Cooking For Engineers

[jrszabo]

What's the purpose of the dimples in knives?

[CookNewb]

I think its so that when you pull the knife out of something, the dimples will help let air in where the blade used so that there will be less of a suction and the knife will come out more easily.

[jrszabo]

I thought so, but I wasn't sure. Does this feature apply to meat as well as veggies?

[Dilbert]

I think the 'official' name is cullets.

applies to anything you cut, in my experience they are of exceptionally limited usefulness / function.

the design has been around for decades - it's more popular now since the tv late night "WAIT! There's MORE" hawkers are peddling it like it's something 'just discovered'

[jrszabo]

What's the limitations; veggies? I usualy see them being used by chefs, like Jacques Pepin, in only veggies.

[Dilbert]

I don't see they make for limitations, I just see very little benefit.

slicing cucumbers is better - the cuke is 'stiff' enough that the cullet will break the blade cling. but that's about it... for example - radishes, about the same texture, have less moisture to cling with and hence never had a problem, anyway....

[jrszabo]

"...in my experience they are of exceptionally limited usefulness / function. "

[Dilbert]

what we have here is a failure to communicate <g>

I don't find that cullets do anything to help except in very limited circumstances.

cullets do not limit the usefulness of the knife per se.

[jrszabo]

Probably when you used the term " limited circumstances". And this started me wondering what limitations that you have experienced.

[Dilbert]

you did not read well.

the cullets are " of exceptionally limited usefulness / function. "

now, if you can cut, slice or dice with a cullet - no knife mind you - just a cullet, then there's a point there.

[Michael Chu]

I have also found that they don't seem to make much of a difference reducing stickiness and drag... nevertheless, the chef's knife I use the most does have those cut aways. I've always heard them referred to as granton edged.

[GaryProtein]

If the food is soft, it will stick to a granton edge also. Stiffer food like carrots and squash will benefit slightly. In a slicing knife, it has a slight improvement over a smooth sided blade when slicing things like roast beef and poultry.

A friend of mine got a granton edged lox slicer. Mine is smooth. We did a side by side and it didn't make a difference either way. On that type of knife, the most important attributes seems to be a very thin and very narrow blade. The dimples didn't make a difference on our lox slab, probably because fish is soft and and being sliced thinly, and the surface tension will cause the fish to contour itself to the dimples when slicing.

Maybe if the dimples were almost the full width of the blade they would be more effective.

[Dilbert]

>> the full width of the blade they would be more effective

when I was a kid I can remember asking a dude in a tall white hat who was carving the steamship round (and...btw, how did _that_ get its name...?)
whatfor arth the funny things on the knife?

I was a kid, his knife looked to be five mebbe six feet long, and very unwide. his answer was "it slices through easier" - which today I would take for less drag.

my santoku has about 50% of the width in cullets. and I agree completely - most everything still sticks to the knife.

thinking on this conversation tonight as I diced raw potatoes for pot. salad. two with my std Wuesthof 20 cm chef and two with the shorter santoku. the long "full" slices came away easier with the santoku/cullets.

so now I need to add potatoes to cukes to my list of "things those silly dimples make better" <g>

John - thanks for the kick in the pants to try this - in the past I've noted with displeasure the effort required to clear the potato slices.

[Guest]

The Dimples are Cullens, and yes, they just reduce drag.

[Cornelius]

Actually, they can be called scallops, granton or kullenschliff (kullens)

I have a santoku with these that I regularly use to slice cheese, as the blade releases the cheese slices much easier. Less of the slice ends up vacuum-sealed to the blade.