Everything You Need to Know About Kitchen Knives: Which Ones to Buy and Their Uses

To cook well you need to be precise, patient, and creative, but above all, you need the right tools: for example, having good quality knives, well sharpened and well preserved is a must. Using the wrong knife or one that is not sharpened well means risking not only affecting the final result but also hurting yourself. This is why it is important to know which knives you should all have in the kitchen, what to use them for, and how to best store them.

The Best Materials: Steel, Ceramic, Porcelain

Knives can be constructed in completely different ways: each knife consists of a blade and handle and both parts can be made with various types of materials. When you buy one or more than one, try to choose the one that seems most appropriate for your needs. Let's start with the blade, which might seem like the most important part: in reality, we will see how important a good handle is to keep a firm grip. Knife blades can be made of different types of materials, the most common of which are:

• Steel. "Simple" steel knives have been used for many years: easy to sharpen, however, they have the disadvantage of being more vulnerable to rust and require a lot of maintenance.
• Stainless steel: it is currently the most used material because it is resistant to corrosion and difficult to damage; stainless steel is composed of iron and carbon but, compared to classic steel, it also contains elements such as chromium and nickel which make it very resistant. There is also another material created from the combination of steel and stainless steel, stainless steel with high carbon concentrations, which gives rise to knives with blades that remain sharp for a long time and do not change color: however, they are more expensive than stainless steel knives.
• Ceramic. Very light and easy to handle, ceramic knives keep their edge well, do not oxidize, and do not oxidize foods, avoiding giving them bad odors. On the other hand, however, they are very fragile and tend to chip easily; furthermore, they are not efficient in very forced hand twists; finally, the sharpening of these knives must be carried out with particular tools. For these reasons ceramic knives have been put aside a bit, except for specific operations;
• Titanium. A super light material, titanium is quite robust and holds its edge well: the downside is that it is a very expensive material and, therefore rarely used for the production of knives.

The handle can also be produced with different types of materials. One of these is wood, perhaps the most common besides plastic: it has the advantage of making the knife very easy to handle and also very pretty but with the disadvantage of deteriorating easily with daily use; they also tend to absorb microorganisms contained in the foods they come into contact with. On the contrary, plastic handles are more resistant, because they do not absorb anything and are easier to clean: in the long run, however, they become increasingly fragile, to the point of breaking. Finally we have knives made of composite materials, such as plastic resin and laminate wood, which seek to maximize the characteristics of the first two materials, or knives entirely made of stainless steel.

Which Knives Should You Buy?

Here is a list of knives you should always have available in your kitchen, as they are considered the basic equipment to cook any type of recipe.

1. Chef's Knife

Let's start with a multipurpose knife, which is used for the preparation of many different dishes: the chef's knife also called a French or carving knife, is actually a derivation of the knives used by German chefs. With a length between 15 and 30 cm, it has a robust, triangular, straight, smooth, broad and curved blade along the length, its sharp tip, and quite large handle. It allows you to do many things in the kitchen: slicing, mincing, chopping, dicing. It is suitable for cutting meat, fish and vegetables, but also for crushing garlic, dried herbs or the shell of shellfish, if used with the flat blade. It was once also used to chop animal bones (hence one of its names), but we do not recommend it unless you are a professional. It is not recommended for peeling thick-skinned vegetables. You can find it mainly in stainless steel and ceramic.

2. Bread Knife or Serrated Blade

A knife with a serrated blade, with serrations inclined in both directions, between 15 and 30 cm long: it is ideal for cutting bread without squishing it. With this knife you can cut all foods with a crust or hard skin such as pumpkin, lemons, cabbage, watermelon, or pineapple, but also tarts, savory pies or cakes with icing. It is not suitable for meat or tender vegetables, because it would ruin their consistency. It is found almost exclusively in stainless steel and requires very little maintenance because it rarely loses its edge.

3. Santoku knife

A Japanese knife has three precise functions: cuts, chops, and minces. The Santoku knife owes its name to these three functions: in Japanese the term means "three virtues". Similar to the chef knife, it is used in Japan for daily recipes: it has a very wide blade and, in some cases, honeycombed to avoid food sticking, and is between 18 and 22 cm long. Compared to the chef knife it has a thinner and wider blade, without a tip, and is a little lighter. The Santoku knife is used to cut, mince and chop fish, vegetables and meat, but also fruit and aromatic herbs.

4. Paring Knife or Tournier Knife

It is a small knife, similar to a chef knife but on a smaller scale: between 6 and 10 cm in length. It has a flat blade, sometimes curved (and for this reason it is called Tournier), which allows it to be used in particular for peeling fruit and vegetables or peeling with great precision. If it has a smooth blade it can also be used to cut mushrooms, onions, garlic, cheese, while if it has a serrated blade it is useful for slicing tomatoes, even the ripest ones. However, it is not suitable for cutting vegetables or hard foods.

5. Meat Knives

There are different types of meat knives: boning, slicing, carving, cleaver. Among the most useful in a home kitchen there is certainly the slicer, with a long and thin blade, suitable for precisely cutting thin slices of meat, such as those of a roast, but also those of cured meats such as hams. Other useful knives are the cleaver and boner, if you like to buy whole meat and then cut it up.

6. Fish knives

A filleter is suitable for filleting and preparing fish. It is between 15 and 28 cm long, which allows it to move easily across the spine and under the scales. Another interesting knife for fish is the shellfish knife, similar to the chef knife, used above all for lobsters, and mollusks but also for poultry.

7. Cheese knives

The cheese knives chapter could be very long, given the great variety of dairy products on the market. The most important are the soft cheese knives, the hard cheese knives and the parmesan cutter. The former has a long, low blade, and is usually equipped with small holes: ideal so that soft cheeses does not stick. Hard cheese knives, on the other hand, usually have a slightly wider and longer blade, but above all very sharp, to allow you to cut even products that have matured for a long time. In some cases, cheese knives, especially those for hard cheeses, have a forked tip for skewering individual pieces. Finally, the parmesan cutter, which can take on different shapes: perhaps the most famous of this type, because it allows you to cut very hard cheeses such as parmesan. Finally, even if it doesn't exactly fall under cheese, it is important to mention the butter knife: small and with a dull blade, also suitable for spreading. A knife to use with butter, but also with very fresh cheeses or ricotta.

8. Crescent moon

Last but not least, the crescent moon. A knife with two handles that allow a quick, rapid, and very effective cut, thanks to the oscillating motion. In some cases, they have two parallel blades which make them even quicker to cut: it is suitable for fine chopping, for cutting aromatic herbs and sautéing ingredients, or for any soft (but not wet) ingredient that needs to be cut very thinly.

How to Best Store Knives

Once you have chosen your equipment, you will have to make sure to make the knives last as long as possible: not only because they are useful tools, but also because they are expensive. Apart from storing them following our advices, also follow a few simple rules:

• Avoid putting them in the dishwasher, in the long run, it can damage the protective coating and make the knife increasingly less sharp;
• if you want them to last as long as possible and you need to sharpen them, better yet take them to a professional. At home, you can still do it with the appropriate stone, or with steel, but in the latter case avoid doing it often;
• if you can, choose to use them on a rubber cutting board, instead of a wooden or plastic one; the rubber has the right density to not damage the blade;
• never leave them wet. Once washed and dried, place them carefully in plastic cases, better yet wooden ones, or, at most, wrap them in a thick cotton cloth.