How Many Kitchen Knives do You REALLY Need? Essentials for Every Home Kitchen
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- How Many Knives do You REALLY Need? Essentials for Every Home Kitchen
How many kitchen knives do you actually need? There are so many styles of Japanese kitchen knife, from the simple gyuto, nakiri, and santoku, to less usual shapes live the sujihiki, honesuki, and chuka bocho. Today, Nathan will explain every shape of Japanese kitchen knife, and which kitchen knives are essential for your kitchen.
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0:00 Introduction
1:07 Gyuto v.s. Santoku
3:35 Petty, Paring, & Utility Knives
5:15 Starting Your Knife Collection
6:06 Sujihiki (Carving Knife)
7:17 Bread Knife
7:39 Nakiri (Vegetable Knife)
8:49 Boning Knife
9:56 Honesuki (Poultry Knife)
10:51 Meat Cleavers
11:43 Mega Gyuto
12:46 Bunka & Kiritsuke
13:41 Chuka Bocho (Chinese Cleaver)
16:19 Deba, Usuba, Yanagiba
19:30 How Many Knives do You Need?
21:35 Outtakes
Sam Barsh - Turkey Bacon And Cheese JNGHXMKFKY10QGPW
SOLO - Younger AZSUUQNG4IC36KUJ
The Night Driver - Mean Streak FXJWB2DLWDTQVR7R
City Rat - Rolling BZDEEWQOVQWK1TVH
I’ve used western knife shapes my entire life, then tried a Chinese chef’s knife and instantly loved it. If I only could only keep 1 knife, it might be that one.
Awesome video.. I started out with one santoku.. Then I thought ild try a nakiri. My roommates in japan used it a lot at the dorms and I was always curious about it..so I went to knivewear. Then before I knew it... I ended up 7 knives...🤔
It's a slippery slope, many of us at Knifewear have similar stories!
Those silly multiple fullstops between your sentences are the "17-pieces-knifeblock" of writing comments - completely unnecessary.* One single fullstop is perfectly sufficient.
What a great walk through and sensible recommendation! Great stuff, Knifewear!!!
Thank you!
This video is exactly what I was looking for as I'm going to be buying my first knives soon. Awesome stuff!
Awesome, happy to hear it!
So far I got from you guys , santuko and nakiri, next petty and gyuto. Thank you for your explanation of this different shapes .
Right on! Thanks for watching!
Incredibly good information, thank you very much
6. Gyuto, a big heavy western chef’s knife of a slightly softer German steel for cutting hard things without chipping, santoku or alternatively a nakiri, a petty knife for smaller/finer things, a good serrated bread knife, and a little paring knife.
Thank you for that.
Great video!! The bf and I have been getting into the Japanese knives lately and this was informative and fun 🥰 Appreciate y’all
That's awesome, thank you!
Great summary and tutorial. Thanks!
Thank you!
I started out with a chinese chefs clever and a pairing knife and a serrated bread knife. Used that for 4 years. Now I just bought a gyuto and bunka 😅 been dreaming of it for years.. Love the the bunka it replaces the santoku, nakiri, and kiritsuke IMO
Such a informative video!! I really learned a-lot. Thanks 🙏 😁
Thank you!
That nakiri is beautiful
Great video. Gyuto, nakiri and petty for me
Thank you! Great choices.
Great video. Bed bath and beyond is closing by me and i was able to get zwilling pro knifes 45%off! So i now have a great set of home kitchen knives and this helped me decide what to buy. Ty
Thanks so much, very informative and well presented.
Thank you!
Thank you
Excellent video. 👍
Great vid. It feels like it comes down to starting with three - something big, something small and a wildcard bespoke to your own cooking - and one of the three should have a point. Within that, everyone should be covered to start
I'm embarrassed I didn't think to sum it up that way, that's exactly it!
Greetings from Poland, very nice and helpful video. I started with Masamoto VG 10 Gyuto 6 years ago , few days ago I bought 165mm Bunka from Yu Kurosaki and it's not my last word ;)
Thank you so much! That's awesome to hear.
Genuinely useful thanks. I now need 3 more knives :D
Awesome! You can always have more knives...
@@KnifewearKnives hoh yes :)
I definitely have and use the first 5 knives. I don't own a boning knife, but have a semi-flexible (cheap) chefs knife that i use for trimming and deboning large pieces of meat. I also have another german chef's knife sharpened at about 22⁰ that I use for hacking through chicken bones.
great video
Thank you!
Super vid, very well presented and explained, had no knowledge of this at all, So now I know 😉
The more you know 🌈🙌
That guitar, magnetic knife strip behind you is badass.
