You May Not Need a Giant Chef’s Knife When a Midsize Knife Does the Trick
You May Not Need a Giant Chef’s Knife When a Midsize Knife Does the Trick
当中号刀具就能搞定一切时，你或许并不需要一把巨大的主厨刀
Kitchen knives are so personal. You can do almost everything you need in a kitchen with a chef’s knife, paring knife, and a bread knife. But the more time you spend in the kitchen, the more you develop preferences, and soon it becomes a bit of an n+1 thing, and there you are, pondering a cleaver.
厨房刀具是非常私人的物品。一把主厨刀、一把削皮刀和一把面包刀几乎可以满足你在厨房里的所有需求。但随着你在厨房待的时间越长，你就会逐渐形成自己的偏好，很快这就会变成一种“n+1”的收集心态，于是你开始琢磨着是不是该买把菜刀了。
There’s a lot of space between most chef’s knives and paring knives. What’s in that space—often called petty, prep, or utility knives—is often pretty weird. Consider the knives that you never use from a set and you’ll likely think of the short, serrated knives or the petty knives with no room for your fingers between the handle and the cutting board.
在大多数主厨刀和削皮刀之间，其实存在着很大的空间。处于这个空间里的刀具——通常被称为多用刀、备餐刀或万能刀——往往显得有些奇怪。想想你那套刀具里从不使用的那些刀，你很可能会想到那些短小的锯齿刀，或者是那种手柄与砧板之间没有足够空间容纳手指的 petty 刀（小型多用刀）。
What if you’re a smaller person, or have smaller hands, or just think a smaller but still high-functioning all-around knife might be your jam? What if the right version of those midsize knives turned out to be really useful?
如果你身材娇小，或者手比较小，又或者你只是觉得一把小巧但功能强大的全能刀更适合你呢？如果这些中号刀具中恰好有一款非常实用呢？
To my delight, the good ones are. With equal parts luck, research, and trial and error, I found both new and existing-but-flying-under-the-radar examples of midsize knives that were wonderfully functional, in part because of their size. The right ones are incredibly useful and the great ones are prep monsters.
令我高兴的是，好的中号刀确实如此。凭借运气、研究以及不断的尝试，我发现了一些既有新款，也有一直被低估的旧款中号刀，它们功能极其出色，部分原因正是得益于它们的尺寸。合适的刀具非常实用，而顶级的刀具简直是备餐神器。
Messermeister’s Kawashima utility knife. Courtesy of Messermeister Messermeister Kawashima 多用刀。图片由 Messermeister 提供
Recently, I had seen signs at my favorite trade show that I might be on to something. At the Messermeister knives booth, a midsize blade stood out thanks to an olive wood handle and intriguing geometry. It felt balanced and comfortable with room for hands of any size to move back on the handle, or further forward in a pinch grip. Importantly, there was plenty of clearance, so knuckles don’t hit the cutting board at the bottom of the stroke.
最近，我在我最喜欢的贸易展上看到了一些迹象，表明我的想法是对的。在 Messermeister 的展位上，一把中号刀凭借橄榄木手柄和引人注目的几何设计脱颖而出。它手感平衡舒适，无论手掌大小，都有足够的空间向后握持，或者在捏握（pinch grip）时向前移动。重要的是，它有足够的离地间隙，这样在切割到底部时，指关节不会碰到砧板。
Keeping my eyes open, I saw more potential from Cangshan, Tarrerias-Bonjean, and Zwilling. This got my mind going. I remembered the Wusthöf Classic chef’s knife that comes in a 5-inch size. Similarly, I hoped I could find a short version of a nimble Japanese knife called a kiritsuke and put in a call to the good people at Seisuke Knife in Portland, Oregon.
