There are many wonderful traditions associated with Thanksgiving — watching football for hours on end, bickering with almost-forgotten family members, midday naps, etc. Pulling out that old, dusty electric carving knife, however, is not one of them.
You know the one. It has a big plastic grip and an impossibly loud electric motor. You use it twice a year, and it comes with its own weirdly formal, felt-lined storage box. After 15 minutes of shuffling through the back of every drawer in your kitchen, you find it tucked behind the juicer. It is that useless.
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Middleton Made Knives Echo 8 Inch Chef Knife Read More -
Tojiro DP Sujihiki Slicer Read More
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Victorinox Swiss Classic Carving Knife Read More
The electric knife was invented by one Jerome Murray — who also invented the airplane boarding ramp and a medical pump used for open-heart surgery. It is essentially two serrated blades clipped together with a motor tacked on. Murray’s idea was to make carving larger cuts of meat, such as whole turkeys, a simpler task. And, frankly, electric carving knives aren’t absolutely terrible at doing that one thing. During a thorough test, Cook’s Illustrated found them especially adept at keeping the crispy skin of turkey and chicken adhered to the meat. The problem is everything else.
Between the twin blades, clip area and the space left between the bottom of the blade and the handle, an electric carver has a lot of areas for leftover grease and food residue to go uncleaned and corrode the blades (apart from just being generally disgusting). And though turning an electric knife on acts as a sort of dinner bell, it’s ear-damaging. For this article, I tested the electric knife my family has used to carve birds for a decade and recorded a consistent sound output north of 90 decibels — which is just under concert levels of ear destruction and just above standing next to a lawnmower.
Beyond this, the electric knife is unforgiving. If you push down on the wrong area of the bird, you’ve cut through three-quarters of it before you’ve corrected course. The reason slicing and carving knives are longer and (typically) thinner than the other knives in the kitchen is that they need to bend a bit to accommodate the anatomy of birds, like chickens and turkeys. With electric knives, it’s extremely hit or miss. Some, as noted in the Cook’s Illustrated rundown, are able to glide through the meat and serve up serviceable portions. Others shred and tear the meat, leaving you with stringy, uneven slices.
For your family, your turkey and your sake, just use a regular knife.
Electric Knife Alternatives
While it's a simple task to tell you to ditch that electric knife, it wouldn't be in the spirit of things to just leave you to your own devices. If you're going to heed our advice, you may need an answer to that lingering question: if not an electric knife, then what? With an aim to answer, we've got three more traditional alternatives that should have you carving that turkey right in no time.
Middleton Made Knives Echo 8 Inch Chef Knife
Making our list of the best chef knives, this Middleton eight-inch blade — made from AEB-L stainless steel with a walnut handle — represents our favorite USA-made chef knife you can buy. And while it's a bit expensive, our tester found it to be incredibly ergonomic, superb at detail-oriented cutting tasks and right at home when it comes to carving meat.
Tojiro DP Sujihiki Slicer
Our top overall chef knife is the Tojiro DP Gyuto. This one, with its VG10-core steel blade, is its more task-specific sibling, made specifically with meat slicing in mind — especially meats associated with Asian cooking, like fish, but it works very well with poultry, as well. It helps, too, that it's a bit more affordable than the other option above.
Victorinox Swiss Classic Carving Knife
For a more European-style, budget-friendly option, Victorinox offers up this classic carving knife made from dishwasher-safe materials, including stainless steel and TPE (thermoplastic elastomers). But don't let the price fool you; this knife can stand up to plenty of punishment and will continue to come out on top, even with all those intensive holiday cooks coming up.
