Hot dishes are not complete without meat in both Eastern and Western culinary traditions. Meat, poultry, and game are prepared everywhere and at any time of the year, therefore, in the working kitchen. Custom Damascus knives for cutting meat and bones, for deboning, trimming, and slicing fillets should always be at hand. Naturally, such a set of tasks is too large for one knife and is more likely to be inherent in a set of two or three models.
The “meat” models include the shapes of chef’s knives, fillet knives, boning or trimming knives, and steak knives. Types of kitchen Custom Damascus knives that combine meat gastronomy with cutting fish, cutting vegetables, and bread: large Deba, Universal elongated, Santoku, Cai Dao, Yanagiba.
Custom Damascus knives
Of great importance is the choice of Custom Damascus knives for professional gastronomic work on farms. Meat processing enterprises, or in places of public catering, where it takes all day to butcher and cut. We present to our readers a workshop on choosing Custom Damascus knives for cutting meat. In which we will consider the features of such models, and what to look for when buying a butcher’s carving knife.
The requirements for a tool for working with dense meat tissues and even hard bone-veinous ligaments determine the general characteristics of cutting knives:
- the knife blade must be long enough, durable, wear-resistant, and safe to use.
- the handle of the knife should be rounded to ensure a tight grip and with an anti-slip surface.
- the pointed tip of the tip, facing forward, is important for the maneuverability of the knife blade for precise cuts and deboning.
- the sharpest sharpening of the cutting edge for efficient and safe work.
At the same time, a knife for working with meat must be sharpened by hand and retain its cutting properties for a long time. Naturally, knives with a ceramic blade will not withstand the high load of meat cutting, especially if you have to work with chilled and frozen carcasses.
Some Custom Damascus knives with ceramic zirconium composite blades can work with sirloin meat. But it is unlikely that a professional will choose this option forever. Even though ceramics are hard, do not change the acidity of meat. Are completely immune to corrosion, and are very light. But still have the main drawback – fragility, especially if the blade is longer than average.
Blade of the knife
In addition, the blade of the knife should not change the taste of the meat that it touches. This applies to models made of high-carbon steel grades, which have the brutal cutting ability. But requires constant rubbing of the blades when working with meat. Without wiping, the surface of these blades will quickly oxidize and may interfere with the taste of the product.
Stainless steels
Stainless steels have good sanitary properties and chemical neutrality, but alloying elements make them quite brittle. So they are better suited for facings in high-strength stack combinations. Professional butcher knives are usually made of high hardness single layer high carbon steel (60+HRC) or multilayer laminated steel, also high strength and decorative.
A beautiful Damascus is often applied to the outer facings of a carbon hard base. Plates made of alloyed corrosion-resistant steel are well combined with a base made of such hard stainless steel as VG-10, ATS-34, 154CM, and 100X15M.
Special knives for butchers
In conclusion, I would like to pay attention to the special models that make up the “meat” set. For rough cutting of meat, as well as for sirloin cutting. Chef knives with a strong long (up to 30 cm), wide, but thin blade are used. These are chef’s knives of the European or Eastern (Japanese) tradition with great functionality and double-sided symmetrical sharpening. The vast majority are made of stainless steel.
Deboning knives have a triangular, tapering to a point, or narrow, curved blade with a heel. The narrow and flexible front part of the point allows delicate separation of meat tissues: separating meat from bones; removing cores; cutting the skin, and fat. The best boning knife is made of resilient spring steel and has the sharpest sharpness of #10000 or more units.
The sirloin models include pro-Western slicing knives, slicers, steak knives, as well as oriental Yanagiba. They have a narrow straight long thin blade with a sharp symmetrical or one-sided sharpening.
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