Knife Thread
- Thread starter Glaucus
- Start date
Soldato
Not personally no.
I can't comment from first hand experience but I would say gimmick.
I used a small cleaver for many years to prep veg, which wasn't bad to be fair, until I got my Nikiri after looking at this thread.
I do a lot of cooking but I basically only use two (occasionally a third), which is my £10 Wilko's cleaver, which honestly, is fantastic for what it is, it's a right beater and I use it for everything else, then my posh Japanese Nikiri that I just use just for veg, I'll occasionally use just a generic chef knife I have if it's awkward with the other two (spatchcocking a chicken comes to mind).
I wouldn't say it's a gimmick as such, just a very specific shape that's of limited use to a home cook. The curved blade is for peeling or shaping veg and fruit in-hand (i.e. not on a chopping board).
More of a restaurant thing, I wouldn't bother with one myself.
I find pairing knifes to be too small to be usefull*, maybe look at 'utility' knifes...
*as above they are good for doing really small detail work, but are pretty much usesless for general kitchen duties.
A utility knife is bigger than a pairing knife, but smaller than a chef knife, or a nikri or a santouku...
Something like this maybe?
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what veg are you preparing ?
for anything soft I use a Victorinox tomato knife, they are crazy good at a silly cheap price.
they are deceptively sharp and amazing for carrot sticks etc imo
can't think why I'd ever use one of those bird beak knifes, I think my mum had one in the kitchen cupboard in the 80s and no one ever used it.
Any hard veg I use a santoku knife
Have a tomato knife is great, I do have a 14cm Santoku and also a 20cm Chefs knife which both get used for chopping veg, The Santoku is ok for peeling cucumber / flattening a pepper. Im just picking something up to let me peel a potato in my hand, or an apple etc.
I've done it to cheese before when I'm super lazy
My peelers blade with is tiny compared to an onion though, might work on shallots.
also I think my peeler would make paper thin onion slices with no crunch.
Some cheese grater have a kinda wide slicer that might work better, or just buy one of those cheap vegetable cutting gadgets designed for it.
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I've done it to cheese before when I'm super lazy
My peelers blade with is tiny compared to an onion though, might work on shallots.
also I think my peeler would make paper thin onion slices with no crunch.
Some cheese grater have a kinda wide slicer that might work better, or just buy one of those cheap vegetable cutting gadgets designed for it.
Well yeah.. I'm posh so I so I do everything with a knife lol.. I just thought it was quite interesting
what I thought was interesting is how many people think the blade on the those peelers is one directional and you see it trending as a hack on social media for peeling potatoes etc faster
I do like a knife though, I tend to avoid time saving devices, you either want to cook or you don't.
I'm not convinced that's the fastest way to slice an onion. seems it would take only a few quick slices witt a knife, the onions going to fall apart on it's own anyway
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what I thought was interesting is how many people think the blade on the those peelers is one directional and you see it trending as a hack on social media for peeling potatoes etc faster
I do like a knife though, I tend to avoid time saving devices, you either want to cook or you don't.
I'm not convinced that's the fastest way to slice an onion. seems it would take only a few quick slices witt a knife, the onions going to fall apart on it's own anyway
Yeah, I agree, once you've skinned it, you may as well carry on with a knife unless you are chopping enough onions for a family of ten people.