U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- When I was younger, I thought eating was a necessary evil. It was a waste of time and it costs money. But as I’ve gotten older, I’m no longer ok with slamming down a $.99 Jack-In-The-Box, Breakfast Jack. I want a good-tasting meal. I’m not picky, I just like good food. I’ve worked in the beef industry nearly all of my life so I can get good beef. I hunt and fish so I get plenty of wild game and usually go to Alaska and can stock up on a year’s worth of salmon and halibut.
I don’t want to be a whiner but I don’t even particularly like to eat out (although due to the nature of my business I travel a lot and am forced too). I can’t see paying an exorbitant price to some restaurant to screw up a good steak or salmon fillet. So, I’d rather do my own cooking. It’s a whole lot cheaper than eating out and better.
So, with the above said, why not have a few good cooking utensils if you like to cook? Why cook with some garage sale items? You don’t really have to invest in a lot of gear. Get a couple of good knives, Dutch Ovens, Camp Chef pellet grill and you’re pretty much set.
So with that said, I recently added a Spyderco Itamae Funayuki knife to my kitchen collection. It is by far the nicest cooking knife (Kitchen knife) that I own and is an awesome knife for chopping vegetables, finely slicing meat, and pretty much all of my cooking tasks.
I never really had a good salsa recipe which is unheard of seeing as I was raised in Texas. Twenty-five years ago, I worked with a girl that made the best salsa in the world. She came by one night and taught me how to make it. It is so good we’ll eat it alone for dinner on the nights that I make a batch of salsa. When slicing tomatoes, the skins are tough. You don’t want to smash them when you’re slicing them, you want to just slice right through them so you’ll want a sharp knife like the Spyderco Itamae Funayuki.
This knife will also work great when I smoke a Tri-tip or a flank. To prepare them, I marinate my deer, elk & hog flanks, and tri-tips for a few hours. For the flank, I chop up onions and green peppers and lay on the flank. Then I roll it up and pin it together with toothpicks. I then throw them on the smoker and smoke them for an hour and then turn up the heat and cook them to medium-rare. When done, I pull and slice them cross-grain diagonally, paper-thin, and serve as appetizers. Both are awesome. Your guest will love them.
To be able to slice any Hors D’ouveres thin, you’ll need a razor-sharp, thin-bladed knife. The MSRP on the Spyderco Itamae Funayuki is $320.00 and we will close with comments from the Spyderco website concerning the Spyderco Itamae Funayuki knife and the specs.
Translated as “ship going,” the versatile Funayuki pattern was extremely popular with fishermen. It excels at chopping, draw-cutting, and other general kitchen tasks.
Literally meaning “in front of the cutting board,” Itamae is an extremely prestigious title reserved for highly skilled sushi chefs. Consistent with that elite status, the Murray Carter Collection’s Itamae Series — the highest tier in the Collection — proudly features premium materials and uncompromising craftsmanship.
The blades of Itamae Series knives are expertly crafted from laminated steel consisting of an Aogami Super Blue core clad between layers of SUS410 stainless steel. The classic three-layer construction allows the outer layers to protect and support the ultra-hard carbon-steel center layer that forms the blade’s edge. Ground exceptionally thin and straight for unparalleled cutting performance, the blades also feature Murray Carter’s signature “Carter Elbow” — a distinctive taper from the spine to the point that reinforces the blade’s tip.
The elite blades of the Itamae Series are paired with traditional “wa-style”(octagonal) handles made from stunning burl G-10 and highlighted with black G-10 ferrules. Created for those who demand the very best, the Itamae series faithfully captures the spirit of Murray Carter’s coveted handmade kitchen knives and sets a new standard in high-performance kitchen cutlery.
TECHNICAL SPECS
- Overall Length 10.93″ (278mm)
- Blade Length 6.29″ (160mm)
- Material Steel Super Blue/SUS410
- Edge Length 5.82″ (148mm)
- Weight 4.2oz (119g)
- Blade Thickness 0.064″ (1.6mm)
- Handle Burl G-10
- Grind Full-Flat
- Origin Japan
About Tom Claycomb
Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoors writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net, and freelances for numerous magazines and newspapers. “To properly skin your animal you will need a sharp knife. I have an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”
