What is the most essential tool in the kitchen? Peeling vegetables, chopping meat, disassembling fish, making sandwiches, making salad – none of these and many other actions are very difficult to accomplish without a good knife like Tops Bob 154cm.
A correctly chosen knife becomes an extension of the chef’s hand. There is no universal – each of the chefs has his ideal assistant in the kitchen. How do you know what the best kitchen knife should be and narrow your search to a limited number of options?
Criteria for choosing a good knife: looking for quality kitchen tools
The first thing to understand before buying knives is that few chefs can get by with one universal device, because different types of knives are required to process different products. Decide which ones you really need and which ones you can do without. They are for peeling and cutting vegetables, for fish, for meat, for cheese, for fruits, etc. Have you made a list of the ones you need? You can start choosing.
Quality matters most
Most quality knives are made from steel. Softer metals dull faster and require sharpening more often. The harder ones are heavier, which is not convenient for everyone, but they keep the sharpening perfectly. Manufacturers are constantly looking for the perfect balance: a good specimen will have optimal weight, sufficient plasticity, and will retain its sharpness for a long time.
Hardness is denoted by the abbreviation HRC – you can find out this indicator by studying the information in the brand’s product catalog. For home use (not in a professional kitchen), a knife with a hardness of 55-60 HRC is ideal.
In addition to steel, ceramic knives are widely represented on the market. Among the advantages of such tools are lightness, good sharpening. The disadvantage is fragility, which does not allow chopping food with a ceramic knife, cutting bones, cartilage. Sharpening such a knife at home can also be challenging.
Conclusion: for home cooking, it is best to buy steel specimens of several types: for meat, for fish, universal. The list can be expanded if desired, but do not forget – a quality knife is not cheap.
A few more important criteria for choosing kitchen knives
How much weight should a knife have? You can often see how the cook “weighs” a knife in his hand, making a conclusion about the quality of the tool by weight. An important rule: the knife that suits you is ideal. Heavy models are convenient for cutting products, light ones are more convenient to maneuver. A universal solution is to buy a heavy knife for cutting vegetables, herbs, meat and a light one for filigree cutting sausages and cheeses.
It is much more important to consider the balance of the knife. Check how well the knife is balanced by placing it on your finger. The point of contact with your finger should be at the junction of the blade and handle. If the knife does not fall, it is well balanced. It is more convenient to work with such a tool, although exclusively balanced knives are not always used in professional kitchens. Remember? Your comfort is the most important thing.
What size should the knife be? The most requested option is 8 inches. The blade of such a tool has a length of 21 cm, it is universal, suitable for performing various culinary actions. To work with large, bulky products, you should take a larger knife – a 10-inch model will do. It is convenient to cut vegetables and fruits with a 6-inch knife.
Kitchen knife in detail
A knife is a construction of several elements. One of them is a pen. It should be comfortable, safe and reliable. Most often, the instrument is taken with wet hands, often the hands are already stained with food, fat, juices. The surface of the handle must not slip – for example, metal smooth handles can only be taken with dry hands. For simple and convenient use at home, choose knives with handles made of plastic, polymer, rubberized elements or metal with corrugations.
Chopping knives differ in their shape – the blade in them exceeds the size of the handle in height. In this way, the knife protects your fingers from hitting the surface of the table or board when chopping.
There are on sale copies with the anatomical shape of the handle – it has grooves for the fingers. Please note that the shape of the palm and fingers is different for all people and it can be inconvenient to use such a tool. Such knives should not be bought without “fitting”.
Pay attention to the part where the blade connects to the handle. It should be made of steel of greater thickness, because the task of this part is to increase the strength of the blade, to make it more stable. Having a notch in this part of the knife will help protect your fingers. Japanese models of knives do not have such a protrusion, but they attract many other advantages.
How to assess the severity? The products of famous brands are sharp as a blade. Want to be sure of the quality of sharpening? Cut the sheet of paper without impacting it. The knife will go through like butter.
The blade can be different in shape and bend. If the line of the blade is curved (arched) from tip to “heel” – it will be convenient to use the tool to cut and shred food, swinging the knife back and forth.
The blades of the bread knives are equipped with large teeth that help cut even the freshest loaf thinly and accurately.
When choosing, pay attention to studying the quality of the product – it is much more important than the big name of the manufacturer or the sky-high price. A good knife will become a real helper in the kitchen and will last for many years.