我保持关注，又从 Cangshan（苍山）、Tarrerias-Bonjean 和 Zwilling（双立人）的产品中看到了更多潜力。这激发了我的灵感。我记得 Wusthöf（三叉）Classic 系列有一款 5 英寸的主厨刀。同样，我希望能找到一种名为“切付刀”（kiritsuke）的灵巧日本刀的短款，于是我联系了位于俄勒冈州波特兰市 Seisuke Knife 的专业人士。
Soon, I had a pile of beautiful knives on my cutting board. I tucked my own knives into my knife roll for storage and, for weeks, used the new, smaller specimens as my daily drivers.
很快，我的砧板上就堆满了漂亮的刀具。我把自己原本的刀收进刀包里，在接下来的几周里，我把这些新的、更小的刀具作为我的日常主力。
The more I used them, the more I understood what I wanted. First, I threw their unhelpful names out the window: petty, utility, prep … whatever. Next, I decided my lovely Tadafusa santoku, the shortest of my longer knives, would be the longest I’d go at roughly 6.5 inches. Having these knives “do it all” felt like a stretch, but they definitely needed to be able to do a lot. I was willing to work with the knife to find its strengths, but preferred something that could handle different cutting styles and all kinds of food. They had to be prep monsters.
用得越多，我就越明白自己想要什么。首先，我抛弃了那些毫无意义的名称：petty、utility、prep……随便叫什么都行。其次，我决定以我心爱的 Tadafusa 三德刀（我较长的刀具中最短的一把，约 6.5 英寸）作为我能接受的最长尺寸。让这些刀“包办一切”似乎有点勉强，但它们确实需要具备强大的多功能性。我愿意去磨合这些刀具以发挥它们的优势，但我更倾向于那些能应对不同切割风格和各种食材的刀具。它们必须是备餐神器。
I pulled out some new cookbooks and recipes I’m excited about, starting with Down South + East by Ron Tsu with Hugh Amano, and made their stir-fried collard greens with bacon and soy-braised chicken, swapping knives in and out as I went. This practice, it turns out, drags dinner prep to a near halt, but it told me a lot about the knives.
我拿出了一些让我兴奋的新食谱和烹饪书，从 Ron Tsu 和 Hugh Amano 合著的《Down South + East》开始，做了他们的培根炒羽衣甘蓝和酱油炖鸡，过程中不断更换刀具。事实证明，这种做法让晚餐准备工作几乎停滞，但它让我对这些刀具有了深入的了解。
A few blades got the heave-ho right away. They crushed the food as much as they were cutting or slicing, a likely combo between a bad edge and a thick blade. (Think of how a dull knife mushes an onion into translucence beneath the blade before beginning to cut.) Others, like a rough-mannered Henckels simply weren’t that comfortable.
有几把刀立刻被我淘汰了。它们在切割或切片时，更多是在挤压食物，这很可能是因为刀刃不够锋利且刀身太厚。（想象一下钝刀在切洋葱时，还没开始切就把洋葱压得半透明的样子。）其他的，比如一把手感粗糙的 Henckels（双立人旗下品牌），用起来实在不舒服。
Yet some were quick standouts. Messermeister’s Oliva Elite presented as a nice workhorse, mincing garlic well enough, capably slicing stacks of raw bacon into matchsticks, and making parsley-chopping fun as the swoop of the blade makes for a wonderful rocking motion. It stemmed the collards easily and later made surprisingly quick work of chopping up the stems to make Tamar Adler’s garlicky stem and core pesto from The Everlasting Meal Cookbook. The Zwilling Pro 5.5 Inch Prep Knife performed admirably thanks in part to an angled bolster, the metal collar where the handle meets the blade. Using pinch grip, the handle nestled neatly into my palm.
