by Pableaux Johnson MORE ON KNIVES 1. Introduction 2.Good Knife/Bad Knife 3.Your First Blade: The Chef's Knife 4. A Basic Knife Set 5. Maintaining Your Edge 6. Crashing The Boards

There are few absolutes in the Kitchenette, but one rule holds true: Never skimp on the essentials. And when it comes to kitchen tools, there's nothing more necessary than a good knife. A cook can easily live without an automatic bread machine or espresso maker, but no one should have to cook without a high-quality knife in hand. Regrettably, most starter kitchens run heavy on sexy, high-dollar gadgets and woefully low on the most elemental and useful cooking tool — the knife. The kitchen's single "big knife" often lives in the cutlery drawer, clanging around with all the other utensils larger than the standard tablespoon. The big knife is usually a hand-me-down of some kind — your mom's college-era "first kitchen" gift or a leftover from last lease's roommate — made of shiny stainless steel and thoroughly blunted from overuse and haphazard storage. Its defining characteristic is its "bigness" — all things considered, your butter knives probably sport a better edge. As a result, the most basic acts in cooking — cutting, chopping, and slicing — are not only difficult, but downright dangerous. Dull knives encourage the cook to use greater pressure, which drastically increases the chance of kitchen accidents. If you've never cooked with a good knife, you're in for the biggest treat of your kitchen career. A sharp, solidly-constructed blade lets you reduce towering piles of vegetables into fine mince in less time than it takes to set up a food processor. Cleanly slicing through a flank steak or closely shaving lemons for cocktail twists, you feel a sense of technical control not possible with the average "big knife." When the blade is sharp and its heft comfortable, you feel the confidence of a working chef. Every recipe involves some kind of cutting, so gradually building a set of good knives benefits all your kitchen quests. Here are a collection of tips on outfitting your culinary tool box with a few good blades. Once you start cutting clean, you'll never go back... 1. Introduction 2.Good Knife/Bad Knife 3.Your First Blade: The Chef's Knife 4. A Basic Knife Set 5. Maintaining Your Edge 6. Crashing The Boards — Pableaux Johnson Pableaux Johnson lives in Austin, Texas, where he writes about food and travel. He believes that a perfect meal in a lowbrow restaurant can make you see God and bring you to the center of a subculture.