need a good knife for meat

acintya

acintya

Legend
Big_Dangerous said:
Kind of need some more details on the type of meat, the thickness of the cut and the quantity that you'd anticipate dealing with on a regular basis.
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mostly for separating chicken, and beef meat for soup and "gulazsh food" . sometimes i need to cut a 4kg beef piece into small pieces (3x2cm), but thats only once a month. i cut also a lot of onions:)

need just one universal knife - not too big, not too small
 
GeoffHYL

GeoffHYL

Professional
Lots of good knives out there. A 7" (18 cm) Santuko knife would be a decent choice if you want just one knife. Mercer is a decent brand with various levels of knife at different price points. Whatever you do get, learn how to sharpen it. Even a cheaper knife will cut well if kept sharp, but will dull faster than a quality knife. There are a lot of different ways to sharpen a knife, won't go into them here, but educate yourself if you want a sharp knife. Note that a sharpening steel doesn't really sharpen a knife, it just helps straighten out the edge.
 
WildVolley

WildVolley

Legend
GeoffHYL said:
Lots of good knives out there. A 7" (18 cm) Santuko knife would be a decent choice if you want just one knife. Mercer is a decent brand ...
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Yes. This is good advice.

Personally, I prefer a more traditional chef knife shape, say 6-9" blade, over a Santoku, but I use both. The Mercer knives aren't at all bad for the money. The budget Mercer 8" chef's knife can be had for about $15 and will come very sharp. Use a cutting board, hand wash it, and store it where it won't bang into other knives and you shouldn't have to resharpen too often in a home kitchen. I find most people take the edge right off a knife by cutting on plates, counters, etc. A ceramic plate is much harder than the steel. Just use a wooden cutting board, and store them in a block or with a plastic guard.

In the budget realm, Victorinox are also good, but a bit more than Mercer. A lot of professional chefs are using Mercer and Victorinox knives. Compared to most home cooks they have them sharpened more often.

There are some great Japanese knives, but they tend to be more expensive, have thinner edges, and be heat treated to a higher Rockwell hardness than most European knives. This makes them superior for cutting soft things like vegetables and most meat, but also more delicate. If you hit a bone with the edge or don't carefully store them they will tend to chip rather than just mash the edge.

I've been sharpening up a few knives for Thanksgiving carving. I suggest most people get an inexpensive Norton dual sided stone (Crystolon/India) or a budget Japanese synthetic waterstone and learn how to maintain the edge. A decently sharp knife will make even slicing through a soft heirloom tomato easy.
 
Sentinel

Sentinel

Bionic Poster
Wish you'd asked earlier. Just gave away one set of knives to my cousin. Bought by my mum at Harrods.
Another set gifted by my nephew (bought in the UK again) very sharp (perhaps plastic) I threw away in a dumpster since we didn't want knives in the house.

I think there's one more pair (stainless steel maybe) that I am scheduled to throw away.
 
T

Tennis_Hands

Bionic Poster
acintya said:
anything good, that lasts?these japan knives?
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Wüsthof Grand Prix 2/Classic or Masamoto Guyto Chef's knife. Shun and Global are very nice too. Buy as big as you can handle (I prefer 230 to 270 mm, but there are smaller). These are workhorses that do not require special care and would handle almost anything that you throw at them.

If you do boning buy a knife for the purpose (something in the 15 cm range ).

Stay away from specialty Japanese knifes. They are high maintenance and really mostly for cutting that you won't do. Stay away from high carbon blades for the same reason. Sharpen your knives regularly.

 
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