Last time I was at Sur La Table I saw this interesting little herb grower. It uses a hydroponics technique to grow herbs quicker. There is a spray bar which mists the roots with water and nutrients. There is a larger version that looks similar to the AeroGarden, however this compact version looks like it would be perfect for one of our apartment windows.

Has anyone tried this? Does it work and more importantly, is it worth the money? It looks fun, but I am not sure if it would end up just being cheaper to buy herbs in the store. $40 can buy a lot of herbs. I have a credit at Amazon, so I might have to give it a try.

Anyhow, I recently did a run through of the different styles of sharpeners and their benefits. Which style of sharpener you choose depends on your cooking style, but all of sharpeners that I tried from Smith’s Edge work really well and I highly recommend them.

I wanted to get a second opinion though. After all, I did write a long article on the benefits of knife sharpening, so I may not be that balanced an individual. In order to get the opinion of people who don’t sharpen their knives… ever, I sent one of the sharpeners to my parents. My dad was kind enough to write a review. I have included a picture of the sharpener below.

First I have to say I love the idea of my son and daughter in law blogging about food, photographing the results and helping others attempt the recipe.

It also comes in very handy that the blog takes off and sample products roll in for them to critique.

I have never been very good about keeping knifes sharp. To much work, last on the list of things to do, forgotten items, etc. The truth is I can be lazy.

So the other day when the mail arrived, I found a box with a sharpener enclosed. Now I knew Luke was going to send me a sharpener to try, but I was totally shocked that it arrived that quickly. My first impression was that it was a bagel cutter as the shape was very similar.

It is the “Smith’s” knife and scissor sharpener. It has both the coarse and fine slots for sharpening knifes as well two separate slots for sharpening scissors.

Now, as stated earlier, most of our knives have a tough time slicing. Tables wiggle, muttering by users is common and ripen tomato’s have little fear.

So on to the test with my quality knives of Faberware, Ikea brand castoffs.

The slots are well marked for coarse or fine and I knew enough to use coarse first and finish with fine to remove any burrs. I thought five pulls through each would suffice.

To my amazement the knife came out sharp. Or at least much sharper then when I began. A few more pulls with the same knife and I was completely sold on the sharpener. It also has a plastic cover that folds down when you are using it and help keep knives from bouncing off the table when you pull them through.

I then moved on to the scissor sharpener and received the same results. I proceeded to empty the knife drawer and make and sharpened everything, including the serrated knives. Wasn’t sure i should use it for serrated knives but they did seem better off for it.

I have no idea of the cost of this device, but for my money it is well worth the price. It also seems safer to use as one hand has to hold the top of the device as the other guides the knife.

So tomatoes beware, tough non marinated meat products will no longer stand a chance in our kitchen.

- Mike

The other important thing to remember is that it is easy to over think sharpening and obsess about getting an even sharper edge. It is always possible to get a knife sharper, but after a certain point you get diminishing returns. You will definitely notice the difference between a dull knife and a sharp knife as you will be able to cut things better and safer. It would be much harder to tell the difference between a sharp knife and a hella, wicked sharp knife. Most importantly it will make very little improvement in what you are cooking.

Knives should be sharpened regularly. Cutting through tough, fibrous material can dull a knife in one session. A knife’s point is a very thin strip of metal that can be bent to one side and when that happens your knife becomes dull. Using the metal steel that comes with most knife sets lets you bend or hone the edge closer to normal. Honing helps reshape the blade, but after a while the point will become rounded. In order to sharpen a round point you need to remove metal with an abrasive material. If you hack through bone or something tough like a coconut, you can end up with nicks in the blade. In that case, removal is probably best left to a professional.

A knife’s sharpness is defined by the angle at which the blade comes to a point. The knife is basically a wedge, and a wedge that is narrow and thin will have a much easier time slicing through something. The only problem with a thin and narrow wedge is that it is also weak. The sharper a knife’s point becomes, the thinner the metal at the point gets which means the knife will become duller quicker. The lesson here is that you want to find an angle that is narrow enough to be sharp, but wide enough to be strong. Aiming for between 30-45 degrees should give you a great knife for slicing. A 30 degree angle means that you want each side of the point to be angled in 15 degrees. I may have went on a bit about angles, but you shouldn’t worry about them too much. It is more important to get a consistent angle when you sharpen, rather than getting a precise angle. If you change the angle you are sharpening with at each pass of the knife, you are going to removing the point you just put in. The point will be more rounded than angled.

