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Author Topic: What's Cookin'?  (Read 94912 times)

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Kayma

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1040 on: July 10, 2012, 08:03:31 PM »

We are way overdue for putting good money into a good all-around utility 8" blade knife. The ones that catch my eye are always about $100-$120 up here (probably equal to the $70 knifes you're talking about, due to stupid Canadian markups).

The other day, I was hanging around a store and saw a really keen-looking knife that had been part of a set which was broken up and being sold on clearance. Sticker was $135, but it was on sale for $65. Anyway, a quick check online showed that you could get that same knife for $40 on Amazon, so forget it. In fact it really seems like online is the way to go. Importing a knife seems to be no problem customs-wise and it's massively cheaper on some US sites. The only problem is buying sight-unseen. So I want to fish for recommendations.

Just about anything will be better than the dull-as-shit crap we normally use, so absolute keenness is not vital. What I'm looking for is something at a reasonable price which is fairly durable and may keep its edge a bit longer than similarly-priced blades.

Do any of you have any recommendations for specific knives? Or if not, even specific manufacturers?

This is relevant to my interests; my knives are trash, and my chef's knife is a joke. Also, how do you store these suckers properly? I only own about 4 knives, but putting the0m in the drawer seems... unwise.
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Classic

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1041 on: July 10, 2012, 08:04:41 PM »

I used to have a great block of wood to stab my knives into.
It also had a place to stab in a sharpening steel. It was great times.
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Mongrel

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1042 on: July 10, 2012, 08:30:44 PM »

Oh and to give a rough idea, $70 is about my max budget (including shipping) and I'd prefer to spend $50 or so if I could.
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Friend

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1043 on: July 10, 2012, 08:52:48 PM »

This victorinox knife is commonly recommended on Somethingawful and Cooks Illustrated as a budget knife that also performs pretty solidly. I own it and I definitely think it was worth the 25 dollars I paid for it. If you're not in a rush to get a new knife though I'd recommend waiting until the price drops since camelcamelcamel says that this current price point is the highest its ever been.
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Esperath

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1044 on: July 10, 2012, 09:38:44 PM »

My current knife selection is sort of a mishmash of blades I've found on sale.  I got an 8-inch Henckels Pro S Chef's Knife for $35, and a few Wusthof Grand Prix II blades on the cheap (I think I paid $50 for a slicer, a parer, scissors, and a honing steel).  You sort of have to be on the prowl to catch these blades on sale, though.

Eventually I'm going to convince myself to spring for a full Global set.  I used them in my cooking class back in college and holy crap they are the most amazing knives I have ever used.  Maybe it'll end up on my wedding registry, since we already own everything we need.
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Joxam

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1045 on: July 10, 2012, 09:40:17 PM »

honestly I'd recommend going to a place that sells knifes and just checking back every few weeks. People bring shit back or things come in in damaged packaging.
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James Edward Smith

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1046 on: July 10, 2012, 09:54:33 PM »

My knives are these old-assed Eaton EXCALIBUR knives that were my mother's original kitchen knives before she got newer ones. I got them out of the basement and had them sharpened up at the mall. Some of them are pretty dinged up but not enough to hurt performance and it just makes them look HARD AS FUCK.

Unfortunately, I don't have a bread knife but it doesn't matter because my long thin slicing knife is kept sharp enough that if you just use it non retardedly, it cuts bread fairly easily.

Actually on that note, knives to get according to me, James Edward Smith, trained samurai and untrained mildling cooker of meals.

  • A big chef's knife
  • A second chef's knife that's possibly a little smaller so you have something to work with if your main blade is dirty and you were too lazy to wash it but have to cook something now
  • A thin little boning knife to make deboning chicken thighs or fish and such easy without making a dog's breakfast of the thing
  • A long sender slicing knife for cutting slices off roasts and such to serve
  • A breadknife
As I said, I get along fine with out a serrated bread knife by just knowing how to actually cut something and not squish it like a dumby, but a real bread knife makes it almost fool proof.

