The Brazilian Steakhouse Knife is definitely your best friend during grilling. You’ll probably have it by your side all the time while cooking on a skewer. A good Churrasco knife will cut your meat in sizes and into bite sized pieces people will enjoy. It’s very important to keep it always in an ideal state to keep up with a BBQ experience that could last for hours.
It’s very important that your knife is sharp as a samurai sword. Using force when slicing something shouldn’t be needed, and it can make the meat a lot less tender. To know if your tool is sharp enough, you can always do the tomato test. Pick up a large enough tomato and lie the bottom part of the knife over it. Then, very gently, pull the knife. Try to notice if the blade is naturally slicing the tomato. If it didn’t, then you know you have to sharpen it.
Naturally, that’s what the Sharpening Steel does. I’d recommend this Gordon Ramsey’s video about that, he does a splendid job telling you all you should know about this easy to get but also easy to misunderstand operation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBn1i9YqN1k
How To Maintain A Brazilian Steakhouse Knife
A Brazilian Steakhouse Knife or Churrasco Knife are unusually thin blades. They are made this way because they are sharpened constantly when used in restaurants. There are three things to remember for the upkeep of these blades:
1) Obviously, safety first. Don’t hold the steel in a way your fingers might get caught in the middle of the blade’s way.
2) Remember to sharpen the whole knife, not just the bottom or the top of it. The art of slicing meat off the skewer is more like a glide then a chop.
3) It’s a good idea to sharpen the blade first, before you going to use it. Don’t wait for it to be really dull. This damages the knife.
Don’t ever cut your knife in solid counters made of polished stone or other materials. It literally ruins the knife. If taken care properly, the knife can withstand an average of 40 to 50 cuts.
If the steel is not doing the job, it means your knife is probably quite used, but you can still save it though. I think the best idea is to take it to a professional so he can sharpen it with a whetstone. I don’t think it’s a necessary investment because unless you plan on doing churrascos every weekend, you’re not going to use it a lot.
When washing your knife, always wash it with soft sponges or cloth fabrics, don’t ever use aggressive sponges since it’ll damage (visibly) it. When you put it away, store your knife in a way its isolated from other cutlery. The friction with other metal things can make it dull.