I find myself in a situation where I have no kitchen knives save a motley assortment from my “Bachelor 1.0” days, all of unknown provenance. My guess is that they’ve come from the dozen or so housemates I’d had over the years. I hear that the young people, like these two, might refer to them as “janky”. The knives have been kept in a drawer for years (the good ones lived in a proper knife block). The photo above shows the sharpest of the bunch, based on some experimental onion-slicing.
While cleaning out the kitchen, I found this modern-art-looking-thingy. It’s a knife sharpener, and like the knives, it too is of unknown provenance. I ran the santoku-ish knife (in the topmost photo, it’s the one closest to the lower right-hand corner) through it a half dozen times and it seemed to do a better job at slicing onions. Of course, this may just be a placebo effect and I may have made the knife even more worthless. Time will tell.
I can easily go out and buy a new set of knives, but I plan on making do with the janky set for as long as I can. In fact, The Current Situation is such that there’s a lot of household stuff that I need to replace, but I’m resisting the urge to make a beeline for the store. My reasoning is as follows:
Gentle Readers, I’d love to tap your collective smarts: do you have any recommendations for knife sets? I’m no chef by any stretch of the imagination, but I cook a lot. I work from home a fair bit, so not only do I prepare dinners at home, I also find myself in my own kitchen for lunch. While I’m not aiming to buy an expensive set, I know better than to go cheap.
I did a quick check of the Costco Canada site and found these two sets that were in the neighbourhood of what I wanted to spend. The first is this ten-piece Henckel set, which sells at Costco for CDN$200:
Here’s what’s in this set:
The second is this nine-piece Sanelli set, which also sells at Costco for CDN$200:
Here’s what’s in this set:
Do either of these sets make sense? Are there better sets at the same price? Is it a fool’s dream to hope to get the right knife set for me at the the CDN$200 price point? Should I forget sets, go to a “proper” kitchen store and perhaps build a set, spending more and building a set a knife or two at a time?
Let me know what you think (especially if you’re a chef or very avid home cook) in the comments!
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Henckel... and hang on to the funky knife sharpener
Not being an expert in the retail scene in Canada I'll leave that to other people.
My experience is that in knife sets you get a complete range of middling to average knives. And they always include some knives you will never use.
My preference would be to buy individual knives (and maybe a block) as you go. For instance, I really only use four differents blades - a chef's 7in, a 3in vegetable knife, a 4-5in utility knife and a bread knife. So when I get some money next year I'm going to replace only those.
Oh, and you need a steel.
If I spent more time in the kitchen I'd also consider a boning knife for getting the skin off fish but that would be about it.
You might consider asking on http://cooking.stackexchange.com -- though I'd be careful to generalize it as "teach me how to buy good knives" and not a shopping recommendation.
I would agree that knife sets, unless you;re ready to drop a bundle, are not going to serve you well. A single high quality 8" chef's knife or 6.5-8" santoku will probably cover 95% of your needs. Add a cheap-ass very sharp paring knife and maybe a bread knife if you slice a lot of bread. I love my 8" Wusthof chef's knife and my 6.5" Shun santoku. Hone them regularly - get a real sharpening done once or twice a year. Either will last a lifetime if not mistreated. I pretty much started buying 1 knife every year or two as I found that I needed them, always picking out something of high quality. My knife collection is now fairly extensive but a lot of them are for specialty tasks (like the sushi knife for paper-thin even slicing) but nearly everything is done with the two knives listed above and, really, either one on its own would suffice just fine.
Also, I find blocks to be a waste of space and they can easily get unsanitary. Wall-mount magnetic knife strips are my preferred storage method - they take up no real space and the knives are always at the ready. My current kitchen is not well-suited to them so I have a flat blockish thing in a drawer but have also used slip-on plastic sheaths as well (particularly nice for transporting them so as to be safe for you, your other stuff and the knife edges.
I can only second what Andy wrote. I cook a lot at home, and I use mostly a Chef's knife (9"), an Office knife (maybe 5"), and a small (2-3") carbon steel vegetable knife (they rust if not kept dry, but are cheap, very sharp, and stay sharp without sharpening). I also bake bread and have a serrated bread knife, but that is less important. Those three knives and a good steel are enough, but could cost 200$ if you chose good quality that lasts for the rest of your life (one of my knives is 30 years old).
Of course, as a German I must tell you that the only serious kitchen knives come from the city of Solingen, Germany. Some of the brands are sold in North America, too, such as Wusthof and Zwilling (Henckels). For some knife porn, look at
http://www.guede-solingen.de/english/guede-eng.html
A good steel is enough to sharpen, but every other year, bring the knives to an expert. Read this, for example:
http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-12-20/entertainment/25209883_1_dull-knives-knife-diamond-stones
I have a motley assortment of knives, picked up here or there, or inherited from family members. The inherited ones tend to be the best, once they've been given a decent edge. I've also picked up some high-quality (and, ackk, high price) blades over the years. But the rule of thumb is: You can pay high prices for average blades, but you can't pay low prices for above-average blades.
Having said that, one of my most useful knives is a cheap plastic-handled paring knife I picked up from -- yes, really -- the dollar store. The blade might not keep a sharp edge for long, but a few strokes on a sharpening stone gets it right back. And being cheap, I feel okay using it for things I'd never touch with my more expensive blades. (Most recently, cutting styrofoam!)
Henckels has 2 lines: the German one identified with the "twins" logo and the International line identified with a different logo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._A._Henckels
The German made products are their very best and they are very expensives. To me, the Costo set has way to much items for $200, one good knife usually selling for $75-$150.
I have a Sanelli knife and I like how it feels in my hand. I'm not sure how to describe that but they just "feel right" when you use them. Something like the difference between a Squier and a Fender. So between the 2 sets, I'd go for the Italian one.
Happing cooking!
I'm with Andy, except I like to have two knives in the 6-8" range, one wide, one thin. My preference for meat is using the wider one. If you become a serious paleo caveman type, you might consider a butcher's knife, but that's about it really. There's probably knives as good as Henkel, but you can't go wrong buying Henkels.
I have a Sanelli flexible fillet knife myself, which I purchased specifically for slicing smoked salmon. It is an excellent knife; it keeps a nice razor-sharp edge for a good long time, and it is very comfortable to use.
I agree with the others here that a good chef's knife is a better investment than a set of knives; spend $150 on a single decent knife rather than $200 on a set of something just okay. You can fill in the rest of your collection as you find yourself needing them (e.g. paring knives, boning knives, utility knives, etc.)
But if you would rather start with a set of knives just to get a reasonable selection quickly, I would definitely take the Sanelli set over the Henckel one, no question.
Agreed with all above on the utility of individual knives versus a set. As for make, my most-used knife is a Henckels chef's knife from the "Professional S" series. I find that some of their series have too-light handles that just don't feel right when I use them, but the Professional S has a good weight. Recommend that you at least heft them (if not actually try them out) before you buy to see if they feel right in your hand.