Now THAT’S a deal!!!
This tomato knife. It’s not a normal serrated knife. It’s like a pruning saw and I keep it in the garage. This is the most useless but all my Henckels knives are not used. Once I found my $5 Kiwi knife, all the rest went into storage.
(It’s only about 6 inches long. The photo angle makes it look like a chef’s knife.)
You don’t use it because it doesn’t work or that you don’t need a special knife for tomatoes?
I don’t like the way it cuts. It saws. A regular, sharp knife works fine and predictably. Even a wavy-edged serrated knife is better. It really digs into the cutting boards too even when just using normal pressure. I found myself stopping before cutting all the way through so I’d not saw the board.
This one cuts rough and just weird when you first start the cut.
I found out I don’t need a specific tomato knife.
I use my bread knife for tomatoes.
I love my Wusthof tomato knife. It doesn’t tear at all. I also have the reverse wavy artisan prep knife.
Oh yeah. That is bad.
Mine is great too . The serrated edge is like a bread knife . The forked end of the blade is nice . Thanks for reminding me . Time to start using it again .
My tomato knife (well, actually it’s not specified for tomatoes). It’s just a smaller version of bread knife. Cuts pretty well.
I was raised in a house without a dishwasher - in fact I never used one until my mid-twenties. My mom was the oldest of seven kids, so dishes for our family of four never bothered her after washing up for 9+ people for years. Now I have one, but use it so rarely that I often end up just using it to store cookie sheets and bulky/heavy pans.
I also have a brother who gives me some sort of seen-on-tv nonsense every Christmas. I currently have, but have not used, the Bacon Bowl, Veggetti, and some sort of make-your-own Pudding Pops kits. Maybe I should try them all out one day…
My Chinese cleaver. I find it heavy and not the right tool for most of my chopping needs. For vegetables, I have a santoku and a Japanese chef’s knife. For cutting up carcasses, I use my German chef’s knife.
I wanted to love my cleaver. My grandparents only used a wicked sharp cleaver and a paring knife for everything. This appeals to my minimalist sensibilities, but it’s not for me.
It is possible that your Chinese cleaver isn’t a particularly good one, and that your grandparents were using a better one.
Sure, that’s possible, but I’ve used other cleavers before, including the ones my grandparents used and loved, and they don’t resonate with me.
I do think it’s something many Chinese home cooks get used to rather than have strong preference for. My mom only used a cleaver for everything. Veggies, meat, noodles…you name it. It was the only knife (aside from a paring/utility knife) that we had in the apartment growing up. I don’t think my mom ever even touched a chef’s knife until her kids grew up and bought them. For my mom, it was partly a practical, immigrant thing – why buy more than 1 knife and pay so much at the US dept store when you can get 1 for a fraction of the price? I find the thing way too cumbersome, and only on the rare occasion when I need to hack at something with bones do I break out my cleaver.
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We actually have one of these now. 
I got it from Macy’s on clearance (open box) for $8 or something like that. I use it to make the sandwich triangles for school lunches as a change form regular sandwiches or as-is leftovers.
My usual fillings:
Ham and Cheese
Leftover chicken meat from chicken curry
Leftover taco meat and cheese
Peanut Butter and Jelly
My kids think it’s great – they like the toasted sandwich triangles.
My most useless cookware would be my electric crepe griddle. No idea why I thought I needed one, considering I make crepes probably once a year!
Well, I think it is a personal preference then. Maybe it is just not your style/preference.
Now the crock pot I agree but I do use a food pro on occasion. I’d be lost without it for making hummus. Tried it in a blender. Vitamin and blendtec. Wasn’t the texture I want. The food pro does it right. With home cooked dried chickpeas, if I don’t over cook them I can’t over process them in a food pro
We use our’s all the time. Once we start it is silly to just make one so a dozen or so at a time.
Mine would be the flip omelette pan. Had this for years and before I knew how to cook I thought is was great. Now when I clean out the cabinets and find it I will toss it.