Dishes to try after unboxing another new knife...

I thought collecting dish suggestions that are a great break-in/familiarization for new knives of different types might be useful.

A ideas few to start with:


For knives meant to slice a lot or very thin (Usuba, Takamura-style Gyuto):

-Confit byaldi, and variations thereof ( I prefer a less subtle version, thinner sliced, borrowing a bit from caponata regarding the sauce).

-Apple roses. Precooking the slices to make them bendable? Not with a Tak Don't go too thin or you might go too dry!

-True Marinara. The kind using thin garlic as the main aromatic.

-A szechuan dish - obscene amounts of green onions now are suddenly fun...

-Som Tam. Who said you can't julienne these b....rds well with a knife?

-Basically: got a good mandolin, lock it away. Got a bad mandolin, throw it away.


For sturdy mincers:

-Thai or vindaloo curries with a handmade paste - mince well and mortar. Tread carefully with dried peppers, the seeds are hard for some edges.

-Red pesto, same principle

-Any kind of thoran - piles of coconut and aromatics to chop up.

-Mince pies (the british kind)


Sturdier Nakiri:

-Thoran, again.
-Slaw of whatever you feel like making slaw of.

-Not the mandolin - the food processor, same procedure.


Kataba parers:

-Citrus cake. Lots of zesting. Mind reactivity, limes are too aggro to build a patina with
-Anything that needs plenty of peeled roots/tubers or apples.


Anything suited to do lots of onions:

-Any indian "masala" dish (the curry method not the spice mix)


Big ones:

-Have a watermelon

soup, salad, etc...

all I have to say is... mandolins... faster and more accurate than anyone I've ever seen with a knife in hand.

I use a julienne peeler for som tum. I think it's a lot more effective to get long strands this way as you follow the natural curvature of the fruit. There is the hybrid technique of making fine parallel cuts with a knife on the fruit and then using a standard peeler, but you're just making more work for yourself. Julienne by hand is fine for the carrots though.

LifeByA1000Cuts said:

....dish suggestions that are a great break-in/familiarization for new knives.......

Click to expand...

Thought I saw that part somewhere.

I like to knock out a quart or two of mire poix to test drive a new knife. Maybe even some trinity if I'm feeling so inclined. Kind of like speed dating.

Takedas are a delight to use for preparing any tofu-based dish. The thinness and lightness of the blade is fitting for the delicate nature of tofu.

cyp450 which kind - silken (delicate indeed) vs extra firm (could use the spine of a thin knife without making a difference) vs smoked/semi-dried (tough wedgy MF, I can imagine an S grind behind a somewhat elbow-y edge being useful here!).

Raw seitan dough, however, is perfect to find imperfections in your cutting board... the stuff is so elastic that it will accordeon like heck if there is the tiniest unreachable spot under the edge (corrugated poly boards have plenty of them).

Ballotine w/ a Petty, boning or whatever else you choose

daveb said:

Thought I saw that part somewhere.

I like to knock out a quart or two of mire poix to test drive a new knife. Maybe even some trinity if I'm feeling so inclined. Kind of like speed dating.

Click to expand...

This is my metric as well. All I really need is an onion and a horse carrot, and I know if a gyuto is worth keeping/modifying/selling.

Gernerally, I prepare a mix of vegetables sauté in a pan with chicken. you get to cut a lot of very different things in tiny pieces: chicken breast, peppers, diced onion, minced garlic, carrots, green cabbage, turnip etc.. Every one is happy: I cook a healthy dinner dish for the whole family. I get tot use my new knife