Recently, I suffered a small bout of insomnia and tried watching some late night TV in the hopes it would put me to sleep. It did eventually, but I was astounded by the amount of kitchen gadgets advertised to make life easier. Most of those gadgets are replacements of some sort for a good kitchen knife and knife skills. Honestly, my chef’s and paring knives are used every single day and because of that they are some of my most prized tools.
When purchasing knives, buy the best quality you can afford. I can’t stress this enough cheap knives don’t last and a good one will last you a lifetime if properly maintained. Take your knives for a test drive before purchasing: feel them, handle them like you would cut something, make sure it feels right too you and has a good balance.
Once you find the knife of your dreams care for it properly. Cut with the knife on a chopping board in order to prevent unnecessary damage or wearing of the blade. Keep the knife clean and don’t allow it too soak in water – simply hand wash and dry after every use. Most importantly, keep those knives sharp (Cooks’ Illustrated has a great tutorial).
Learning how to properly use a knife is an entirely different animal. If you are blessed to live in an area that offers knife skill classes – take one if you’re inexperienced. The class will save you time and frustration in the kitchen. If you don’t live in such an area there are multitude of videos and articleson the web. No matter what, however; you will need to practice, as in all things: practice makes perfect.
Save yourself some time and money: get a good knife or two and some skills to go with that knife. You’ll then be able to ignore all those chopping, dicing, get it done in a second ads on TV.
[…] posted my introduction over at Homemakers Who Work and I’m getting a knife at my usual Sunday spot over at Not Dabbling in Normal. Hope to you everyone there! […]
Kathie ~
I couldn’t agree with you more. I own three knives and have had them for years. Two are from Sweden and the third is from Japan. Very high quality. I, myself, don’t use gadgets. I find chopping things up to be extremely therapeutic.
Shelley
before my parents were married my dad sold cutco knives. when he died last year they came to me. with rare exception (my brother broke the tip off the paring knife trying to dig a nail out of the fence) the knives have held their own for more than 40 years. the chef’s knife is my go-to knife for nearly every occasion and the bread knife is as efficient as the day it came home (so says my mom.) i’ve owned other knives over the years but nothing has lasted nearly as well as this set.
[…] posted my introduction over at Homemakers Who Work and I’m getting a knife at my usual Sunday spot over at Not Dabbling in Normal. Hope to you everyone there! […]