Reddit reviews Victorinox Swiss Army 10-1/4" Serrated Bread Knife with Fibrox Handle

[this chefs knife- very best bang for buck]
(http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-47521-10-Inch-Fibrox-Handle/dp/B0000CF8YO/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1450572369&sr=8-11&keywords=Victorinox+Fibrox)

[get this paring knife]
(http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-4-Inch-Fibrox-Straight-Paring/dp/B008M5U1UE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1450572029&sr=8-4&keywords=Victorinox+Fibrox)

[this slicing knife]
(http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-12-Inch-Granton-Slicing-Fibrox/dp/B0000CFDB9/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1450572029&sr=8-9&keywords=Victorinox+Fibrox)

[if you have money left over - get this bread knife]
(http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-47547-4-Inch-Fibrox-Handle/dp/B00093090Y/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1450572029&sr=8-10&keywords=Victorinox+Fibrox)

How to wash a knife safely.

Don't get a set. Sets are designed to get you paying for knives you'll never use. I recommend starting with a chef's knife and a paring knife. The chef knife is your workhorse, you'll use it for almost everything. The paring knife is traditionally used for peeling and detail work, but just think of it as what you reach for when the job is too small for the chef knife. If you bake bread or buy unsliced loaves of it, you'll probably also want a bread knife.

Victorinox Fibrox knives are great knives for a new cook and an excellent value for the money. Here's their chef's knife, their paring knife, and their bread knife. That leaves you with enough money to buy a block and stay under $100. I like the wall mounted magnetic ones with a wooden face like this one myself, but there are plenty of other options if that's not what you want.

There are three important kitchen knives: a chef's knife, a bread knife, and a paring knife. Victorinox makes all three:

Chef's knife; bread knife; paring knife.

That comes to around $75. Buy a set of cheap steak knives, and you're good to go.

I'm a line cook at a casual fine dining Italian restaurant and I use the Victorinox 10 1/4" bread knife. I've had it over a year and it still performs well.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00093090Y

Victorinox is a constant favorite of America's Test Kitchens. I have the Chef's knife, Slicing knife, and Pairing set and I really like them. Great prices for great knives. I'll probably eventually get the Steak Knife set and Wavy Bread knife. I posted links to Amazon so you could look at the reviews.

get a good bread knife, This one is my favourite and not too expensive.

I'll try to answer your questions.

>Generally, don't buy a set. Make it myself (totally agree here)

Yup

>Learn how to sharpen and hone (latter if using a German steel blade and Japanese knives use whetstones, yes?)

Absolutely on both points

> As a beginner, I'm looking to get a chef's knife (8-9inches), a bread knife and a paring knife (~3inches)

That sounds perfect. You might even consider swapping out the paring knife for a petty that's just a tad bit bigger which will cover anything the paring knife can do and also allow you a bit more flexibility to do other things as well.

> willing to spend a bit (like £100-£150 total)

Is that total cost or cost of a knife + whetstones or a hone if you go with a German style knife?

> I'm not sure whether I should go for a German blade or a Japanese one or mix em up

My advice for you is to start with a nice gytuo, follow that up with a petty, and eventually grab a functional bread knife like this Victorinox unless a bread knife is something you think you are going to be using very often. A gyuto is probably the most fun knife to have and is where you should be spending the bulk of your money.

---

A good place to start on your journey is here on this sub, but since its still growing maybe you want to check out cheftalk a bit? Here's a good post by board_d_laze talking about the differences in French and German chef knive profiles which is relevant to your question because it was actually the profile of a French Sabatier that influenced the gyuto the most.

I've also added a bit to the wiki.

edit: some things I forgot

A bread knife can be sharpened with a file, but this is probably something you want to pay a professional to do. Serrated knives require less maintenance because they are serrated. Each serration ideally only makes contact in a very few places which will wear down overtime but as they do other areas along each serration will pick up the slack, so to speak.

