Has anyone tried the Cuisinart Arista set?

[Dawgluver]

I use my Mom's old knife block from her basic set. It does have the vertical slits, but the angle of the block is steeper. Rather than put my blades in sharp-side-down, I insert them with the blade facing up. The only knife I can't do that with is the highly-curved boning knife my Dad sweet-talked his butcher out of.

I need to remember to stick mine in sharp-side-up in my knife block.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

One warning: if your DH uses knives from the block, he can not be retrained (maybe). I don't know how many times I've had to put a knife back the right way after he walks out of the kitchen. Even more, he completely ticks me off when he uses the bread knife to slice bread and then puts the knife right back in. "What? It's not dirty, it's only bread." *sigh*

 

[Dawgluver]

I'm the knife swinger around here, DH will use what I give him. He just leaves them on the counter for me to clean...

 

[Kayelle]

One warning: if your DH uses knives from the block, he can not be retrained (maybe). I don't know how many times I've had to put a knife back the right way after he walks out of the kitchen. Even more, he completely ticks me off when he uses the bread knife to slice bread and then puts the knife right back in. "What? It's not dirty, it's only bread." *sigh*

I must admit, I'm in the camp of Himself. Covers head in shame.

 

[taxlady]

I did similar, and much more reuse when I lived in a log cabin. We had running water in spring and early summer. After that, the water level in the spring well was too low for the hose. In winter the hose froze solid. I can assure you that you don't want to wash any more dishes than necessary when you have to haul the water up a hill.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Kayelle and taxy, if you're using your knives I have no say-so. I can be a bit anal when it comes to my kitchen. Hmm, actually I'm pretty much just like Himself when it comes to using HIS tools. If I don't put the hammer or screwdriver away exactly the way he wants it, look out!

 

[RPCookin]

One warning: if your DH uses knives from the block, he can not be retrained (maybe). I don't know how many times I've had to put a knife back the right way after he walks out of the kitchen. Even more, he completely ticks me off when he uses the bread knife to slice bread and then puts the knife right back in. "What? It's not dirty, it's only bread." *sigh*

The same applies to the DW too. If my wife had free rein, we wouldn't have a sharp knife in the house. She still can't understand why I was so shocked a few years ago when she brought home this lovely glass cutting board. We use it on the counter to put hot pans on when they come out of the oven, but never for a cutting board. My mother also did not have a clue about how to sharpen or handle a knife to keep it sharp.

As far as the second part of your post, I don't see the problem. I will often use the bread slicer, wipe it off and return it to the block. I wouldn't do that with something like banana or raisin bread, but ordinary white or wheat or the like with nothing sticky, no problem.

 

[CharlieD]

My first good set knives was Wustoff classic. It was 8" chef and a small paring knife. I kept reading adds in a paper and it was sold by some knife sharpening place as the gimmick to bring people in, to get them familiar with sharpening. It cost me half as much as the places like Sur la table. But I still have it. 20 years later. And it is still great set.


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[CharlieD]

They are very handy for soft tomatoes and similar.

Of course if you have a sharp knife you don't need a serrated one even for soft tomatoes. ?


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[flphotog]

They are very handy for soft tomatoes and similar.

Sorry, I disagree, a good sharp pain blade is what you need for tomatoes. A finely serrated knife maybe (but not for me), on a bread knife the serrations are to coarse to cut a tomato cleanly IMHO.

 

[Andy M.]

one of the knives in my collection is a 'tomato' knife. It's about 6" long and serrated. I never use it for tomatoes, just breads.

 

[kitchengoddess8]

I'm learning so much from all of you...thank you! Why is the position of the knives in the block important?

 

[taxlady]

Of course if you have a sharp knife you don't need a serrated one even for soft tomatoes. ?

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Sorry, I disagree, a good sharp pain blade is what you need for tomatoes. A finely serrated knife maybe (but not for me), on a bread knife the serrations are to coarse to cut a tomato cleanly IMHO.

It won't damage the knife. It is easier for some people. Personally, I seldom resort to that. When the tomato is soft and the skin is very tough and I want pretty slices, I poke the sharp end of the knife into the skin of the tomato to "start" the slice.

The original poster asked:

Can 8" serrated bread knives be used with other food items besides bread?

There is no good reason why a serrated knife can't be used for tomatoes. It works well. YMMV. The usual wisdom is that your knives should be sharp enough for a tomato, so don't waste money on a "tomato knife", not "never use a serrated knife for tomatoes".

 

[taxlady]

I'm learning so much from all of you...thank you! Why is the position of the knives in the block important?

The position of the knives in the block matters because if the knife rests on the sharp edge, it dulls that edge, especially as you put the knife into the block and pull it out.

 

[kitchengoddess8]

The position of the knives in the block matters because if the knife rests on the sharp edge, it dulls that edge, especially as you put the knife into the block and pull it out.

Ah...I see. That makes a lot of sense. I think I'm going to focus on buying a good chef's knife first and forget about getting a whole block of knives. I have a Wusthof 6" chef's knife but it has a plastic handle. I would like to get a decent quality 7" santoku. Sometime the 6" knife doesn't do the job

 

[GotGarlic]

I bought my knife block separately on Amazon.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I bought my knife block separately on Amazon.

+ one...a Henckles horizontal slots for $20. Still not big enough for all my knives, but it holds the ones I use most often.

 

[RPCookin]

Of course if you have a sharp knife you don't need a serrated one even for soft tomatoes. ��

Yep. I have never had to start a cut in a tomato with the point since I have had good quality, sharp knives in my kitchen. My sister used to say that you should use nothing but a serrated knife on tomatoes... then she bought her first good knife and found out that I was right all along, that sharp beats serrated any day.

I bought my knife block separately on Amazon.

The block was the best thing we got from the Cutco knife set my wife got sucked into buying 12 years ago. The only thing we still use from that set with any regularity are the steak knives and the nice block with horizontal slots. It now holds 3 Wusthof (6" and 8" chef and one boning), 2 Chicago Cutlery (paring and utility), and one Dexter Russell bread slicer.

 

[taxlady]

RP, I guess you don't get tomatoes with really tough skins.

 

[Andy M.]

RP, I guess you don't get tomatoes with really tough skins.

I guess I'm in the same boat as RP.

I can't imagine I'm able to cut tomatoes so easily with a regular knife because I've never had a tomato with a tough skin. It's more likely because I have a knife that's sharp enough to deal with it.