3T-Tuesday #1 Kitchen Cutlery

Welcome to our first edition of 3T-Tuesday!  The 3T’s stand for Tips, Tools, and Techniques.  Today’s article is going to be about various types of kitchen knives and what I believe a cook actually needs in the kitchen. 

I’ll actually be breaking this into a two part article.  Today’s will be about the types of knives and my opinions on them.  Next week’s article will be about how to purchase the knives at a good price and what quality of knife should be purchased!

No more talk, let’s get started!

Paring and Serrated Knives – These knives are not used as frequently as some of the ones we are going to cover later but they do come in very handy.  The paring knife is good for smaller hand work and the serrated blade is actually best used for cutting tomatoes.  You should ONLY have two serrated blades in your collection.  There is the one about 6 inches long (see photo) and then there is also the bread knife.  Serrated knives are NOT intended for other types of kitchen work other than cutting grapefruit, bread or tomatoes.

Kitchen Shears – A good pair of these is absolutely vital in the kitchen.  Unfortunately, as with most utensils in the kitchen, the good ones are expensive.  They can be used for everything from disassembling a chicken to cutting vegetables.

Carving and Slicing – These blades are the second most used ones in my kitchen.  I use these primarily for slicing meats like London Broil, roasts (pork or beef) or roast fowl.  Every so often if I have something wide I need to slice I will use these knives when I would normally use my chef’s knife.

Sharpening Steel – A sharpening steel is one of the most important tools for taking care of your blades.  Prior to using you knives you should ALWAYS run the blade down the steel three times on each side.  I will soon be doing and article on how to sharpen you blades but for the better knives you must keep them sharp.

Chef’s Knives – Perhaps the most versatile knife you will ever own.  This is the knife to use for dicing, slicing, and just about anything else.  The top knife is mine and the bottom one in the photo belongs to my wife.  The majority of work that is done in cooking is the prep work.  You will spend more time dicing vegetables and fresh spices in preparation for assembly the final dish that you need a knife you like.

So these are the components that make up a good collection of knives and their uses.  I highly recommend that the blades you end up owning are used for their specific tasks.  Nothing will ruin a knife quicker than misuse which includes not sharpening them.

The last thing I’ll say without spoiling the next part of this article I will tell you that there are three pieces up there you should really spend good money on.  The Chef’s Knife, Slicing Blade, and Sharpening Steel should be of a definite higher quality than the other knives.  These three items will be used more than anything else in your cutlery gallery.

Be sure to check back in Thursday night for our weekly recipe!  Just as a sneak peek it will be another Lazy Sunday recipe!

Keep Cooking,

Chef Ben