An Edge in the Kitchen: The Ultimate Guide to Kitchen Knives -- How to Buy Them, Keep Them Razor Sharp, and Use Them Like a Pro
Chad Ward
Language: English
Pages: 240
ISBN: 0061188484
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Why are most of us so woefully uninformed about our kitchen knives? We are intimidated by our knives when they are sharp, annoyed by them when they are dull, and quietly ashamed that we don't know how to use them with any competence. For a species that has been using knives for nearly as long as we have been walking upright, that's a serious problem. An Edge in the Kitchen is the solution, an intelligent and delightful debunking of the mysteries of kitchen knives once and for all. If you can stack blocks, you can cut restaurant-quality diced vegetables. If you can fold a paper airplane, you can sharpen your knives better than many professionals.
Veteran cook Chad Ward provides an in-depth guide to the most important tool in the kitchen, including how to choose the best kitchen knives in your price range, practical tutorials on knife skills, a step-by-step section on sharpening, and more——all illustrated with beautiful photographs throughout. Along the way you will discover what a cow sword is, and why you might want one; why chefs are abandoning their heavy knives in droves; and why the Pinch and the Claw, strange as they may sound, are in fact the best way to make precision vegetable cuts with speed and style.
An Edge in the Kitchen is the one and only guide to the most important tool in the kitchen.
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Will be riveted to the tang. A solid bolster is a sign of quality. It’s there to balance the knife and keep your fingers from slipping onto the blade. Each and every one of these pieces of advice is outdated, outmoded, or just dead wrong. Like the “sear meat to seal in the juices” myth that has persisted since a German chemist dreamed it up in the sixteenth century, these knife myths persist in spite of the evidence and in spite of the experience of cooks, knife makers, metallurgists,.
You cut a lot of onions and garlic, your butcher block will trap their odors. Or if you do need to cut meat or poultry on your butcher block, you need a way to clean and sanitize it. There is an old butcher’s trick that works for both situations. Make a thick paste of salt (I use kosher because the larger crystals are easier to work with) and a little water. After wiping the surface as best you can, rub the paste on your butcher block, scrubbing it in thoroughly with your hands. Let the salt.
Ceramic rod—which will also work wonders on European-style knives. That is why I prefer them to grooved steels. TYPES OF STEELS Knife steels and honing rods come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and flavors. There are round steels, oval steels, grooved steels, smooth steels, diamond steels, and ceramic “steels.” If you purchased a set of knives, it probably came with a round, medium-grooved steel. Be careful with this beast. Kitchen knives are reasonably tough and resist chipping fairly well, but.
Slicing peppers, Color Plates 28-29 spatchcocking chicken, Color Plates 34-35 stabilizing cutting board, 105 knives general care for, 137 illustrated parts of, 10 storing, 95-99 Korin knife store, 68 Kramer, Bob, 81-82 Kramer Knives, 81-82 kullens, 55, 138 L Lansky sharpeners, 158, 162, 169, 181, 182, 190 leather strops, 187, Color Plates 46-47 Leek Potato Soup, 117-20 leeks, preparing, Color Plates 24-25 Lee Valley Tools strop, Color Plates 46-47 Lentil Salad, Summer, 115-16.
Suffering. After handle feel come weight and balance. I like knives that are balanced a little forward of the blade-handle joint so they feel like they’re tipping down when you hold them. Other people like a more neutral balance. I find that a blade-heavy knife gives me more leverage when powering through a pumpkin but balances nicely when held in a Pinch grip with my forefinger and thumb just forward of the blade-handle juncture. Folks who like neutrally balanced knives tend to favor bolsters.