Blog.EmealsForYou

Staying on the Cutting Edge – Chosing the Right Knives

July 31, 2008

We need to talk.  Many of you have one knife you use for everything, you know who you are.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing favorites with your knives but you should have a few that you can use for different  purposes.  I am not advocating that you go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a knife set at your local cooking shop; only that you get a good chef’s knife for slicing meat, a serrated one for bread and then a small one for cutting veggies .  You can pick these up at a TJMax, or discount store for a few dollars each.  The main difference between really good knives and less expensive knives is the quality of the blade.  This translates into how long the blade will hold its edge.  Keep your knife sharp at all times and you probably won’t know that you paid $8 for it.  Even the best knives need to be sharpened on a regular basis.  So pick up some sort of knife sharpener while you are at it.

A sharp knife should glide through whatever you are cutting.  If you are having to increase the pressure you are putting on the knife it probably is time to sharpen it.  You don’t have to go crazy buying the top of the line sharpener either.  Sharpening a knife is simply the process of dragging the blade at a small angle across an abrasive surface; about 17 degrees.  You can buy sharpeners that help you hold the knife at the proper angle or you can do this simply by paying attention to what you are doing.  Three to five times on each side of the knife is enough to get a good edge on the blade.  Okay, what about that long, round thing you see the chefs use?  This is a steel and it is used on a regular, daily, basis to re-align the edge of the blade,; you can buy one of these but you will find that you probably will go right to the knife sharpener and the steel will sit in the drawer.

Did you know that how tender a piece of meat is depends on how it is cut?  First of all the butcher cuts the meat so that it will be as tender a possible, witness the new cuts that are appearing on the market: skirt steaks and flatiron steaks.  By cutting these in a particular way the butcher adds to the value of the meat by making it more tender.  When you slice meat always cut cross-grain; this means when you look at the meat you will see lines going in one direction.  You want to cut across these lines to keep the meat tender.  Cutting in the same direction as the grain will result in stringy, tough meat.

So, if you are still using a steak knife for all your cutting needs you probably should go out and spring for a few other knives.  You will be amazed at how easy it will be to cut things and wonder why it took you so long to realize this.

Entry Filed under: Tips.Techniques and Ideas. Tags: cross-grain, knife skills, knives.