Does carbon steel ever stop making food taste weird?

[Ice Tigre]

I skimmed the 5 pages.

Wanted to throw out another variable. Our sense of taste is closely tied to our sense of smell. Have you noticed when you sharpen a carbon knife you can smell it? As we age our sense of smell significantly deteriorates. We add more salt/sweetener/spices to our food to compensate.

And on that note, anyone that smokes is going to notice this phenomenon a Lot less than those that don't..
Amazed me how vibrant tastes and smells got, and how little salt food needed after I quite smoking last year.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

And on that note, anyone that smokes is going to notice this phenomenon a Lot less than those that don't..
Amazed me how vibrant tastes and smells got, and how little salt food needed after I quite smoking last year.

That crossed my mind too. Both of my parents were lifelong smokers into the early 1960s, when myself and my siblings were all very young. To their credit, they both took heed of the Surgeon General's relatively new warnings at the time, about smoking, and they quit cold turkey. Since then, my Dad has remarked many times about how his sense of taste and smell improved after he quit. In my own adulthood, I'd occasionally smoked in social settings, when friends of mine were doing so. I was always amazed at how quickly a couple or three cigarettes could obliterate other flavors on the tongue; and cigars were even worse about that. One of my favorite wines (a Shiraz) tasted completely bland if I made the mistake of having some after, or with, a cigar.


David

 

[traumkommode]

Okay, so I had an interesting experience this weekend. I used a 1095 blade that had been treated with gun blue to cut an apple. I removed a good bit of the gun blue with Polishing Compound, so it just looked like a really nicely patina-ed blade, and the smell/taste that appeared was particularly offensive. I'm wondering that it's the gun blue, because I haven't had this experience with any of my other 1095, but it smelled like wet, stale sand that's been sitting in swim shorts at scout camp for a week.

 

[neal70]

I wonder if the smell/taste thing would be in effect on the three piece kitchen set up at Knifecenter in 3V for a four figure price. Thoughts?
Neal

 

[Vinifera]

Lots of anecdotal statements and conjecture. Anyone with a chemistry or similar background who can provide objective data?

 

[supratentorial]

I wonder if the smell/taste thing would be in effect on the three piece kitchen set up at Knifecenter in 3V for a four figure price. Thoughts?
Neal

Everything is a matter of degree and I haven't used 3V. It does oxidize. I did a search on Knifecenter and it looks like the set is coated to resist oxidation (except at the cutting edge) so only the cutting edge will oxidize until the coating is worn off.

 

[Jens Schuetz]

Okay, so I had an interesting experience this weekend. I used a 1095 blade that had been treated with gun blue to cut an apple. I removed a good bit of the gun blue with Polishing Compound, so it just looked like a really nicely patina-ed blade, and the smell/taste that appeared was particularly offensive. I'm wondering that it's the gun blue, because I haven't had this experience with any of my other 1095, but it smelled like wet, stale sand that's been sitting in swim shorts at scout camp for a week.

Traumschrank,
Did you wipe off the polishing compound? Just joking. Kind of.
Some Gunblues aren't really recommended for food to put it mildly.

 

[knarfeng]

Traumschrank,
Did you wipe off the polishing compound? Just joking. Kind of.
Some Gunblues aren't really recommended for food to put it mildly.

My ability to sufficiently agree with the red statement above is limited by the family friendly nature of this forum.

I'll leave it at:
Gunblue. Food. Never the twain should meet.

 

[neal70]

Good point Jake, I noticed that they were pvd coated after I posted that. Does pvd taste of anything, and from some of the posts about length of time the steel is in actual contact, would even the small edge be enough to cause the described reaction. I suspect not, at a price point like that, but I don't have the sensitivity, so what do I know? Let's see, pvd is physical vapor deposition, of what we don't know, could be a variety of substances and/or compounds. Maybe folks who like to use carbon in the kitchen but are bothered by the taste could have this done to their Old Hickory,etc. knives. Tactikitchenal?
Thanks, Neal

 

[traumkommode]

Traumschrank,
Did you wipe off the polishing compound? Just joking. Kind of.
Some Gunblues aren't really recommended for food to put it mildly.

My ability to sufficiently agree with the red statement above is limited by the family friendly nature of this forum.

I'll leave it at:
Gunblue. Food. Never the twain should meet.

- Yes, I did clean off the polishing compound... I wasn't the one who applied the bluing, and had no prior experience with bluing, other than hearing that it facilitates a preliminary stage of rust that acts as a protective layer, kinda like patina. And the blades didn't smell one way or another after I worked on them, only until the apple juice hit the blade did it start to smell sulphur-y. Some Google-ing suggests that the knife was cold-blued with something containing selenium dioxide, and that SeO[sub]2[/sub] in this form can turn a smell of "rotting radishes".

 

[Fanglekai]

A good rule of thumb is to use only USP mineral oil for food blades. It's safe to ingest and offers some corrosion protection.