The Knives are out, but what do I use them for?

[scoots]

Here are three knives from the back of my kitchen drawer. What are they for?

I think the top knife is for tomatoes

I think the middle knife is a steak/meat knife.

I think the bottom knife is from the age when whole cooked fish were presented at the table and the carcass was cut into filets in front of the guests.

What are your thoughts?

 

[rp2813]

No reference point for the size of these knives, but --

The top one reminds me of a cheese knife with its fork at the tip, but mine has a much finer serrated edge.

 

The middle one looks like a standard knife from a set of flatware.

 

The bottom one beats me.

 

[sfh074]

#3

Salmon knife.

 

[vacerator]

bread knife,

meat knife with tongs, fileting knife, cheese.

 

[perc-o-prince]

I was thinking bread knife for the top one, but a bread knife wouldn't have the "fork" at the end for serving. Ham knife?

For the middle one, the indents are usually for letting that which is being cut being able to let go of the knife and fall to the cutting board. "Santoku" style?

And the 3rd one... unless you were cutting a wheel, why would you need a knife that long? Usually long, thin knives like that are for boning or fileting.

H-m-m-m-m

Chuck

 

[sudsmaster]

Sorry, but

I don't care much for serrated edge knives... they are impossible to sharpen. A smooth edge of good carbon steel (or higher quality high carbon stainless) that can be sharpened is IMHO a much better knife. So there's probably a reason why those knives were shoved to the back of a drawer and forgotten: they are simply not up to more than one task, if that.

My favorite knives? A short 3" Wusthof paring knife, and a 7" MIU Santoku knife. And yes, I keep them razor sharp with a Chef's Mate motorized sharpener (three grind stones). Plus I still have all my fingers. It's been said the most dangerous knife is a dull knife. And serrated knives are by design, dull.

Serrated edges are for sawing, not slicing. I'd put those things back into the back of the drawer.

LOL

PS-Back in my college days I did almost all my food prep with a good quality Dexter stainless Chinese style knife. It's got a wide flat rectangular blade, about 3" x 8", but takes a very fine edge. Still have it, but have since come to prefer the Santoku design. However I have used the "cleaver" (It's not meant for slamming) very delicately to bone a chicken and to slice veggies for stir fry quite rapidly and safely. As Joyce Chen's great treatise on Chinese cooking instructs, it's safer than most knives for chopping veggies because one can rest the knuckles of the spare hand against the flat of the blade and not get the fingers injured. Its size, however, doesn't lend itself to smaller cutting boards etc.

[this post was last edited: 12/28/2019-06:13]