Ninja Cookers

[Mike4]

My chum has the ninja. Excellent for crispy chicken wings.
We had a moratorium on new kitchen gadgets when we moved to smaller kitchen. I have not unpacked the extras kitchen box in over 5 years. In there, which I can apparently live without, is the bread maker, juicer, toastie maker, mandolin, potato ricer, brass balance, donut maker, chocolate fondue, pancake pan. I have a halogen counter top oven, before air fryers ere trendy and slow cooker always out and processor and stick blender in the cupboard. I miss only the mandolin. Though I would juice more. We have started to think about moving in the next couple of years and I have added a bigger kitchen to the increasing list of must haves.

Perhaps you would be lucky and the mandolin might be at the top of the box?
- really couldn't go back to life without one!

I agree. (Standard) tuning is GDAE

[servodude]

Perhaps you would be lucky and the mandolin might be at the top of the box?
- really couldn't go back to life without one!

I agree. (Standard) tuning is GDAE

Going a bit tangential here - but yes those are also excellent additions to a kitchen
I mainly tune to GDAD (especially on my octave mandolin) after taking a masterclass from Andy Irvine many years back (works well when played solo as there's the oppotunity for droning - and power chords from one finger)

It is however not very useful for getting wafer thin carrot slices

[kempiejon]

It is however not very useful for getting wafer thin carrot slices

My new game is sharpening, I got the kitchen knives shaving sharp and can pare a carrot transparent. The mandolin is quick, does batons too.

[servodude]

It is however not very useful for getting wafer thin carrot slices

My new game is sharpening, I got the kitchen knives shaving sharp and can pare a carrot transparent. The mandolin is quick, does batons too.

Now THAT is another rabbit hole!
I've got a Lansky kit for putting an edge on and a #1000 King Stone for trying to maintain it
- the hard part is convincing the other kitchen users to stop moving the knives in ways that dull them

[Mike4]

My new game is sharpening, I got the kitchen knives shaving sharp and can pare a carrot transparent. The mandolin is quick, does batons too.

Now THAT is another rabbit hole!
I've got a Lansky kit for putting an edge on and a #1000 King Stone for trying to maintain it
- the hard part is convincing the other kitchen users to stop moving the knives in ways that dull them :(

What, like downwards, onto a (currently trendy) toughened glass chopping board instead of a nice soft plastic one?!

[servodude]

Now THAT is another rabbit hole!
I've got a Lansky kit for putting an edge on and a #1000 King Stone for trying to maintain it
- the hard part is convincing the other kitchen users to stop moving the knives in ways that dull them :(

What, like downwards, onto a (currently trendy) toughened glass chopping board instead of a nice soft plastic one?!

...and THEN dragging the chunk of carrot to the right (or left in the case of the sinister wean) with an exaggerated flamboyant skreech of the blade against the board!

or just using the wrong bloody knife - stabbing it in to something and trying to pry a bit off?
I've lost count of the number of paring knives that end up looking like commas! (...use the right bloody knife or cleaver)

I know I can generally repair them - but I wince every time...

[Mike4]

What, like downwards, onto a (currently trendy) toughened glass chopping board instead of a nice soft plastic one?!

...and THEN dragging the chunk of carrot to the right (or left in the case of the sinister wean) with an exaggerated flamboyant skreech of the blade against the board!

or just using the wrong bloody knife - stabbing it in to something and trying to pry a bit off?
I've lost count of the number of paring knives that end up looking like commas! (...use the right bloody knife or cleaver)

I know I can generally repair them - but I wince every time...

Oh, and a rabbit hole inside a rabbit hole...

I have two gorgeous Sabatier 'cook's knives' which were a delight to use until "someone" snapped the tip off one trying to separate frozen sausages or something like that. Then flippin' 'eck if I didn't find the exact same thing done to the other knife which lives in the boat! And the boat has no freezer so I've no eye deer how she managed that....

Curiously though, judicious use of the bench grinder shortened both back to a pleasing point by removing metal from the top of the blade, with virtually no ill effects at all. I even find the resulting shape very pleasing to the eye. II'll bung up a photo shortly...

[servodude]

...and THEN dragging the chunk of carrot to the right (or left in the case of the sinister wean) with an exaggerated flamboyant skreech of the blade against the board!

or just using the wrong bloody knife - stabbing it in to something and trying to pry a bit off?
I've lost count of the number of paring knives that end up looking like commas! (...use the right bloody knife or cleaver)

I know I can generally repair them - but I wince every time...

