Knife Skills: The Kitchn lesson one

Comments

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    An excellent skill set to develop. I think my mom has one dull knife in her kitchen. I'm no knife expert, but I recall the first time I got to cook with a good quality, sharp knife. It's a whole different ball game!

  • MissPatricia
    MissPatricia Posts: 318 ✭✭✭

    My mother complained about my dull knives. Now I appreciate sharp knives. They make cutting vegetables, etc. much easier.

  • Ruth Ann Reyes
    Ruth Ann Reyes Posts: 577 admin

    Ahhh, a good quality sharp knife! Nothing like it!

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin
    edited May 2020

    I love sharp knives. Even safer to have sharp knives. Let my children help me cutting and with the sharp knives we never had an accident as they slice without much pressure.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    The other key point, that few people pay enough attention to, is to make sure the knife fits your hand. I have really big hands... I can easily palm a basketball. So, most knives are not suited to me. An unbalanced knife tires the hand, wrist and arm, and not only makes cooking onerous, but can often lead to injury.

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    Knife sharpening is a whole other subject. About 25 years ago I bought a diamond stone at an agricultural field day and I still have it. Keeps my knives sharp, lives in the draw so it's easily accessible, I love it. I've also had the same block a knives for years. Seemed expensive at the time but not really, still like the day I bought them. Also storing them in the timber block upsidedown, keeps the sharp edge longer!

    Chopping borads are also important, I use wooden boards, better on the knife edge and natural timber has a degree of antibacterial qualities and occasionally place them in the sun.

    Great subject @silvertipgrizz thankyou.


  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    I love my knives! Not sure how people manage without sharp knives in their lives. My daughters were excellent with knives at a very early age. I let my great niece start using my knives (under supervision, of course) when she was about 4, which horrified the rest of her family but to this day (she is now 18), she has never cut herself.

    @judsoncarroll4 Good point about having a knife that fits you hand. An improperly balanced or poorly fitted knife can easily lead to accidents. We are lucky enough to have a knife maker in our community so many of us have knives made specifically for our hands and differing purposes.

    @jodienancarrow I prefer wooden cutting boards as well. I have a knife block just for my collection of paring knives as well as one for the bigger knives. (I may have a bit of an addiction problem with knives)

  • VickiP
    VickiP Posts: 586 ✭✭✭✭

    I find that a good carbon steel blade is the best for keeping sharp. We have an older set of "Old Hickory" knives that were made in America. Very good quality. The newer ones are made elsewhere and are not as high quality. We also have a couple that were hand made locally that we enjoy using. If you cook much or butcher you absolutely need knives you can depend on.

  • seeker.nancy - Central Texas
    seeker.nancy - Central Texas Posts: 795 ✭✭✭✭

    We had a lot of knives growing up, and my dad was an expert at sharpening them. Mom would tell Dad it was time to sharpen the knives (or he did it before butchering/hunting etc.) He would sit at the kitchen table with a whetstone and sharpened them until they could cut the hair on his arm. His arm looked funny for a while with all those hairless patches lol. I have his whetstone and a lot of the knives. Some of the knives have been sharpened so many times that they are really worn down. I try to get the knives as sharp as he did but don't usually succeed; I think I'm too impatient and just quit too soon. I'm working on that. I love bamboo cutting boards for a lot of things but like the weight of some of the old cutting boards. Depends on what I am doing.

  • Melinda
    Melinda Posts: 123 ✭✭✭

    Interesting. Thank you for posting.