Kitchen Knife Care

Maintaining Kitchen Knives

Cooking knives really are an important part of the busy cooks’ group of hardware yet we’re not great at maintaining them in the correct way; a blunt knife is typical in numerous household kitchens. Regardless of what the price paid, in order for them to perform proficiently a sharp edge should always be preserved. Besides which, a sharp blade is in fact less hazardous as it is much less likely to slip during use. .

As guideline, a frequently used blade needs to be sharpened once weekly or certainly as your knife starts to feel blunt. If you are unfamiliar with using a traditional butchers steel then obtaining an alternative good quality cookware =Knives is a good start and presently there are several available but I would recommend you steer clear of the lower priced hand-held kind that only cost a couple of pounds as they rip the blade instead of sharpen it. Needless to say if you’ve not paid a lot of money for your knives then you may feel you don’t want to spend a lot for the sharpener but investing in a good one will save you money with time and make ones chef’s knives a pleasure to work with. It is worthwhile mentioning here that because of to the construction processes and materials employed, of Asian-style blades ought to be honed employing a whetstone.

Exactly how do you accomplish maintaining the edge on a blade? Well, protecting them in a storage unit created for kitchen knives is a good start regardless of whether that’s a wooden block, cotton roll or wall mounted magnetic rack. Additionally utilising individual protective sleeves or edge guards will help, especially if you only have room for keeping in a drawer. Although the vast majority of kitchen knives are technically dish washer safe, dishwashers and their detergents can be harsh and on occasions the very movement of the appliance causes blades to come into contact with other items which can over time blunt the knife. Hence in order to preserve the nice razor-sharp blade edge it is advisable to carefully clean manually and dry right away then return to the storage unit. Additionally, avoid using hard surfaces to chop on such as glass or marble as chopping boards. Hardwood or plastic-type material (polypropylene) are a far better knife friendly option.

Oh, and one more snippet of advice. don’t use a knife as an alternative choice to a screwdriver!

Chris Bagshall