Professional chef here:
All I use: Gyuto, nakiri, sujihiki, petty, turning knife. I find having multiple knives means that you can divide the wear on the knives.
There's a difficult balance between wanting to bring every knife and not wanting to over clutter my bag.
Well said!
Boning knife is very critical in BBQ. It makes trimming brisket very easy. But other than that, I rarely use them outside Meat I’ve harvested.
Fantastic presentation about knives....I have 15 in my collection in addition to 8 steak knives
very informative
Glad it was helpful!
Gyuto and petty knife are good to start with maybe add in a kiritsuke and santoku.
I do not eat much bread and already have one that works so went with a Gyuto, Petty, Kiritsuke and Santoku as my starter Japanese knife set. I can add a Nakiri and Usuba and others later on.
Awesome!
definitely my new Miyabi Kaizen II Gyuto cuts like butter through anything so good!@@KnifewearKnives
I wish I hadn't found you. I can't afford the knife lust you bring out in me. LOL, time to shop!!
Man, try working here, it's not easy!
Gyuto, nakiri, honesuki, petty, and bread knife covers pretty much everything I plausibly need. And a Hammer Tone sujihiki but that's a glorified art piece considering how little I actually end up using it.
Oh man, that Hammer Tone Sujihiki is a beauty. I want it too.
hello all at knifewear. im rob, live in queensland australia. love your videos. can i ask you guys what you think of dalstrong knives???. i have a few now. would you concider them as a japanese knife?? they say they are sharpened between 12 to 15 degrees... thank you for putting out great videos for sharpening learners and types of knifes...
Good question! Dalstrong are great. They're made in China, so they definitely wouldn't be considered Japanese, but they use great steel!
I decided i need them all
I love my boning knife, it's probably my second-most used knife! I'm definitely in the minority on that one though.
I'm also now realising I shouldn't have put a 15° edge on my cleaver. More sharper doesn't always mean more better 😅
Live and learn!
Most of the times you should go in this order :
1. chef's knife, western style of Japanese style (find out first whether you like rock motion cutting or slice cutting better)
2. Pairing knife (or petty)
3. serrated knife (for bread)
and then go from there.
My fourth was a meat slicer (Sujihiki if you would go Japanese)
Personally I do not really see the purpose of a Nakiri, if you already have a gyutoh, bunka or santoku.
I managed for a pretty long time without a paring knife, I would go first 6"-8" chef's/santoku/whatever you want first with the most money spent here-> second serrated bread (affordable if your going to dispose of instead of sharpen)-> third 4.5"-6" utility -> fourth meat cleaver -> fifth great big knife for cakes (I think mine is about 14") -> sixth 3" or so paring -> seventh boning. But of course everyone is going to have a different order based on what they cook and how often. I think the first 2 are properly essential, the first 5 are very very useful.
That 150mm petty you showed briefly at around 4 1/2 minutes looked really sweet. Do you happen to know which one that was? I might need one more knife.
For sure! These were the two petties I showed:
knifewear.com/products/haruyuki-soba-petty-135mm?variant=37157645877422
knifewear.com/products/seki-kanetsugu-zuiun-petty-150mm?variant=32074913742896
@@KnifewearKnives awesome! Thank you. I definitely need to build the knife budget back up for that Zuiun 150. So pretty and SG2/R2 is one of my favorite steels. Holds an edge well, don't rust easy.
Probably the best thing about the Chinese style knife is the ability to scoop ingredients for transfer quickly
Agreed!
I go through a lot of veggies in a day, and have used the classic German made chefs knife for years. About 6 months ago I switched to the Nakiri and wow it is much easier and I have far more control. But my problem is with the proper pinch grip I often get a sore spot in my index finger where it goes over the spine of the knife near the handle. I feel the spine needs to be thicker and rounded there. Is this a common issue or do I just need to get a different knife? Great content, well done video thank you!
Hey, glad you're loving your knife! I did notice this too, and I just found the knife takes some getting used to. Try relaxing your hand a little, and take a.look at the spine to see if that edge looks a little sharp. You could always wear it down a little with some sand paper, but I found I got a callouse in that spot after a while. Eventually, you could always go for a Japanese knife with a thicker spine!
Thank you for the reply! Great channel!
I started collecting recently. Down to 2 western set. Gateway set was a bolstered wusthof which is a breeze to use then fortunately got 2 pc Zwilling pro set. I feel like they are the real deal in the west. K sabatier would be also a contender and probably Dalstrong or Spyder Co from the midwest. Correct me if I am wrong.
