I have just a short note today on one of my pet peeves. Sharp knives, or most tellingly the lack of sharpness in knives. I tend to keep my large collection of kitchen knives mostly sharp as I cannot stand using a dull knife that cannot cut anything. I am always amazed when I cook at a lot of people’s places that they can actually cut anything with any of their knives. The main reason they tell me is that they are afraid of cutting themselves when using a sharp knife. I have done that to myself on occasion with sharp knives, mostly due to a short moment of inattention. Over the years I have done a lot more damage to myself, the food I am preparing, and the kitchen while trying to use a dull knife. Not only it is way more dangerous as you have a lot less control since you have to use a lot of pressure to cut anything, but also the knife has a tendency to slide all over the place as it does not want to cut nicely into tough skinned food. Just make sure that when you are using a sharp knife you pay close attention to what you cut into, and make sure that you do not put your fingers in the path of the blade.

Another type of knife I do not like are the ones with very sharp serrated teeth that might cut through all kind of things easily including rubber hoses and wood, but you normally do not have any control with them when doing normal kitchen duties like finely chopping food. The only serrated knives I use are good quality bread knifes, as they are essential to cut bread. Do yourself a favor, keep the cheap serrated knife for your toolbox, and get your knives professionally sharpened regularly if you cannot do it yourself.

Lucito