Essential
Knives and Accessories
As
you add each knife or cutlery for the kitchen, here are some very
useful tools in the kitchen. You can do practically all the
necessary cutting tasks with a chef's knife and a paring knife.
As you add each piece, look at your needs in the kitchen and
purchase that knife, that cutlery that will last you a long time and do
the job beautifully.Paring Knife
This is the other work horse of the kitchen. It's size is ideal to give you the precision you do not have with the chef's knife. Flexibility in the blade allows you to get into some of the tight places such as separating silver skin. With a paring knife it is very important that you like the feel of the handle. You also want a blade that will keep a razor sharp edge. 3 1/2 inches is an ideal length. The nice thing about paring knives is that you do not have to spend very much money to buy a good one. The price range is between $10 and $35. Some good brands of paring knives are: Victorinox, Wusthof and Henkels.
Slicing Knife
This knife is for slicing through meat such as roasts. The chef's knife is not ideally suited for this job because you get uneven results. The goal in slicing through meat is nice even slices where the meat is not torn or ragged. Most of this type are rounded at the tip and are tapered from the handle to the tip and many also have a granton edge. The ideal length is around 12 inches.
Bread Knife/Serrated Knife
There are very few knives I would recommend to be serrated and the bread knife is one of them. This piece of cutlery, however, can be used for a number of tasks such as cutting through tomatoes or cutting through layers of cake. The shape of the serrations is important. Moderately sized points are ideal. If they are too large then they can tear but if they are too small then it will be a struggle to break through a crust and scalloped edges do not "bite"in very easily. An ideal length is about 10 inches.
Sharpening/Honing Steel
Sharpening steels are used to hone the edge or to true it. Technically, it does not sharpen it. (see the page on Sharpening) However, a steel is a very useful tool to keep a nice edge on your knives. It is recommended that you use the steel on your knives at least once a week.
Knife Block
If you are building up your set piece by piece, you need a good place to keep your knives (instead of let then rattle around in the drawer). There are some interesting options here. You can get a magnetic strip that hangs on the wall to hold your knives for easy use. You just want to make sure that you don't have to use a lot of muscle to retrieve your knives. There are the basic wood blocks. There are also quarter-circular blocks that are also magnetic and the knives just go up against the sides. The ones I found quite versatile are the ones with the thousands of soft plastic rods to keep knives of all shapes and sizes like the ones from Kapoosh.
Kitchen Shears
Ok, so it is not a knife or cutlery but it is an essential part of the kitchen, and it cuts, and if you are like me, it will be used often. Kitchen shears can be a workhorse for the kitchen. They can do smaller tasks like snipping herbs, but my biggest test is butterflying chicken (or spatch cooking chicken). You need a pair hefty enough to cut out the backbone of the chicken. Messermeister makes a very nice pair. By the way, some models feel better for right-handers than left.
Cleaver
A nicely honed cleaver is not just for butchers. It is very handy when you are cutting through a chicken. With this knife it is important to have a very sharp, well balanced blade that feels very secure in your hand. You don't want to shatter the bones rather than slice through them. You also want to take into account your arm strength. You do not want that feels too heavy to control.