Now I want the real deal and have my first Japanese knife set. I saw too many after market knives and have trouble deciding. I don’t want the best of the best. A decent set ot piece is what I am looking for not the pricey ones.
Hey, a good place to start are the brands Masakage, Haruyuki, and Fujimoto. They all make high performance Japanese knives that don't break the bank!
@@KnifewearKnives thank you for the advise. Really great to have your response. Superb. Keep up and more videos.
I've been brainwashed by Jacques Pepin (he doesn't use the Japanese knives names, but it's all the same). For me the three knives you need is:
- 240mm gyuto/chef
- 130mm petty/utility
- 80mm petty/paring
I also got a honesuki lately, and I'll make sure to keep it in my back pocket, considering how much chicken I eat!
Same here, those are my most used shapes! Jacques is rad.
Nate was correct about the thin strips. You just add more stripps to your wrap. It's from the restaurant business. If the steak is a little tough when done, thinner strips hides that fact for customers. They can bite without loosing a tooth. Hahaha!
Very fair hah! In this case, this was some lovely meat and I was very sad...
I don't even cook. Ended up here after watching knife center trying to find a nice wharncliffe folder. But now I want to get those 7 knives mentioned and start learning because of this video. Informative and entertaining. Great stuff. And those knives are damn sexy!
Welcome and thanks for watching!
I’m really enjoying all your guys videos. I wish that your shop was closer to me. I’d swing in and buy a knife. The only thing that’s a little bit frustrating on your videos is that you’re doing all the measurements in millimeters instead of inches but I’ll get over it. I can pretty much see what you have in your hands.
Thank you so much! I can definitely get how that would be frustrating, it's hard to switch between the two.
@@KnifewearKnives if I was interested in getting a knife through you guys is there anyway to get your help through maybe a video call of some sort so that I could see which knives you’re talking about and you could walk me through the purchase? Just hard to drop a ton of cash on a high-end knife especially if I can’t see it in person.
When you were using those Chinese cleavers, it brought back memories of Martin Jan, “if Jan can cook, so can you”
That's awesome!
Well, I'm a little late but if anyone is still there, any recommendations on a very thin laser like nakiri, I would like to try something like that out. BTW, loved the video, great job!
Glad you enjoyed the video! Masashi-san's Kokuen is an insane laser:
knifewear.com/products/masashi-kokuen-nakiri-165mm?variant=43000337137838
These two are also super rad:
knifewear.com/products/yoshimi-kato-sg2-nickel-damascus-black-nakiri-165mm?variant=31820239044656
knifewear.com/products/yu-kurosaki-sasame-nakiri-165mm?variant=14628516868
@@KnifewearKnives thanks!
I feel like the French chefs knife does not get enough love, and it’s flat base yields amazingly with vegetables. It’s a Way more versatile knife than the standard chefs knife. 8 times out of 10 you’re using your chef knive for vegetables, so it should specialize more for vegetables which only the French chef knife does.
The Santoku/bunka is vegetable specialized.
I'm a home cook I have two amazing japanese knives, a gyuto and a bunka both from Yu Kurosaki, but I also have a 150mm Chinese ali express petty that works fine and a good German bread knife. So, I really want to buy a new knife, what do you think is better? A better petty, a sujihiki or a kiritsuke (I don't need it but that looks so nice and my heart screams for me to get one!!!)
That's a good set! At the end of the day, the knife that excited you most is the best choice. I'd probably go for the kiritsuke, that's why I have 4 gyutos.
Practically speaking the Sujihiki is great if you eat lots of meat, the petty is good if you cook a lot of small, quick meals.
I’m new to good knives…
Could you recommend a set that includes all 4 at the 8:45 mark?
I’d like a cool Looking blade (hammered) etc…something nice looking as well
Around the 500$ price point…more if it’s worth the extra $
Hey! You could get a really cool hammered looking set with the Fujimoto Hammer Tone, they're some of my favourites:
knifewear.com/collections/fujimoto-hammer-tone
The Haruyuki Goma series is another great affordable choice!
knifewear.com/collections/haruyuki-goma
so we have a gyuto, a nkiri, and a petty. Thinking of adding either Deba or boning knife. Which do you like?
Right on! I'd definitely start with a boning knife, you'll find it a lot more versatile at first. That said, a deba works great if you'll only be deboning fish and birds. A boning knife do those jobs well, but can also trim roasts and work around big bones!
I wonder what the largest Gyuto is that Knifewear stocks? I know there are plenty of 270mm even 300mm but what is the largest?
