Which Japanese knife for slicing smoked salmon?

[Devon_Steven]

Almost all of my fish slicing activities involve smoked salmon.

Any experience of which J knives perform well at this? I'm thinking yanagiba, for obvious reasons, but maybe there are others...

As I'm sure I don't need to point out, typically the slice is very thin, but also relatively large (wide), like this:

 

[Zwiefel]

A suji might perform just as capably with potentially lower cost and maintenance.

 

[spoiledbroth]

330 sujihiki or a straight victorinox salmon knife (15"?). You need something longer for sure to minimize the sawing motion

 

[Asteger]

A suji might perform just as capably with potentially lower cost and maintenance.

I don't know about cost, but I'd say a 1-bev yanagi will be easier to care for than a 2-bev suji. Beyond these, you could go with 1-bevel takobiki, fugubiki, which are similar but more specialised, or kiritsuke if you want to be able to do fine push-cuts of vegs a la japonaise.

 

[Zwiefel]

I don't know about cost, but I'd say a 1-bev yanagi will be easier to care for than a 2-bev suji. Beyond these, you could go with 1-bevel takobiki, fugu

Interesting. I was thinking about the reactivity of the few 1-bev I've played with, as well as sharpening. You disagree? Or thinking about something else?

OP: is this for home, or Resto? I.e., what kind of quantity in a single sitting?

 

[Asteger]

Interesting. I was thinking about the reactivity of the few 1-bev I've played with, as well as sharpening.

Definitely think 1-bevs are simpler to sharpen, which I think is part of the idea. As for reactivity and steel, that's a different story.

 

[spoiledbroth]

not sure reactivity would be a huge issue with smoked salmon though?

 

[lucabrasi]

Strange. I've always found double sharpening far easier, but suppose I'm just more well practiced at it.

I would want a suji for that type of broad thin cut. 300mm+.

 

[Smurfmacaw]

If reactivity is a concern then why not a stainless yanagiba?

 

[Asteger]

If only life were single-bevelled... more bevels, more bother

 

[Devon_Steven]

OP: is this for home, or Resto? I.e., what kind of quantity in a single sitting?

Home use; minimal quantity; reactivity not an issue for me (it certainly hasn't been an issue with my iron-clad gyuto on smoked salmon).

I do want this to be my first single bevel (in white or blue) but I didn't wan't limit the responses by specifying that earlier.

Been looking at yanagibas but then read something somewhere suggesting that a broader blade is useful for smoked salmon. Kiritsuke, as suggested by Asteger, might fit the bill there.

Other slicing tasks in my kitchen are:

- thinly slicing charcuterie (pancetta, guanciale, air-dried ham, salami); and

- cooked meat (although that's not so often).



Yanagi or kiritsuke for charcuterie..?

 

[Zwiefel]

Yanagi or kiritsuke for charcuterie..?

Some charcuterie is quite hard...I wouldn't use a 1-bev for those.

 

[Devon_Steven]

Some charcuterie is quite hard...I wouldn't use a 1-bev for those.

Ah, I wondered about that!

At the moment, I use my honeski for pancetta and guanciale (pork cheeks) and it works very well. But sometimes it's a little short. The gyuto also works well.

Thin slices of pancetta are nice, however, and a singel-bevel slicer sounded like a good idea for this.

My pancetta is a little tough on the outside, but soft inside... I'll give it a cautious try with whatever single-bevel I end up with...

 

[Zwiefel]

Ah, I wondered about that!

At the moment, I use my honeski for pancetta and guanciale (pork cheeks) and it works very well. But sometimes it's a little short. The gyuto also works well.

Thin slices of pancetta are nice, however, and a singel-bevel slicer sounded like a good idea for this.

My pancetta is a little tough on the outside, but soft inside... I'll give it a cautious try with whatever single-bevel I end up with...

I would expect pancetta to be fine...I'm far from knowledgeable about cured meats...but I've had some pepperoni and salami that I wouldn't put my 1-bev on....gyuto work quite well though.

 

[mark76]

Why not a fillet knife like this one by Randy?

I'm not trying to plug this knife, but the shape looks ideal to me.

 

[daveb]

My thinnest suji (DT) works best for me when slicing smoked salmon. Raw it's the Yanagiba.

 

[Keith Sinclair]

For banquet carving smoke salmon we used Forschner 12" Rosewood handle salmon blades. You can get them pretty sharp.

For home use if you want a high quality blade a sujihiki at least 270mm would work for salmon and your other meats.

 

[Lefty]

Sounds silly/overkilly, but I think this task screams a TC Blades suji/Yanagiba. Tough as nails, takes a great edge, looks and feels incredible... I dunno. It just fits, and nobody mentions Tslil anymore, despite his work being pretty outstanding from a craftsman's perspective.

 

[Devon_Steven]

Thanks for all of the input.

As it happens, circumstances changed and I ended up with a Deba as my first single-bevel!

What changed?

I got Maksim's latest newsletter highlighting a 20 per cent site-wide sale (4th and 5th Dec).

There wasn't a slicer that fully fitted the bill for me so I got this instead:

http://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/toyama-noborikoi-kasumi-deba-180mm/

I shall buy a slicer in the future, so all the above advice is still relevant.

 

[alwayssharp]

I'd recommend a sujihiki, they make stainless ones if you can't care for carbon steels.

IMO, doing sushi for more than a decade, yanagi or single bevel are simple to sharpen, very difficult to master.
Sujihiki is MUCH easier to sharpen.
Maybe everyone is different though.

 

[Smurfmacaw]

Easy peasy, the knife you want is a Shigefusa 330mm Kitaeji Fugubiki. Finding one is another matter.