The Best Cleavers
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MEAT CLEAVERS With thick blades designed to chop through meat and bone without chipping the sharp edge, meat cleavers are useful for chopping bones for stock, cutting oxtails, separating ribs and cutting up chickens. Most have a hole at a corner of the blade, so the cleaver can be hung on a hook.
WÜSTHOF-TRIDENT If your roots are in Europe, your grandmother probably had a meat cleaver much like this, the Classic. It’s made in Germany with a stain-resistant high-carbon steel blade in a triple-riveted composition handle. "I like the thickness of the 6-inch blade," writes Denise Landis, who tested the cleavers for The Times, "especially the spine (back) side, which can be struck with a mallet or used to pound meat — carefully — to tenderize it." $78.95 at Broadway Panhandler, (212) 966-3434 or (866) 266-5927, 65 East Eighth Street (Broadway), broadwaypanhandler.com; $74.98 at Zabar’s, (212) 496-1234 or (800) 697-6301, 2245 Broadway (80th Street), zabars.com.
WÜSTHOF-TRIDENT If your roots are in Europe, your grandmother probably had a meat cleaver much like this, the Classic. It’s made in Germany with a stain-resistant high-carbon steel blade in a triple-riveted composition handle. "I like the thickness of the 6-inch blade," writes Denise Landis, who tested the cleavers for The Times, "especially the spine (back) side, which can be struck with a mallet or used to pound meat — carefully — to tenderize it." $78.95 at Broadway Panhandler, (212) 966-3434 or (866) 266-5927, 65 East Eighth Street (Broadway), broadwaypanhandler.com; $74.98 at Zabar’s, (212) 496-1234 or (800) 697-6301, 2245 Broadway (80th Street), zabars.com.
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
The Best Cleavers
Sharpen your chopping skills with a cleaver.