Holiday Gift Giving Guide
This week on the Butcher Blog, we are making our holiday wishes for stocking the kitchen! I get questions all the time about my favorite tools for the kitchen—the type of pans I use, the best knives, which meat slicer, and on down the line. So this week I’m highlighting some of the best. With most of what follows, you’ll see links embedded in the post. Full disclosure: if you purchase one of these using the link, I’ll receive a small commission, but it doesn’t increase the price for you. If you haven’t seen the video, you can see that here.
First up, knives! As you know, we have Butcher Wizard knives in production. They were supposed to be ready before Black Friday, but the latest word is that they won’t be ready until sometime after Christmas. I’m so disappointed! But they are coming, and I’ll let you know as soon as they are available.
Shun 8-inch chef’s knife
Two of my most-used knives in the kitchen are both 8-inch options. The first is Shun’s 8 inch chef’s knife. It’s expensive, but really high quality. It has a wood-grained handle and a super-sharp blade. I use mine every day. A more recent knife for me is Made In’s 8-inch chef’s knife. I don’t have a link for this one, but you can find it online. It’s not as expensive as the Shun, but is a good, durable kitchen workhorse.
Next up, how do I keep my knives sharp? Far and away the best, easiest solution is the Tumbler Knife Sharpener. This kit has a powerful magentic block to hold the blade in place, along with a rolling sharpener—you literally just roll this cylinder against the blade and it sharpens at precisely the right angle. There are two settings for blade angles: 20 degrees for most stainless-steel knives, and a 15 degree setting is for high-carbon steel and Japanese knives. Super easy.
You know from my videos that one of the most useful money-saving tools for meat is a good meat grinder. Mine is from Meatyourmaker.com. They have a number of options for grinders, some of which are heavy-duty and get really expensive. My favorite is their smallest and least-expensive model, the 500 watt meat grinder. This is the one I’ve used in all my videos. It gets the job done!
At Butcher Wizard, we love meat! But, we do believe in other foods! And when it comes to my non-meat ingredients, I love to use the grinding attachment on my Kitchen Aid mixer. I use this for fruits and vegetables, for salsa, etc. This is the grinder I used in my recent video for making my cranberry relish—you can see that one on the YouTube channel.
Want to save money on deli lunch meat? You need a meat slicer! I researched a number of options, and this is the one I found to be the best for the home kitchen. It’s around $100 and you can find it here. It’s not the most expensive or powerful model out there, but it does what you need.
One of my favorite cooking methods, and one I’ll be using more in future videos, is sous vide. My preferred brand for this is the Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker. Here are separate links for the rectangular container I use and for a cover.
For the readers out there, my favorite book on food science is On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. This, my friends, is a classic. Want to know food is processed? What happens to meat as it cooks? The ancient Roman recipes for you name it? McGee is your man.
No cooking happens without pots, pans, skillets! My favorite is the Made In cookware line. They make a wide variety of options. Some of the go-to’s in my kitchen are the griddle, the 10” non-stick pan, and my 4 Qt sauce pot.
Ok, last, but certainly not least, is my 12” Lodge Cast Iron Skillet. Cast iron skillets are so useful because they distribute heat evenly over the entire cooking surface. They’re also durable! I can use it on my stove and over an open fire on a campout. It goes everywhere.
And, as you know from Indiana Jones, a good skillet comes in handy in so many situations….
That’s it for my 2023 Holiday Gift Guide! I can’t wait to discover new kitchen tools with you in the new year!
—Brad