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Minimalism is not having no knives in your kitchen drawer. Minimalism is having one very good knife that works extremely well instead of 10 that work so terrib

Minimalism is not having no knives in your kitchen drawer. Minimalism is having one very good knife that works extremely well instead of 10 that work so terribly they never get used "just in case". The poser proudly boasts that they freed their lives from the tyranny of owning knives, but doesn't mention that they substituted eating out all the time for cooking.

abakker 10y ago
If you really wanted minimalism, you could get rid of the fridge, too. In its place you could put nothing. (somehow, nobody complains about the tyranny of cold beer, even when they have no other food or utensils in the house)
- komali2 10y ago
  On the other hand, what kind of electricity savings do you get from not owning a fridge? I'm not really joking - in Taiwan we ditched the fridge and gave up on cooking. Ended up saving ~50$ USD/mo because it turns out it's just cheaper to eat and drink out there than it is to cook in, combined with the fridge and stove electric savings. EDIT: I think it's worth noting that electricity was disproportionately expensive compared to other costs of living when I was there.
  - abakker 10y ago
    Thats neat. I never would have guessed, but with energy star and cheap power in the US (along with having a home that is already cooled), fridges just don't use that much power by comparison. Am I right it assuming that going out was also relatively cheap?
    - komali2 10y ago
      Extremely so. I can't find my spreadsheet but IIRC I could buy Chicken at something like ~1.50 - 2USD/lb, and about ~1/3lb broccoli for like .25USD. So that's 1.75 - 2 for a cooked meal, or I could get a meal at a restaurant for ~.80USD to 1USD. It adds up, especially because I wouldn't just cook chicken and broccoli for every meal, and beef is shockingly expensive in Taiwan.
  - ptaipale 10y ago
    >in Taiwan we ditched the fridge and gave up on cooking. Ended up saving ~50$ USD/mo A fridge uses something like 30 kWh per month. At 10 US cents per kWh, that's around 3 dollars per month. Even if the fridge is very old and eats twice or three times as much electricity, you can't really save 50 dollars per month from that. Electric stove is not much different, either. You must have miscalculated something. (According to [0], consumer price for electriticy in Taiwan is 9 cents per kWh. Cheaper than US, cheaper than in all EU countries except Bulgaria and Romania.) [0] http://www.eiu.com/industry/article/1670907751/taiwan-electricity-turning-on-the-lights/2013-09-02 http://www.eiu.com/industry/article/1670907751/taiwan-electr...
    - abakker 10y ago
      I think he meant that inclusive of giving up cooking, and the fridge, they saved $50 a month.
      - komali2 10y ago
        Yes, but I really wish I saved my spreadsheet I had, because somehow in Taiwan they were able to show us the meter for each room, and I remember looking at the kitchen the month after we gave up cooking and thinking "no fucking way." The guy with the KW/h calcs is right, it doesn't make sense when you do the math like that, but it was like 10 bucks a month in savings.
    - nommm-nommm 10y ago
      9 cents/kWh is very cheap. I pay over 13 cents/kWh.
      - ptaipale 10y ago
        Yes, and most Europeans also pay something like that. However, it still doesn't come even close to 10 $/month for a fridge.
        legulere 10y ago
anigbrowl 10y ago
As a former working cook, you need more than one good knife. there are different knives for different purposes, and when you're cooking a lot then hygeine requires that yo don't use the same knife for everything unless you want to massively increase the probability of food poisoning. Use the right tool for the job. There is no One Tool To Rule Them All.
- legulere 10y ago
  What do you need except a chef's knife, a pairing knife and a bread knife as a home cook?
- nommm-nommm 10y ago
  I just wash my knife? I have a santoku and a paring knife. I wouldn't know what to do with more knives. Of course I don't cook gourmet meals either.
- wvenable 10y ago
  I have two sets of knives of different ages as well as a few misc ones. The next time I move, I'm not taking any of these and instead getting one good set of knives. I think this is what the person you were replying to was getting at.
- culturestate 10y ago
  You are seriously overestimating the utensil requirements of most home cooks. A big knife, a small knife, a ladle, a cutting board, a spatula, a sauce pot and a nonstick frying pan will get lots of people really far. Aside: I also used to cook for a living, and these days my "roll" is just an 8" chef, a 6" utility (which for me doubles as a boning knife), a 4" paring and a steel.
- mcguire 10y ago
  There is an apocryphal story about Karl Marx visiting a factory or workshop and being amazed and horrified by the sheer number of different kinds of hammers that the workers had to have. They're just for hitting things, right? Turns out, a framing hammer is not a substitute for a tack hammer, and the axe blade on a roofing hammer is more useful for roofing than a claw.

