Kenji agrees with you, so your take isn’t half as hot as you think it is. I occasionally will make beef stock, but I’ll never buy it. Chicken stock is all purpose unless you need fish stock, or if you need to keep it vegetarian with veggie stock.
I might be in the market for some new knives, if anyone has a recommendation. I have an inexpensive ~14 piece set from my wedding that’s now 12 years old and the pieces are starting to dull. I started sharpening them when I realized they were microserrated and therefore unable to be sharpened. I’d prefer another set with a variety of knives and steak knives. Costco had a set of Cangshan knives that looked intriguing but I think it was their bottom line model, which has been as low as like $70. This looks like a decent deal to me but I really have no idea how to pick knives: Zwilling Four Star 14 Piece Knife Set with Block - Zwilling J.A. Henckels | Cutlery and More.
I also thought this looked tempting for an individual knife: Enso HD Santoku Knife with Magnetic Sheath, 6.5" | Cutlery and More
this is my go-to general purpose knife. nothing fancy but it gets the job done. I think America’s Test Kitchen rated it highly. edit: it looks like I have the 8" version.
I got the six-piece model of this as a Christmas gift last year. Quality seems good, I don’t really know enough about knives to say more than that.
I’m not home right now but I’m 95% sure I own this knife and use it frequently; my friend got it for me as a gift. I like having a set that lets me choose different knives depending on the situation but it’s possible that it’s unnecessary and all I need are a good set of steak knives at this time.
I do have a set of steak knives. The other other things I use are very situational:
- cleaver for cutting through chicken bones to make broth
- long slicing knife for carving prime rib or Thanksgiving turkey
- cheap-ass pairing knife for poking holes in microwave dinners, cutting up cupcakes, or other miscellaneous tasks
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Man, this got me thinking about how I’m in knife hell. I have had a couple sets of knives, most recently the Calphalon Katana series, and I just can’t keep them sharp. I use a honing steel, I’ve even sent them away using a mail-order sharpening service. But, within 6 months or so they were already dull again.
Am I just not buying a good enough knife? I’ll spend a zillion dollars on something if it’ll just stay sharp forever. It has to be my fault, but I don’t think I really mistreat them or anything. Don’t put them in the dishwasher, don’t cut concrete with them or anything.
Just buy a cheap new one every few months? Help.
6 months? You’re not sharpening your knives nearly often enough.
So, maybe it’s a me thing. I got them sharpened, and before each use I’ll hone them. But you guys are doing some kind of serious sharpening every couple months? Every month?
I don’t do anything serious. I’m not a knife nerd and I only have cheap crap. But I also have a honing steel with 2 little v-notch sharpeners in the handle and they’re great for having reasonably sharp knives while being cheap and lazy.
I’ve tried those sharpening systems like Spyderco and soaking two different kinds of stones and that took forever and didn’t really seem to help. I feel like you can hand me a sharp knife and I’ll just be able to watch it visibly dull as I slice like 5 tomatoes and an onion. I must be cursed (and lazy/bad at sharpening ldo).
This is the thing I have. I’m sure it’s scoffed at by knife nerds, but I love it.
I wonder if you’re doing something wrong and messing up the edges, although I have no clue how that would happen.
yeah it almost feels like I have to be. Maybe the honing I do is too aggressive or something and it is eating too much steel. Will have to look into that.
Meanwhile: anyone have a good long meat slicing knife rec? Been using a (actually sharp) bread knife, but it’s upgrade time.
Made some killer pork belly for the first time with this ramen which turned out amazing using the pork broth.
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Oh, and before anybody says anything, I can eat an entire sleeve of Kamaboko, so no comments about how much is in there
lolol, I thought it was a radish
I need to know what valley of the giants you live in with gigantic radishes