(Part 2) Best kitchen utility knives according to redditors

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.

It's just experience and practice. The only equipment you might want is a channel knife—it's basically a little V shaped blade that lets you cut spirals out of a citrus peel. The easiest ones to use are where the cutting direction is parallel to the handle (like http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Channel-Knife-Polypropylene-Handle/dp/B000MF46H6) rather than perpendicular (like http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Lemon-Zester/dp/B00004OCJO).

Then just buy, like, a dozen lemons and start cutting twists. It takes some practice and a steady hand. If you want to make really nice spirals, you can then wrap the twists around a barspoon or any other stick (even a straw). You can find videos online if you need help.

I personally don't usually do twists, I usually just cut a thin swath of rind. I like this because you can express the oils from it in a very controlled way, and I think a swath of orange or lemon peel looks really nice in a drink (like http://www.foodrepublic.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/enlarge/recipe/Classic%20Negroni.jpg instead of like http://caskstrength.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/negroni1.jpg).

Wusthof Ikon is abeautiful line of knives. A 6" utility sounds pretty good (Jacques Pepin uses a similar shaped knife for veg prep quite often, in my recollection). Here's an Amazon link. The Classic line is also quite good, for $70.

For Japnese style, you could go with a Kanehide, like this one from Chef Knives to go. Actually, any of their 150-175mm pettys would be awesome

Got married in 2015 and we was in the same boat as you... Both of us are from large ethnic families who wanted to give physical gifts (because they're well intentioned and wanted to pay it forward - a lot of them were newly arrived in the US without a lot of money, and sometimes not a lot of family and married pretty young - so gifts they got for their marriage were actually very much needed). Both my partner and I already had functioning apartments (separately), then when we moved in while we were engaged, realized we had about 2 of everything and had to narrow that down. Thankfully, we are pretty minimal people - him by nature, me by intention. But especially after having to sort through both of our belonging to weed out duplicates, we really felt like we did not need anything else.

We ended up taking a two pronged appraoch: 1) Upgrading things we had, and used, but that were not all that nice to begin with and 2) Items that would help us achieve the goals that we had laid out for our relationship as a married couple.

A few things we asked for that have seen a lot of use:

1. Vitamix - I thought this was going to be a huge waste of money, but my partner really wanted it and my aunt really wanted to give it to us (because she loves hers). This thing has gotten used daily (and sometimes multiple times a day). We have been low-carb-ish for the last two years and the Vitamix has been awesome for this kind of cooking. Can't say enough great things about it and I have no doubt this thing is going to last decades.
   
   
2. Really great Japanese knives - my cousin is a chef recommended this pearing knife and this 8.5" knife. Not only are they super easy to handle (as opposed to German Wostoff knives - a commonly requested wedding gift, which IMHO are way too large to efficently or precisely manuver), but they are gorgeous knives that are nicely balanced and really feel great in your hand. We replaced an entire block of cheap-o knives with these two knives alone.
   
   
3. Religious & ethnic items for holidays - There are a few holidays we celebrate where specific items are part of the tradition. For example, for Christmas, our families always have nativity sets, so we registered for that. For Easter, there are special cultural items that are used - and someone made us that. You can ask your ethnic families to get you these things (which were actually some of the most touching gifts because they were either made by hand or purchased overseas).
   
   
4. Plates, silverware, glasses and servingware to host 40 people - This is NOT "minimalist" for pretty much anyone, but it made sense for us. We both have large families. The elders of the families have been strongly hinting at having us take over the "big holidays" that they have been hosting. Additionally, we live in a neighborhood that is the spot for 4th of July parties, and we host an annual blowout day-before-Thanksgiving party. When we were making our registry, we made a list of everyone who would be on the invite for these parties and were hitting the 35-40 person range. So we have 40 place settings - we keep 32 of them in a separate set of cabinets in the basement, and 5-6 times a year, bring them out so that everyone can eat together using real plates and silverware. It's not minimalist, but it's intentional in that we specifically have choosen to stay in the same city as our families so we can do these types of things.
   
   I guess my overall advice would be to make a list of goals you want to achieve for your life together, and then try to ask for items that either help you achieve those goals, or enhance those experiences.
   