There are two basic categories for knife sharpeners, ones which hold your knife at a fixed angle as you sharpen and ones which rely on you holding the knife at the correct angle. The people at Smith’s just released a line of kitchen sharpeners and sent me a few. I already have an electric knife sharpener and water stone, so I am going to do a run down on the different styles. All of the sharpeners I am going to go over sharpen knifes really well, it is all about choosing which one is going to meet your needs the best…and actually use!

Fixed Angle

Pull Through Sharpeners – With this style of sharpener you hold your knife vertically and pull it through the slot. Each slot has two abrasive rods set at an angle which form a V. When you pull your knife through, they sharpen and shape the point of the knife. Depending on the aggressiveness of the abrasives used, you may need pull your knife through a number of times.

What to look for: You want the knife to pull through the sharpener smoothly.

Pros:

• Compact, easy to keep in reach and sharpen knifes regularly
• Cheap
• No special skills needed
• Holds the blade at the correct angle

Cons:

• There are a lot of bad versions out there, make sure you check the reviews for models you are interested in. The Smith’s brand sharpener worked great.
• Japanese knives need to be sharpened at a different angle and may not work.
• It can be slow to restore a very dull blade and may not be able to correct all defects.

Electric Sharpener – Electric sharpeners are they same as the pull through sharpeners, except that abrasive is spinning inside the sharpener. These sharpeners work quickly, letting you bring a dull knife back to sharpness quickly. This also means a bad sharpener can ruin a knife quickly. In general, you usually get what you pay for with an electric sharpener.

What to look for: You want a machine that is relatively quiet and operates smoothly. The width of some machines may make it impossible to sharpen the heel of the knife.

Pros:

• Can quickly restore a very dull blade
• No special skills required
• Holds the blade at the correct angle

Cons:

• Bulky, needs to be plugged in
• A good one can be expensive
• Japanese knives need to be sharpened at a different angle and may not work.

Free-form Sharpeners:

Water Stones – Water stones are big blocks of abrasive material and come in a variety of abrasiveness. They can be tough to use at first. In order to get good results you need to hold the knife at a constant angle as you drag it across the different stones. There are guides which you can buy to help you get the correct angle. You will need at least two stones, a coarse and fine one. The real benefit it that you are able to set any angle you want…if you have the skill.

What to look for: Check out woodworking catalogs and websites. Sharpness is even more important to woodworkers.

Pros:

• Lots of control over how the knife is sharpened, it is easy to just touch up the heel of the knife if it is dull or damaged
• Use any angle you like, great for giving Japanese knives a sharp point and cleavers a strong one
• Looks cool!
• Modestly expensive

Cons:

• Can take a long time and requires patience
• Messy and takes up a bunch of space, not great to leave out on the counter
• Takes a bit of practice to do correctly

Abrasive Steels / Sharpening Rod – These are like traditional steels, except they are abrasive so instead of just reshaping the point, they sharpen it too. There are two different types of abrasives available, diamond and ceramic. The diamond abrasives are more aggressive than ceramic. In order to use the steel correctly, you have the hold your knife at a constant angle as you bring it down the steel. A couple swipes before each time you use your knives will keep your blades in good condition. You have to pay attention while you do this, but it looks cool.

Pros:

• Cheap
• The most compact, easy to store and use each time before you cut
• Can sharpen at any angle, including Japanese knifes
• Great for maintaining an edge which is already sharp

Cons:

• Each sharpening rod only comes in one abrasiveness
• Will take a long time to make a dull knife sharp
• Takes less skill than water stones, but you still need to hold the knife at the correct angle

Here is the rundown:

