Eight Knives So Good They Made the Cut in My Airstream Kitchen
I have a confession: I’m a knife snob.
On Instagram stories a few weeks ago, I shared about the knives I’m taking on the Airstream with me, and y’all were shocked my knife snobbery.
But hear me out.
I spent my early 20’s working at a kitchen store, so I almost sold knives for a living. During that time, I learned everything I could about every item we sold, which lead to my strong opinions about knives.
When it comes to knife shopping, you’re going to see two prices: a high price, and a low price.
Now, no one walks into a store and actively looks to buy the higher price, especially when it comes to a $180 knife. So you buy the cheaper one. And then it dulls, it breaks, and you find yourself cursing the world when you need to cut a tomato.
Or you could buy nice, not twice.
My boss at the kitchen store used to tell me that you could either buy copper pots once, or go to a department store and buy pots three or four times in your lifetime, and end up spending more.
So when you’re looking for knives, you want to see handles that have silver dots all the way down. This means that the blade is forged steel, and the steel continues from the top of the blade through the handle.
If you don’t have those little dots, then a steel blade is just connected to a plastic handle.
So if you’re looking for a quality knife, look for those steel dots.
When you’re storing your knives, you never want to store them in a drawer where they can bounce around. They’ll gradually dull at the tips as they slide back and forth. I like to store them in a block, but on the road, I have a magnetic strip.
You should also never put your knives in the dishwasher. Just take the extra few seconds and hand wash them!
My Favorite Knives:
ZWILLING ® J.A. Henckels Pro 8" Chef's Knife
You need a good Chef’s knife in your kitchen. I will not live anywhere without this knife.
Zwilling J.A. Henckels Pro Santoku Knife, 7"
This is probably my #1 knife because it is so versatile. If I could only have one knife, it would be this one.
Zwilling J.A. Henckels Pro 9" Bread Knife with Z15 Serration
We’re a gluten-free family, so the bread we eat is either really dense, or it’s coming out of the freezer. Or both. This bread knife gets used daily.
Boska Cheese Knife with White Oak Handle
We have a whole cheese-knife collection, but this is the one we kept for the Airstream.
HIC Wood Handle Spreader
This is probably our most-used knife, and it’s by far the cheapest. It’s a magic spreader for peanut butter, jelly, avocado… anything you want to spread! So much better than a butter knife. Say that five times fast.
Zwilling J.A. Henckels Twin L Shears
Once you have a good set of kitchen shears, you’ll be shocked at how many times you use them. Ever cut herbs with shears? Makes a world of difference.
Zwilling J.A. Henckels Pro Paring Knife, 4"
Zimmermans love fruit. This is the perfect apple-peeling, pear slicing knife.
Zwilling J.A. Henckels Pro Ultimate Serrated Utility Knife, 5"
This is how you slice tomatoes without having a pool of tomato juice running all over your counter. Anything with a soft skin? This is the knife for you.
Bonus!
Sharpening your knives.
There are so many products that will claim to make your knives sharper than they’ve ever been.
I wish that was the case, but it isn’t.
The truth is you need a whetstone, and if you haven’t sharpened in a while, you really need to build that edge back up, and then you need to finish with the leather strop.
Now, if you just need something to maintain an already sharp blade, you can use this handheld sharpener between proper sharpening sessions.
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