Ive seen them as big as 360mm in the past, but the biggest we usually get these days is 270-300.
Thank you brother.
Anything bigger than 300 would definitely be a cow sword 😂😆😆
How tall are you? I’m 6’1 with huge hands. I always use my chefs knife at home. I’ve been wanting a gyuto or a ktip gyuto as my first Japanese knife 😭🙏🏾. I’m so indecisive
Hey! I'm 6'3" with relatively large hands. I love a 210 or 240mm Gyuto, for most home cooks I suggest a 210mm as their first Japanese knife. You can't go wrong with anything from Masakage, Haruyuki, or Fujimoto!
I've got an 8 inch Gyuto, a nakiri, a petty knife and a bread knife, I've found there isn't really anything I csnt do with those aside from maybe butchering or slicing really really big cuts it meat
A gyuto, a nakiri, a sujihiki, a petty, a cleaver, a boning knife, a deba, and a yanagiba. Plus a set of whetstone.
Awesome video. But who are we kidding, we only need one more knife.... Every month
Agreed!
Sir, may i know which one is your favorite? Long machi (heel blade) or short machi? And may i know the reason why?
I like a longer Machi, as I like to choke up on the blade and brace my middle finger against the choil
I might be weird, but I use my hollow ground Kukri as a Cleaver. It's goddamn amazing.
(I might add, I rarely do that).
Basically, my three are a 9 inch Chef, a 5.5 inch petty, a Nakiri, and a Victorinox Utility boning knife that is like a fillet/boning knife on steroids.
(sometimes I have to do really small stuff, but I have pocket knives and bird knives or a vegetable peeler for that stuff, so no need for a kitchen one)
I feel like I need a kitchen kukri now 🤔
@@KnifewearKnivesIs it the best tool for the job? Probably not. But is it incredibly fun to use on the occasion? Absolutely!
I chopped through a frozen London broil the other day and have used it to split pork shoulder roast in one go. Hahaha.
I started with an 8" Wustof Ikon chef's knife, a 9" Zwilling serrated bread knife, 6" Wustof Ikon Nakiri and a 4" Wustof Paring. I bought a Japanese MAC MTH-80 Pro {Santoku / Bunka hybrid} and that was it. I went down the Japanese collection rabbit hole and I'm still there.
To date, in addition to the above, I have the following: From Miyabi Birchwood line, 9" Gyuto, 9.5" Kiritsuki, 7" {Bocho} Santoku, 9" Sujihiki, 7" Nakiri and 5" Petty. From Dalstrong: 8" Shogun Series boning knife {as I do a lot of home butchering} I don't yet have a Honesuki, but looking to get a Miyabi Birchwood one. I don't have a Bunka either as the MAC is kind of a hybrid one and I already have a Kiritsuki. I have no single bevel knives, Deba, Usuba or Yanagiba as I have their dual edge counterparts: Santoku, Nakiri and Sujihiki already and work on fish very rarely. I'm a beef, pork and poultry guy.
Other than the Wustof Nakiri, I've pretty much shelved my German knives. They are all great knives, but there is a joy using the Japanese knives that I just don't get from the German ones. They are so frighteningly sharp that it's like cutting through air when using them. They are gorgeous, light, nimble and ultra precise. The Miyabi Birchwood folded Damascus blades are works of art, too. I noticed you had one...their serrated bread knife.
I don't "need" all these knives, but I love collecting them and routinely use all of them. Once you go Japanese knives, you'll never go back to Wustof or Henkles / Zwilling. So be ware. You buy one good Japanese knife? You'll want all of them. hahahahahah It's a VERY expensive habit to form. LOL
I couldn't agree more!
I just need one…….. more
270 gyuto is amazing to work with.
Agreed!
Something smaller would be great too but I started my collection with the big boys. A nice petty knife would be sick ..wink wink hint hint ...hahahahahaha
Japanese knives: the ultimate rabbit hole. 😄🔪🔪🔪
I use my Miyabi 5000MCD Santoku for most tasks
That's a great knife!
@@KnifewearKnives Yes it truly is a work of art.. trying to upgrade to something new or better is difficult.. definitely my favorite Japanese Chef knife in my collection..
135 petty ,165 nikiri and 240 gyuto...... would be the three I would Suggest to start with
New to the channel but love u guys so I think I'll be staying around
And a honesuki if you really like yakitori
I had all the knives I "need" some time in the 1980s yet strangly I'm still buying more. It's really too bad that I'm nowhere near as good at cooking as I am at purchasing knives. When I make the mistake of visiting your Edmonton store it isn't a matter of if but of how many.
