What are your "must haves" in the kitchen?

strategy9

strategy9

Joined
Apr 27, 2015
Messages
4,156
Some knives are more of a convenience then others, while still others are more job specific. Now I'm hardly a chef, and obviously a coomercial kitchen will have a greater need and emphasis on job specific knives (cleaver, butcher, boning, etc.) but what do you think are the key-main knives you consider "must haves" in any "standard" average kitchen, to do "most-any" task:
and what would say their ideal sizes would be?

I'm thinking;
8" Santoku
and/or
8" Chef's knife

6" utility knife (traditional)
3" pairing knife

What are your thoughts?
 
Last edited:
10" chef's knife
10" carving knife
6" utility/boner &
3 1/2" paring knife
 
Well...

I would say you might want a 10" chef's knife for possibly larger things
Maybe a 10" scimitar for breaking down big chunks of meat
Maybe you need a heavy 8" meat cleaver for that reason
But then don't ignore 8" Chinese cleaver because they're great for scooping of food after chopping
But I like a point to a knife and 10" is a bit long, so I'll go with an 8" chef's knife...
...which feels a bit hefty for slicing apples and oranges, to which pairing knives are a bit small for that so I'll take a 5" to 6" utility
And sometimes you want a serrated utility so I would just be safe and get both.
Strawberries are small as is garlic and other things so I would need a 3.5" to 4" pairing knife for that
And then of course bread you basically need a bread knife so I prefer angled bread knives on that front
Back to meat processing a boning knife is very handy, a good stiff blade for trimming, but then flexible knives are better for fish... better get both.
And then for small citrus I really love a good serrated pairing knife, and when I'm fancy let's go for birds beak to make radish roses.

So really just a
10" chef
10" scimitar
8" cleaver
8" Chinese Cleaver
8" chef
5" utility
6" serrated utility
9" offset bread knife
3.5" pairing knife
3.5" serrated pairing knife
3.5" birds beak
6" stiff boning knife (stiff boners, nice)
6" flexible boning knife

And then of course a steel to keep them sharp with.

Not THAT many knives if you think about it. Also, never really cared for santoku's or nakiri's.
 
As a hobbyist knifemaker who does a lot of kitchen knives, this is something that I think about quite a bit. People will obviously answer this question very differently based on their experience, skill, preferences, what they cook, and what they are most comfortable with. I have been making and using a lot of different knives over the past few years to work out what I need and what I like. I can do basically everything I need to do with just a few knives.
Here are the most important knives for me:
1) a primary chef's knife. I favor a 9" gyuto, but I have been using a 7" one for the last year and it is only rarely not enough.
2) a serrated bread knife. Mine is 8", but I want a 10"er. Some people advocate using this to slice meat - I am much more likely to use a gyuto for this than I am a serrated bread knife. There are also people who use a straight-edged slicing knife or a chef's knife for cutting bread. I strongly prefer serrated, particularly when I'm cutting something with seeds or a hard crust.
3) a 3" paring knife. I find that any longer than this is unwieldy for what I use it for, and smaller is not big enough for what I use it for.

I can do basically everything with these three knives, but there are some things that I do that other knives are better for. Here is my second tier:
4) a gyuto can be used as a slicing knife in a pinch, but a 10-12" sujihiki is better.
5) My gyutos have very fine edges. As such, they are better-suited to cutting things that don't offer resistance. For the rest, I like a knife that can handle rougher tasks, like a ryodeba or a honesuki.
6) a 6-7" petty. Not necessary, but there are certain tasks that they are great to have for.
7) a 6-7" nakiri. A 9" gyuto can do just about anything. But sometimes a smaller, more delicate knife is better.

I don't butcher anything, so I don't need any butcher knives. I us a petty or a paring knife as a boning knife in the rare times when I want one. I have more knives than this that I use occasionally, but this list represents what I need and want most.
And because this thread could use some knife porn, here is a set that I made a couple of years ago for my then girlfriend:
1912134_619814408088279_797063608_n.jpg

Everything she thought she would need: a 9.5" sujihiki, 7" gyuto, 5" deba, 5" petty.

- Chris

ETA: I should also mention my feelings about stainless and carbon. I like carbon steel a lot, but I think that there are some knives that are better in stainless. My rule of thumb is that if the maintenance for a knife in carbon steel takes longer than I usually spend using the knife, I prefer stainless. If all I have to do is cut a lime in half, I want to be able to put the knife down dirty and finish what I'm doing before I wash the knife.
 
You really just need 2 knives (or 3 if you eat a lot of crusty bread)...

1 Guyto
1 Petty
(breadknife)

For home chefs a 180 - 210 gyuto will be perfect (females tend to like smaller knives), and a 120 - 150 petty will be fine.

The next question is carbon or stainless, i prefer sanmai with carbon core and stainless clad.
You also need a leather strop with a diamond spray, and if you are into it a stone to sharpen the knives.

Most makers can't do a great kitchen knife, you might be better off with a Torjo DP (stainless).
The ones that makes a great kitchen knife will cost you really heavy.

;)

A leather strop and diamond spray works insane good on 5200 steel :)
 
strategy9 said:
Some knives are more of a convenience then others, while still others are more job specific. Now I'm hardly a chef, and obviously a coomercial kitchen will have a greater need and emphasis on job specific knives (cleaver, butcher, boning, etc.) but what do you think are the key-main knives you consider "must haves" in any "standard" average kitchen, to do "most-any" task:
and what would say their ideal sizes would be?

I'm thinking;
8" Santoku
and/or
8" Chef's knife

6" utility knife (traditional)
3" pairing knife

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...

Sure! Curious, what kind of stuff do you like to cook? There's been a ton of great suggestions so far, just helps narrow it down a lil more.
 
