Friends who have watched "Chinese Irregulars" all know that the special feature of Little Master's cooking, in addition to making the screen full of light, is that you can cut the vegetables until they fly! Do you know why? Because he has a very good knife! As someone who will definitely become a chef in twenty years, I also hope to have such skills, so during this period, after some struggle, I finally chose to give up a new lens and a new mobile phone, and took the opportunity of a birthday gift to spend a lot of money to give I bought myself a good set of kitchen knives. In the past few days, after using it, I found that although I couldn't cut the vegetables until they flew up, compared with the previous use of a Koizumi soft steel kitchen knife, it was indeed much smoother!
I can’t contain my excitement, so I will introduce to you the experience of buying kitchen knives. I hope you can take one step ahead of me and become! The little master of China!
Before reading this article, please read the following precautions carefully:
● Please do not quote the theory of "Chinese chefs can conquer the world with one knife" in your comments. Each chef will make a decision based on his or her own needs. Select tool.
● I have to admit that Japanese and German knives are world-class, especially Japan.
● The article discusses batch machine-made brands, handmade knives are not included.
● A large amount of the article is quoted from articles written by seniors, and the original link will be noted at the end of the article.
● I am also a beginner in the kitchen. If there are any mistakes, please point them out to prevent me from misleading others!
● If any professional chef reads this, it would be ridiculous.
So let’s get started!
Household kitchen knives are generally divided into three categories: Western, Chinese and Japanese. Among them, there are especially many types of Western knives. Modern Japanese kitchen knives and Western kitchen knives have a great origin. The main reason is that during the Meiji Restoration, Japanese people fully learned from the West, including eating habits, which resulted in the emergence of many Western-style knives with Japanese origin.
? Next, I will use the above classification to talk about the types of kitchen knives commonly used in home kitchens!
Chef's Knife
Usage: cutting meat and processing bulb vegetables.
Behind the chef's knife is a food culture that is completely different from Chinese food. This knife can be used to handle Western food ingredients, whether it is fish, meat or vegetables. But its knife skills are completely different from Chinese knives, but once you get started, you will find its usefulness.
Usage: cutting bread and cakes.
Bread is the staple food of people in Europe and America. There, it is unimaginable to have a kitchen without a bread knife, but for us Chinese, this may be the most useless knife. However, many Chinese families have now developed the habit of eating bread, and for some good bakers, this knife is still quite necessary.
Usage: Slicing meat, similar to a Western chef's knife.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan fully learned from the Western lifestyle and began to eat a large amount of beef. In order to process the beef and take into account the traditional Japanese food culture, Japanese craftsmen improved the Western-style chef's knife and created the Japanese-style Knife. Compared with Western chef's knives, the tip angle of a beef knife is flatter. I guess it is to retain the function of Japanese kitchen knives for cutting vegetables.
Usage: cutting fish bones and chicken bones.
This is a Japanese-style bone chopping knife, but it is made for processing whole fish. This may be the most efficient knife type for processing fish meat. This knife has been introduced to the southeastern coast of China in recent years. In the Guangdong area, people give it a different name - the fish head knife.
Usage: cutting vegetables, shredding.
It is a bit like a small Chinese kitchen knife. Its characteristic is that the blade has no curvature and is very thin, so it is very suitable for chopping vegetables and shredding. You can cut vegetables with just one stroke of the knife, so it is very suitable for women who are unwilling to hold a large kitchen knife.
Usage: An all-purpose kitchen knife that can cut meat, vegetables, fruits and vegetables.
It is an all-purpose knife type among traditional Japanese knives. The blade is usually from 13 cm to 21 cm. The blade is relatively flat and can be perfectly compatible with the processing of meat, vegetables and fruits and vegetables.
If you are planning to take one knife all over the world, then it must be this one. Let me tell you quietly, its main target is Japanese housewives.
Although I don’t like the theory that “one kitchen knife can rule the world”, there are indeed relatively few types of knives in Chinese kitchens. In many families, a civil and military knife that can be used to cut from the front to the back can be used. Don't change it for decades. But the following two knives are a must-have for everyone who loves to cook.
Usage: cutting vegetables and slicing meat.
Yes, it is the big kitchen knife we ??often call it. Everyone is already familiar with daily use, right? The only thing to note is that you must not use it to chop bones, otherwise the blade will snap, and if you eat it, you will be in trouble.
Use: Bone chopping, various rough work.