abakker 10y ago

If you really wanted minimalism, you could get rid of the fridge, too. In its place you could put nothing. (somehow, nobody complains about the tyranny of cold beer, even when they have no other food or utensils in the house)

komali2 10y ago
On the other hand, what kind of electricity savings do you get from not owning a fridge? I'm not really joking - in Taiwan we ditched the fridge and gave up on cooking. Ended up saving ~50$ USD/mo because it turns out it's just cheaper to eat and drink out there than it is to cook in, combined with the fridge and stove electric savings. EDIT: I think it's worth noting that electricity was disproportionately expensive compared to other costs of living when I was there.
- abakker 10y ago
  Thats neat. I never would have guessed, but with energy star and cheap power in the US (along with having a home that is already cooled), fridges just don't use that much power by comparison. Am I right it assuming that going out was also relatively cheap?
  - komali2 10y ago
    Extremely so. I can't find my spreadsheet but IIRC I could buy Chicken at something like ~1.50 - 2USD/lb, and about ~1/3lb broccoli for like .25USD. So that's 1.75 - 2 for a cooked meal, or I could get a meal at a restaurant for ~.80USD to 1USD. It adds up, especially because I wouldn't just cook chicken and broccoli for every meal, and beef is shockingly expensive in Taiwan.
- ptaipale 10y ago
  >in Taiwan we ditched the fridge and gave up on cooking. Ended up saving ~50$ USD/mo A fridge uses something like 30 kWh per month. At 10 US cents per kWh, that's around 3 dollars per month. Even if the fridge is very old and eats twice or three times as much electricity, you can't really save 50 dollars per month from that. Electric stove is not much different, either. You must have miscalculated something. (According to [0], consumer price for electriticy in Taiwan is 9 cents per kWh. Cheaper than US, cheaper than in all EU countries except Bulgaria and Romania.) [0] http://www.eiu.com/industry/article/1670907751/taiwan-electricity-turning-on-the-lights/2013-09-02 http://www.eiu.com/industry/article/1670907751/taiwan-electr...
  - abakker 10y ago
    I think he meant that inclusive of giving up cooking, and the fridge, they saved $50 a month.
    - komali2 10y ago
      Yes, but I really wish I saved my spreadsheet I had, because somehow in Taiwan they were able to show us the meter for each room, and I remember looking at the kitchen the month after we gave up cooking and thinking "no fucking way." The guy with the KW/h calcs is right, it doesn't make sense when you do the math like that, but it was like 10 bucks a month in savings.
  - nommm-nommm 10y ago
    9 cents/kWh is very cheap. I pay over 13 cents/kWh.
    - ptaipale 10y ago
      Yes, and most Europeans also pay something like that. However, it still doesn't come even close to 10 $/month for a fridge.
      - legulere 10y ago

anigbrowl 10y ago

As a former working cook, you need more than one good knife. there are different knives for different purposes, and when you're cooking a lot then hygeine requires that yo don't use the same knife for everything unless you want to massively increase the probability of food poisoning. Use the right tool for the job. There is no One Tool To Rule Them All.

legulere 10y ago
What do you need except a chef's knife, a pairing knife and a bread knife as a home cook?
nommm-nommm 10y ago
I just wash my knife? I have a santoku and a paring knife. I wouldn't know what to do with more knives. Of course I don't cook gourmet meals either.
wvenable 10y ago
I have two sets of knives of different ages as well as a few misc ones. The next time I move, I'm not taking any of these and instead getting one good set of knives. I think this is what the person you were replying to was getting at.
culturestate 10y ago
You are seriously overestimating the utensil requirements of most home cooks. A big knife, a small knife, a ladle, a cutting board, a spatula, a sauce pot and a nonstick frying pan will get lots of people really far. Aside: I also used to cook for a living, and these days my "roll" is just an 8" chef, a 6" utility (which for me doubles as a boning knife), a 4" paring and a steel.
mcguire 10y ago
There is an apocryphal story about Karl Marx visiting a factory or workshop and being amazed and horrified by the sheer number of different kinds of hammers that the workers had to have. They're just for hitting things, right? Turns out, a framing hammer is not a substitute for a tack hammer, and the axe blade on a roofing hammer is more useful for roofing than a claw.