There are a lot of types of knives that are available which include pocket knives, survival knives, kitchen knives, and others. Some of the best pocket knives that you will come across will function as an essential every day took for you. Similarly in your kitchen knives set, one of the most important knives that you will come across is the chef's knife.
In a kitchen cutlery set, there are different types of knives like a bread knife, a butcher knife, and others. While you may use some of the other knives occasionally, the chef's knife is the one that is probably the most used knife and is used in the creation of almost every dish.
As the use of a chef knife is more than the other knives that are in the cutlery set, hence there is more care required for this knife as well. Not only one has to care for the edges of the knife but it should also be ensured that the knife should be sharp and not dull so that it is easy to use and the chances of injuries are reduced. A dull knife will always lead to higher injury chances as more force is applied to cut down any object.
As a chef's knife is different from the others, there are some key essential things that should be kept in mind while using this particular knife. We will now take you through 5 essential things that you should know about any chef's knife.
How to Buy a Chef Knife
Using a chef knife may turn out to be an easy task, but buying a chef knife is definitely not an easy one. When you are buying a chef knife, you need to look at different things before you come to any conclusion.
Some of the most important things to keep in mind while buying a chef's knife are to look at the sharpness of the blade, the weight of the knife, the comfort that you get while using it, and how easy it is for you to use a knife.
After keeping all these things in mind, one should then make a decision on which chef knife will turn out to be a perfect fit for the kitchen.
Sharpen Your Chef Knife
Using a dull chef knife will never appeal to you and it would be no fun if you are using a dull chef knife. Hence your chef knife should be sharp so that your work becomes a lot easier and the risk of any injury is reduced. For that, you can sharpen you chef knife using a sharpening stone kit that helps in fine tuning the blade of your knife.
While the knife can be sharpened with the help of the stone, the stone itself should be kept clean where you have to wash the stone with water and soap after every use. Honing tool can also be used to straighten the edges of your chef knife and give it a long life.
Don't Put the Chef Knife in Dish Water
One common mistake that a lot of people do is to wash the chef knife with the help of dishwater. The main reason for doing this is that you want to wash the knife alongside your dishes at the same time, which can have a detrimental effect on the knife. The blade of your chef knife can go dull once you start washing it with dishwater.
Secondly, as there are a lot of chemicals involved in manufacturing soap, thus washing your chef knife with it can have a negative reaction on the steel blade and it may soon lose its color and stop working. Thus no chef knife should be washed with dishwater.
Use Hot Water to Clean the Knife
As you cannot use dishwater to clean your chef knife, the best way to clean is to use hot water. You can use hot water and put your chef knife in it for a while. All you need is hot water and not even boiling water to clean the chef knife.
Once you have cleaned your knife with hot water, you should immediately dry it so that it can avoid rust. If there are chances of any rust, then you can also oil your chef knife so it can counter the rust at any point in time.
Proper Storage of Chef Knife
Your chef knife will need special attention from you and this is why proper storage is required for the knife. You just cannot put it in the drawer. The main reason is that the blade of the knife should not be in contact with any other blade.
One of the best things to store chef knives is the use of a magnet. You can use the magnetic strip so that the knives stay away from each other. You can also use knife block for proper storage of the chef knife.
Gloria Stokes is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences and express herself through her blogs.
