[Sca-cooks] A question about knives

[Chris Stanifer]

--- Bill Fisher <liamfisher at gmail.com> wrote:

> Older knives are carbon steel and should not be 
> left in the dishwasher.


No steel knife, high carbon or not, should ever be placed in the dishwasher, with the exception of
Stainless Steel (though i still advise against this).  First, you may rust your knife if you don't
dry it immediately (especially high carbon), and the beating they take in an automatic dishwasher
will ruin the edge.  Same is true for placing quality knives in a drawer with other utensils.  No,
if you have a good set of knives, and you want to keep them that way, please wash them by hand,
dry them immediately, and keep them safe from being banged aorund.  Try rubbing a little
shortening or lard into the blade after use, to keep it from rusting.

As for an older, high carbon knife, the darkening of the blade may be due to the action of acid on
the blade.  If you have been using a HC knife to cut citrus, tomatoes, or anything with a high
acid content, and you don't wash it immediately, the acid may darken and eventually pit your
blade.  HC blades also darken naturally over time, and a 50 year old set like yours would actually
be quite uncommon if it didn't darken.

 
> > 1) What is a birdbeak knife and what do you do
> > with it?  [And no wiseacre answers about chopping
> > birdbeaks!]
> 
> It is a little paring knife, used for cutting things like 
> veggies, decorative peices, etc.  I suppose you 
> could use it for cutting birds beaks, but it is named
> for the shape of the blade.

Also called a Tourne knife, used for 'turning' vegetables, and makes fluting a mushroom cap a real
breeze.  I haven't had much call to use a Tourne knife professionally since the decline of
'nouvelle cuisine' in the late 80's, though I still think the technique of turning vegetables is
worth the time it takes to learn.


I do not now own, nor have I ever owned, a cleaver.  This is not to say that they are not a useful
tool... but I have found that a solidly built French or German Chef's Knife can do the job of a
cleaver 98% of the time.  And, the local Butcher can fill any gaps...

William de Grandfort


=====
Every heart to love will come... but like a refugee.


		
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