Knives and such. Not as fun as you thought.

So after last Monday's fiasco, we're back at Cafe 109. It's lovely on Fridays. Sitting here again with my Chai tea, listening to Jackie, the harpist, play Christmas carols. After every song, an old gentleman (with a stellar beard) applauds alone while the few other patrons continue studying. It's charming, and I'm only a little bit hung over after last night. 

We've arrived at our kitchen equipment. Now, at first I was excited, as the main tool in the kitchen is the knife, and knives are awesome. Well, while this chapter does discuss knives, I quickly realized that it's very little fun to read about knives, as opposed to using them. SO until we get to the "chopping things" chapter, knives are a little… boring. 

There are a ton of them though. And a ton of kitchen utensils. Since this chapter is basically a big list of shit you should have neatly organized in your kitchen drawers, I've decided to briefly go over knife things, and then talk about some of the more strange items we can find in the master chef's equipment arsenal. 

Chapter 4: Equipment Identification

Knives

Here of course we find the most important and most expected line in this chapter: Handle knives with respect. While this might seem obvious, from what I've read about chefs, many take this to a new level. Chefs take great care in sharpening and honing their knives, and surprisingly often engrave their names on the blade. This brings a certain image to mind, the chef maintaining his knives: 

Next we have sharpening knives. Now, there's a difference between sharpening and honing knives. But you need to do both. Sharpening a knife means actually taking material away from the edge in order to create a "wire edge" or a microscopic uber-sharpness. Honing a knife is more like polishing and preparing the sharpened knife, which reduces friction while slicing and dicing. This guy does a pretty good job of showing how it's done. 

Keep you knives clean. Seriously they come in contact with most of your food. 

Knife etiquette is pretty important so people don't get stabbed too. For example, when handing off a knife to someone, don't gingerly toss it to them. Lay it down on a work space with the handle pointing toward them. Don't put it on the edge of the table, then it'll fall and cut someone's toes off. When running with your knife, make sure it is pointed down, and let people know you are passing by with a sharp knife. Just kidding you shouldn't run with your knife. But the last bit is true, so keep that. 

Lastly, be sure to cut on appropriate surfaces. Wood or composite cutting boards are the best. Glass and marble are the worst and will ruin your knife. I'm personally partial to using wood cutting boards for veggies and such, and a plastic cutting board for meats. Once you've cleaned your knives, kept them properly stored. Don't shove them in a drawer, it's a really bad idea. Have you ever reached into a drawer of knives? I have. 

Next we have the parts of the knife. Instead of going over this large chunk of the chapter, I've found it condensed into a simple diagram. You're welcome.

There's more about the types and makes of each part of the knife… but just google it if you're that interested. It's a little tedious to read. Just the basics here. 

Here's another diagram of the types of knives. It's very colorful, so you know it's true. 

Now, on to our other kitchen equipment. Let's start with our pots and pans and such. Again, I've come through and found some useful diagrams!

So we've got lots of different materials for cooking pans. There's copper (old school), which transfers heat rapidly and evenly, but it's lined and if you scratch the lining you'll get copper discoloration in your food and that's no bueno. Cast iron holds heat well and transmits it evenly, but it takes forever to heat up and forever to cool down so it's difficult to manage sometimes. Stainless steel is pretty good because it's easy to clean and maintain and is a good conductor. Blue-steel, black-steel, pressed-steel and rolled-steel pans usually discolor but they transmit heat super fast so they're usually used for sautéing. Aluminum conducts heat very well, but it's a sot metal and wears down fast. It could cause your food to look grayish. And non-stick pans are good as long as you don't scratch the lining, then you're supposed to throw them out. Me, I use 316 Titanium stainless steel. The pores in the metal don't open up when heated, so they're easy to clean, conducts heat well and evenly, and there's no leeching of metals into your food as with most other metals. Worth the investment if you've got the moolah. 

Then the chapter gets into some of the larger pieces of equipment. One of these I've yet to acquire, but if anyone wants to send me money for it I'd definitely add you to my Christmas card list. 

The Immersion Blender. Sexy, no? 

The Immersion blender is for when you don't want to dump hot, chunky soup into a blender 32 oz at a time. Just keep it in the pot and grind that ish up right there! Plus, it's like having a serious power tool in the kitchen. 

[Insert grunt here]

More scary hardware: 

The Buffalo Chopper is used for grinding and chopping up your enemies in order to bake them into meat pies and serve to unsuspecting Londoners. Your enemies are placed in a rotating bowl that passes under a hood where blades chop them up. It can also be used for normal ground meat with which you have no relationship. 

The Steam-Jacketed Kettle provides even heat because steam circulates between the walls of the kettle. Pretty cool and they're great for soups and stocks and stuff.

Next we get into our ovens, ranges and such which are pretty straightforward. The one piece of hardware that I'd like from this section would be a smoker. 

Mmm look at that sexy thing

Smokers are used to treat foods with smoke. Basically it's like a grill, except you keep it at lower temperatures, and add wood to a separate compartment that smokes instead of just burning (you usually soak it in water, or sometimes you use woodchips. It really all depends on the smoker). So that sexy, delicious, smoke flavor envelops your food and makes it ridiculously heavenly. Nothing like some bbq slow-smoked over a few hours. I'm a bbq fan, as you could probably tell. If you're wondering what to get me for Christmas and you're not into the immersion blender idea, then this is another viable option: 

Then we have refrigeration equipment. You have your walk-in fridge, and your reach-in fridge. They are… exactly as they sound. The walk-in you can walk in and the reach-in you can only reach-in. 

There are a TON of other kitchen tools that the chef uses. Here's ANOTHER DIAGRAM!!!

Here's what I'll do: when we get to cooking, I'll list our tools that we're using in detail and how we use them. Otherwise it'd be a LOT of descriptions in this one blog entry.

So this entry was more pictures than anything. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but hopefully you enjoyed it, internet. Next up, we have THE RAW INGREDIENTS.

We'll be starting off with meat (oh hell yeah). I believe we're on track to be cooking by the New Year, so that's something! See you next time on CFRN!

Cheers