• Pull Through Manual Sharpeners – great for keeping knives in good condition sharp. It is easy to keep close at hand and use regularly. It can not fix badly damaged or dull knives.
• Electric Sharpeners – can quickly sharpen a knife. Some sharpeners can even regrind the large blade of the knife, not just the point. This allows them to repair damaged and very dull knives. They are bulkier though and needed to be plugged in, which may make you less likely to use them regularly.
• Water Stones – if you know how to use a water stone and have the time, they will give you the best edge possible. They give you control over the angle and allow you to focus on one portion of the blade. You can fix damaged and very dull blades. However water stones take a bit of skill to use. They are messy and take awhile to setup, making them tough for everyday use.
• Sharpening Rods – great for maintaining a blade, they can sharpen and align the blade. They are generally not very abrasive, making them ideal for daily use, but not good for sharpening a very dull blade. They do not have a fixed angle, allowing them to be used with Japanese knifes, but they do take a bit of practice to get good at.

The ideal solution is to probably have two sharpeners, one for everyday use to maintain the sharpness of a blade and then a more advance one to restore the sharpness of a blade. An electric sharpener and a sharpening rod would be a great combo. You could easily get away with just an electric sharpener if you can keep it on your counter and use it regularly.

If you read through all this and are confused, get a manual pull through sharpener. If you read through this and understood it all, get a high end electric sharpener because they work great.

There is of course tons of great information about sharpening out there on the web:

• Knife Maintenance and Sharpening
• A Primer on Knife Sharpening
• An Awesome Video on Sharpening from the esteemed Tom Mylan

If you are looking to buy a sharpener, the Smith’s Edge sharpeners that I tried worked really well. They produced a very sharp edge and they are affordable. If you don’t have a sharpener, either of the pull through sharpeners is $12 well spent. The sharpening rods are a great way to maintain the edge you just sharpened. You can also not go wrong with the Chef’s Choice line of electric sharpeners.
I sharpened 7 different knives with different sharpeners and I will do a round-up in a little on how each sharpener worked.

J.K. Adams

1430 Route 30,
Dorset, VT

Part of: Vermont 08 – Cheese & Tasty Things Tour

After reading all of the recent posts it may seem like all that Vermont has is cheese. This is completely untrue. They actually have two things–the other is maple syrup. To make lots of maple syrup you need lots of maple trees, which incidentally also make really nice cutting boards.

J.K. Adams is a kick ass cutting board manufacturer located in Dorset, Vermont. Dorset is a bit in the middle of no where but it is worth the drive because these guys are the real deal. You can buy their cutting boards in Williams Sonoma and Crate & Barrel. They also have a great kitchen store at their factory. We…ok, really me…went a little nuts there. I ended up buying two end grain butcher blocks and a great laser etched serving tray.

The story behind the J.K Adams logo is an interesting one. Back in Colonial times, foresters marked the best trees with an arrow, and those trees were used to make ships for the British royal fleet. J.K. Adams uses the arrow logo to symbolize that they, too, use the best wood for their products.

End grain cutting boards are the best kind you can get and will last forever. In normal wooden cutting boards the grain of the wood is perpendicular to the blade of the knife. As you cut things, you also make cuts in the wood. With end grain boards, the wood grain runs parralel to the blade of the knife. Instead of cutting the wood, the knife blade pushes the wood fibers aside. This helps the board last longer. Instead of just having a board of wood lying flat, shorts piece of wood are stacked on end and glued together to form a cutting board. I think I have done a horrible job of explaining this, hopefully the pictures help. The take away is that end grain cutting boards are big honking boards that makes cutting things up fun…and J.K. Adams makes a damn fine board.

The “smaller” board is maple. They stopped making the grain board using maple and have switched to cherry. The cherry wood gives the block more variety in tone, which gives the boards an interesting pattern. The larger board is cherry. We got a great price on the maple one though since it was the last of the old stock.

So besides the 30 lbs of butcher block we bought, we also got a really cool laser etched serving board. They have a number of different designs, all of which look pretty awesome.

One of the cool things about their Kitchen Store is an observation deck where you can watching them making all of the different products. Unfortunately when we visited the production lines weren’t running.

This is my second ice cube post this week–can you tell it has been hot in Washington, DC? All comments on the weather aside, isn’t this ice cube tray awesome? I got it at the Lego store in the mall and it makes little Lego brick ice cubes. Since it is only the top of the block, not the bottom, the ice cubes don’t interlock. Whatever, they are still awesome!

