Learning to Cook: Cutlery 101

Cooking is one of, if not THE most important skills every human being should acquire. Basic culinary skills will ensure you and your loved ones are well nourished. The more advanced student will be not only well nourished, but happy. In this post, I will outline some of the basic skills every aspiring home chef should master.

To get started, you should have the three C’s:
Cutlery
Cutting Board
Cookware

In this posting, I will introduce you to cutlery.

Cutlery comes first. Without a good set of knives (or at least one good chef’s knife), you will be damned to an eternity of unsatisfying microwave meals. Knives come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors and materials. After you know the basics of what a good knife consists of, the selection becomes an exercise of personal taste. A properly maintained knife, of a high quality, will last you a life time. Think of your knives as an investment. Buy the best knives you can, even if you budget only allows you to purchase one at a time – it will be worth it.

There are two major styles of knives; German and Japanese.

German blades are most notably manufactured by Wustof and Henckels. Compared to their Japanese counterparts, German knives are heavier, have a wider edge, are typically more durable and as a result easier to maintain. German knives are often employed for more heavy duty tasks.

Japanese knives are lighter, sharper,  and more fanciful than German knives, though require more effort to maintain. While Japanese knives are much sharper, though this sharpness comes at a cost. You would not attempt to cut through bone with a Japanese knife as this will chip the blade. One of the more mainstream Japanese knife manufacturers is Shun. I own a set of shun knives and shaved my face with them right out of the box (they’ve been washed many times since then). They are scary sharp. While expensive, these knives are well worth the investment.

When Selecting a knife, it is important to physically hold the knife. The size of your hand as well as the grip you employ will greatly influence the level of comfort obtained with various knives. The knife should fit comfortably in your hand and feel balanced throughout a range of motions. You must also examine the appearance of the knife. Japanese knives are often made using Damascus steel. Damascus steel is made by folding multiple layers of metal over each other to create a woodgrain effect appearance. Below is a photo of one of the more beautiful damascus patterns. Damascus knives are often more expensive than others and require more attention and upkeep to maintain the look.

For the average beginner chef, I would recommend an 8 inch German made Chefs knife. You can often find a WustofPro Chef’s knife on sale for under $75. If you are more delicate with your utensils, a Shun Classic 8 inch Chef’s knife can be had for around $120. Top-of-the-line Japanese knives can run upwards of $1,000 incase you were thinking $100 for a knife is rediculous. Also be sure to purchase a quality honing steel. This will keep you knife’s edge more sharp in between sharpenings. I also recommend to send your knives away to be professionally sharpened about once per year, depending on use. And remember, to never put your knife through the dishwasher – rinse with soap and water after each use and hand dry.

In order of importance, these are the knives I would get first.

Chef’s Knife – the most utilized knife in your arsenal. Used for chopping, dicing, mincing and slicing.

Paring Knife – peeling, coring, preparing. Helps add those finishing touches to food, or used to handle smaller items (cleaning mushrooms for example)

Bread Knife/Slicer – used for cutting bread, slicing meat, and I like to use mine to prepare bell peppers

Boning Knife – used to prepare and clean larger cuts of meat, blade is slightly more flexible than other types of knives.

Once you have the knives, you need to hone your knife skills. To acquire basic knife skills, one need not look further than YouTube. I learned a majority of my culinary skills from Chef Jean Pierre via his youtube postings. His bubbly personality and French accent make cooking fun. The whole time he reassures you, “how simple” everything is. Remember, cooking is an art – not a science. Compliments of Chef Jean Pierre, here are some instructional videos relevant to basic knife skills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt1LG6Nnsd8&feature=related - selecting a knife

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x21NUBI-qyA&feature=related - basic knife skills

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr1ZQ94E-YA&feature=related - dicing an onion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el2qjW4imj8&feature=related - dicing a bell pepper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qRpPEFPNDo&feature=related - peel and dice a tomato

If you would like additional info on Kitchen Knives, this is also a great site to reference: http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t–1075/types-of-kitchen-knives.asp

Related posts:

1. Learning to Cook: Cookware 101 Now that you have at least a few quality knives, what...
2. Learning to Cook: Cutting Board 101 Placing a cutting board in a category all by itself...

Tags: Cooking

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 1:32 am and is filed under Cooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.