Southern Appalachian Herbs: From the Omnivore's Guide to Home Cooking: Essential Equipment, Knives

The necessary tools to be a good cook need not be many or expensive. The only reason to equip your kitchen with modern gadgets and fancy cookware is if they make you happy. Granted, some of the finest cookware that is heavy, well made and built to last for generations is well worth even the very high prices it sells for. I love Le Creuset enameled cast iron and a few nice pieces of copper cookware are as useful as they are pretty. That said, they will not make you a better cook. Moreover, who says you have to buy new? As I mentioned, quality items are built to last generations. I shop for such professional quality and luxury items at estate sales, yard sales, flea markets and junky antique stores.

Knives

There is an old French saying that cooking began with the first cracking of an egg. But, other than in cooking eggs, cooking often doesn’t begin with a pot or a pan, it begins with a knife. As with most all kitchen tools, quality knives can be extremely expensive. From European brands like Henkle and Wustoff, to the impeccable craftsmanship of high end Japanese knives, if you are one to enjoy spending on luxury items, you can probably drop as much on a few of these as I did on my old pickup truck. Again though, that will not make you a better cook than someone with a lesser expensive, quality knife if it is well suited and he knows how to use it.

What I would consider to be essential knives rarely come in a matched set. I like a good, French type chef’s knife, a paring knife, a boning knife, a filet knife, a cleaver, a carving knife and a bread knife. Of course, all manner of steak knives and utility knives find their uses. You would be surprised how many chefs use only one or two knives for most jobs though. A European chef may use a chef’s knife to chop and dice, butcher meat, hold the spine of the knife as opposed to the handle and use the tip as a pairing knife, use the heel of the blade as a cleaver and even filet a fish with it. Many Asian chefs use a cleaver style knife for almost every job. Speed and skill are tantamount in a professional kitchen and many of the world’s best chefs have learned to adapt “the knife that fits their hand” to most any purpose as a matter of convenience.

I will get into the qualities to look for in selecting a knife soon, but I want to stress the importance that the knife must fit your hand. Most all but custom made knives are designed to fit the average person’s hand. If you have small hands, these will be too big for you to hold them comfortably. If, like me, you have very large hands, these knives feel very awkward and they tire my hands, wrists and forearms quickly. My favorite knife is a chef’s knife that belonged to my uncle. He was a man who enjoyed collecting luxury items, and he owned several extremely expensive knife sets. When he passed away though, I did not ask my aunt for any of those. There was one old Sabatier that he favored because it fit his hand. He was also a tall man, and that knife fit my hand perfectly. Sabatier is an old French brand that has gone through several changes in ownership. Some of their knives are finely crafted for professional use. Others are cheaply made of inferior materials. Mine is made of high quality steel, holds a sharp edge and fits my hand. It is not one of their finest, nor it is one of their inferior products. It is just a good, dependable, comfortable knife. With proper care, it rarely needs sharpening and has never let me down.

The qualities that make for a good knife are quality, hard but not brittle steel. Soft steel sharpens more quickly, but dulls just as quickly. The blade will attach to the handle in one of three ways. In both many of the most expensive knives and the cheapest knives, the tang (the part that goes into the handle) runs all the way through. In the expensive knives, this is made of hand forged steel and makes them solid, strong, properly balanced and built to last for generations. The cheaper knives are made from stamped steel. Essentially, the knife is cut from a sheet of metal - one end is shaped and sharpened into the blade of the knife, while the other end is sandwiched in the handle material and riveted together. Such knives are light and lack balance, but can occasionally be very good. The classic American and Canadian knives of early - mid 1900, such as Old Hickory and Dexter (even Herter’s) were made in this way, but with heavy carbon steel and finely grained hardwood. Although much less expensive than the fancy imports, never pass one up if you get a chance to buy such knives. They have to be oiled after washing to prevent rust, but the butcher knives, especially, are excellent. The compromise is a smaller tang, sometimes called a “rat tail” that goes into a hollow handle, often filled with fine sand for balance. Again, many knives in this category will not be the finest but my Sabatier is made in this style, and I have no complaints. In truth, it will wear out sooner than a full tang knife, but that will not be in my lifetime.

There are two ways to hold a knife properly. The way I prefer is to pinch the blade between my thumb and forefinger and grasp the handle with the rest of my hand. This is very comfortable to me and gives me the best knife control. However, many of the world’s best chefs (Jacques Pepin for instance) prefer to lay the forefinger along the spine of the knife so that the knife almost becomes and extension of this finger. Years ago, Alton Brown warned against this grip, as a slippery wet finger could slide off of the spine and be cut by the blade. That made sense to me… and as I don’t like to cut myself, I adopted the grip I use. The wrong way to hold a knife is with all five fingers wrapped around the handle. Unfortunately, that is the most common grip. It annoys me greatly to watch a cooking show in which the star is chopping away with a ridiculously expensive Japanese sushi chef’s knife held in this manner! This grip causes the knife to be unbalanced in the hand. It requires more muscle exertion from the hand, wrist and forearm. It is awkward, sloppy, will cause the cook to tire more quickly and will lead to cuts.

Beyond that, the blade of a knife should be sharp. I sharpen my own knives with a variety of whet stones - my grandfather taught me how. If you do not know how to properly sharpen a knife, there are many online tutorials and videos that will show how. If you own expensive knives and are hesitant to sharpen them yourself, there is likely a professional blade sharpener in your area that will keep your knives in top shape for a minimal fee. A steel is a metal rod with a handle that goes with most knife sets. This is used between sharpenings simply to realign the microscopic teeth of the blade’s edge. Beyond this, you can keep your knife sharp and prevent damaging the blade by always cutting on a wooden or plastic cutting board - never a stone counter, never a plate, etc. Dull knives cause more cuts than sharp knives. Keep your knives sharp.

Conversely, make sure that any part of the knife that comes into contact with your skin is smooth and comfortable to hold during long use. I learned that lesson using one of the cheaply made, lower quality Sabatier chef knifes I found in block set in a vacation rental. My enjoyable vacation of fishing and cooking with a magnificent view of the sea was much impacted by the sharp edges of this blade’s spine and its uncomfortable bolster (where the blade meets the handle). As I was absent mindedly (lack of mindfulness is always a mistake) chopping onions, suddenly the onion and board were covered in blood! No, I had not cut myself. The poorly designed knife caused a blister that was bleeding a surprising amount. Like anyone who has cooked professionally would do, I washed the wound, slapped on a paper towel and some duct tape and got back to work. But then, it was work. No longer was I able to enjoy what I was doing. Had I the foresight, I could have prevented that injury by smoothing the edge with some fine sandpaper or by wrapping my hand in duct tape beforehand. Obviously, it is better to simply use a better knife.

The other aspect of knife safety and efficiency is in knife skill. That is very hard to put into words alone. Again, there are many excellent videos by Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, Alton Brown and others online that teach proper knife technique. I will also post videos on my Rumble channel. But essential, in terms of chopping, slicing and dicing is to use the non-knife holding hand to control the knife. That is a bit counter intuitive. The knife hand moves the knife up and down and back and forth. The belly of the blade stays in contact with the knuckles of the opposite hand, fingers curled in. In this way, the non-knife hand controls the cutting as it guides the knife, with the fingers safely away from the blade. And, now you know why I recommend seeing this done - even I would be confused by what I just wrote!