I was trying to think of a cool Lego related cocktail to make with these cubes. All I could come up with is the Boilermaker since it is sort of engineering related. Does anyone have any better suggestions?

This year’s Ataulfo mangos just hit Whole Foods. The texture of these mangos are not as delicate as the champagne mangos, but they are full of flavor. We used our OXO Mango Pitter, and it is still making the cut. The slicer makes it really simple to cut up a mango. It may leave a little more around the pit, but it is almost a tie compared to cutting the mango with a knife. I always eat any mango that clings to the pit anyways, so nothing goes to waste.

I was hooked on this system. Mixing the concentrate with milk produced an extra tasty iced coffee. This may sound weird but the taste comes close to matching the smell of fresh coffee as any method I have tried. The other great part is that you can use normal pre-ground, regular old Foldgers and still get great results. You don’t necessarily get a very complex flavor “profile” with lots of different notes, but you do get a very strong coffee flavor. It taste almost like melted coffee ice cream… in a good way!

All of this joy came to an end when my Toddy brewing bucket developed a small crack that caused it to leak. Luckily right around the same time someone gave us a French press as a gift. It produced a great cup of coffee, but one that was quite different than the Toddy. As summer rolled around, I yearned for a good cup of iced coffee, and not the watered down kind that comes from pouring hot coffee over ice.

Luckily it eventually dawned on me that cold brewing coffee doesn’t required special tools. The real magic is in letting the coffee and water sit together. The Toddy’s real strength was in making it easy to strain a lot of coffee. While pondering this I realized that the French press was also good at straining coffee grounds, and I set off on a path of discovery. Actually all I did was calculate backwards the water/coffee ratio in the Toddy recipe, throw it in the French press and then gave it a try in the morning. To my surprise I was able to easily filter out the coffee grounds and the resulting concentrate produced a great cup of coffee. I originally started measuring the coffee out by weight, but then got lazy and used volume. So far my results have been great! My French press is not big enough to make a full pound of coffee, but I find that even though the concentrate can be stored for 14 days, it does start to taste stale towards the end. The smaller batches taste fresher.

You get all this for $19! I highly recommend!

Testing

So far I have only used the splitter on two mangos and so far it has worked great. The only trouble I have had is with a mango that was really ripe. The splitter has a little trouble with the tough skin and soft flesh underneath.

There was also overly little waste around the pit. I could probably do better with a knife… but not much. With a knife you take a flat cross section, which leaves a lot of waste around the top and sides of the pit. With the splitter you take an oval shaped core out and you have less waste on the sides. Either way the Mango Splitter makes it much quicker, easier and more enjoyable to eat Mangos! If you are a mango fan, pick one up!

Mango Tips

Here are some signs to look for to tell if your mango is ripe:

Look for a clear sap or syrup coming out near the stem

Look for black spots or streaks

Facts

• Wattage doesn’t mean much. The wattage is a measure of how much power a machine takes, not of how much work it can do. Depending on the design, one machine maybe better designed than another.
• Bowl capacity doesn’t matter too much either. It can be a good general reference, but it is like judging a cars performance based upon the size of the trunk.
• How many cups of flour a mixer can handle is relevant only between mixers that have all been tested the same way.
  
  
  
  

   

• The Decision

  Here is why I went with the Pro 600

  • KitchenAid makes tons of mixers… millions! If I need replacement part or service, it is much easier to find. For all of the other companies, mixers are a sideline business, how knows who committed they are to their lines.
  • There have been postings that KitchenAid has not been as good since Hobart sold the company to Whirlpool. However, the mixer comes with a 1 year no hassle warranty. If appliances break, it is usually in the first year, so I felt covered. Also, this basic model has been in production for a long time, so I am not counting on too many design flaws.
  • While it may not be the largest consumer mixer out there, it is still a pretty big honking mixer.
  • As a home baker I only need so much capacity, I am limited by the size of my oven. I can easily make two standard loaves or 1 rustic loaf in each batch and that is around all can fit in my oven. If I wanted to double up, I can always do two batches.
  • Another great thing is the cool attachments they keep coming out with and refining. The two big highlights for me are the ice cream maker and the pasta roller. The pasta roller itself pretty much sealed the deal. Another great thing is that almost all of the attachments work with every KitchenAid mixer that has ever been made, so I am not too worried about finding attachments in the future.
  • The company supported chat area, KitchenAid Conversations was also a big selling point. It is an open forum where they allow positives and negatives. KitchenAid is very responsive and they have there top engineers check in from time to time to answer questions. I thing this is truly a great example of how a company should operate.
  