It cuts forward and back, and cuts at a wide angle. You are not afraid of cutting anything. In family kitchen life, it is very easy to deal with all kinds of poultry, including pig bones and beef bones. There are also machetes in Western food, but the Japanese do not have the habit of eating bones, so they did not develop machetes.
In fact, there are many types of knives, but they are of little use in home use, so I will not introduce them here. The most important thing when buying a knife is to choose according to your eating habits. I have a few personal suggestions for everyone:
● Western chef's knife, Japanese beef knife, and Chinese kitchen knife are all considered main knives. You need one for daily use. That's it.
● Most of the above-mentioned main knives are blade knives and cannot be used for cutting or chopping. If necessary, you can purchase corresponding functional knives.
● If you are lazy and want to conquer the world with one sword, I suggest you buy a Santoku sword directly.
Next, I will introduce a very important aspect of kitchen knives - material. The so-called "good steel should be used on the blade".
Both Western-style and Japanese-style kitchen knives have their own merits in terms of steel, but Chinese-style kitchen knives are slightly inferior in materials and workmanship. Recently, many domestic brands have chosen steel imported from Germany and Japan as core steel to make kitchen knives, which also confirms the shortcomings of Chinese kitchen knives in materials.
Western-style kitchen knives, especially the representative German brand, whether it is Zwilling or Trident, no matter what technology they are made of, the steel is almost all made of X50CrMoV15.
The advantage of this kind of steel is that it has strong toughness and is not easy to bend the blade; but the disadvantage is also quite obvious. It is easy to curl the blade and needs to be straightened with a sharpening rod. This is why Western chefs Before cooking, I always rub the knife against a stick.
As mentioned before, after the Meiji Restoration in Japan, traditional culture underwent a lot of changes, including the use of kitchen knife steel. Therefore, there is a big difference between modern Japanese kitchen knife steel and traditional steel.
Traditional steels Traditional steels are mostly high-carbon steels. The famous ones are white paper, blue paper and silver paper. Almost all of them evolved from the steel used in Japanese samurai swords. The advantages of high-carbon steel are also very obvious. It has high hardness and can stay sharp for a long time; but it is easy to rust. You must wipe off the water after use. It is best to apply a layer of oil when it is not used for a long time or when it is wet.
Modern steel The top modern steels are VG10 (stainless steel) and SG2 (powder steel). VG10 is the most widely used. It is very suitable for beginners. It maintains sharpness well and has high hardness. , and not easy to rust.
Powder steel represented by SG2 fully reaches the hardness of traditional high-carbon steel and also has good anti-rust properties. However, due to its high carbon content, its anti-rust properties are not as good as those of the stainless steel mentioned above. VG10.
Now that I have learned so much about materials, you must choose according to your personal habits. I will also give you some personal suggestions:
● The steel materials of domestically produced knives are uneven, so everyone should be cautious. choose.
● The steel of German Western-style knives is soft and the blade is not easy to snap. It is suitable for students who are not so particular about cooking.
● Japanese-style and Chinese-style high-carbon steel are very easy to rust and need to be dried before being placed. Don’t consider it if you don’t cook often.
● SG2 powder steel has high hardness and is difficult to grind. If you are a new kitchen enthusiast, you might as well choose VG10.
? After introducing steel, I guess everyone already has the answers they want, and then they are ready to buy. As a novice, considering the opaque price of imported kitchen knives, it is recommended that you buy machine-made knives from big brands, so that the prices are easier to compare and the quality is relatively guaranteed.
Shun
The products of Japan's Kaiyin KAI are very well-known. It is even the first Japanese kitchen knife brand that many people have heard of. Its series have various Designers of styles are involved, some are useful and some are fancy. In terms of the finish of its kitchen knives, it is also the leader among mass-produced brands, but the price is on the high side. Except for the CLASSIC and SORA series, the others are not cheap.
Practicality: ★★★
Completeness: ★★★★★
Value for money: ★★★
Tojiro )
The biggest feature of Tojiro is its extremely affordable price, which is the favorite of many entry-level enthusiasts. Tojiro has many of its own patented technologies, such as DP clamp steel. It is also the largest machine-made kitchen knife manufacturer in Japan. It produces almost all Japanese, Western and Chinese knives, and its production capacity is amazing.
