some snap on, but whatever style you choose, they are essential
to keeping your sharp knives safe, protected, and sharp. I have blade
guards for all my knives when I carry them in a knife roll. You can
find them in restaurant supply stores or buy them online.
Rule #2: Hand Wash
and Dry
The
dishwasher is no place for a knife. I don't care if it's technically
“dishwasher safe,” there's no safety for a knife in a dishwasher.
The same conditions exist in a dishwasher as are present in a “knife
drawer,” only worse because in a dishwasher the agitation is
hydro-powered. Knives jostle and jam and rattle against each other
and everything else around them, damaging blades and chipping away at
delicately honed edges. The intense heat of a dishwasher is no good
for them, either, especially not for wood or plastic handles.
Always wash and dry your knives by
hand. I know it's “easier” to just throw them in the dishwasher,
but, c'mon! Wash them with hot soapy water and dry them immediately.
And don't toss them in the sink with a bunch of other stuff. A knife
edge is delicate and doesn't need to be bounced around roughly among
the dishes, pots, and pans. And besides, you don't want to risk your
pinkies in a sink full of soapy water with a sharp knife hiding in
there somewhere, right?
Rule #3: Use The Right Cutting Surface
Wow, that colorful glass cutting board
that Aunt Mavis gave you for Christmas last year sure is pretty,
isn't it? And you know what? That rascal will dull your knives in a
skinny minute. So will anything made out of marble, granite, or hard
plastic. Believe it or not, good ol' wood is still the best material
for a cutting board. “Eeewwww!” you shriek. “Wood is so nasty
and germy!” Actually, no, it's not.
Numerous studies have shown that wood
cutting boards are more sanitary than their plastic counterparts.
Wood is naturally anti-microbial. When you wipe down a wood board
with hot, soapy water, the wood fibers absorb, trap, and hold residual
food-borne bacteria deep inside where they cannot multiply and they
eventually die.
Shiny, modern plastic surfaces, on the
other hand, can only be disinfected when they’re shiny and new. As
soon as you make a few cuts in them, you can't effectively clean them
anymore because they trap the nasties in those hard-to-reach crevices
and don't possess any of wood's natural antimicrobial qualities to kill them. Researchers at the University of California Davis
found they could still recover bacteria from grooves in plastic even
after hand washing it. Sticking it in the dishwasher was no good; the
bacteria didn't croak, they just went swimming and landed on other
surfaces. Even treating plastic boards with chlorine beach yielded
unacceptable levels of residual bacteria hiding out in cuts and
grooves.
Some restaurants rely on hard rubber
cutting boards. Hard rubber boards, like Sani-Tuff®, are big in the
food industry because they are as durable as wooden boards, they
won’t trap bacteria like plastic boards, they are easy on knives,
and, like wood, they can be resurfaced by sanding. But they're ugly,
oversized and heavy for home use, and they're expensive.
Bamboo is all the rage these days. It's
a good natural material, but it's harder than wood so it's also
harder on your knives. Just stick with a good quality hardwood board
and it will stick with you for many, many years.
Rule #4: Employ Proper Technique
What you cut and how you cut it are
very important when it comes to the condition and longevity of your
knives. For example, I don't care how many times you've seen some
showy chef do it on TV, don't try
to open a can with the point of your knife. How does the nickname
“Four Fingers” sound to you? Assuming you don't just snap your
blade, at the very least you'll dull the living hell out of it. It's
possible to open a can with the heel of a decent chef's knife,
but.......just.......don't, okay? Can openers are a lot cheaper and
easier.
Use the right knife
for the job. Don't try to slice potatoes with a paring knife and
don't use a chef's knife to peel an apple.
Learn
how to properly hold your knife. Don't grip it like a hammer or an
offensive weapon. The most efficient grip is called the “pinch
grip” or “blade grip.” Your thumb and forefinger should rest
in front of the bolster directly on either side of the blade. It's a
little tricky at first, but once you master it, it offers much better
control and balance and is the preferred knife grip for more
experienced cooks. Another grip is the “handle grip,” wherein you
grasp the knife by the handle with all your fingers tucked behind the
bolster. This is most comfortable and intuitive for beginners, but it
really lacks control and precision.
For most slicing and dicing purposes,
you should work with what is called “the rolling technique.” You
don't hack up and down with the blade. Instead, keep the tip of the
blade in constant contact with the cutting board and move your knife
in a smooth “rolling” or “rocking” motion, starting at the
tip and rolling to the heel; smoothly cutting down and through
whatever you're cutting. There are other basic techniques, but I'm
not going to do “Cutting 101” here: look them up online or take a
class somewhere. Bottom line: how and what you cut matters in terms
of torque, pressure, and contact. Bad habits and bad technique can
ruin a knife.
Rule #5: Maintain A Sharp Edge
If you have to ask why this is
important, reread the fourth paragraph about cutting vegetables and
remember the nickname “Four Fingers.”
There are a lot of options available
for keeping your knives sharp and safe. The best one is to have them
professionally sharpened on a regular basis. But you're not going to
do that, are you? So at least look for a good quality DIY sharpener.
Seasoned pros use a special sharpening
stone to maintain a razor edge. And clumsy amateurs use that same
stone to completely ruin a knife. You've got to know all about the
metallurgical compound of your knife and angles and pressure and
other arcane stuff. Just go buy a decent sharpener. Either a manual
“pull-through” variety or an electric one. Chef's Choice makes
good ones of each type.
Don't fall for gimmicks. I looked up
reviews for one of those “As Seen On TV” things: “Trash.”
“This piece of crap is a joke.” “It sucks.” “Pure junk.”
“Absolute garbage.” “Rip off.” A good rule of thumb is to
not trust anything where they'll “double your offer if you order
now.” Just sayin'.
Finally, don't try to use an often
misnamed “sharpening steel” to sharpen your dull knives. Those
are actually honing steels, intended to maintain sharpness longer by
realigning the knife's edge. If you've got a sharp knife, a steel,
when used regularly – like every time you use your knife – will
help keep it sharp. But you can stroke a dull knife with one of those
things all day and you'll still have a dull knife.
Be good to your knives and they'll be
good to you. As I said before, a knife is a precision tool; probably
the most important one in any cook's kitchen. When properly
maintained, an expensive high-quality knife will likely last a
lifetime. A less expensive but still good quality knife will serve
you well for many years. A cheap knife will end up being an expensive
knife after you replace it ten times or after it sends you to a
hospital. Remembering that you get what you pay for, spend the money
and then take proper care of your knives. The dividends will pay off
in a long and useful life for your investment.
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