I'm Just Here for the Food_ Version 2.0 - Alton Brown [111]
Store your knives in a drawer with a lot of other metal things. Every time you open or close the drawer your edges will knock up against things that will bend/mangle/mash the fine edge into something resembling a tuna-can lid. Thus impeded, your blade will require a great deal of force to actually cut anything. And a dull knife with a lot of force behind it is about as safe as a shark with a chainsaw.
SHARPENING AND HONING
When a blade is sharp it looks like Figure A.
Given its thinness, it’s easy for the edge to develop microscopic bends, even with light use: Figure B. At this point the knife is still “sharp”; it’s just out of alignment and therefore not much good to the cook. Continued use at this point will only make things worse.
When frequently and properly applied, a honing steel, which is a good bit harder than the knife and is usually magnetized, can bring the edge back to “true” (Figures C & D). The key word here is “properly” and I’m convinced that (like shooting pool or writing poetry) this is one of those things that just can’t be taught on paper, as it requires the guidance of a skilled practitioner. My advice is to find a professional knife sharpener in your area who can sharpen your arsenal once or twice a year. Ask this person to sell you a steel the right size for your knives and show you how to use it.
I give a knife a stroke or two with the steel nearly every time I use it.
Wash your knives in the dishwasher. If banging against plates (which have Rockwells far in excess of carbon steel) isn’t enough to do in the blade, the harsh chemicals of the wash and the ovenlike heat of the dry cycle will quickly grant your once smooth handle the topography of a dry lake bed. The fissures will soon fill with kitchen gunk—if the handle doesn’t fall off first.
Cut on a glass cutting board. Just think of it: a metallic edge with an average Rockwell of 58 coming into repeated perpendicular contact with a surface with an average Rockwell of 98. I simply cannot imagine a better way to render a blade useless (See Cutting Boards).
Sharpen your knives yourself. Sharpening devices are the darlings of the kitchen gadget industry, so you’ll have no trouble finding one in your price range to tickle your fancy. Count on the silliest-looking designs to effect the quickest destruction. As far as sharpening stones go, they may not look silly but they require considerable skill and experience to master and they’re a pain to maintain. Hone your knives often but never sharpen them—leave that to the pros.
If you use a honing steel, be sure to use it improperly. If you need an example, find yourself a restaurant that has a big window that looks into the kitchen. Sometimes, when they know you’re watching, they’ll run their knife up and down the steel very rapidly. This is indeed horrible for the blade, but to the layperson it looks cool, which is why they do it.
TYPES OF CUTS
• To mince is to cut food into very small pieces.
• To chop is to cut food more coarsely than a mince.
• To dice is to cut food into tiny cubes, approximately ⅛- to ¼-inch square.
• To cube is to cut food into ½-inch square pieces.
• To julienne is to cut food into match-stick-thin strips, about ⅛-inch square, of various lengths.
• Chiffonade is from the French for “made of rags” and refers to food cut into very thin strips (see illustration).
• Lyonnaise-style is in the manner of the city of Lyons, France. Onions sliced Lyonnaise-style are cut lengthwise from top to root, rather than across (see illustration).
Storage
Deciding where and how to store a knife is a big deal to both the blade and your fingers. I like magnetic bars because they don’t take up a lot of space and if there’s any moisture left on a knife it will air-dry, but these are not usually recommended if you’ve got kids, pets, or homicidal tendencies. Storing knives in a drawer is fine as long as the drawer in question contains some device that will