然而，有些刀很快脱颖而出。Messermeister 的 Oliva Elite 表现得像一匹出色的“工作马”，切蒜末效果很好，能熟练地将成叠的生培根切成丝，切欧芹也很有趣，因为刀刃的弧度带来了美妙的摇摆切割感。它能轻松去除羽衣甘蓝的茎，后来在切碎茎部以制作 Tamar Adler 在《The Everlasting Meal Cookbook》中的蒜味茎芯青酱时，速度快得惊人。Zwilling Pro 5.5 英寸备餐刀表现出色，部分归功于其倾斜的刀枕（手柄与刀身连接处的金属环）。使用捏握法时，手柄能完美地贴合在我的掌心。
The Zwilling Pro Prep Knife. Courtesy of ZWILLING J.A. Henckels,LLC Zwilling Pro 备餐刀。图片由 ZWILLING J.A. Henckels, LLC 提供
The most notable knife for the moment was the other Messermeister, the six-inch Kawashima utility knife. With a smaller blade and gherkin-shaped pakkawood handle, it outperformed the other knives by mixing precision, comfort, and capability. It was great at garlic, but thanks to a ripping edge and thin blade, it easily cut through stuff for which you’d normally grab a bigger knife. Carrots bent to its will. Potatoes in a lemon potato recipe from Gus Constantellis’ My Greek Mom’s Recipes were dispatched by rocking or with a push cut. And despite the small size, it did great separating the raw chicken quarters into drumstick and thigh. It was impressively capable, doing tasks for which I’d normally grab a larger or smaller knife.
目前最引人注目的是另一把 Messermeister——6 英寸的 Kawashima 多用刀。凭借较小的刀身和酸黄瓜形状的积层木手柄，它在精度、舒适度和功能性方面超越了其他刀具。它切蒜非常出色，而且得益于锋利的刃口和薄刀身，它能轻松切开那些你通常需要用大刀才能处理的食材。胡萝卜在它面前乖乖就范。Gus Constantellis 的《My Greek Mom’s Recipes》中柠檬土豆食谱里的土豆，通过摇摆切或推切就能轻松搞定。尽管尺寸小巧，但在将生鸡腿肉切分为鸡腿和鸡大腿时，它表现得非常棒。它的能力令人印象深刻，能够完成我通常需要换用更大或更小刀具才能完成的任务。
I was curious, though, about the difference between the two Messermeister knives, since they are both sharpened to a fine 15-degree angle, yet the made-in-Japan Kawashima feels notably sharper. This comes down to factors like the type of steel each is made with, how it’s sharpened, and even the form of the edge. The Kawashima is made of a harder steel, which can make a blade more brittle, but allows you to put and hold a precise edge on there. The Oliva, made in Germany, uses a German steel which is softer and more forgiving.
不过，我很好奇这两把 Messermeister 刀具之间的区别，因为它们都打磨到了 15 度的精细角度，但日本制造的 Kawashima 感觉明显更锋利。这归结于诸如钢材类型、打磨方式甚至刃口形状等因素。Kawashima 采用硬度更高的钢材，这可能使刀刃更脆，但能让你打磨出并保持极其精准的刃口。德国制造的 Oliva 使用的是德国钢，硬度较低，容错率更高。
On the questionable side, the Wusthöf struggled. The 5-inch blade is a scaled down version of the company’s classic chef’s knife, but the rocking motion that should be the bread and butter of this style wasn’t there. The belly of the knife (the curve toward the front of the blade) felt right, but every stroke ended with a thud at the back of the blade.
在表现不佳的一方，Wusthöf 的表现有些挣扎。这把 5 英寸的刀是该公司经典主厨刀的缩小版，但这种风格本应具备的摇摆切割感却缺失了。刀腹（刀刃前部的弧度）感觉还行，但每一次切割的末端，刀刃后部都会重重地磕在砧板上。
The more I used these knives, the more their personalities came through. As I made Ham El-Waylly’s zucchini poached in yogurt from his excellent new Hello, Home Cook…
我使用这些刀具越多，它们的个性就越鲜明。当我制作 Ham El-Waylly 在他那本出色的新书《Hello, Home Cook》中提到的酸奶炖西葫芦时……