Building the essential kitchen knife set for $100

The crucial tool in any preparation station starts with a capable knife set and cutting surface. Building a quality Kitchen knife set for $100 may be easier than you think. Individual knife acquisition requires a keen eye to satisfy particular kitchen tasks. Today’s knife manufacturers have cobbled together winning starter sets that will take care of a high percentage of kitchen duties.

As the owner of Butchers Best Market I’ve purchased the tools crucial to quickly break down sides of beef into prime, subprime and portion cuts. If you’ve ever visited a butcher’s counter you may see an array of knives, cleavers and saws. The knives you typically observe in use are broken down into 3 types of blades. Boning, fileting and paring knives. At home I find a good Chef’s knife is useful for chopping and dicing vegetables and spices.

Knife sets are an important investment. I’ll explain how we choose the knives we use. Please read on to the end as I will outline the best care practices to keep your chosen knife set sharp.

What factors dictate knife selection.

Knife implementation depends on the desired cutting results. Stroke, balance and blade angle will dictate the power needed to separate the food.

Finer edge angles between 15° and 18° make for kitchen knives best at detailed trimming and slicing. These knives are sometimes referred to as eastern knives with harder steel and higher carbon content. You’ll find them useful in fileting fish, chickens, roasts and breads

Western style knives are a bit more sturdy and tend to have edge degrees between 17° and 25°. You’ll find they’re stamped from tougher steel with less carbon. These are primarily the knives you’ll see us using in the Butcher shop. These knives are used in boning proteins, cutting open large squashes, melons and separating thawing foods.

Precision control

Length is an important feature of your preferred knife choice. If a chef wants to cut a larger product in one stroke, a longer running edge may be required. Longer knives have a tendency to become unwieldy for new users. You may want to acquire substantial cutting skills before purchasing knives longer than 9 inches included with any starter set.

Along that same vein, shorter paring knives are useful in cutting, peeling, mincing and dicing fruits, veggies and garnishes.

Balance is key

Power and balance will be slightly different depending on whether you choose a set that is full tang or partial tang. Full tang is when the blade stock extends all the way through the handle as a continuous piece of metal.

Ease of use

Lastly, dimpled knife depression helps prevent foods from sticking to the blade. There is less surface contact with the food. Less fictions means less force is needed for cutting.

I intentionally left out a serrated bread knife for this writing. Although they are useful with baked breads, a capable carving knife can slice bread in the interim until you decide to upgrade this starter combo to a professional knife set.

We provide in-house  knife sharpening service to the surrounding local community. If you have a question about which knife to use  in particular cutting situations, feel free to stop by and bring down your knives for review. I can suggest the appropriate knife to utilize in the most common preparation tasks.

What should I look for in a starter set

Chefs must work with the best available tools. This is crucial for superior precision but more importantly, a necessity for the safe handling of cutting edges. Essentially the type of kitchen knives you’ll need depends on your particular field of cooking. If you’re an occasional home cook to a professional chef, we’ll try to lay out the most popular choices.

Suffice to say if we’re targeting a budget knife purchase of sub $100 we’ll concentrate on the 4 most useful blades.

• Chef knife
• Carving/Slicer knife
• Utility knife
• Paring knife

I’m not going to recommend a particular manufacturer choice here today. I believe you should use what is available in your current kitchen now. You may find comparative recommended choices on our sister site https://eatfreshwith.us

If you google the Best knife sets under $100, you’ll get a plethora of good options.

The right knife for the task at hand

An everyday cook or family meal entertainer will have different requirements than a grill master, a greens chef or a specialized baker.

The crucial blade

I have found through experience the ideal minimum knife set that allows me to turn out a daily meal consists of a 8” Chef Knife. This is the workhorse of any kitchen. Some budget sets may come with a traditionally broad and more rounded chopping knife and/or a precision Santoku knife. More often than not I find myself using the chopping knife. The 8” Chef Knife is ideal for:

• Cutting meat
• Disjoining some cuts
• Cut off stems
• Dicing vegetables
• Chopping nuts

Chef knives come in sizes from 6-12 inches. I’ve found an 8 inch knife can handily tackle large and small portions.

Precise portions

My next choice for a useful kitchen knife would be a 9” Slicer or Carving knife. Which of these types you choose will depend on the desired thin cuts you want to achieve.  Either a Slicer or Carving knife is an essential tool for any knife block when it comes time to serve your dinner guests. They can also be used with raw briskets and hams. In a pinch you can slice bread with these knives

Typically Carving knives have long, thin blades with a pronounced tip. This improves maneuverability around skin, bone, cartilage and fats. A slicing knife will have a round tip.

A Carving knife will be more rigid. A slicing knife tends to be more flexible.

They can be purchased with a straight or scalloped edge.

I would avoid serrated knives for carving meats. Serrated edges tend to tear cooked meats during serving. Professional sharpeners tend to shy away from trying to bring back their edge. In my experience a hollow grind, scalloped straight edge would be more effective for slicing the thinnest portions of protein. The 9” Slicer or Carving knife is excellent at:

• Making thin slices of cooked meats
• Preparing Vegetables and tomatoes
• Cutting fruits and melons
• Cutting breads with soft crusts

The carry through knife

If the Chef knife is the workhorse of the kitchen, the utility knife is the carriage. My 6” Utility Knife is used most frequently for slicing and dicing herbs and garden greens. It does quick work of bagel breads. I can portion out summer sausages and cheeses with ease. The 6” Utility Knife is useful for:

• Long cut portioning
• Hors d’oeuvres dressing
• Creating bouquet garni
• Roll slicing
• Dough shaping

Utility knives range in size from 4-7 inches.

Delicate detail

A good 3.5” Paring Knife rounds out any budget knife set. Whenever I have to seed vegetables, slice pepper ribs, cut mushroom stems or peel fruit, a sharp paring knife is crucial. The 3.5” Paring Knife is useful for:

• Deveining Prawns
• Peeling and cutting small vegetables
• Deseeding fruit
• Carving fruit and veggie design

Paring knives range in sizes from 3-4 inches

Keep your knife sets sharp

Any knife purchase should be accompanied with a matching storage solution. Many of the pre-selected sets available for $100 come with a knife block or magnetic knife boards. The block can happily live on the counter top. It is important to store the magnetic knife boards in their own storage draw. Unfortunately I’ve observed customers who store knives in drawers, only to have them damaged when an unwitting partner tossed other tools on top of the exposed knife set.

We suggest mounting the magnetic knife board on a wall surface. If you find yourself short on counter or wall space, consider purchasing a Chef Knife Roll Bag to protect your knife investment.

Knives are precision instruments that begin dulling from their first use. Invest in a quality cutting board to protect your chosen knife edge.

A functional Honing Steel can be used to realign a knurled edge.

Keep your knives clean after each use.

If you’re not sure about the mineral makeup of your knife, they all benefit from hand washing in mild soapy water. Immediately dry your knives and reseat them in their holder.

We suggest keeping your knives away from the dishwasher. Here’s why. Abrasive detergents can ricochet debris causing wear at a knife edge during spraying. The higher pressure jets can also propel the knives or other dishes into each other. Dishwasher jets sometimes move items. Reaching into a cycled bin can expose a the user to cuts from shifted knives.

Safety and Care

When honing is no longer sufficient we help customers stay safe by restoring their kitchen knife sets. Contact the Butchers Best sharpening service.

Taking care of your cutting utensils are critical to guarantee safe and effective kitchen use. There are many good knives available for purchase that will be a valued asset for many years to come.