Rant: The dull knife that saved my bacon on a big ribeye order

Had a huge catering order for 40 bone-in ribeyes yesterday and my main breaking knife snapped at the hilt halfway through. My backup was so dull it could barely cut butter. In a panic, I grabbed a cheap serrated steak knife from the lunch drawer and found it actually zipped through the silver skin and fat cap way cleaner than forcing a dull straight blade. Finished the whole batch without a single ragged edge. Anyone else ever use a weird backup tool in a pinch that actually worked better?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_anthony1mo ago

Man, that's the best kind of kitchen hack. Had a similar panic with a dull boning knife on a pile of chicken thighs. Grabbed a pair of clean kitchen shears instead of sharpening, and just started snipping through the joints and cartilage. It was shockingly fast and gave a cleaner cut than wrestling with a bad blade. Sometimes the wrong tool is totally right.

maxw341mo ago

Oh man, scissors are a total game changer for that.

richard_lee1mo ago

That's a great way to ruin a good steak knife and teach yourself some bad habits. A proper sharp chef's knife would have done the job faster and safer without risking the cheap serrated edge snapping off into the meat. Relying on the wrong tool just covers up a bigger problem with not keeping your real knives in working order.