The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 59

things.
6.AY-ShapedVegetablePeeler
A regular vegetable peeler has a blade aligned with the
handle, requiring you to hold both vegetable and peeler at
anawkwardangle,limitingyourprecision.WithaY-peeler,
youholdthepeelerasifyou’repickingupaniPod,giving
you far greater accuracy. The result is prettier vegetables,
faster prep (once you get used to using it), and less waste.
TheKuhnRikonOriginalSwissPeeler($10.95for3)comes
inassortedcolors,hasabuilt-inpotato-eyeremover,andis
cheap, sturdy, and very sharp. I bought a set of a half a
dozenin2002andstillhavefouroftheminperfectworking
order.(Fortherecord,theothertwowerelost,notbrokenor
wornout.)
7.A10-InchHoningSteel
Honing steels (sometimes incorrectly referred to as
sharpening steels) are the long, heavy, textured metal rods
that butchers and serial killers run their knives over before
goingattheirmeat.
Manypeopleconfusehoningwithsharpening,butthereis
a distinct difference. When you sharpen a knife, you’re
activelyremovingmaterialfromtheblade,creatingabrand
new razor-sharp beveled edge.When you hone a knife, all
you’redoingismakingsurethatedgeisstraight.Thething
about metal is, it’s malleable.That means that with regular
kitchen use, that thin sharpened edge can get microscopic
dentsinitthatthrowthebladeoutofalignment.Evenifthe
blade is still sharp, it can feel dull because the sharp edge


hasbeenpushedofftotheside.That’swhereahoningsteel

comes in.Whenusedproperly,asteelwillrealigntheedge
ofthebladesothatthesharpenedbitisallfacingintheright
direction.You should steel your knife with every cooking
sessiontoensurethatyou’regettingthebestedgepossible.
Whenpurchasingasteel,lookforaheavymodelatleast
10incheslong.IusetheWüsthof10-inchsteel,whichcosts
about $20. Just like a good knife, a high-quality steel will
lastalifetime.Theridgesmaywearoutovertime,butdon’t
worry—it’sstilldoingitsjob.
Diamond steels are gaining more popularity these days.
These are honing steels that have fine diamond powder
embedded in them. This allows them to shave off a
microscopic amount of edge material every time you run
your knife across one of them. In this sense, they truly are
sharpeningsteels.Theadvantageofusingthemisthatyou’ll
be able to slightly increase the time between true stone
sharpenings. High-quality models tend to run a little more
thantwiceasmuchasregularhoningsteels.

CUTTINGBOARDS
A good cutting board is as important as good knives.The
idealcuttingboardislargeenoughtogiveyouamplespace
to work on (at least 1 foot by 2 feet, preferably much
larger); heavy enough that it doesn’t slip, slide, or break
under the pressure of a heavy slam from a cleaver; and
madeofamaterialthatissoftenoughthatitwon’tdullyour
blade.
Of the types of boards on the market, plastic