knife for trimming st louis


 
R

Rich S

TVWBB Member
Hi all,
I am looking to purchase some new knives and one of my goals is to get a knife that will do a good job getting through the cartilage on spare ribs for st louis style.

So what works best for you guys? Chefs? Boning? Cleaver?
 
A decent chef's knife can do it. If you want a speciality knife a Forschner Breaking Knife is designed for that sort task.

While a Boning Knife is designed to remove meat near the bone a Breaking Knife is a heavier duty knife designed to cut through smallish bones and cartlidge.
 
I like the weight and the long blade of a chef´s knife when i trim louis ribs. But i let my expensive japanese knifes rest for this task.

*Edit* - Spelling
 
A cleaver (since I have one). There is NO doubt it will cut through whatever it finds
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I can also use it as a knife for those times a knife is needed. Two in one?

Nice straight lines, 2 "pushes" and it's done.
 
I use a 10' Forschner Chef's knife. Never had any issues.

Originally posted by J Reyes:
A decent chef's knife can do it. If you want a speciality knife a Forschner Breaking Knife is designed for that sort task.

While a Boning Knife is designed to remove meat near the bone a Breaking Knife is a heavier duty knife designed to cut through smallish bones and cartlidge.
Click to expand...
 
I use a good chef's knife (9" -- my preference) on 95% of my kitchen prepping. Meat, veggies, etc. I occasionally use a paring knife, boning knife (for fish) and cleaver as necessary. For the home cook, I think a good chef's knife is the key and very versatile.
 
I got a Victorinox flexible boning knife that I use for all my meat-trimming needs. I got it from Amazon for like $18. It works great!
 
I use a very expensive chef's knife that I got at Target for $10 about 9yrs ago. I take care of the blade as much as I can by keeping it sharp and steeling it now and then. It works great.
 
I use a Old Hickory butchers knife I bought on Amazon for all my grilling meat needs. Cost me I believe $13. and since I have Prime, free shipping! Love old hickory!
 
Rich beat me to it. I was going to mention a santuko. It has the versatility of a chef's knife with a little more heft to it for chopping through cartilage, etc. My BIL gave me a Henckels santuko several years ago, and I love it. If I could only have one knife to handle all cooking tasks, I would probably choose it.

That said, chopping vegetables with it isn't as fluid as it is with a thinner bladed chef's knife, so I'm glad I don't have to choose just one knife. :cool:
 
It depends on how much you want to spend. The important point (no pun) for this kind of work: You want a knife with a thick spine (top) so that it is stout and also tapered to a small point for delicate work. Most Chef knives are too thin and will lose their edge rather quickly if you do this work a lot.

You can get a very decent knife for this kind of work for a reasonable price from Forshcner. A "breaking" knife is what most butchers using western style knives would use. The blade comes in either stiff or flexible. I prefer the stiff. -Here's one at at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0019WXEO2/tvwb-20

That said, the best I have used is a Japanese Garisuke. It is the bigger cousin of the standard Japanese boning knife, the Honesuki. I own this one and love it:

http://www.chefknivestogo.com/toga18bokn.html

It's a very stout knife with zero flex and a very durable edge. It is also my goto knife for slicing individual ribs after the cook, and for splitting chicken wings at the joints. It is right handed only though. Here's a pic of mine:

i-2ndnpQx.jpg


Hope this helps,

Jose
 
This knife is what Aaron Franklin uses on his brisket. On a whim I bought it and am in love. Does any and all meat trimming now, including bones and cartilage.
 
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