/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.20485504]

What should I look for if I'm looking to get a good cooking knife? Just like one good one that I can generally use on everything? Is there an ideal brand for a good enough one?

[Anonymous No.20485505]

>>20485504
>What should I look for if I'm looking to get a good cooking knife?
Made in Japan.

[Anonymous No.20485586]

>>20485504
let me guess, you need more

[Anonymous No.20485593]

If you ask questions like these dont get expensive jap knives. They have wooden handles and are hard to care for. What is your main cuisine? Get knife suited to your needs.

[Anonymous No.20486953]

>>20485504
8" chefs knife, paring knife, serrated knife. i would just get em all from a restaurant supply place if you don't know what you want and don't want to spend much. you could get the victorinox chefs knife that everyone talks about if you want something slightly nicer. i've used it; it's pretty nice, especially for the price. if you find yourself getting really into cooking and knives and stuff, you can upgrade later. get a honing steel and a cheap knife sharpener for your cheap chefs knife. autists will screech about how pull through sharpeners wreck your blades. they're not wrong, but it just doesn't matter for a cheapass food service knife. you could get a cheap dual sided sharpening stone and mess around with it if you really cared. sharpen infrequently, hone frequently. keep your knife sharp and it will serve you well and be enjoyable to use, even if it's really cheap.

[Anonymous No.20486958]

>>20485504
The $25 one at walmart that self-sharpens. There is absolutely nothing different between using a 25 dollar piece of shit and a 200 dollar piece of shit. Sharp thing cuts things.

[Anonymous No.20486997]

>>20486958
How does it self-sharpen? Does it flake off into your food?

[Anonymous No.20487046]

>>20485504
Before you invest in a pricier knife/knives, consider the route of using your current drawer of knives and/or a sack of 5-8 choice ones from Christian Mission/Goodwill for $4 in conjunction with a Trizor XV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yif_uMZ-y5k
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-knife-sharpening-tool/
https://www.amazon.com/ChefsChoice-EdgeSelect-Professional-Sharpener-Sharpening/dp/B004UGUNFM

>Fuck that's pretty expensive Anon
Yes, but consider the point is you can use it on cheap knives and in a literal 2-3 minutes you'll have a fresh 15-degree edge that you can continuous maintain whenever it gets dull post-use (and you won't be limited by the number of "good" knives you can afford to have on hand). The advantage of more expensive knives isn't that they are necessarily any sharper, it's that they'll hold their edge for longer periods between needing re-honing and sharpening. If you have the personal discipline to care for and maintain one/several, great. Otherwise an XV, the best electric sharpener on the market, will take the time, labor, and skill out of the process making cheap knives viable. Consider that line/prep cooks use disposable $5-10 Dexter knives and go through 2-3/week, it's not worth it to them to have to shop between shifts and get the blade sharp again when they can just grab a new one from the drawer and go.

Like I said if you are prepared to care for a nicer blade or two, that's a perfectly good route to go. Just keep in mind it's not the sharpness of the blade when you get it that matters, it's whether you can keep it that way before cooking each time.

[Anonymous No.20487495]

>>20487046
You have sold me on half the idea Anon. But surely there is a less expensive first step for sharpeners? Maybe something sub $100 ideally. I have a handful of knives that used to work great so I do understand the idea of fixing what I have rather than getting new ones constantly.

[Anonymous No.20487525]

>>20487495
https://www.worksharptools.com/products/electric-kitchen-knife-sharpener
I personally use pic related, but WorkSharp is reputable and has a $70 sharpener.
A whetstone or diamond stone would be the best performance/cost ratio though.

[Anonymous No.20487526]

>>20487495
>You have sold me on half the idea Anon. But surely there is a less expensive first step for sharpeners? Maybe something sub $100 ideally. I have a handful of knives that used to work great so I do understand the idea of fixing what I have rather than getting new ones constantly.
Oh sure, you can find a bunch of used XVs on Ebay for $70-80:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/176366944222
The diamond abrasive used to generate the burr on the blade isn't really gonna degrade.