Guest Post: Chefs Knife and their myths...

How many of us out there have expensive chefs kitchen knives and no idea how to use them? Hmm well hopefully this guest post will get you back into the kitchen and enjoying them!

Cutting to the facts: Four kitchen cutlery myths dispelled

Whether we are seasoned chefs or humble home cooks, our cookery knives are important to us. We use them for so many things – from slicing and dicing -  to deboning and chopping - and we know just about everything about them and how to take care of them. Or do we? Here, leading cooking accessories retailer chefsknivesonline.com  cuts straight to the facts to dispel four common myths surrounding our cooking knives.
You can use any chopping board – it won’t matter
Wrong. This is actually a common misconception, but in actual fact, it does matter. While marble and slate might look attractive in your kitchen, wood, bamboo and plastic are actually better for your knives because they are less likely to scratch or chip them. 

Steeling sharpens your knife
Not true. When you steel a knife, you are actually only straightening the edges. You should only really steel after around 10-15 cuts (although many of us wrongly think that it needs to be done more regularly). If you want to sharpen your knife properly, you need to remove the old edge and properly reshape the blade. With just a quick search on YouTube, you’ll find a number of handy how-to videos, but any cook worth their salt will tell you that you need to sharpen them 1-2 times a year.
It’s fine to wash your best knives in the dishwasher
Only if you don’t mind ruining them. The harsh temperatures and detergents will eventually erode the blade – something that would be particularly concerning if you had invested in an expensive set of, say, professional chef’s knives.  And aside from damaging the knife itself, the sharp edges could also knick the inside of your dishwasher.
An expensive knife is always better quality than a cheaper one
This simply isn’t true.  Would you spend hundreds of pounds on a blunt knife? We thought not. It’s not always about the price, but more to do with how you look after them. If you don’t sharpen your knives properly (1-2 times a year), or store them properly in specific knife blocks, then you risk serious injury – every single time you use them.