Aug 6, 2012
Are You Cooking With a Sharp Knife? Here's How You Can Tell
As Julia Child (well, actually Dan Aykroyd as “The French Chef”) once said, “You can’t do nothing without a sharp knife!” Well, Master Bladesmith Bob Kramer knows sharp.
How can you tell if you’re cooking with a knife that is truly, honest-to-goodness, empirically sharp? A sharp knife should be able to:
Cut the tops off of carrots while they are being held, without the use of a cutting surface
Cut through paper
Slice through a rolled up magazine page
Easily slice a tomato
Bite into the papery skin of an onion, without sliding
By these standards, I’m afraid I’ve never cooked with an “according to Hoyle” sharp knife. If Mr. Kramer inspected my knives, he would not be pleased.