Cutlery: “… past murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, towards the rotating knives.”
Picking up where the previous article left off, here is part III of the series, titled “… past murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, towards the rotating knives.”. Not into remembering where you’ve been and what you’ve done before? I’ve got it covered. Parts I through IV are as follows:
- A sharp knife cuts faster and cleaner while using less force.
- A knife is dulled by use, and all knives dull in time.
- Serrations are not a replacement for a keen edge.
- Cheap knives don’t have to be bad knives.
Formalities being covered, let’s take a brief detour to discuss the problem with serration of the average kitchen knife.
Serrations are not a replacement for a keen edge.
Judging by the sheer volume of cheap serrated knives I see on television (like Chef Tony’s Miracle Blades!), I believe that it’s time for someone to point out the pink elephant in the room: serrations are often used to disguise a sub par edge on sub par steel, and to keep a sub par knife “sharp” longer.
What’s wrong with serrations? Well, serrations are “ok” on a steak knife. Or anything that has to tear a little bit before it cuts or where you want to remove part of whatever you’re cutting. They’re on a good reliable bread knife. And they are pretty handy if you want to cut a tomato in a pinch but you don’t own a thin-bladed knife. But you don’t shave your face with a pull saw, and you shouldn’t be doing prep work with a serrated blade.
The steel in most cheap knives has a very large, coarse crystalline structure, which leaves it unable to take a proper edge for very long. The steel just isn’t hard enough or strong enough to even pretend. To compensate, these cheap knives are serrated, which turns them into tiny little saws, suitable for cutting just about anything… that you would cut with a saw. Wooden dowels! Cardboard! Styrofoam! Twigs, branches, and even roots; And if you wanted to half-ass it, I guess even your food.
So while technically the edge is “sharp”, it’s because you have a series of small teeth that are basically tearing through whatever is being cut, not actually make a clean slice. So that means that unless you’re “rough cutting” or going for “country style” you’re going to get a remarkable lack of finesse and agility from a serrated knife. Blunt, rough cuts with jagged edges abound.
Why do we use serrated steak knives? Because for the most part American culture has been taught that cooking meat until it’s shoe-leather is the only way to guarantee that it’s “safe”. And do you know how you cut shoe-leather? Yep. Serrations (or very sharp shears with a bit of leverage behind them).
You hopefully noticed a trend along the lines of “Know what else has serrations? A saw.” And if you want to cut your food the same way you’d saw a log, be my guest (I’m looking at you, Henckles ‘EverSharp’ and CutCo “Double D Edge”). Christ, Double D is a cup-size, not a knife edge.
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Our tangent down “what is wrong with you” lane has come to an end. Coming soon is part IV, “What goods’ a knife in a nuke fight?” wherein we’ll discuss getting what you pay for and how not to pay for more than you’re going to get.