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For one thing, keep i mind that olive oil has a relatively low smoke point--375F. And frying with EVOO wastes the extra quality you pay for. Light or refined olive oil, which has had most of its flavor stripped out chemically, is OK up to 465F. This info is from Lodge cast iron.

I don't think steels wear out, and I don't think it matters if they do. There, after all, steels that are perfectly smooth. My steel is a 14" Zwilling, and although I use it only as a home cook, it still seems to be doing its job after 40 years. I steel my knives 6 strokes a side, edge toward...

I've been using the same 14"Zwilling steel for 4 year and it seems to be fine. I suggest you have ONE knife professionally sharpened; use it regularly and pay attention to edge retention. I can't think of any reason why the knives themselves should be at fault for losing edge quickly, so I think...

What freaks e out is people pouding on the blade with their hands.

I called it a chef's knife because that's how it's presented--and then showed, I think, how it fails to live up to its billing , and is merely a beater, something to hammer through a squash.

Brandless 8” Chef’s Knife ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a chef in possession of a good knife must be in want of a beater,’ said Jane Austen (didn’t she?). While scholars parse and prattle about the attribution, cooks debate the meaning of ‘beater.’ I’ve seen definitions ranging...

More recently I've discovered that scooping the seeds out with a spoon is the worst way to do it. I now use an ice-cream scoop.

I have seen people do some really risky things when faced with cutting truly stubborn vegetables--butternut squash, for horrible example. I have seen a man what his way halfway through the neck of a butternut and then slam down on the spine of the knife with his open palm. It hurts, and beyond...

And thank you, dragnlaw, for the knife/egg trick. Tried it this morning on my breakfast egg; worked perfectly first try. Will alternate w/my one-hand/hard surface approach, which I cling to because it allows me the illusion of competence.

I pray for its rescue. If the prongs are solid, one-piece jobs, very careful bend with needlenose pliers may do the job If they're the type made of a brass strip folded over on itself, wedging a screwdriver between the strips can spread them enough for firm contact. Good luck.

Oh--as to your cooker. It's not the cord it's probably the heatinmg element. There are still a few people abot who can repair things, and replacing the resistance wire, if not the entire element, might be possible. I, too, am a tad sentimental about old kitchen friends.

OK, I'll try it.Cheers!

I recall from many years ago (now known as ''back in the day') a young New England bride being stumped by "four gallups maple syrup" in one of her mother's hand-written recipes. Mom explained that a gallup is the sound made when you tilt the jug over the mixing bowl. In one of Patrick...

You're right--how you hold the knife doesn't affect taste. But a poor grip makes the work harder and less accurate, and that usually affects the cook's morale.

Tjhe obsession with "wooden spoon" and kosher salt, "changed my life forever," "I'll be making this on repeat all summer" and similar gushiness. As an editor and writer I have clung to the principle "note the exception, not the rule." It's something I dreamt up in the 1970s when I first...

The "mise" is something I finally forced myself to do every time, but otherwise I'm thinking "What? There's just ONE most challenging thing?" What I've noticed a lot among family and friends is poor knife skills: crap knives, low-quality, usually too small, always dull, never steeled, tossed in...

Poor girl--just imagine slaving all day over a hot can opener!

I've had better luck with the flat surface and can even (sometimes) manage to unshell the egg one-handed. My idol in this regard was the eggmeister of my local (and now departed) corner bodega. The morning scrambled-eggs-and-something-else-on-a-roll crowd was huge from about 6AM on: Cops from...

lsoa fan of the basic Fiskars scissors, which seem to last forever.

Even better are aviation snips, which are nimble, light in weight, and allow for more precise cutting. But plain old tin snips will indeed suffice, and will do a better job than most of the purpose-built doodads hawked in recent years, most of which are nearly worthless while some are dangerous.

Indeed. I hadn't noticed the date.

t said, I think we've all strayed so far from the original post that our lucubrations and deep-think should be removed to a thread of their own.

Absolutely. I wouldn't ever consider putting good blades in the dishwasher. Hand wash, hand dry, rack on a magnet strip or store in a block. As I said, show them some respect.

Yes, Katy—‘chop slowly and surely with a properly sharp knife.’ So many people envy ‘machinegun chopping,’ but let’s face it: we’re home cooks who may take out the Big Knife maybe once a day; we are not Benihana cooks who go through a steak-whacking routine a dozen times a day five days a week...

This is the sort of thing that would tempt me in the past because I'm a man and Man is the gadget accumulating animal. But since then I've (a) improved my knife skill to the point of actually enjoying dicing and slicing, and (b) achieved sufficient equilibrium to ask myself "When was the last...