Cleaning & Sharpening the Kitchen Knives
Storage, use, cleaning and sharpening kitchen knives: these are 4 important things to properly maintain the edge of your knives. Whether your knife is ceramic or stainless steel, there are rules to follow to preserve the life of your blades, and thus have a kitchen knife that is always sharp!
Indispensable for any cook, the knife is present in all kitchens. Paring, chef's or ham knife : regardless of the type of blade, it is important to maintain them properly to avoid ending up with blunt kitchen knives.
You will see that storage, use, cleaning and sharpening are the 4 most important points for keeping knives as long as possible. But before that, it is important to know how to choose the right kitchen knives?
Now that you have the right knives for your needs, let's take a closer look at each of the important points for your knives to live as long as possible. First of all, let's start storing your cutting utensils.
Storing knives
Many people store their knives with all their utensils in a "catch-all" drawer in their kitchen. However, this is absolutely not to be done. First, because you risk cutting yourself rummaging through your drawer looking for one utensil or another. Secondly, because it damages the blade of your knives, because it undergoes micro-shocks in your drawer.
The ideal for your cutting utensils is to store them on a magnetic bar. In addition, it will allow you to have your knives always at hand! You can also fall for a nice knife block, be careful that it is cleaned regularly.
Store your knives on a magnetic bar !
Now that your knives are perfectly stored, you need to know how to use them correctly.
The use of knives
First of all, it is important to know that you must use your knives on a cutting board suitableWhich means your board should be wood or plastic. The idea is simple: if your knife doesn't scratch your cutting board, then it's bad. Indeed, a stainless steel or marble cutting board will damage the edge of the blade, unlike a bamboo board.
Use a cutting board wooden
Of course, do not use your knives in a pan or saucepan, as this will damage your cooking utensil, in addition to damaging your blade!
Once you've used your knives, it's time to clean them
Cleaning knives
Although brands often state that their knives are dishwasher safe, this is strongly discouraged for many reasons. Indeed, even in your cutlery basket, the kitchen knives may suffer small shocks with the other cutlery, thus damaging the blade. In addition, this risks, in the long run, damaging the rivets of your knife. Finally, if your knife handle is made of wood, the dishwasher will quickly wear down the knife.
Of course, if you have a drawer and not a cutlery basket, your blades will be protected from shocks. However, the dishwasher will still damage your rivets and the wooden handle of some of your kitchen knives.
In the end, it is better to clean a knife, directly after its use, using a soft sponge and soapy water. Of course, avoid using the abrasive side which would scratch the blade.
If your stainless steel blade loses shine, you can use a halved raw potato and rub it against the blade. Another technique is to heat white vinegar and soak a soft cloth to rub your blade with. These two techniques can restore all their shine to your knife blades.
Finally, after all this, we have to talk about an essential element of knife maintenance, although often forgotten: sharpening and honing.
Knife sharpening
We're not going to hide it, we all tend to wait until our knife no longer slices to sharpen it! This is a very terrible mistake, because the best thing to do is to sharpen your knife regularly so that it retains all its sharpness: several times a week for a knife used regularly, once a month or at least every three months for home use.
Wondering the difference between sharpening and honing ? Sharpening allows you to keep the sharpness of a blade on a daily basis, while sharpening allows you to bring a dull blade back to life (which no longer cuts at all).
If you don't remember to sharpen your cutting utensils regularly, it's partly because you don't know how to do it. So let's answer that question now!
How to sharpen a knife?
There are several utensils to maintain your knives: the sharpening steel, the whetstone, etc. Regardless of the utensil you use, it is very important to respect the angle of the blade. The majority of knives have a blade angle of 40°C on average. However, some brands, such as Arcos, offer knives whose blade edge has an angle of 24-25°C. For quick sharpening, it is advisable to use an electric or manual sharpener.
The Chef's Choice electric sharpener is designed to sharpen but also to sharpen dull blades. Simply run your knife blade through each of the three slots for a day-one sharp blade. This sharpener is adored by food professionals.
Chef Choice electric sharpener
At a more affordable price for individuals, the Arcos manual sharpener will make sharpening your stainless steel knives easy. Adjust the angle of the blade and pass your knives between the sharpening discs several times to obtain a perfect sharpness.
For a more complete sharpening, it is possible to use a sharpening steel. For beginners, or for wide knife blades (like a chef's knife), we recommend using an oval-shaped sharpening steel. The sharpening steel can only be used on smooth stainless steel blades. You can also finish the edge of your blade using a diamond sharpening. Usingthe rifle can be impressive at first: the secret is to glide your blade by tilting your knife and sliding it against your rifle on one side of the blade and then the other. Lightly press the knife against your rifle as you slide it over the sharpening steel. Take your time, no need to do it like Philippe Etchebest to get a great result! Over the uses you will go faster, but it is not the speed that makes the result, so do not hesitate and start.
We can't all have our class!
Besides the whetstone, you can also use water stones with different polishing grains: this allows a perfect finish for your blades. These sharpening stones should be soaked in water for 10 minutes before each use. There are different grits, the finest grit will allow a perfect finish while the coarse grit will allow the sharpening of a dull blade. This method is the one most recommended by professionals, as it is more precise than a sharpener (manual or electric).
Finally, for the kitchen knife to slide better, you can polish the edge of your blade with leather. Yes, yes: leather can be used to maintain your cutting utensils, so that they easily penetrate your food when cutting it.
What about ceramic knives?
Very sharp and increasingly popular: ceramic knives can also be sharpened. You need to use a diamond sharpener for this. Whether the diamond sharpening steel or the diamond and ceramic sharpener : there are various utensils for sharpening and honing a ceramic blade.
Now that you know everything you need to do to keep a knife sharp for a very long time, to your cutting board and we cut everything! And if you want to impress your loved ones, discover our article on the cuts to master in the kitchen.