Practicality: ★★★★★
Completeness: ★★★
Value for money: ★★★★★
YAXELL
This brand is a very representative one in Guan City. Although there are countless brands in Guan City making kitchen knives such as Damascus VG10, this one is better at integrating. Its series names are: Wen, Shan, Lan, and Hao, which respectively correspond to ordinary VG10 sandwich steel, 37-layer VG10 sandwich steel, 69-layer VG10 sandwich steel, and 101-layer SG2 powder steel sandwich steel. The prices range from cheap to expensive, and there are many choices. .
Practicality: ★★★★
Completeness: ★★★★
Cost-effectiveness: ★★★★★
Wüsthof (Three-pronged)
I heard that at the Le Cordon Bleu chef school, everyone is given a set of three-pronged knives when they enter. The three-pronged knife is very famous in Europe, and its workmanship is better than the Zwilling that everyone is familiar with in China. Among non-handmade knives, the three-pronged knife is the most popular brand among professional chefs in Germany, and the price is relatively moderate. However, there are not many product series, and the focus is on professional chefs, so as a lover of pseudo-Western food, you should consider it before buying!
Practicality: ★★★
Completeness: ★★★★★
Value for money: ★★★★
Deng Family Knife
As a famous native product of Dazu, Chongqing, Dengjia Knife has always been talked about for its knife-making craftsmanship. Among them, the famous nine-chrome knife is welcomed by many chefs because of its extraordinary hardness, and the Dengjia knife is relatively cheap and affordable.
Practicality: ★★★★★
Completeness: ★★★
Cost-effectiveness: ★★★★
Brand expansion
Not many people probably know about this brand of kitchen knives, but as a domestic brand, it has actually been established for 8 years. It has been an export brand before, so it is relatively rare in China. Many of his knives use imported steel as the core steel, coupled with good workmanship and low prices, they are loved by some kitchen friends. However, the shapes of some of his knives are really weird, and they are suspected of aesthetic deviation. .
Practicality: ★★★★
Completeness: ★★★
Value for money: ★★★
Brands on the market There are many more, especially there are hundreds of small Japanese kitchen knife factories. Each small factory has its own design style and production method. I haven’t learned about them in depth yet, so I won’t introduce them to you here. For those who are just getting started, I still tend to recommend you to buy products from big manufacturers.
Next, I recommend some personal single-use kitchen knives that I already use.
Reference price: 1,700 yuan
As mentioned in the previous article, the Japanese beef knife combines the two functions of cutting meat and cutting vegetables, which is very suitable for friends who cook both Chinese and Western cuisine. use.
Secondly, among all Japanese kitchen knife steels, SG2 is the most common and top-grade steel. Combining the two points, if you want to buy a thousand-yuan powder steel Japanese-style beef knife as the main knife at home, I recommend this YAXELL , Hao series, both in terms of workmanship and cost-effectiveness, are better among machine-made knives in the same price range.
Reference price: 700 yuan
If you are a quasi-Western food lover or a carnivore, a handy Western-style chef's knife is a must-have kitchen item for cutting. He is a good hand at cutting vegetables and meat! Sancha's classic Ecole series chef's knives are relatively affordable and feel good in the hand. They are much better than Zwilling's in Hong Kong.
Reference price: 198 yuan
How can a Chinese kitchen be missing a handy Chinese kitchen knife? The benefits of Chinese kitchen knives are self-evident, and they are also the easiest to use. I have said before that domestic kitchen knives only suffer from steel. However, this knife has made great improvements. It uses nine-chromium steel. The hardness of the blade is even comparable to that of Japanese kitchen knives. It is also cheap, and you don’t have to worry about it if you toss it around. It’s really a must-have product for home and travel!
I have written so much, thank you all so much for reading this in one go. Now! Are you eager to buy a good knife for your kitchen? Then take advantage of Double Eleven to buy and buy!
If you want to know more about kitchen knives, I recommend you to read some more professional articles. These articles are also where I gained knowledge about kitchen knives:
What are the good ones? Japanese kitchen knife recommendations? —Zhihu
Is the Deng family knife easy to use? —Zhihu
Series: Practical Kitchen Knife Selection Guide—What’s Worth Buying
Japanese Kitchen Knife Steel and Processing Technology—What’s Worth Buying
Kitchen Knife Mechanism Preliminary screening of brands - what is worth buying
Japanese kitchen knife steel selection answers - what is worth buying
Introduction to various types of Japanese kitchen knives - what is worth buying
Finally, I hope everyone can buy a good kitchen knife that you can enjoy and use!