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What assortment of kitchen knives should a person get to set up the kitchen properly?

My brother would like to set up his kitchen knife assortment in a practical way and needs a list of what different types of knives he should purchase.

Public Comments

  1. Get a wooden block that comes with a good assortment of knives, they are convenient and less expensive than buying them one at a time, unless you are a professional chef/cook and need special ones.
  2. You can buy kitchen knives in bundles for 80 bucks or whatever. Just go to Macy's or Walmart, any big store like that. It'll be easy.
  3. He should buy what he thinks he'll use. I use a bread knife and an 8 inch chef knife for at least 95% of what I use knives for in the kitchen. I have a larger chef knife and a carving knife and use them about 4 times a year. Lots of people like buying sets. I don't. Too often, most of the set just takes up space most of the time.
  4. It better to buy good quality ones, you don't want to be messing around with quality as some handles can break and that could lead to injury. That said, usually you can buy them in sets or at least he should have some of the following: Chef's Knife which is good for everything A cleaver A boning knife Small vegetable knife Good chopping knife Butter knife Paring knife Bread knife Carving knife Steak knife Cheese knife Oyster knife
  5. Start with the basics and then add as the need or the want comes along. A good paring knife for peeling (unless he gets a peeler), a 5 or 6" slicing knife, a larger 8 to 10" slicing knife, a chef's knife and a good serrated knife would be a good start. A set of steak knives wouldn't be a bad idea either. A honing steel and either a knife sharpening stone or ceramic sharpener wouldn't be a bad idea. He needs to buy the best quality he can afford as better knives, if properly cared for will last years and years! I actually have two sizes of chefs knives and I use the smaller 7" one the most for chopping. I get the big dude out when I doing a larger item or lots. Make sure the knives are comfortable in his hand and well balanced also. A good knife shouldn't feel blade heavy.
  6. Don't buy a set, you will get more than one knife that is pretty much useless for you or him. make your own set, it'll be cheaper and better knives too. The minimum set which covers 99% of home cutting is: 3-4" paring/peeling knife; 6-12" chef's knife 8-12in serrated bread slicer. You can add boning knife if you work with bony meat, poultry. BTW, boning knives are not the same as meat cleavers, i.e. not designed to chop through the bones, but to work around them. Now what you should avoid, i.e. most common knife myths and marketing BS. Forged vs. stamped - As knife marketing tells us good kitchen knives have to be forged, and have full bolster and tang. NONE of that is true. E.g. Stamped Globals are much better performers than most of the forged mainstream kitchen knives. Stamped Forschners are made from the same steels as Wusthoffs and Henckels and I'll bet 1000$ to anyone they won't be able to tell the difference neither in edge holding nor in cutting performance. I bought Forged and stamped versions of the same chef's knife from Global, and I didn't get anything but extra weight and spent more money on forged knife. Full tang - Another BS, Katana swords and bowie knives are not full tang, yet they can cut through armor and leather, so I really doubt you need more strength than that in the kitchen. Bolsters make sense only on narrow boning knives to protect your hand from slippage, but on other wider knives blade choil area does the job, bolster just makes sharpening a nightmare. Avoid both, Cutco and Furi knives. Both are real junk metal knives, except one is really outrageously priced - Cutco. Both have rusting issues, can't hold the edge worth a dime and both have very misleading marketing. Another good way to spot junk knives is the use of generic terms instead of specific steel, e.g. "stainless steel", surgical stainless, hardened superior stainless etc... This article covers various aspects of choosing the kitchen knives - http://zknives.com/knives/kitchen/misc/articles/kkchoser/index.shtml And just the kitchen knife steel FAQ here - http://zknives.com/knives/kitchen/misc/articles/kkchoser/kksteelp2.shtml
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