   A few examples:
   
   

• If a goal for your married life together is to be environmentally sustainable, think about registering for a compost bin, a fancy SimpleHuman garbage/recyling can or a Berkey Water Filter
  
  
• If you want to pursue a healthy lifestyle together and cook homemade meals - you can upgrade your pots and pans (love my All Clad pots and my Le Creuset pan).
  
  Does anyone NEED this stuff? No, of course not. But when you're lucky enough to already have all your basic needs met in life, wedding registries provide are a nice opportunity to upgrade things that were aquired at an earlier time in your time in your life, not for their enduring quality, but rather their low cost/ ease of procurement. Good luck!

I went for this one. It's two grades, so you spend some time on the rougher side, then move on to the finer side for a bit. I also picked up this - not necessary by any means but, because I'm a noob, I think it helped me a lot keep my knife at the right angle when sharpening.

You don't need anything more than this. You could go for even finer stones but that's really only for the pros. You can get everything you need from this... To put it into perspective, my knife was dull enough that I had to put a fair bit of pressure into cutting anything. Now it "catches" as soon as it touches anything, and goes right through onions like water. Does that to me, too =(

Her favorite knife is called a petty. In Russian it has another name - the ladies' favourite, and for a good reason.

The "proper" way for your girlfriend to move forward would be to buy a chef's knife and learn how to use it. However, she may not be willing to learn.

Perhaps you should show her some knife porn an educational video like this one and look at her reaction? Then buy her either a decent chef or a decent petty.

As for the brands, the best chef's knife that fits your budget on amazon.co.uk seems to be a Mercer - closed heel, open heel.

If you choose to buy a petty, you can get her a classic Wusthof, or a wider Japanese-inspired Wusthof. An interesting budget option is Tescoma AZZA. The brand is meh, but this line of knives is said to be good.

Looks like a special kind of frozen food knife.

I know its stamped because I have the same knife. The forged ones are "better," but they cost three times as much.

Here is a forged knife. It's really easy to see the difference, since the forged knives are full-tang.

Have you tried Amazon?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Laguiole-Butter-Knife-Tray-Ivory/dp/B00AHF0DDC/ref=sr_1_38?keywords=butter+knife&qid=1562332792&s=gateway&sr=8-38

I was actually starting to draft a little cooking ideas post like this. This is just what I found value in and will ramble because I haven't really edited it down at all. So if anyone reads it and has notes please let me know, it's fairly directionless at the moment. It is also from the perspective of and aimed towards young single people but not exclusive to. I am also well aware a lot of you folks are good cooks or at least have a functional kitchen and I in no way want it to sound like I'm more knowledgeable than anyone with an hour to watch youtube videos.

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TL:DR Make sure your skills are on point before getting convenience tools as you might not need them, a cast iron or good stainless steel skillet and a good couple of knives can do most things in a kitchen, plan meals before you shop to avoid wastefulness.

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This post is big, flawed, and broken into two main sections. One is purely skills based, stuff you can totally do for free and can start doing right this moment. That's a big part of minimalism for me, gaining skills and getting good at some things rather than owning and being okay at a ton of things. The second section is more of a buy guide, again all from my experience.

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First off is to focus less on the equipment and more on the technique. Fundamentally, knife skills, understanding of cook times, heat, and technique, creativity and planning are some terms I like. In addition I have thoughts on tools and ingredients

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First, learn your knife, do drills, practice good form constantly. When I started in a fast-food-y sandwich shop when I was 16, the manager (who was a line cook for years) suggested I practice things like chopping a carrot as thinly as possible, or celery, or breaking down onion and garlic. Then I got to work with the prep team (which was cool because they taught me Spanish) to learn basic stuff like sauces and cooking meats. The result is a few years later, I have a decent knife. Not as good as a legit cook or anything but enough that I can confidently use a sharp knife to do anything a home cook would ever need to.

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Cook times. It's way less intimidating to work on food when you know "okay my chicken will take this long, oven takes this long, rice needs this much time", and so on. From a minimalist perspective, this will help you cut down on some tools such as a plug-in type grill, rice cookers, stuff that times or cooks food for you. Learning how to use heat also really improves the versatility of something as simple as a cast iron pan. Technique will allow you to make staple dishes or at least be able to take a guess at how to prepare just about anything, and the most valuable tip for that is look up how to make individual components of dishes rather than just recipes over and over. This becomes relevant in the next portion as well.

