Knives Cooks Love: How to Buy, Sharpen, and Use Your Most Important Kitchen Tool

"The most important thing in a kitchen is your knife. You need to choose it well, treat it well, and use it well. Knives Cooks Love prepares you for all that and more. By nature, every cook is eager to learn, and this book provides everything you ever wanted to know about knives. Filled with culinary history, techniques, and supporting recipes, this book covers it all." —Ming Tsai, host and executive producer of Simply Ming and chef-owner of Blue Ginger

Cheese Knives

cheese knives It's always a little disturbing when you set out a lovely wedge of, say, Spanish manchego at a party and then watch as it gets hacked into a misshapen mess. Often the culprits are the guests—most people just don't pay attention when they slice chees—but sometimes the problem is the knife. For the cleanest cuts, you've got to match the utensil to the texture of the cheese.

1. spreadable cheese

For gooey cheeses like Taleggio, soft Gorgonzola, ripe Epoisses, and Spanish torta del Casar, you don't need a knife so much as a flat, broad spatula that will smear the cheese onto a cracker. It's worth having a spreading knife or two on hand—they're inexpensive, and their ornamental handles (often kitschy, but there's sure to be one you'll like) will liven up a cheese board. If you don't have a spreader, just use a butter knife.

2. soft cheese

Soft cheeses like fresh chèvre and not-too-ripe Brie won't slice cleanly with a knife; they just get smushy. So the best tool for these moist varieties is a cheese wire—not the type with a roller behind the wire, or the type where the wire is hinged to the cheese board. You need something simple: the kind with a metal rod that's been bent into a U is perfect.

3. semisoft to semifirm cheese

This broad category includes all the different types of Cheddars, along with Havarti, Monterey Jack, Jarlsberg, Gouda, and so many more. These moderately moist cheeses tend to stick to knives. To avoid this, you want to minimize the surface area of the blade; choose a cheese knife with a very thin, narrow blade or a skeleton knife with large holes punched out of the blade (and ideally a straight edge rather than serrated edge). In a pinch, you could use a filleting or boning knife to slice these softer-style cheeses.

4. firm cheese

For drier, denser varieties like manchego, Cantal, or Gruyère, you'll want a larger, heftier knife that gives you extra leverage and control. When you're cutting slices or cubes in the kitchen, a long chef's knife does the job nicely. Set one hand on the tip of the knife to help push it through. If you're putting the cheese out for guests, set out a mini-cleaver-shaped cheese knife, or any knife with a wider, sturdy blade.

5. hard, crumbly cheese

For hard cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano and pecorino, you're often aiming for chunks that you can grate. For that you need a rigid teardrop or flat-edged blade that you can pry into the wedge. If you lack a Parmesan knife, use the thicker heel (not the fragile tip) of a European-style chef's knife.

"I like a clunky heavy European-style knife, like a Wüsthof. I have big hands. It's uncomfortable for me to work with a really narrow blade." —David Waltuck, chef-owner of Chanterelle, New York City

Chef's Knives

Every time you cook, you'll use your chef's knife to chop, slice, dice, and mince nearly any ingredient you come across. It's the ultimate all-purpose knife: wide enough to give you plenty of knuckle clearance when you're working on a cutting board; long enough to cut large items efficiently and small items precisely; and curved enough to let you rock the blade as you chop.

Chef's knives, sometimes called cook's knives, range from 4 to 14 inches in length. For your first one, you can't go wrong with an 8-inch. But don't be afraid to try out a longer 10-inch knife, which can efficiently cut through things like watermelons and big piles of fresh herbs and greens. If you're intimidated by large knives, a 6-inch chef's knife is the perfect size. The adorable 4-inch size is too short to become your go-to knife for everyday chopping, but what it lacks in versatility, it makes up for in sweetness. It's just right for chopping a few capers or cutting a basil chiffonade, and it can stand in for a paring knife on occasion.

Chef's knives fall into two general types: European- and Japanese-style blades.

European-style

European-style blades are thicker and heavier, and they traditionally have a big bolster, which is the portion of metal that extends from the handle down to the heel of the blade. The bolster acts as a finger guard, allowing you to choke up on the blade more securely. It also adds weight to the knife, and makes the heel of the knife thicker and stronger, which is ideal for cutting through bone or halving a winter squash. However, a full bolster becomes an impediment when sharpening; over time, the edge develops a notch at the spot where the heel thickens. To address this issue, some European knifemakers now produce knives with a half-bolster or no bolster, more akin to a Japanese-style knife. European-style knives also tend to be fairly thick along the spine—the blade tapers gradually from spine to cutting edge—which supplies additional heft and strength to the knife.

Within this category, there are German- and French-style blades. A German-style blade has a pronounced curve to the edge and a wider blade, and the French-style blade is leaner and straighter. The differences are subtle, but some people do have a preference. Lately, it seems that the German style is more prevalent.

The Story of the Granton Edge

The dimpled edge that's standard on santoku knives was born in 1928, when the Granton knife company in Sheffield, England, ground divots into its long slicing knives. The series of divots, which alternate on each side of the blade, thinned the cutting edge while maintaining rigidity. This novel design permitted thinner slices, and the air pockets created by the divots seemed to reduce friction and sticking. When Granton's patent expired, other knife makers began applying the divots on their slicers.

That might have been the end of the story if Wüsthof hadn't ground divots onto its santokus in the 1990s. Since then, the dimpled look has become something of a fashion statement, and they now appear on the side of parers, chef's knives, utility knives, you name it. And the edge might be called fluted, scalloped, dimpled, hollow edge, or kullenschliff. When you see the divots, take a careful look. They can only do their thing if they come right down to the cutting edge—if they run along the middle of the blade, they're probably doing more for the look of the knife than anything else.

Using a Honing Steel

If you've never used a steel, take your time with it. Don't be a show-off by taking rapid-fire swipes while holding the rod out in front of you—you'll never maintain a consistent angle. Instead, try this approach.

1 Hold the steel vertically and anchor the tip on a board or towel. Set the heel of the knife (the part nearest the handle) near the top of the steel, angling the blade about 20 degrees off the vertical. (For Japanese-style knives, aim for 16 degrees.) To find 20 degrees, first set the knife edge perpendicular to the steel (that's 90 degrees), then halve it (that's 45 degrees), and then halve it again (that's 22 1/2 degrees). The handle guard on some steels gives a 20-degree angle when you set the flat of the blade against it.

2 Pull the blade toward you while sliding the edge down the steel, applying light pressure. Focus on maintaining the angle, and don't worry about speed. Repeat the stroke on the other side of the blade. Don't change hands. Repeat five or ten more times, always alternating sides. Check the edge (feel it carefully with your finger, or else cut with it). If you're not satisfied, continue steeling.

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Contact: Aimee Bianca, YC Media: (212) 609-5009, aimee@ycmedia.com

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Knives Cooks Love: How to Buy, Sharpen, and Use Your Most Important Kitchen Tool

Authors: Sur La Table, Sarah Jay
ISBN: 978-0-7407-7002-9
Format: Hardcover: 7 1/2 x 10 1/2, 192 pages with 175 photos and 21 recipes
Price: $25.00 hardcover ($27.50 Canada)