Something I left out that most people would mention is a small little parring knife. I honestly have never needed one. I don't cut up little fruits, ever, I just eat 'em with my hands or maybe a pocket knife. The only thing my parring knife ever gets used for is to cut knobs off of butter or to cut cheese when I don't want to dirty one of my bigger, actually used knives doing a simple task like that.

As for those dedicated choppers, they've always seemed unwieldly, dangerous, and no more fast than a good old rocking slicing motion with a chef's knife to me.
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Mongrel

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1047 on: July 10, 2012, 10:21:39 PM »

The funny thing is that we've used these crappy little paring knives for almost all our cooking for like better part of a decade. If we're cutting something tougher, we have one shitty larger knife that we sharpen with a cheap sharpening tool (the kind with a slot you drag the knife edge through) right before we chop up the chicken or whatever. The knife is invariably dull again before we're even done that same meal's prep.
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Shinra

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1048 on: July 11, 2012, 07:39:12 AM »

This victorinox knife is commonly recommended on Somethingawful and Cooks Illustrated as a budget knife that also performs pretty solidly. I own it and I definitely think it was worth the 25 dollars I paid for it. If you're not in a rush to get a new knife though I'd recommend waiting until the price drops since camelcamelcamel says that this current price point is the highest its ever been.

29.99 is a great price for this knife.

Mongrel; if you want an awesome knife that'll last forever and do a great job without requiring a lot of maintainance while also being sharp as fuck and well-balanced, get the Victorinox. You might be better off with the 10-inch than the 8-inch, but if you're accustomed to smaller knives the 8 inch is fucking great.

I cannot emphasize this enough: If you are not going to spend a hundred+ dollars on a knife this is the only knife you should buy. It's basically the standard issue line cook and culinary school knife because it's dirt cheap and super functional. If you have particular knife skills and preferences you might seek out something else, and if you don't like having to take the knife to the grinder twice a year you might seek out something else, but for the price point there is literally nothing better you can buy that you don't find used at a yuppy's estate sale.

Just remember that because the knife is stainless steel and has a very high rockwell hardness it's hard to keep sharp with a honing steel, but it will keep an edge for a long time. Find a grinder in your area (I take mine to a guy who sells stoves) and they'll usually sharpen knives for about a dollar a piece, or less. Buck Stove charges me 60 cents a piece.

My personal kinfe is a 10 inch Sabatier Jeune, made between 1870 and 1940. I bought it at an estate sale for ten dollars, and later found out it's about a 250 dollar antique usually bought by either collectors or enthusiasts. It weighs about as much as a feather and holds an edge so sharp that the knife actually scares me a little. But it's carbon steel, so it's ugly and a pain in the ass to maintain. I love that knife, though.

Just a life protip: If you ever see an estate sale, stop and go straight into the kitchen. Most people have lots of infomercial junk, cheap shitty knives they bought in a set at sears one christmas in 1996 and paper-thin pans that 'were the cheapest they had at the store'. You'll be disappointed most of the time. But every once in a while you'll find a 40 year old Osterizer blender that can powder granite or a solid chef's knife or some really good all-clad or wear-ever pans with thick bottoms. Or old pyrex, fuck old pyrex (pre-1980) is GOLD. It's so much better than the new shit because the tempering process was a lot more rigorous and it's MUCH more durable.

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Malikial

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1049 on: July 11, 2012, 07:48:16 AM »

3 of my uncles and my grandfather were butchers. We have professional butcher/meat cutting knives so sharp that my uncle kept them in a locked case when not in use due to having 4-5 kids and my mother owns the grinders/sharpening tools and taught us how to sharpen knives. So, it's one of the things we have that are high quality and well kept in our kitchen. Also, my mom loves to cook so she owns some really high grade cookware and since she's living with us it's at our house, but when she moves back out we'll probably lose the good pans.
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R^2

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1050 on: July 11, 2012, 07:50:31 AM »

Also, how do you store these suckers properly?

Ideally, hang them on a magnetized strip you have on your wall or the inside of your cupboard. Otherwise, get a knife block. Better ones will have holes that go all the way through (demanding they be thicker than your longest knife is long) so schmutz doesn't accumulate at the bottom of the knife slots.

