Good Knives Are An Essential Kitchen Utensil
By ama | January 19, 2009
There are all sorts of kitchen utensils available. Just look in any kitchen store or in the aisles of kitchenware at other retail stores and you’ll see an amazing array of items used for cooking. Some kitchen utensils aren't used very often because they are so task specific. However, there are other utensils that are more versatile, and needed and used daily.
Knives Are A Big Necessity In the Kitchen
If you do much cooking at all, you’ll use not one, but several kinds of knives. Each of these kitchen utensils has a specific function, like chopping, slicing, or filleting food.
However, all knives have pretty much the same parts.
The Main Part Of The Knife - The Blade
The blade is pretty self-explanatory, being the metal part of the knife used for cutting, from the handle to the tip. It’s the most important part of the knife, and the quality of the blade determines how well the knife cuts. Good quality blades make it much easy to do food preparation for cooking.
A Better Bolster
The bolster is the small part between the blade and the handle, connecting the two together. Obvously, this connection is important so the knive stays all together.
A bolster that doesn't cover the entire width of the blade is actually better. That might seem sturdier, but it gets in the way of sharpening the blade. It's preferable that the bolster doesn't reach clear to the bottom edge of the blade for that reason.
The Whole Tang
The tang is an extension of the blade. This extension provides a way to attach the handle since it runs into and through the middle of the handle. It also helps give the knife good balance. It also strengthens the knife and makes it more durable.
This extension of the blade can be of varying lengths. Sometimes the tang only runs partway into the handle, other times it runs the entire length. The higher quality knives have a tang that runs the full length of the handle, making it strong and well-balanced.
Getting A Handle
You need a way to safely hold a knife, and that’s the handle. The handle wraps around the tang and holds it secure. A handle can be composed of a variety of plastics, or made of metal or wood.
An easily held knife handle is almost as important as a sturdy knife handle. Since you'll be using a knife a lot in the kitchen, it's best if it fits your hand well.
Checking the different parts of the knife for quality gives you an idea what to look for when buying a good knife. When it's time to purchase a knife, however, you'll discover there's a great many types available. Some of these include:
· Boning Knife
· Butter Knife
· Cheese Knife
· Chef’s Knife
· Cleaver
· Deli Knife
· Filet Knife
· Frozen Food Knife
· Mincing Knife
· Paring Knife
· Sandwich Knife
· Serrated Knife
· Slicing-Carving Knife
· Steak
· Utility
There are also specialty knives for chestnuts, clams, grapefruits, deveining, lettuce and oysters, plus specialty knives for different types of cuisines such as Japanese and Asian.
With so many different types of knives out there, it's fortunate you don't need to buy one of each.
The Bare Essentials of Knives For The Kitchen
While every knife has a use, most people don’t need so many of the more specialized knives. Each and every kitchen should have some basic types of knives in the kitchen. These kinds of knives are the more versatile sorts that can do a number of different types of food preparation.
The Paring Knife
If you don’t have any other knife, you need a paring knife. This is a small knife with a straight, sharp blade. Paring knives run from about three to five inches long with a thin blade that tapers to a point at the tip.
A paring knife is easy to handle and easy to use. This knife is mostly used for paring foods, as the name indicates. It’s also good for cutting up small items, coring apples and such, and mincing garlic and other foods. No kitchen is complete without at least one good paring knife.
A Knife For A Chef
The Chef’s or Cook’s knife is another versatile knife. Several sizes of chef's knives are available, from about 6 inches long to 12 inches long. The smaller sized chef knives are called mini chef’s knives. These are the best chef knives for people with smaller hands. The more traditional chef knife, being of larger size, works better for people with regular to large sized hands. That allows the longer knife to balance well in their hands.
The chef knife picks up where the paring knife leaves off, and can cut bigger vegetables, fruits and meats. For chopping, mincing and slicing foods, the chef's knife works great. The bigger size makes it better suited for the heavy duty work, and making thicker slices than a paring knife.
The Serrated Knife
Instead of a straight edge like the paring and chef knives have, the serrated knife has notches in the blade. It can be anywhere from 5 to 10 inches long. For foods that are soft inside, but hard on the outside, the serrated blade of this knife is the best one to use. A loaf of homemade bread is a great example. Slicing tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables is also a good use of the serrated knife.
Put A Cleaver To Good Use
You could make do with a paring knife, chef’s knife and serrated knife, but there’s one other blade that is highly useful in the kitchen. This knife had a very wide blade which is usually about 6 inches in length.
Just like any other kitchen knife, a cleaver can chop and shred foods. However, it really excels at pounding and crushing foods. Additionally, this is a good knife for cutting through hard materials like bones in chickens.
Not only can a cleaver pulverize meat, but the flat of the blade can be used to crush garlic and other herbs. Most cleavers come with a hole near the end of the blade so it can be hung up somewhere out of the way. This takes care of the problem of the cleaver taking up so much room in one of your kitchen drawers.
Choose Good Quality Knives For The Kitchen
Whatever knives you chose, get the best quality you can. It will make your food preparation easier to buy good quality kitchen knives.
The more you cook, the more you will appreciate using good quality knives, and may wish to expand your selection to include more types. The chef's knife, paring knife, and serrated knife are a good basic set of knives, with the addition of the cleaver.
Every kitchen can use a few good knives.
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