The Well-Equipped Cook: Knives Are the Most Important Tools in Your Kitchen

With so many knives on the market, which ones belong in your collection? Ends Today! Longest free trial + lowest-ever price for our online Cooking School. [Learn more →]( [America's Test Kitchen. The Well-Equipped Cook. A weekly newsletter from your favorite unbiased tasters and testers.]( [equipment reviews]( [taste tests]( [Equipment guides]( [gear heads]( Knives: The Most Important Tools in Your Kitchen [SEE EQUIPMENT GUIDE]( [Carolyn Grillo. Associate Editor, Tastings & Testings.] With so many knives on the market, which ones belong in your collection? Today I’m sharing some of my favorites. Our winning [paring knife]( is a small and powerful tool. With it in hand, I can core and slice tomatoes easily and segment lemons precisely. A [santoku]( a style of knife that originated in Japan, is my favorite alternative to my usual 8-inch chef’s knife. With a slightly shorter blade and a rounded front edge, it offers excellent precision and control—I use mine for chopping vegetables and mincing garlic. And no knife set is complete without a great pair of [kitchen shears](. Our top-rated model has supersharp, superior blades that can tackle a wide range of tasks. In this week’s guide, we’ve also pulled together our favorite ways to sharpen and store knives. Whether you’re shredding, dicing, or slicing this summer, you’ll be ready. Must-Have of the week A Serrated Utility Knife Sizewise, utility knives fall somewhere between a paring knife and a chef’s knife, with a blade that’s usually from 5 to 6 inches long. They come in both straight-bladed and serrated styles. To find the best one, we gathered eight models and tested them by slicing tomatoes, baguettes, hard salami, kaiser rolls, avocados, and BLT sandwiches. Read on to find out which utility knife is a cut above the rest. [Read more ›]( OUR WINNER Zwilling Pro 5.5" Serrated Prep Knife Sharpness: ★★★   Blade Design: ★★★   Handle Design: ★★½   [BUY NOW]( Related Recipes [Authentic Baguettes at Home]( [Brown Rice Bowl with Vegetables and Salmon]( [America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Try it Free for 14 days: LET'S GET COOKING →]( Explore More Featured Products [Longtime Favorite]( Victorinox Swiss Army Fibrox Pro 8" Chef's Knife During the past 20 years, we’ve conducted many chef’s knife reviews. Our results often have the same conclusion: This bargain knife trounces the competition. [Buy It Now ›]( [Foolproof Sharpening]( Chef'sChoice Trizor XV Knife Sharpener This knife sharpener consistently produces razor-sharp edges. During testing, it took only 10 minutes of sharpening for a severely damaged knife to look and cut like a brand-new blade. [Buy It Now ›]( [Bird's Beak Paring Knives, Universal Knife Blocks, Serrated Knives, Flexible Boning Knives]( [SEE ALL THE EQUIPMENT]( Knife Skills 101 A Guide to Using Your Chef’s Knife A good chef’s knife is a kitchen workhorse that’s more versatile than any other knife in your arsenal. [Read More ›]( Gear Heads Hack Through Anything with the Best Cleavers Take your knife collection one step further by investing in a sturdy cleaver. Hannah and Lisa put them to the test in this edition of Gear Heads. [Watch Now ›]( More equipment guides [Shining a Spotlight on Vegetables]( [Should You Buy an Air Fryer?]( HOW OUR TESTING PROCESS WORKS The mission of the Reviews Team is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. Our team of eight dedicated reviewers write only about products we’ve tested ourselves, which means no product summaries from other websites. We don’t accept advertising. We purchase all our own products at retail prices and never accept any free or “loaner” products from manufacturers. [equipment reviews]( [taste tests]( [equipment guides]( [gear heads]( Our family of brands [America's Test Kitchen]( [Cook's Illustrated]( [Cook's Country]( [Kids]( [Cooking School]( America’s Test Kitchen is the home of Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country magazines, America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country public televisions shows, all-new America's Test Kitchen Kids, dozens of cookbooks, member websites, the America's Test Kitchen Cooking School, and the Webby award–winning podcast Proof. We have a single mission: to help you succeed every time you cook. FOLLOW US [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( [Pinterest]( DIGITAL MAGAZINES [Cook's Illustrated]( [Cook's Country]( Find digital editions of [Cook’s Illustrated]( and [Cook’s Country]( for iPad on the App Store. THE AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN APP The America’s Test Kitchen App is free for All-Access Multi-Site Members and is available on [iOS]( and [Android](. [Forward to a friend →]( View this email in a [Web browser](. Offer expires July 22, 2020. All prior sales excluded. No substitutions. We sent you this email because our records indicate that you requested to receive email from America's Test Kitchen. We don’t want you to miss out on our emails: Please [add our email address]( to your address book or “safe” sender list today. Apple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC. Unsubscribe or manage your [email preferences](. View our [privacy policy.]( DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. Unfortunately, replies to this email will not be answered. If you have questions, please visit our [Customer Service]( page. America's Test Kitchen, 21 Drydock Avenue, Suite 210E, Boston, MA 02210