I generally only feel like I NEED 2 knives, a good size chefs knife/gyuto and a paring knife. After that I'd add a petty or utility knife in the 5-6" range and then a serrated bread knife in order of importance to me in the kitchen. Lastly I would add a cleaver. Cleavers are specialized, but no other kitchen knives can really do cleaver work nearly as well or, in some cases, without damage.
 
If it was me..I'd get one 8" chef knife laser (ie konosuke gyuto), one 3-4" paring knife, and one beater 6" utility knife (I prefer a german wushof/henkels here). Use the gyuto for most things, the utility knife for anything rougher with bones or that I'm concerned would damage the gyuto, and the paring for anything I want. If you can afford a fourth..I'd get a vegetable knife/cleaver. I have an 8" vegetable knife (more like a cleaver shape) that I use all the time to break down fruits / veggies before I juice them.
 
I have many knives, with a lot of them designed for one specific food preparation task. But when you get right down to it I could do most everything with a 4" paring knife and an 8" French knife.
 
B34NS said:
Sure! Curious, what kind of stuff do you like to cook? There's been a ton of great suggestions so far, just helps narrow it down a lil more.
Click to expand...

I hardly a chef, but I do like to cook a bunch of different random things. I just wanted the input of some more seasoned "cookers" as to their preferences in regards to the most basic must have blades... I'm sure many would love to have the full selections available, cleaver and butcher knife all the way down to a 1/2" clam knife, and everything in between, but you really don't "need" 13 Knives to get around the the kitchen so I wanted to know what you guys fealt are the most basic "needs", like if you went to someone else's house (who is hardly a chef), and started preparing a meal, what Knives are the ones that every kitchen, even the most basic, should have available... If you had zero Knives, say your kitchen burned down or your ex kept them all, and you had to start from scratch but were on a tight budget, what are the first Knives you would look to reacquire to get back into preparing decent meals?
 
Last edited:
strategy9 said:
I hardly a chef, but I do like to cook a bunch of different random things. I just wanted the input of some more seasoned "cookers" as to their preferences in regards to the most basic must have blades... I'm sure many would love to have the full selections available, cleaver and butcher knife all the way down to a 1/2" clam knife, and everything in between, but you really don't "need" 13 Knives to get around the the kitchen so I wanted to know what you guys ffalt are the most basic "needs", like if you went to someone else's house (who is hardly a chef), and started preparing a meal, what Knives are the ones that every kitchen, even the most basic, should have available... If you had zero Knives, say your kitchen burned down or your ex kept them all, and you had to start from scratch but were on a tight budget, what are the first Knives you would look to reacquire to get back into preparing decent meals?
Click to expand...

I would say the consensus top 3 to be able to do everything (maybe not well, but it can be done) would be a chef's knife/gyuto, a paring knife and a serrated bread knife. Many people are saying petty/utility as the 3rd and bread as the 4th. To me, a petty is for what a parer is slightly too small and a gyuto is too big to do comfortably. It can be done, just not a neat/efficiently. So 3 would be Gyuto, Parer, Bread and a top 4 would be Gyuto, Parer, Bread, Petty. At least in my opinion

To add; I recently moved out of the country for vet school and took 3 knives; a chef's, a parer and a serrated utility (I use this as my bread knife). They were cheap lower quality Sabatier's that I didn't have to worry about customs or the airport taking any good knives and I haven't had something that I can't cut with one of these 3 knives.
 
Seems to be some agreement. Dang interwebs must be broke? Not much I can't accomplish with three knives. I'd go on to say.
1) 8-10" chefs knife. Should be by far the most frequently used and up to the toughest tasks. Don't skimp here, this one should probably be 75-80% of the total budget.
2) 3-4" paring knife. I prefer closer to three, but a 4" is a bit more flexible for me. Spend all you like, but a $6 Victorinox is hard to beat for 4x as much.
3) either a large serated utility knife or a bread knife. Again, like the above paring knife, no need for a big budget.
The above three are the core for the majority of home cooks. Since your clearly knife centric (thus we're here) a couple more will likely be desired at some point. To that I'd consider:
4) 6" utility straight edge. For some reason, this has become the "go to" knife for the Mrs. While I seldom touch it except to wash it and put it away. Budget according to your intended use.
5) 10" or larger slicer. As this will likely be used on Holidays and such for carving ham, turkey etc. it's not a good place to skimp.

If you hunt or fish, you likely already have the specialty knives associated. If not, a 14" butcher and a smaller skinner and a decent fillet knife are in order. Again, I've managed to not starve with just the top three.
 
210-240mm gyuto/ 8-9.5 inch chefs knife if you can only have one.
 
Nakiri
6" - 8" Santoku
10" Gyuto
3" - 4" Paring Knife
 
jdm61 said:
Some might argue that once you get the gyuto, the nakiri and santoku are a bit redundant.
Click to expand...

I agree. A nice gyuto can pretty much do it all.

However, I still find myself using a santoku and nakiri from time to time.
 
Mitchell Knives said:
I agree. A nice gyuto can pretty much do it all.

However, I still find myself using a santoku and nakiri from time to time.
Click to expand...

It's also nice to have either a nakiri or santoku as a backup if you might have another person helping you cook. Trading "The Good Knife" back and forth is doable, but obnoxious and slows things down.
 
Mitchell Knives said:
I agree. A nice gyuto can pretty much do it all.

However, I still find myself using a santoku and nakiri from time to time.
Click to expand...
imea t to imply that the santoku and nakiri together might be redundant if you had a nice gyuto. The nakiri would still be good to have, but the santoku seems like an in betweener compromise that does neither thing as well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top