things.
- A Y-Shaped Vegetable Peeler
A regular vegetable peeler has a blade aligned with the
handle, requiring you to hold both vegetable and peeler at
an awkward angle, limiting your precision. With a Y-peeler,
you hold the peeler as if you’re picking up an iPod, giving
you far greater accuracy. The result is prettier vegetables,
faster prep (once you get used to using it), and less waste.
The Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss Peeler ($10.95 for 3) comes
in assorted colors, has a built-in potato-eye remover, and is
cheap, sturdy, and very sharp. I bought a set of a half a
dozen in 2002 and still have four of them in perfect working
order. (For the record, the other two were lost, not broken or
worn out.) - A 10-Inch Honing Steel
Honing steels (sometimes incorrectly referred to as
sharpening steels) are the long, heavy, textured metal rods
that butchers and serial killers run their knives over before
going at their meat.
Many people confuse honing with sharpening, but there is
a distinct difference. When you sharpen a knife, you’re
actively removing material from the blade, creating a brand
new razor-sharp beveled edge. When you hone a knife, all
you’re doing is making sure that edge is straight. The thing
about metal is, it’s malleable. That means that with regular
kitchen use, that thin sharpened edge can get microscopic
dents in it that throw the blade out of alignment. Even if the
blade is still sharp, it can feel dull because the sharp edge