As for recommendations, do you happen to know what retailers you have available in the UK? Are you limited to only using Amazon? I searched for some of my standard recommendations on amazon.co.uk but couldn't find them listed.

The swiss brand knife you mention is probably this Victorinox which is a solid knife.

The victorinox bread knife does pretty well for me.

I recommend this knife. it makes bread slicing a lot easier.

I would spend a little more on the knives. cheap knives, imo, are a waste.

Going with something like Forschner would be good, inexpensive, and last.

Chef's

Bread

Paring

Optional - mid size Utility Knife

That's $60 - 80 for all the knives you'll need to last you a long, long time. I would add a honing "steel" for sure, and perhaps a whetshone later on to keep them in excellent shape.

Stainless steel tri-ply pans, well reviewed by Cook's Illustrated and many bloggers:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tramontina-10-Piece-18-10-Stainless-Steel-TriPly-Clad-Cookware-Set/11072505 $229

Victorinox Chef's knife. Cheap, and again very well reviewed by Cook's Illustrated and many bloggers:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000638D3220 $27

Victorinox serrated knife:
http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-47547-4-Inch-Fibrox-Handle/dp/B00093090Y/ref=pd_sim_k_7 $25

Victorinox paring knife:
http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-47508-4-Inch-Paring-Knife/dp/B0001V3UYG/ref=pd_sim_k_2 $8

Cheap and well reviewed knife sharpener:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004VWKQ/

To round that out: a cheap non-stick pan (they wear out, don't sink money into this), some silicone spatulas, Pyrex bakeware, and maybe a cast iron or mineral steel skillet.

You can see a theme with my recommendations. You can have very high quality kitchen stuff, without breaking the bank.

Best of luck :)

I slice it after it's cooled for an hour, it's just the slightest bit warm at that point. I use a large bread knife, sawing back and forth letting the knife cut through the almonds without using a lot of downward pressure. Some recipes call for refrigerating it overnight before slicing but I've never tried that.

• First - Blocks are difficult to clean, and take up a bunch of counter space. If you can, hang a magnetic strip on the wall
  
• Don't buy a pre-put together knife set. They are normally constructed using what knives the brand currently just has lying around
  
• Do buy the bare essentials as seperates
  
  My essentials recommendation:
  
  
• $35 - Chefs knife: https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-Chefs-Knife-8-Inch/dp/B008M5U1C2/
  
• $45 - Bread Knife: https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Serrated-5-2533-21-1-piece-Fibrox/dp/B00093090Y/
  
• $20 - Magnetic Strip: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JF2QZK8
  
  Things you may want to add:
  
  
• $22 - Boning knife: https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Curved-Fibrox-Boning-Flexible/dp/B0019WQDOU
  
• $8 - Paring Knife: https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Cutlery-Straight-Paring-3-25-Inch/dp/B0019WXPQY
  
• $65 - Slicer: https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Army-Cutlery-Slicing/dp/B0000CFDB9
  
  You could get every one of those for $195. You can also upgrade that Chef's knife to something a little fancier and stick with all of the other victorinox stuff and hit your budget.

I started collecting Shun knives without having seen them. I was not disappointed. I have fairly large hands but I like the weight and balance so I slowly started buying more. I am in no way disappointed. These knives will outlive me. I don't have many but I also don't need many. All you really need is the chef knife and a paring knife. You can do almost anything with those two. I also have the santoku and the funky Alton Brown angled knife.

My brother uses Wusthoff, which also work great. I keep one on hand in case he is around to cook with me.

I also keep this bread knife on hand. It isn't worth trying to get sharpened, but it will last for years and it isn't expensive to replace. I think my last one made it seven years.

I know $40 seems a bit steep to a college student for a bread knife but do yourself a favor and get this as soon as you can. I actually love this knife more than my chef knife. It is wonderously sharp and goes through any bread you through at it like buttah.

This Victorinox works well for me. Costs around $40.

