How to choose quality knives for the kitchen?

A knife for a modern housewife is her reliable assistant in the kitchen, able to save time and energy, serve faithfully for more than one year. So, such a purchase is made for a long time and becomes a "long-term investment". But how to choose a kitchen knife to meet these requirements?

General points

First you need to decide how many knives will be in a particular kitchen set. And it depends on what dishes are most often prepared in the family. For example, if during cooking large pieces of meat are often cut into bones, solid foods (nuts, avocados, ginger root and the like), then you definitely need an ax knife (cleaver), and if the hostess buys ready-made fish fillets, then she does not need a fillet knife need it.

What are the main types of knives that can be present in the kitchen?

• Universal (with a long blade, about 13 cm). Cope with cutting various products. But for all its multifunctionality, it cannot be the only one in the economy.
• Chef's knife (or just a cook knife). It differs by even longer blade length, up to 20 cm. It is well chopped, diced, chopped. Also allows you to work with different products.
• Vegetable (or a cleaning knife) with a shorter blade (about 8 cm). Designed for peeling vegetables or fruits, trimming small parts of the product, chopping vegetables, fruits.
• Cleaver. It features a wide blade. Cope with solid products, meat of large thickness. A small cleaver is convenient for chopping greens.
• Knife for cutting. Good for slicing thin, neat slices of baked meat, boiled pork, meat rolls, etc.
• Bread (with serrated working edge of the blade). It allows you to accurately cut bread, pies, and other pastries gently, without crumbling and creasing. Sometimes it is used to cut vegetables or fruits with a dense skin and delicate pulp (kiwi, tomatoes).
• Filet knife. Facilitates the cutting of fish - it is convenient for them to separate the fillet.

In addition, every housewife must have an object for sharpening knives: a stone, a machine tool or something else.

Choose materials

To choose a high-quality kitchen knife, you must pay attention to the materials from which its blade and handle are made. The convenience of operation and the service life of the knife depend to a large extent on this.

Lever

Usually consists of two parts fastened to the metal part of the knife. It can be made of various materials, such as:

• wood;
• plastic;
• bone;
• hardened resin;
• metal and others

Keep in mind that soft wood, base plastic or bone is not the best choice for a kitchen knife. They are quite fragile and for a short time can simply crumble (sometimes right in the hands, during cooking, injuring the cook). Metal handles are more durable, but give the product significant weight, which is not convenient for every hostess.

An important moment when choosing the material of the handle - it should have a non-slip surface, but it is easy to wash.

Blade

Usually housewives have a vague idea of ​​the materials that are used for its manufacture. Many people think that the cutting part should be metal or stainless.

In fact, everything is somewhat more complicated. Stainless steel may have different carbon contents. At the same time, high-carbon is better than ordinary stainless steel, provided that the carbon content is adequate for the purpose.Because if this value is too high, the blade will become more fragile and prone to rust (although it can stay sharp for a long time). Too low a carbon content makes the metal flexible and quickly dull (and sharpening a stainless steel is not so simple).

In addition, you should pay attention to the method of steel production. Forged is more durable and durable than stamped, but costs significantly more.

Try to keep such products dry in a ventilated area. Otherwise, even the "stainless steel" quickly becomes covered with rust.

But there is another promising material from which blades are made - ceramics. It holds the sharpening for a long time, while the ceramic blade can be sharpened to the state of a surgical scalpel, and it will not rust due to the absence of metal in its composition. True, ceramic is a very fragile thing, it easily crumbles and even breaks, in particular this applies to cheap products.

We consider in detail

It is clear that the quality of materials is the main, but far from the only requirement, in order to choose good knives for the kitchen. What else is important?

• The metal part of the knife should be solid - from the blade to the handle. Any joints at the start of the handle make the knife less durable. Also fragile are models in which the metal part of the handle is much shorter than its shell, that is, it does not pass to the end of the coating, but is inserted into it. If the handle is "flooded" with a coating entirely, the length of the knife in it cannot be determined at all.
• The blade should not have external defects: scratches, pits, cracks, rust, welds, nicks. Sharpening runs along the entire length of the blade: from the tip to the end.
• The rear edge of the cutting part must end with a special protrusion (emphasis) that prevents slipping of the hand to the blade.
• The handle should not have cracks, gaps, roughnesses that reduce the service life of the knife, make it unhygienic and complicate maintenance. Too thin coating of this area is also not a sign of a quality product.
• Balance, that is, the balance of the weight of the blade and the handle, on which the force exerted when working with the knife depends. In other words, if you need to cut a large volume of products, an unbalanced knife gives a much greater load on the hand, and it quickly gets tired. A properly balanced knife maintains balance if you place it on your finger with the point at which the blade connects to the handle. Attention! This test requires great care, as cheap models are usually unbalanced and will certainly fall.

Beware of acquiring serrated knives that are positioned by sellers as not requiring sharpening, universal for all products, and sold at a "bargain price." This is a publicity stunt. The gear model has a very limited scope, as mentioned above, while dulling quite quickly, and it is impossible to sharpen it. So he is not worth his money in this case.

Subjective factors

Keep in mind that kitchen knives are personal items. That is, in their ergonomics, they must correspond to the sensations of a particular hostess (or owner). There are two main indicators: the convenience of the handle and the correct weight. Based on this, it is important to “touch over” several different knives of the same purpose in order to choose the most convenient in operation.

It should also be borne in mind that knives for soft and delicate products are always lighter than for thick ones. But the weight of both those and others should be comfortable.

Another subjective factor is diversity. That is, you need to buy only those knives that are needed in a particular kitchen. Therefore, it is not always advisable to purchase a ready-made set of knives, although in general such a purchase will be cheaper. If the composition of such a kit meets the specific requirements, you still need to hold each item in your hand separately before you buy the kit.It is for this reason that it is very inconvenient to purchase knives through online stores (unless the hostess already used just such a model, bought in a real store of this company).

And the last one. For many consumers, quality knives are associated exclusively with expensive brands. However, in practice this rule is not always true. Often, we overpay a lot only for the brand, despite the fact that products of the right quality can be purchased from less fashionable and "hyped" manufacturers.

To make the knives last longer, use them only for their intended purpose. Do not cut ropes, bags or products for which they are not intended to be cut. This makes them dull much faster (as well as washing in a dishwasher!). Namely, blunt knives are the most common cause of injuries during cooking, since you have to apply more force to cut, which is why the blade often slides and crashes into the hand with all the force applied.

By the way, the second reason for getting cut wounds during cooking is the use of someone else's knife, not familiar from the sensations. Therefore, the guest’s offer to help with slicing the hostess can be very reckless for him.

Choosing a high-quality knife that meets all the requirements is not so simple: it should be free from defects, made of good, durable materials, convenient to use, not overloaded with your hand, easy to wash, sharpen, not rust and it is advisable to have a reasonable price . But if the purchase is made correctly, spending on it will pay off with comfortable work and a long service life.