  Review

  I have only had the mixer for about a week, but I have managed to put it through a few recipes. I have made pizza, a double batch of whole wheat and white bread, along with a rustic Italian load and a batch of cookies. It handled this a perfectly. I think it even laughed at the double batches. I might even be able to get another loaf in there. Either way this is one serious mixer, and up for practically anything I can throw at it. It is possible that other mixers, like the Viking could have more power… but you don’t need it. This mixer is a joy to use and I definitely recommend it. And just in case you are interested the color is Nickel Pearl, and yes it is bad-ass looking!

I have not been so good with keeping them sharp though. This is not for a lack of trying though! I have tried using rod-style systems like the Gatco and Lansky systems. I have also tried freehand sharpening on a waterstone. Everything I have tried have all had the same drawback. They take a long time! Because of this I didn’t do that much sharpening. When I did I wasn’t able to get the knives that sharp! The freehand sharpening is tough, unless you get the same angle time after time and maintain that angle over the length of the blade, the knife will not be sharp as it could be. Also if you don’t get the right angle you will get a knife that does not have a durable edge. I have also brought knives to be professionally sharpened. It took a while, and it was expensive. The results were good… but they were not amazing and I was hoping for amazing for the money I was paying. I wanted a brand new knife back!

And this is why I am so happy I got the Chef’s Choice m130. This is the latest in what is supposed to be a great line of knife sharpeners from Chef’s Choice / EdgeCraft. I have been eyeing these sharpeners for a while and when I saw an updated version I had to go in… and I am happy I did.

The Chef’s Choice M130 has 3 different stages.

How it works

There are 3 “Stages”, each which has two slots, one for each side of the knife. The first stage has a set of diamond coated disks that creates the main bevel for the edge. The second and third stages have a slightly lower bevel angle than the first stage, called a micro bevel. Having two different angles means you only have to remove a small amount of metal to touch up the micro bevel. The micro bevel does all of the cutting, the larger bevel splits the cut. If you need to resharpen you knife, all you need to do is touch up the micro bevel instead of having regrind the entire edge.

The first stage has two diamond coated disks that set the base bevel angle for the knife. If you want to have a very sharp knife with a smooth micro-bevel for precise slicing you would then sharpen you knife in the third stage. The third stage has two polishing disk, that will hone the knife and smooth the surface. If you want a knife that has a little more “bite” and would be better for cutting fiberous stuff, you would want to use the second stage. The second stage steels the micro-bevel and gives the edge micro serrations. This makes it easier to cut through things like tomato skin and meat fibers. You can also bring the knife quickly through stage 3 after stage 2 for the best of both worlds.

Each stage has two disks, one for each side of the knife.

Review

I love this sharpener! So far I have tried it with my knives from Global, Lamson Sharp, and Forschners and it has put an amazing edge on all of them. I would say that they are probably as sharp or sharper than when I got them. They also don’t seem to be dulling too quickly, but I haven’t done any long term tests.

I think my only question is which Chef’s Choice knife sharpener to get. The 130 is the top of the line, but the 110 and 120 have always ranked pretty high. This is the only one that can “steel” the knives, but I am not sure if it is that much better than the method used in the older models. Still the 130 is only $10 than the 120, if you look at the difference over 1000 sharpenings or 5 years or more it is really not that big a difference.

Conclusions

One of the reasons that cooks on TV are able to cut so quickly and preciously is because they are using sharp knives! Sharpening up my knives made such a difference, and the Chef’s Choice does a great job of sharpening. You will have a hard time finding a way to get your knives sharper and if you do it will either cost so much or take so much time that you will not do it often and your knives will go dull. I highly recommend the Chef’s Choice 130!