Of all the tools the modern homemaker has to work with, a good set of kitchen cutlery is the single most important one. Not just a couple of good sharp knives, but a good kitchen cutlery knife set provides a uniform set of precision tools to make meal preparation more enjoyable.

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We will focus for a few minutes on what types of knives every cook would want in their tool box. Starting with the larger knives, a sturdy vegetable slicing knife should be large enough to slice even the larger occasional melons, yet balanced and sharp enough to handle things like tomatoes. Usually this knife will have a blade that is about two inches long, and relatively straight, with a nicking tip at the butt of the blade near the handle.

Next in size is the carving knife. This will be a long bladed knife, generally with a slight upward curve towards the outer third of the blade. While a carving knife us usually about as long as a vegetable knife, the carving knife tends to be the most used piece of kitchen cutlery. This is because it is often used to cut other things like bread and melons as well.

The paring knife is a shorter blade, seldom taller than the handle and usually only three or four inches long. This knife is for peeling and fine slicing, such as mincing garlic.

These are the basic knives one would need in a set of kitchen cutlery. Most sets come with other knives, including matching steak knives for the dinner table. And there are myriad other sizes and shapes of knives for various specialties, but a good quality set of these three knives should be considered a bare minimum when considering a set of kitchen cutlery.

Tags: cutlery, kitchen cutlery, knife set, knives

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 9:21 am and is filed under Kitchen Knives.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.