That's where I'm leaning so far. Unless my parents have extra knives sitting in the basement that they want to get rid of, I'll probably end up getting this, this, this, this, this, and a couple of these.

You can get really great knives for a very good price. In fact, the knives that America's Test Kitchen recommends are all under $30.
Chef's Knife
(the all around workhorse)
Forschner/Fibrox Chef's Knife {$30}
Paring knife
(I use mine sometimes, for trimming)
Forschner/Fibrox paring knife {$10}
Serrated knife
(I use mine for bread and watermelon)
Forschner/Fibrox bread knife {$25}

As for spices, I use very few, and buy them as I need them for recipes. The ones I go through fastest (other than salt and pepper) are cumin (for Mexican and Indian cuisine) and nutmeg (uhh, I bake a lot).

Whenever I need to buy a new basic or fancy gadget, I always check out America's test kitchen. Sign up for the free two week thing, and look up ALL the tools.

Finally, my favorite guide to all the things you need comes from smitten kitchen. Seriously, check it out. Super awesome.

If your price range is $100-$200 I would not recommend purchasing a full knife set. Honestly, you only really need three knives in your kitchen to do everything: a Chef's Knife/Santoku, a pairing knife, and a serrated/bread knife.

The Chef's knife/Santoku is the most important knife in the kitchen, and the only knife that you really need to spend a decent amount of money on. For a chef's knife, I hands down recommend the Tojiro DP Gyuto, either 240mm or 270mm. If you're looking for an excellent quality knife that's reasonably attractive, it's probably the best on the market at that price point.

The pairing knife is far less important than the Chef's knife, but it's important that you have one in your kitchen. I'd suggest that you simply do the purchase set for a 90mm tojiro pairing knife and 240mm Gyuto for around $110.

For the serrated/bread knife, all that matters is that it's fairly long and serrated. If you want to stick with the set, you can get a Tojiro DP 210mm bread knife for around $60. If you don't care as much about the aesthetics and just want a decent bread knife, go with the Victorinox Fibrox 10.5 inch bread knife.

I was looking at some of the angled magnetic knife blocks where the knife sits at an angle on the front of the block - it seems they all top out at about 8" blade length though... the planned victorinox set has a 10+" blade :(

edit now I'm a bit confused. For this knife for example:
https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Serrated-Fibrox-Handle/dp/B00093090Y

Is the 10" length the "exposed metal section" or including the handle?

I have this one and it's a really nice and useful knife.

I've had amazing results with this knife for a third of the price:

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-47547-4-Inch-Fibrox-Handle/dp/B00093090Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1323642803&sr=1-1

Don't go the electric route.


Make sure you have a good bread knife What makes a good one? make sure it's serrated, thin and always sharp. You can first try sharpening your current bread knife and see if it helps. If you tell me which bread knife you have I might be able to give you my impressions, if you say it's a good one.


Make sure you keep it sharp, (a dull knife greatly increases the risk of cutting yourself too -- a bit counter intuitive to some people) if you sharpen them yourself take to a professional maybe every year or so depending on use. Take your other knives too, or just learn. i collect knives so it's no issue for me. Some people will say you can't sharpen a serrated knife but they are wrong, they just don't know how.


I sometimes make homemade bread and I can even cut it with a regular knife -- but it's sharp. squishes it down a bit though but that's it. Not sure what you're using for a recipe but make sure you got a good crust on there and that it's still soft in the middle.


here's an article describing the recipe I use


actual recipe


Hopefully i've been thorough and helpful.

Got 35$?? A 10" Victorinox serrated bread knife is an all purpose knife that is easy to handle and bomber. One knife that will do it all for any skill level. No need to spend a bunch of cheddar, unless you got it. Find it on Amazon here:


Victorinox Swiss Army 10.25 Inch Fibrox Pro Curved Bread Knife with Serrated Edge https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00093090Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_OOUfzb6FDSSMB