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Creativity. As some people are mentioning, "aspirational groceries" cause clutter and waste in the form of garbage and money. Creativity helps solve this when paired with planning. When shopping, I found it valuable to plan out meals for the week. Buy what you need, make a note of what isn't used, and refine. That's planning. Creativity is ending up with some random ingredients and Macgyvering it together so you don't waste or overspend. That is made much easier by having solid cooking techniques so you have a bit of a starting off point for creativity.

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Now into the stuff. I personally think a couple things are fundamental. Babish from YouTube has a great List . First off, get a good 7" to 8" Chef knife. I use a Gyuto but that's more because I impulse bought one when I first moved out and had all the money in the world from not having any expenses and was talked into it by a very nice saleswoman at the knife shop in town. Wusthof is a great name in knives and if you can get a hold of an 8" one of those, a bread knife, and maybe a pairing knife (I don't really use mine much but some people do) you will be able to do most things. I'd avoid buying a knife set just because you're more than likely paying for an extra 3 or so knives you won't use, and they're cheap for a reason. But to each their own, it is very convenient to have the steak knives, honing rod, and scissors that most of them include. No judgement here. Plus they're really really affordable.

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Now as to everything else, I'm not as researched. I think a good cast iron skillet is fantastic from a minimalist perspective as you can do most things that you'd really ever need to do on it, from frying to saute to some baking. Kent Rollins is first off a joy to watch but more importantly uses very limited tools. He does have his specialized "bertha" stove but for the most part it's just him with either open fires or a hot stove cooking in cast iron pans and dutch ovens. If you want to know more, I'd just watch the babish video above, he talks more about why he has what he has, such as this expensive but amazing set of pots and pans. Off the top of my head: baking sheets, a large cutting board, a meat thermometer (safety), measuring cups and spoons, box grater (or one coarse grater and one microplane grater), spatulas, tongs, etc.

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Like I said this is mostly ranting, and I'm going to research and trim it down for the future, but these are my thoughts at the moment.

I have this knife and use it all the time. Agree that it stays sharp with normal care. Great knife for the price.

My friend has this Mercer and I can't tell the difference even though it is $30 more.

For less than half the cost of that Al-Mar, you can get a similar Global knife. They harden to around 58 HRC, which is in between the usual hardnesses for German and Japanese knives. No damascus unfortunately, but the knives look pretty cool on their own. They use a super high chromium steel, so they are all but impossible to rust, meaning that, combined with the one piece handle, if the knife were to make it into the dishwasher or left in a sink, it would be minimally damaged.


Edit: Here are two, one with a narrower paring-shaped blade and one with a wider, slightly santoku-like blade.

hey! saw this thought of you...not sure where you live, but this might ship globally
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BIGCII2?&linkCode=waa&tag=pg0d5-20

Offset handles; <$25 on Amazon:

Victorianox 9" ~$23

F.Dick 7" $24

Mercer 8" $14

Mundial, 7" $20

Victorianox, 9" $24

Dexter-Russell, 9" $20

Mercer, 8" $16

Messermeister, 6" $20

They work as dive knives.

Apparently $15 new: http://www.amazon.ca/Joy-Enterprises-FP11846-Tactical-Treasure/dp/B004XW7GDA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420257228&sr=8-1&keywords=dive+knife

If you're gonna buy $13 knives, be prepared to have to sharpen them ALL THE TIME cause they're gonna be crap. lol I mean obviously they're better than nothing, but you'll find yourself replacing them sooner than you'd want to.

I'm sure it's probably not in the budget, but when you can, get a good knife set, or even just buy a good chef's knife. It makes all the difference in the world. And really, all you need are a chef's knife, maybe something like this, and a utility/paring knife, like this one.

Or just a nice stainless paring knife too, if you don't care to carry it:

https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-4-Inch-Paring-Polypropylene-Handle/dp/B0019WZMCY/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1540598411&sr=8-10&keywords=victorinox+paring+knife+straight

For what it's worth, if you buy this kitchen knife you'll get a Counterstrikey sound as you pull it out of the paper sheath.