Use Kitchen Knives With Non-Frozen Foods Only
Plus Some Bonus Items To Avoid
3 MINUTE READ
BY: DAVID OLKOVETSKY
Ensuring that your knives last forever is all about building good habits. There’s nothing complicated or fancy about it, just some basic principles that will keep your blades in superb working condition. Our first two tips are designed to help you keep your knives looking great.
As a refresher, keep your knives looking their best, by washing and drying immediately after cooking, and applying a bit of food grade mineral oil on occasion.
In this edition, we’re going over a few of the top methods for keeping your knives sharper, for longer.
Use Your Kitchen Knives On Non-frozen Foods Only.
Here's the simplest way to think about knife usage: your kitchen knives should be used only for the task they were designed—preparing food. Artisan Revere knives are tools made specifically for precision cooking, so they should be used for it.
That means you shouldn’t: 1. break down large animals with dense bones, 2. pry open cans, 3. open and break down boxes, and you 100%, definitely should not use them to 4. cut or split apart frozen foods.
And remember, never ever place a quality knife in the dishwasher, unless you're actively trying to ruin it. Any of these can dull, bend, twist, or chip your blade.
In other words, using your quality kitchen tools for any other purpose, can seriously damage your cutting edge.
When Shouldn't You Use Your Kitchen Knife?
Breaking down bone-in animals: Use a boning knife or cleaver—they’re designed for that task with a wider edge angle, much lower Rockwell hardness steel and thicker behind-the-edge geometry. In other words, specialty knives like the boning knife and cleaver are designed with toughness in mind.
Splitting apart or cutting frozen foods: This is one of the worst offenders. Everyone has seen their cousin or parents take a blade and jam it between two burger patties. Every time, they wind up ruining the burgers, the knife, and often, they'll cut themselves. This type of cut in particular, is extremely dangerous because you are likely to be using far more force than normal to pry apart the frozen item. So, if the food is frozen, please defrost it. Don’t risk it.
Breaking down packages: Use a box cutter or a good pocket knife. Corrugated boxes tend to have a variety of high silica materials in them that rapidly dull knife edges.
Prying open cans: Use a can opener. Using the tip of a knife will inevitably bend or break off the tip.
Opening a bottle of champagne: Sabering can be exciting, but, if you don’t know what you’re doing, and if you aren’t working at an ostentatious nightclub, well, you’re very likely to both break the bottle and chip your knife on the glass. Why? Glass is one of those very high Rockwell materials that destroys knives. Just open the bottle like everyone else, and enjoy the bubbly without endangering anyone.
That’s it for this installment. If you’re ready for an upgrade, join us, as we improve the quality of knives across America.
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Customer Reviews
After a few weeks of using this knife it has quickly replaced all others as my go-to for all my prep work. This thing is sharp and feels great in the hand. My wife loves it because of how light it feels. This is a serious tool in the kitchen and I look forward to a lifetime of hard use.
My husband got me this knife for a Christmas gift. I cook all the time and I really wanted a good knife. This is definitely that!!! I cannot believe how easily it cuts through vegetables.. anything I am chopping up!! This is one Fantastic knife. We went back on your website to getting a chopping board now!!! 😆
This is the best knife I have used until now. It is extremely sharp and comfortable to use. What impressed me the most is how lightweight it is! I definitely recommend. This is one of those knives that can last a lifetime. One of these days I will save up money to get the other two.
As I've gotten older, I've begun to recognize the importance of eating handmade food from fresh ingredients. Not only is the food healthier, it tastes tremendously better.
However, a good knife is one of the areas I've neglected in my pursuit of crafting handmade food. For some reason, I've held the perception that a knife is a knife is a knife. I was wrong.
Before Christmas, I decided that I wanted to treat myself and invest in my last knife. To support my efforts in finding the right knife, I use the following prompt in ChatGPT:
== BEGIN PROMPT ==
You are a master chef who specializes in US independent knife makers.
I'm in the market for a new chef's knife. I am looking to spend less than $400. I want a knife that is known for flexibility, retaining its edge, and durability. Give me some of the best options from US independent knife makers.
Create a table with the top ten options with links to their sites.
== END PROMPT ==
Artisan Revere was one of the companies listed. After following up with other prompts to refine what I was looking for, everyday use retains its edge and ease of maintenance, it was clear that Artisan Revere was the best option for me.
Although I spent more than I initially planned, having used my Artisan Revere chef's knife for the past three months, I couldn't be happier with my investment and feel it was worth every penny.
Having such a good knife pushed me to invest in a better cutting board and has encouraged me to push my already fanatical passion for cooking even further, which has had a corresponding impact on my enjoyment of the entire cooking experience.
And while I could go on and on about the tremendous attributes of my knife, what I appreciated even more was David Olkovetsky, the CEO, calling me to understand my cooking style and confirm I had what I needed to take care of my knife. This level of hospitality, combined with a tremendous product, has made me a fan that will only ever use and gift Artisan Revere knives.
If you're on the fence about investing in a knife. You'll never regret investing in an Artisan Revere knife.
We bought 2 chef's knives for a couple of our customers as an end of project gift. It was awesome to find such high quality knives, they look and feel amazing. David the owner of Artisan Revere was very helpful and even helped us get the customers names engraved on the leather sheath and knife.
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