Topper's Grilling Advice!

[Aaronp18]

Go here:
http://www.gourmetwarehouse.ca/chefs-sa ... fs-knife-8

The store is on Hastings. The G-2 is on sale for $100. Great deal!!

[Topper]

South side of Hastings, a couple of doors east of Clarke.

Buy a knife, have a beer with the Berryman at the Princeton, then wander over and meet up with Doc at Clarke Park.

[Cornuck]

South side of Hastings, a couple of doors east of Clarke.

Buy a knife, have a beer with the Berryman at the Princeton, then wander over and meet up with Doc at Clarke Park.

The CC Trifecta!

[Strangelove]

Ah yes, me ole stomping grounds.

Not sure if it's a good idea to visit Berry around Halloween though

... he's liable to take that new knife of yours and carve you up like a Jack-O-Lantern!

(no offense Berry)

[5thhorseman]

I have been a counselor for over 25 years ...

Mr. Berry was setting up an intervention for Blobby but got sussed.

[Puck]

Ikea used to sell those boards for around $20 LOL

Not sure if they still have them, but Costco recently had a good deal on a cutting board by "All Thing's Kitchen" 18"x16"x2" for $30, Canadian maple. They went fast. I'm not sure if they still have them, but apparently they showed up more than once so watch for it.

[2Fingers]

OK no electrical device and now looking at a proper knife, will still need to figure out how to sharpen it.

Silly question and yes I know it is, do you have a large knife for bigger veggies/meat and a small one for a glove of garlic.....

runs and hides....

[Aaronp18]

OK no electrical device and now looking at a proper knife, will still need to figure out how to sharpen it.

Silly question and yes I know it is, do you have a large knife for bigger veggies/meat and a small one for a glove of garlic.....

runs and hides....

Get one of these to use before you cut each time:


If you don't want to sharpen yourself when the knife needs it you can take it to any House of Knives store and they will for you. There's one in Willowbrook.

Get an 8" knife and you can use it for basically anything. Youtube "knife techniques" or "proper cutting techniques" and you'll find videos on how to cut almost everything with a single knife. Get a good knife and you won't want to use anything else.

[Topper]

Reef, start with an 8" chef's knife (I wouldn't use anything else on a clove of garlic) and work with it. As you become comfortable with it you'll reach for it for almost everything.

If you want to later, add a good pairing knife. Its a good idea to have one but start with a chef's knife. I love my 6" Wustof pairing knife, rarely use my 4" pairing knife though the wife does. A small slicer/larger pairing knife is again becoming very popular amongst chefs. Older European chefs have been using them for years.

The pairing knife is more difficult to use than the chef's knife.

If you have those two knives, the only other one you may want is a serrated bread knife. Buy a cheap one as it is neigh impossible to sharpen them. Pick up a new one every few years.

Using a knife steel isn't difficult. Hold the blade at a constant angle to the steel and stoke away until you're happy. The ^ of the blade bends over to one side with use, a knife steel does not remove any material to sharpen the blade, it just realigns the edge. The best chef I ever worked with never used a knife steel. He'd pick up who's ever chef knife was lying around and used the back side of their blade.

Never let anyone else use a knife steel on your knife because they will hold the bade at a different angle to the steel and probably dull your blade and then its off to the water stone again.

The sharpening stone and guide I linked to from Lee Valley make more serious sharpening a piece of cake.

[5thhorseman]

So Topper, which knife do you use when breaking down poultry? I used to use a paring knife, which worked well enough, but recently bought a 6" semi-flex curved boning knife which I really love working with.

[Topper]

A couple of starter pics

How to hold the food. Put your fingertip on the food and then roll your knuckles forward. The knife blade rides against your knuckles and you won't slice off your fingertips or season your food with fingernail shavings. Slice away in a rolling motion.



Hold the knife properly for control and to keep from nicking yourself on your bolsterless Global.

[Topper]

So Topper, which knife do you use when breaking down poultry? I used to use a paring knife, which worked well enough, but recently bought a 6" semi-flex curved boning knife which I really love working with.

Usually my 10" Global Chef's, but I'll also use my 6" Wustof boning knife (rigid) or the 6" pairing knife.

You can get carried away with collecting knives for every different task, I know I have, but my advise for most home cooks is to start with a couple of knives that will see everyday use and not go out and spend a bunch of money on knives that will see limited action.

This is why I recommend a 6" pairing knife over the more standard 4" pairing knife. The slightly longer blade is far more versatile.

Edit: Horseman - Have you ever used a Deba for breaking down a fish? I put my flexible boning/fillet knives to rest after I picked up a Deba.

[KeyserSoze]

The Global G2 is also my daily driver and I love it.

Ming Wo sometimes has good deals on 2-3 pc Global sets. I see you can get a G2 & and GS1 for $129 right now!

http://www.mingwo.com/Knives/Knives-Sho ... en-Set-201

Your cutting board is very important as well. I like working with at least an 18"x24" board.

Made a very tasty Tom Kha Gai last night. It's nice having a place like T&T market available for dishes like this, where items like lime leaves, galangal, lemongrass, and decent qualify fish sauce are standard stocked items.

[Aaronp18]

Ming Wo sometimes has good deals on 2-3 pc Global sets. I see you can get a G2 & and GS1 for $129 right now!

http://www.mingwo.com/Knives/Knives-Sho ... en-Set-201

This is what I did, actually checked last night and I have the G-55 Cooks knife. The package I got came with this, the paring knife and a serrated bread knife. I think at the time it was around $150 for the 3.

[2Fingers]

I made a lemon grass chicken a couple weeks ago, really went well and I used a knife for everything. Obviously it was not a great knife and I did a "good" enough job.

Cutting up lemongrass for the first time was interesting.

I am sooooo rookie, I had to google and youtube how to cut it up, didn't know what I could use.