Oh, and a rabbit hole inside a rabbit hole...

I have two gorgeous Sabatier 'cook's knives' which were a delight to use until "someone" snapped the tip off one trying to separate frozen sausages or something like that. Then flippin' 'eck if I didn't find the exact same thing done to the other knife which lives in the boat! And the boat has no freezer so I've no eye deer how she managed that....

Curiously though, judicious use of the bench grinder shortened both back to a pleasing point by removing metal from the top of the blade, with virtually no ill effects at all. I even find the resulting shape very pleasing to the eye. II'll bung up a photo shortly...

Haven't invested in a bench grinder but there's a certain sparkly fun to putting an edge back on a knife (or axe) when it's clamped in a bench vice and you go at it with an angle grinder

[Mike4]

Here we are. This one had probably 10 to 12mm of metal snapped clean off the point!

[servodude]

Here we are. This one had probably 10 to 12mm of metal snapped clean off the point!

Keep going and you'll eventually have a Santoku shape
- and then you can aim for the 10-15deg edge

[johnstevens77]

What, like downwards, onto a (currently trendy) toughened glass chopping board instead of a nice soft plastic one?!

What, still using plastic? Thought we had all gone back to wood. And glass? Give me a break, or should that be smashed?

john

[bungeejumper]

Here we are. This one had probably 10 to 12mm of metal snapped clean off the point!

Funny you should say that. Best kitchen knife in our house is a carbon steel Pradel which we've had for maybe 35 years. Keeps its edge like nothing I've ever seen.

But carbon steel can also be brittle, as I discovered when I tried to twst something with it and the last half inch of the point snapped off. Much swearing, followed by five minutes with an angle grinder, and it was better than ever. Better balanced, too!

BJ

[kempiejon]

Now THAT is another rabbit hole!
I've got a Lansky kit for putting an edge on and a #1000 King Stone for trying to maintain it
- the hard part is convincing the other kitchen users to stop moving the knives in ways that dull them :(

I have my eye on a new stone, I hear good things about Shapton but I wonder if I'm becoming kit obsessed. I can get a shaving sharp edge with the cheapo stones I have. Perhaps a strop is actually next.

What, like downwards, onto a (currently trendy) toughened glass chopping board instead of a nice soft plastic one?!

Ah another rabbit hole, hundred dollar synthetic rubber chopping boards used by sushi chefs like. https://burrfectionstore.com/collections/cutting-boards https://www.chefslocker.co.uk/store/p40 ... BOARD.html

[servodude]

Now THAT is another rabbit hole!
I've got a Lansky kit for putting an edge on and a #1000 King Stone for trying to maintain it
- the hard part is convincing the other kitchen users to stop moving the knives in ways that dull them :(

I have my eye on a new stone, I hear good things about Shapton but I wonder if I'm becoming kit obsessed. I can get a shaving sharp edge with the cheapo stones I have. Perhaps a strop is actually next.

What, like downwards, onto a (currently trendy) toughened glass chopping board instead of a nice soft plastic one?!

Ah another rabbit hole, hundred dollar synthetic rubber chopping boards used by sushi chefs like. https://burrfectionstore.com/collections/cutting-boards https://www.chefslocker.co.uk/store/p40 ... BOARD.html

I think once you have a good edge on decent knife it doesn't really matter what you use to keep it honed; steel, strop or stone will do
I really like the size of the King Stone and it's quite a relaxing process
- they're not expensive (compared to other bits of knife kit: https://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Deluxe-K-45-K45-Whetstone/dp/B000OT1ZOC)

[stewamax]

One of my family businesses was a fish and poultry merchant, and during school holidays I was press-ganged into service.

I was trained to sharpen the many lethal-looking knives the safe way: holding the steel downwards with the far end pushed firmly into the wooden prep slab.

I eventually graduated into doing things the 'professional' (sic) way: holding the steel at 45 degrees upwards and away from me, and sharpening with big macho flourishes of knife. One slip and the left hand gets severed just below the thumb or a colleague becomes nose-less.

It looked hugely grown-up and impressive; the downside was that no eligible young ladies of my age ever came into the shops to be impressed, only housewives and the occasional hard-up pensioner who bought 6d worth of 'pussies pieces' (left over plaice heads, fins and so on) - nominally for cats but we knew the real recipient.