Regardless of skill, I find good knives certainly make cooking more fun!
@@KnifewearKnives I spent years avoiding the kitchen however I recently retired and I've used the lock down madness as an excuse to fully embrace cooking. It's that enthusiasm that led me to buy a few white steel knives. There was nothing wrong with my decades old Zwilling knives but you're right about the emotional satisfaction you get when using fine Japanese blades.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣..I know where you're coming from ...🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Best way to store knives? Are blocks ok or I see these leather cases, does it matter?
Blocks are great, you just want to make sure your edge isn't rubbing into the wood much to avoid dulling. We do have leather sayas which will often form fit to your knife over time. Plastic blade guards and magnetic blocks are great too!
For 100 percent of any home cooking: 9 inch offset serrated and a 6 inch chefs. Thats it, rock, chop, slice, will do everything through anything youll make at home. Just keep them sharp
Was that a Miyabi Birchwood Bread Knife? I had a 9.5 inch Miyabi Birchwood Gyuto and loved it until someone stole it.
It was! Oh no, sorry to hear it. :(
Wait one needs a certain amount of knives? Dang i told my better half I need them all, i need to make sure to block this video so she can't see it and hear i only need 3.
Nathan i will need a version for myself that says i need 30
You got it, I'll start shooting! 😂
@@KnifewearKnives thanks because if she hears i only need 3 i will be in trouble. i have mostly been buying gyutos but she doesn't know i still need a suji and others as well
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.... Just had to laugh at your introduction - as you were busily filling your hands with all the "essential " knives ... I have more knives than I will EVER need ; but put some Japanese Damascus cutlery in front of me , and I mysteriously "need" something new ......
Right??
Or you could just collect 20 240mm gyuto that have slightly different grind and steel
I'm basically there!
No need to compromise. .
I have several chef knives, but they are all European models, what would the advantage of adding Japanese ones give me?
That's a great question! European knives are great as well, but Japanese knives are made from harder steel, so they'll stay sharp a lot longer and hold a sharper edge. They're great for precision work with meat, fish, and veggies, whereas European knives can handle tougher jobs due to their softer steel;
I would say 5-6 minimum
Like cars and watches, kitchen knives are a slippery slope. Before you know it you’re trying to explain the difference between a nakiri and a usuba to your wife…
I only use 8' chef knife and a small knife to cut fruits, that's all.
Breadknife?
You’re not supposed to swing any knife at bone when cutting it but ESPECIALLY not a cleaver 😂😂 that’s how you donate some appendages to the dish. Seasoning they call it. You’re supposed to lay the cleaver over the section of bone you will cut, rock the knife a couple times to start an indent, and then hold the edge of the knife flat over the bone. Now place your other hand on top of the knife and apply force to push the knife through. This is the proper method for bone cutting with a cleaver
I've been vegan for 10 years, and it's crazy how many of these knives become obsolete when you stop eating meat. I've been pretty much exclusively using a santoku - with an occasional bread or paring knife. I'm watching this video after ditching my Western knife set and ordering a Chinese cleaver, bread knife, and petty knife. Keeping it simple.
That sure does simplify things!
I only really need one knife for everything I do in the kitchen- the Chinese "vegetable" cleaver. Do I have only one knife in my kitchen? Heck no!
Chinese chef knife and a paring knife.
i wonder if lil man has big hands
in short, as many as space allowed :)
Yup 😂
Why on earth the "horizontal" cut in an union ? it is a layered vegetable,
I agree, but the internet gets mad if you don't do it 😂
165 santoku, 240 gyuto, meat cleaver, honesuki
Where's the katsukiri? Everyone should have one of those.
That was my first knife
I thought it was so obvious, I didn't even need to mention it! Most folks probably already have one lying around for paddling their canoes.
Silly question. Everyone knows the correct answer to the question of how many knives one needs in the kitchen is N + 1, where N = the number of knives you currently have in the kitchen.
Very true!
I would suggest to not use a japanese knife as a " daily " , they are generally harder than western ones and brittle.
Use them but be ware that they are super delicate.
They can be a bit delicate, but we find them awesome to use daily! I use mine every day with no issues.
@@KnifewearKnives Wich one do you use as daily ?
No maguro bocho? How do you guys even butcher your tuna? 🤦🏽♂️
With a petty knife obviously!
I think man and women have psycological differences when choosing knives.
I like big knives even tho smaller are more nimble , probably cause they look "powerful " , women like small ones cause they look less dangerous