Bar knife

Looking back, I might have easily added a knife to the ‘assumed basics’ in my first post. A normal kitchen would indeed take care of a knife just as well. On the other hand, I’d miss an opportunity to have a short rant about this equipment. So here we are…

You can’t just toss fruit in a juicer (well, not the juicer’s we’ll be using anyway). So we’ll need a knife to cut our citrus fruit in half.

A paring knife that’s not too small will do nicely. If you knife is too small (like the upper knife in the picture), you’ll need some larger knife as well. Don’t dismiss the dainty knife, though… it’s great for precision cutting.

A decently sized paring knife or bar knife might just be everything you need for all your cocktail cutting needs. A real bar knife would have a serrated edge, a fork-tip and possibly an opener for bottles. That last addition isn’t a very good idea in my opinion: a knife should be used for cutting. Using your knife to flip open bottles just can’t be good for the knife (or yourself… the thought of putting force on a slightly unstable sharp object near my hands doesn’t strike me as entirely free of risk).

The forked end could still prove useful, though. Picking unsightly seeds out of a lemon wheel or lemon wedge should prove easy with those pointy bits.

To be honest, my bar knife is actually a tomato knife, but it suits me fine. Just explore and figure out what works for you.

The best thing to do with your knife, apart from making juicing possible and creating fancy garnishes, is using it to slice off some citrus peel (which also makes a modest garnish in itself).

Go back the bar spoon post and revisit the video of Charlotte Voisey. And as soon as you have citrus in stock, be sure to try this out. It works wonders.