A knife roll, a piece of fabric you can fold over your blades and roll them up, is how most chefs take their knives to and from work, usually offers enough padding that your knives aren't clanging together and denting one another. It's not as instantly-accessible as a magnet or a block, though, since you have to unroll the whole damn thing every time you want a knife.

If none of those options are available, get a plastic edge guard for every knife you own and secure it around your knife blades with rubber bands or hair ties. With the edges guarded, your knives are safe from one another.
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Silversong

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1051 on: July 11, 2012, 02:27:44 PM »

Making buttercream frosting has ruined eating frosting for me. With every bite I'm just all "....I'm eating butter whipped with sugar." D:
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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1052 on: July 11, 2012, 03:08:34 PM »

Not sure where you got the idea that pastry frosting is ever health food.
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Silversong

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1053 on: July 11, 2012, 03:10:05 PM »

It's less that I ever had that idea, and more that it's harder to be in denial when one makes things oneself.
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Mongrel

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1054 on: July 20, 2012, 04:58:20 PM »

Starr made some kind of "I'm too lazy to do anything other than quickly dress chicken and put it in the oven" roast chicken thighs and damned if it wasn't amazing.

Pretty much just paprika, dill, basil, rosemary, olive oil, and flour mixed up then smeared on in a hurry.
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Disposable Ninja

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1055 on: July 29, 2012, 08:23:25 AM »

Making buttercream frosting has ruined eating frosting for me. With every bite I'm just all "....I'm eating butter whipped with sugar." D:

Ah, yes. I had that same problem when I learned how to make fried rice.

Speaking of frying, I've recently discovered the joy of wrapping a hot dog/sausage link in swiss cheese and a flour tortilla, pan frying it in butter, and then dipping it into chipotle mustard. Horribly unhealthy, but fuck, it is good.
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James Edward Smith

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1056 on: August 08, 2012, 07:12:32 PM »

Just had a delicious dinner than I wasn't really expecting to be all that amazing but it turned out great. Rich's mother had a bunch of vegetables in her garden that needed to be harvested and she gave him so much he didn't know what to do with them. So he gave me a pretty big bag of them, green beans and cucumbers. The cucumbers have been really nice in sandwiches and the beans are really flavourful.

Anyway, I got a stake on sale, boiled up the green beans and some couscous, and then seared up the steak with some mushrooms and cucumber slices in some butter. After the steak was medium rare, I covered it in some tinfoil and deglazed the meat marks off the pan with my last bottle of weihenstaphner weissbier. I threw in some torn up parsley and melted some butter in it and reduced it for a bit, letting the mushrooms and cucumbers sit in it and then poured it all over the steak and couscous. Buttery delicousness.


My phone made the steak look a little pale, but it was actually nicely seared.
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François

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1057 on: August 14, 2012, 02:36:19 AM »

There had been continuous rain and thunderstorms for almost a week when I figured I was running low on fresh ingredients, and the discovery of an unidentified arthropod larva in my flour did not help matters. I cracked open two large cans of mysterious mixed beans (79 cents!) I've had since forever, mashed them up, put in some chopped onion, garlic, salt, pepper, BBQ sauce and Tabasco sauce. I think this was the point where I dubbed the concoction "Horrible Bean Crud", on account of its remarkably vomit-like texture and appearance. I formed it into patties, browned it in some olive oil, and served it with rice.

I expected nourishment and nothing else, but it turns out Horrible Bean Crud is rather delicious. Who knew, right?

Next time I'll try it with curry powder and hot peppers.
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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1058 on: August 14, 2012, 05:58:33 AM »

Mrs. A's family has  a similar concoction based on canned Cream of Chicken soup on toast they affectionately call "Chicken Goop". I am horrified and disgusted by the idea.
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Mongrel

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Re: What's Cookin'?
« Reply #1059 on: August 18, 2012, 02:36:34 PM »

Buge made some kinda marinated portabello mushrooms in mysterious vinaigrette onion gravy and holy shit, no really you guys.
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