That Explains It

I was watching Atlantic senior editor Corby Kummer's web video about knives up on the Atlantic site and I'm trying to convince myself that I recognize him from around the office somewhere when suddenly the words, "right here where I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts" escape his lips, thus explaining why I don't recognize him from the office -- he doesn't work there. It's interesting, though, that I was able to convince myself that I didn't. The knife business itself is interesting. There's also a print article if you're old school:

Never buy a set. Few people use more than three knives, and it’s practically inconceivable that one manufacturer will make the three likeliest to please you (or will sell them as a set).

Words to live by, I guess. I wonder where this three knives factoid comes from, though. I'm seeing four knives (bread, meat, big vegetables, little vegetables), plus some random spares.

Comments

> and I'm trying to convince myself that I recognize
> him from around the office somewhere when
> suddenly the words, "right here where I live in
> Cambridge, Massachusetts" escape his lips, thus
> explaining why I don't recognize him from the
> office -- he doesn't work there.

Uh, Matthew? _The Atlantic_ was headquartered in Boston for the first 122 years of its existence [1]. It was only 2-3 years ago that it moved its HQ to Washington DC. A move that will clearly be better for your commuting arrangements but was not for the better in terms of editorial outlook IMHO.

Cranky

[1] Don't quote me on the exact number but I think that is about right.

Posted by Cranky Observer | June 28, 2007 11:17 AM

Don't cook much, do you? 4 is a good number, but most people don't have a "meat knife" and I wouldn't list bread at #1 unless you're cutting lots of bread. You need a chef's knife (usually 8 inches) for chopping vegetables, fruit, herbs, and it also serves well enough to carve meat, smash garlic etc. You need a paring knife for more delicate work, or if you're just cutting a small piece of something and don't want to drag out the big knife. You may need a bread knife if you cut a lot of bread. I like having a 6 or 7 inch serrated utility knife around for cheese, tomatoes, and just when the other knives are dirty and I don't feel like washing them.

OXO peelers are great to have around too.

Posted by JMS | June 28, 2007 11:56 AM

Most people only use 3 knives because they don't cook for themselves with any frequency or have any clue as to how to hold and use a knife. I say 7 is the minimum and getting them seperately is the only way to go. Spend money on the Chef's, boning and carving. Cheap bread and pairing knifes are just fine, especially pairing knifes as one is very likely to go through these very quickly.

Large Chef's (8-10")
Small Chef's (6-8")
Boning
Bread
Carving (8-10")
Tomato (5" serrated)
Pairing

Posted by Tyler | June 28, 2007 11:59 AM

Oh, just buy a good-quality set and be done. What are you going to do, research the best paring knives, then go to a specialty store and try them each on a variety of vegetables before you make your decision? And then do this again for each knife you buy? I got an 8-piece Henckel's set 25 years ago-- I use 7 of the 8 knives regularly, and have never had to buy any others to supplement them. But perhaps that has left me with too much money and time on my hands.

Posted by calling all toasters | June 28, 2007 12:10 PM

You left out homicide. Just saying.

Posted by jeffrey dahmer | June 28, 2007 12:19 PM

The Atlantic's quality, while never that great in recent years (the Atlantic blogs I find much better than the magazine itself), did drop precipitously once it moved into the Beltway madness.

Posted by Ben Cronin | June 28, 2007 12:48 PM

Tony Bourdain in "Kitchen Confidential" claims you need at most four knives: Kitchen, boning, paring, and bread. This turns out to be pretty accurate; after a few weeks of practice, you can do almost everything with the kitchen knife. So, yes, good advice.

Posted by Nicholas Beaudrot | June 28, 2007 12:48 PM

Yep: though I'd like to see Bourdain peel and core an apple with a chef's knife. I use three regularly, but I don't have any need for a boning knife, and I can cut tomatoes with the bread knife.

Corby's wrong about the magnetic rack over the block, though. I don't want the blade on my chef's knife exposed. Those funky blocks with lots of hard rods to grip the knives are the way forward.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | June 28, 2007 1:09 PM

The other thing about knives, which seems to be illustrated here, is that if you _have_ lots of knives and you cook with any regularity, you will wind up _using_ lots of knives.

And if you don't, you won't. Having more specialty knives will be more useful, but it's not like you're going to be completely unable to cut things at all if you don't have one of those special Japanese straight-edge knives without a bolster. It's just that those knives are _really_ good for certain things.

Also, it means you don't have to wash your knives as frequently in the middle of cooking.

Posted by Stu | June 28, 2007 1:13 PM

I cook all the time. We have a block full of knives. I use 3 and can't imagine what the others are there for except as things to make the knife block look full.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | June 28, 2007 1:18 PM

this article from Mark Bittman (whose "How To Cook Everything" is a must-have) doesn't seem to hold with the one-knife-for-everything school; Chef's knife, paring knife, bread knife, stop. That and a good sharpener will get you a long way.

Posted by Mike Hoye | June 28, 2007 1:35 PM

A faux pas that will continue to happen. For years, I assumed that Corby Kummer was a man. A few months ago, CK mentioned a "husband" in an article, or at least that is my recollection. I then assumed CK was a woman. But he is, on the evidence of the video, a man. He lives in Massachusetts, though, so did I misread or misremember the reference to a "husband" or does he have one?

Posted by CJColucci | June 28, 2007 1:56 PM

Matt, it's a bit distressing to see you define your knives this way (meat, large veggies, small veggies). You use different knives to chop garlic, slice eggplant, and cut stew meat?

Add America's Test Kitchen to the 3-4 knife gang. They did reviews and say caliber of chef's knives in most sets is relatively poor, and those are really the alpha knives. I don't agree with Tyler that you need two sizes of them.

Posted by McG | June 28, 2007 1:58 PM

Oh, and I'd bet Anthony Bourdain could peel and core an apple with a chef's knife, though I would use a paring knife and I suspect he would, too.

Posted by CJColucci | June 28, 2007 1:58 PM

I have a full set and use all of them regularly. It's not a big investment, so I don't see what the big deal is. If you like to cook, then you will probably also like to have the right knife for the job.

Posted by blah | June 28, 2007 2:13 PM

Kummer's name was probably a heavy burden in middle school.

Anyway, just because he lives in Cambridge doesn't mean he never works out of other offices. Couldn't you have seen him in the DC office while he was in town for a meeting/assignment/other type of business trip?

Posted by JP | June 28, 2007 5:03 PM

The office? I thought you guys sat at home in your jammies. Do you get to wear your jammies at work? Do you need a special knife for opening bags of Cheetohs?

Posted by An Outhouse | June 28, 2007 5:41 PM

You need two knives: one for killing and one for gutting.

Posted by the heartland mocks you | June 30, 2007 5:36 AM