Cutlery is one of the greatest heroes of the kitchen. This is one of the essentials you use for every meal, as the tool for cooking, serving, and inevitably, eating. Besides this, good-quality cutlery is the key detail of the refined table setting and is a mandatory finishing touch. You may believe that selecting cutlery is as simple as that, but there are other factors to consider, including the cutlery’s practicality and utility, how you design it, how it complements other items in your house, and, most significantly, how you like to eat your meal. So, for you to make the right choices when choosing your cutlery, here are some useful things to bear in mind.
Pay Attention to Quality
Quality comes first and this is definitely something to bear in your mind when choosing the right cutlery set. This means that you need to pay attention to the material, design, and functionality. For instance, some cutlery sets that are made of perfect stainless steel and have pleasing aesthetics are simply not functional enough, the knives and forks are dull, and the spoon edges are uncomfortable. Too many details to keep in mind. Speaking of material, stainless steel is the preferable one and is therefore graded based on the proportions of chromium which help prevent corrosion and makes it stainless as well as nickel which adds strength to the cutlery and additional shine. So, to this end, the most common cutlery grades are:
- 18/0 refers to at least 18% of chromium and practically no nickel
- 18/10 refers to at least 18% of chromium and 10% of nickel
Configuration of the Cutlery
Equally important to the quality is the number of pieces the set contains, so when it comes to cutlery, there are many different sizes you can choose among. So, in this line, there are 56-piece cutlery sets, 42-piece cutlery sets, 16-piece cutlery sets, and even smaller, depending on the needs and demands. If you wonder what comes in the greatest cutlery set, then you should expect 8x entree forks, 8x table forks, 8x entree knives, 8x table knives, 8x dessert spoons, and 8x soup spoons, 8x teaspoons. This set is ideal for entertainers and restaurants, big households, or families who love to throw feasts and luxurious dinners. Furthermore, you need to get the cutlery needed for food serving and you should know what you’re buying and beware of the quality. For example, the Damascus knife is a significant kitchen investment because it is more expensive than other options, but it will not only provide you with a whole new level of kitchen experience when preparing food, but it will also assist you in cutting meat like a pro without completely destroying it.
Cutlery Accessories
Once you have sorted out the essentials, then it is a moment to think of the cutlery accessories you should use at the table and kitchen as well. These pieces are usually not a consistent part of the cutlery sets, and hence you need to choose the pieces that will suit your taste the best and elevate your food’s taste. Some of the special pieces are specialty knives, specialty forks, specialty spoons, and servers.
Servers
This is a special kind of cutlery used solely for food servings. Salad servers are great for tossing and serving any kind of salad, and long-handled salad forks are not only very useful but can have versatile uses as well. Serving forks are ideal for sliced meat and individual portions without any problems. The next on the list are cake servers and these will help you transfer the dessert without any problems and keep the dessert intact. Rice spoons are gently curved and will help you scoop the rice without crushing or compacting it.
Style
Buying cutlery to match your dining sets is a perfect criterion for selecting the perfect pieces for your table. So, you can consider getting traditional and elegant sets that have a classic handle shape and elongated fork prongs, and wider blades. Or, on the other hand, incorporate a note of contemporary style with matte-finish handles, and delicately curved pieces with some contrast implemented as well.
Cutlery Maintenance
Since you will use your cutlery for a long period of time, you need to remember that you will have to maintain it for years as well. You need to wash your cutlery carefully and in detail and use high-quality detergents. When washing your cutlery by hand, you should avoid using steel wool or scouring pads that can possibly scratch the steel and make some terminal damage. Make sure to polish every piece individually so that you can maintain shine and avoid those ugly water stains.
Choosing proper cutlery is quite a task and you should devote it sometime. High-quality cutlery sets can be quite expensive, but this is a worthwhile investment since you will be using them in the years to come.