I just use a small knife and a big knife. This covers all use cases. Yes they also cut bread because I keep them sharp.
If you want a cheap cutting board because you can't afford end grain, look into hinoki boards. They're cheap and very soft wood.
As with all wooden boards, make sure you seal it first with a neutral oil such as mineral oil.
There are but two necessary knives. A chef's knife and a paring knife. Sharpened appropriately. Usually not even a paring knife but sometimes the small size is beneficial.
Cleavers are really nice to have for chopping and transferring vegetables though.
I’d include a santoku in there, and probably some scissors. Sometimes you just need the straight edge of a santoku, instead of the curved edge of a chef’s knife.
And sometimes serration is necessary. You’ll blunt your chefs knife on certain sourdough crusts, or crush softer breads, but a bread knife will glide right through.
I use a couple of damp paper towels under the chopping board to hold it still, then when I'm done I use the damp paper towels to wipe the knife, board, and bench
Edit: for vegetables only. Not with meat jfc
A chefs knife will do for everything. Keep it sharp enough and it'll even slice bread. As for the onion horizontal cuts are unnecessary. Offset radial cuts are fine (as you move away from the centre vertical cut you angle it more).
What’s the x axis on those graphs? I can’t zoom in enough on this picture to read it. I did look it up, but I only found versions with the exact same resolution
I think it says "Number of Cuts," but it's really hard to tell.
I have absolutely no idea. I grabbed the first illustration that showed what I described (poorly).
"Pick the right blade." Santoku. The answer is Santoku.
I'm a bunka kind of fella.
Nah chef's knives are better, more versatile.
I don't like the curved point of mine, I think I'll go for a chef knife instead
As a chef, the only inaccuracy I see here is that bamboo cutting boards are good for knives. They are a great, cheap, sustainable option, but the silica content makes bamboo incredibly hard, and it will dull your blades faster than wood or plastic cutting boards.
The best cutting boards use end-grain for this exact reason. It’s not just a decorative thing. The direction of the wood grain directly determines how quickly the board will dull your knife. Wood is made of two main parts: A hard fiber, and a soft filler in between each fiber. The hard fiber is what dulls your knife when you cut.
Imagine cutting on a tightly packed bundle of really tiny straws. If you cut across the bundle, your knife will be cutting into each straw, dulling in the process. But if you cut on the end of the bundle, the knife blade will slide between the straws instead of cutting them.
The straws will last longer when you’re cutting on the end (because you’re not cutting them) and your blade will last longer (because it isn’t cutting the straws). And an end grain cutting board is essentially cutting on the end of the straw bundle.
What about using the bread knife for meat?
Edit: also what's "produce"?
"Produce" is presumably fruit and vegetables, although that's a pretty broad category to lump together given that so many vegetables behave differently. Consider a tomato versus lettuce or a yam, for instance.
If you use wooden cutting boards / blocks, rub mineral oil into them every once in a while. This will reduce the water they absorb and make them less likely to warp or split.
The chopping technique is not really that necessary. It's great for chopping lots of veggies at speed, but if you're just cutting veggies for a single meal then there's not that much benefit unless you're already highly practiced and that's your default.
What's far more important is just being cognizant for each cut you make. Walk don't run.
The chopping technique is about eliminating risk, mostly. Sure for a single meal and being aware you'll be fine. But getting into the habit of a good technique means you'll be fine even when you're tired or distracted
If you want to spend the time and effort to practice that technique, go for it. But the benefits don't really make it worth it for most people.
into the habit of a good technique means you'll be fine even when you're tired or distracted
The technique described in the image is not the only "good technique". A person could reasonably develop their own "good technique" simply by being cognizant of their cutting.
The chopping/grip advice is missing a critical component: your two farthest forward knuckles on your non-knife hand should be contacting the knife blade at all times. This gives you precise control and you know exactly where the cutting surface is. It takes a lot of practice to do properly, but that is how the pros do it. I recommend this video from Jacques Pepin for an example: https://youtu.be/nffGuGwCE3E
I will add another bullet point to the list above, specifically regarding cutting boards. Poly cutting boards are also acceptable and primarily what I use. However, if I see you using a glass cutting board or a plate as a cutting board, or chopping directly on your granite countertop, I am afraid I am going to have to hurt you.
I am, as you can imagine, the default knife sharpener within the circle of my family and friends. However for quite some years I would not sharpen any knives for my sister anymore because she refused stop using her stupid 1980s glass cutting boards. (I believe they were probably actually intended to be serving trays, but good luck making people understand that.) She kept complaining that my sharpening was "no good" because her knives dulled so quickly.
I was eventually able to coordinate with my brother in law who was also sick of it, and we located all of the glass boardlike objects in the house and surreptitiously threw them away.
Doing the lord's work here.
Is "poly" a local american slang for plastic? Anyway I prefer wood because I'd rather have some wood fibres in my food than microplastic. Not that anyone knows if it's actually harmful or not
Sort of. Polymer, actually. It's a common end-run around calling something "plastic" outright because that in and of itself is typically a shorthand for "cheap" or "flimsy."
Anyway, the plastic cutting boards in commercial use (i.e. the ones I use because I am that kind of nerd) are made of high density polyethylene.
Chinese chef knife is missing. It's not a meat cleaver, the blade isn't nearly thick enough for it, but it does make quick work of veg. It's also one of the only knives used for Chinese cooking. Learned about it from Martin Yan.
I use a bred knife to slice cheese off a block every day. Line it up and push down, one hand on handel the other on the spine at the top. It works better than any other knife to slice cheese blocks.
This post makes it sounds like I am committing a war crime.
This should be noted that the knife part is only for western style knives. Same with the cutting technique. That's only for a curved type blade.
Well this doesn’t even list all of the western style kitchen knives
in my experience, granton blades just make the food stick more. i always figured it was just a lazy way for companies to save on materials.
It doesn't help them save on material since the knife is ground from an originally flat slab of steel. The amount of material they remove from that bar is irrelevant to their materials cost, although it does add a bit of machine work.
The scallops in the blade are effective at preventing some foods from sticking only if you are using a long slicing motion. When chopping down from above they accomplish nothing.
For an onion, I've never diced it by making the cuts indicated by number 1, figuring the layers essentially do that for you. Am I doing it wrong?
they help with getting a nore consistent cut but in my opinion only case when it really matters if you really care about the presentation being perfect
Not wrong per se, but you'll end up with more inconsistently sized pieces if you don't do those initial cuts in my experience
I radially dice my onion. To me it seems like the horizontal and vertical cuts leave more uneven bits considering the layers already present. I angle my "vertical" cuts towards the center, then start chopping.
