Turkish Cooking Swords

This is sick.  These are Turkish Cooking Swords:

For reference, the blade at the bottom is a Shun Classic Nikiri 6 1/2 inch (one of my favorite knives, by the way).  Tape measurer is not set up great but you can get the sense that the first blade is just over one foot and the top one is about a foot-and-a-half long.

I fell in love with these blades in Turkey and went on quite and adventure to find them in the marketplace.  Ultimately did, and had them shipped back to the USA.  Guess what these blades are used for…  Decimating huge living hunks of meat?  Forging new trails in uncharted lands?  Zombie killing??  No.

Chopping herbs.

Yes, you heard me right.  Chopping herbs.  Actually, mincing herbs.  The curved blade is spectacularly known for its rhythmic rocking motion, continually shredding herbs and exposing their true nature.  For many Turkish dishes Parsley and Mint (and also Oregano and Thyme) are essential.  And they take incorporation of these ingredients seriously.  In a cooking class in Turkey, the sous actually made us use a sword larger than the one I posted to mince a huge bunch of Parsley and Mint.  One person started.  Then stopped, tired.  Another took over.  Then she fell.  We worked through a class of twenty successively.  Then the sous started over with his own sword and herbs, and proceeded to humiliate the patrons in about two minutes by mincing the crap out of the poor things.  Then delicately lifting a handful for us to see and smell.  And then delicately add to the dish.

I promise to post a Turkish recipe or two, but for now know that your kitchen could very well be protected by these bad boys…

Cheers!

The Grilled Atheist