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Nice to meet you! I am HITACHIYA USA's Hirota.
Today, I would like to share my knowledge of Japanese knives with you.
There are over 3,000 to 4,000 different types of knives in Japan.
With so many choices, it may be difficult to pick
which types of knives to use in the kitchen.
In a very traditional home in Japan, you will find at least one of these Nakkiri knives.
What makes this knife unique is the lack of a pointed tip and the height of the blade
Also, when you cut vegetables, the taller knife will help guide you for fine chopping.
Even finely chopping large cabbage and Daikon are a breeze!
and this is the signature look
If you imagine adding the functionality of a pointed tip
to the vegetable knife, you will have a Santoku knife.
This is the All-Mighty Santoku knife
The name Santoku is derrived from the Japanese meaning of 'Three Specialties'
Fish, Vegetables, and Meat. It does it all.
This knife also has the height to make chopping vegetables easier and works extremely fast!
And in addition to the Santoku, we have the similarly shaped Gyuto knife
This knife is also used for fish and mostly meats but the
blade doesn't have as much height for chopping.
And although you can cut sashimi with the Santoku or the Gyuto
but for restauarant quality sushi, you will need a knife that can produce clean corners
For that, you'll definitely need this Yanagi knife
This is one of the famous Japanese knives that is sharpened only on one side of the knife.
And even when you quickly slice through sashimi, it will leave strong corners and be more deliciouis!
For home-use 21cm-24cm is popular and 24cm-33cm or 36cm for professional use in restaurants.
And very last we have the Deba knife.
This is a knife that has to be hit hard to cut through fish bones occasionally. So it has quite a bit of thickness to it to make it strong.
And this is used to break-down the fish into three or even five pieces.
As you can see, if I had to pick a single knife to have in the kitchen, it would have to be the Santoku
With the Santoku knife, you can have the All-Mighty function for all your ingredients
That's all for today. Thank you!