Low Price Cooking

There is a bewildering array of kitchen utensils. 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. It you can only use a kitchen utensil for one specific task, sometimes it doesn’t get used very often. However, there are other utensils that are more versatile, and needed and used daily.

Knives Are The Workhorse Of 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 are constructed with 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. It’s essential the bolster holds the handle and blade securely together so the knife doesn’t fall apart.

It’s advantageous, however, to have a bolster that does NOT go the full width of the blade. That might seem sturdier, but it gets in the way of sharpening the blade. That’s why it’s better if the bolster doesn’t quite reach the bottom edge of the blade.

The Whole Tang

The tang is an extension of the blade. It runs through the middle of the handle and not only provides a way to attach the handle, but it helps give the knife a good balance. The tang also strengthens the knife, thus making it more durable.

The tang is of different lengths in different knives. Sometimes it only goes partway into the handle. A knife of good quality will 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. Wrapping around the tang, the handle keeps it securely in place. A handle can be made of many different materials, including wood, metal, or various types of plastic.

Having a sturdy knife handle is important, but it’s also important that the handle be easy to hold. Since you use a knife a good bit in the kitchen, it’s much better if it’s a good fit to your hand.

Types of Kitchen Knives

Checking the different parts of the knife for quality gives you an idea what to look for when buying a good knife. When it comes time to buy a knife, however, you’ll find there’s a huge variety 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.

Thank goodness you don’t need to buy every kind of knife available.

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. There are a few types of knives, however, that should be found in every kitchen. Knives that can handle more than one task, and are able to do many types of food preparation are a must.

The Paring Knife

If you don’t have any other knife, you need a paring knife. With a sharp, straight edge, the paring knife is one of the smaller kitchen knives. Paring knives run from about three to five inches long with a thin blade that tapers to a point at the tip.

A great kitchen utensil, the paring knife is easy to handle and easy to use. The paring knife is so names since its main use if for paring foods. It’s also good for cutting up small items, coring apples and such, and mincing garlic and other foods. A kitchen isn’t complete without at least one good paring knife.

A Knife For A Chef

The Chef’s or Cook’s knife is another versatile knife. Running from about 6 inches to 12 inches long, there are several different sizes of chef’s knives. The smaller sized chef knives are called mini chef’s knives. This type of chef’s knife works well for people with smaller hands. People with regular to large sized hands should use a regular sized chef’s knife, as it will balance well in their hand.

The chef knife picks up where the paring knife leaves off, and can cut bigger vegetables, fruits and meats. This knife does a good job of mincing foods, slicing foods, and chopping foods. 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 hard on the outside, while being soft on the inside, it’s the best knife to use. A loaf of homemade bread is a perfect example. The serrated blade is also good for slicing tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables.

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.

A cleaver works well for pounding and crushing foods. Of course, it can also be used to chop and shred foods like other knives. Another good use for the cleaver is cutting through hard materials such as chicken bones.

Not only can a cleaver pulverize meat, but the flat of the blade can be used to crush garlic and other herbs. A cleaver usually comes with a hole near the end of the blade so it can be hung up somewhere out of the way. This helps keep the blade sharp, and prevents the problem of the cleaver taking up so much space in a kitchen drawer.

Choose Good Quality Knives For The Kitchen

Whatever knives you chose, get the best quality you can. It will make your time in the kitchen go faster to have good knives, since that will make food preparation easier.

The more you cook, the more you will appreciate using good quality knives, and may wish to expand your selection to include more types. Together, the chef’s knife, paring knife, serrated knife and cleaver make a good basic set of knives.

Every kitchen can use a few good knives.