Knives & Cutting

One sharp knife replaces five dull ones, and a dull knife is the one that cuts you. Start with a chef’s knife and something to sharpen it on.

Chef’s Knives

A 20 cm chef’s knife does eighty percent of all kitchen cutting. Buy this one first.

Serrations saw through crust without crushing crumb — and they cut tomatoes better than anything else.

For everything done in your hand rather than on the board: hulling, peeling, deveining.

Flatter belly, shorter blade — better for straight downward chopping than for rocking.

Three good knives beat fifteen mediocre ones, and most blocks are eleven knives you will never touch.

A drawer dulls edges against everything else in it. A block or a magnetic strip does not.

A dull knife slips and cuts you. Sharpening is a safety habit before it is a cooking one.

Wood and plastic are both fine; glass and stone destroy an edge in a week.

Use the guard. Every kitchen has a story about the one time somebody did not.

A rasp grater turns hard cheese and garlic into something that melts into a sauce instead of sitting in it.

A Y-peeler is faster than a swivel for anything round, and it costs the same.

For the onion you do not want to cry over. Pull-cord models beat pressing ones for hard vegetables.

Spatchcocking a chicken takes two minutes with shears and twenty with a knife.

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