World's Best Knife? (Alaskan Ulu)

the ulu knight this curved blade that dates back thousands of years is still very useful today in my own kitchen and this is what i'm going to talk about this is a significant piece of alaskan history but what's really interesting about it is how useful it is even thousands of years later people are still using it and i've been using it in my own kitchen i discovered it on a recent trip to alaska i'm going to talk a little bit about the history of the ulu and show you how i use it with a very specific curved cutting board that can come with it depending on where you get one the indigenous people of alaska of course lived off of the land and everything that they did everything they wore everything they ate everything they traveled by um had to be fashioned from nature and so in order to create even the simplest article the indigenous craftsmen invented many interesting practical tools and many of which are still in use today like this ulu knife it was their main cutting tool and it was originally made from flat thin rocks or slate so this curved steel blade that you're seeing now of stainless steel used to be um actually rock the handles were fashioned from out of wood or ivory or bone this one is made of elk antler i believe and then this one also came with a holder so you can display it like so this is an especially nice piece that archaeologists estimate to be well over 3000 years old many of the ancient ulus are in private collections or museums and then there's some still being made by companies in alaska like the ulu factory where i visited now if you get one you want to get these and make great gifts the holidays are coming up be sure to get one from somewhere legitimate like the ulu factory because there are a lot of knockoff versions for centuries the indigenous people have been using these blades for skinning seals and even sewing now as time progressed and whaling ships became more and more common in alaskan waters they took advantage of the different materials and that's when the steel blade was introduced now they did have different sizes depending on what they would use it for so you know smaller oolus would probably be used for some stuff like sewing or cutting out patterns from animal skins but then a new loo with a six inch blade like this one would be used for more general purposes occasionally you can find blades as large as 12 inches so almost twice the size as this one it's also easier to use a ulu one-handed where in contrast like a steak knife kind of requires a fork hulu knives have even been used for other things other than cutting like cultural symbolism they are so significant to alaskans history that they have been presented to people who have accomplished things like if they accomplish something in sports or education they would be presented an ulu for that recognition like in the arctic winter games uh they would present a gold silver and bronze ulu to that athlete so pretty interesting this is how you hold it like in one hand you just go like that and you can actually you know a lot of times like if you're in person picking one out i actually felt how they feel some people like a little bit smaller grip maybe and other people like maybe a little bit larger one depending on the size of your hand it's really easy to grip you hold it like this and then you just roll over whatever it is you're cutting so i'm going to get the cutting board real quick and show you how neat these cutting boards are are and like what i really like to use these for because they actually make certain things easier than just using a regular cutting board at the ulu factory in anchorage where i purchased my knife they also offer these cutting boards that were really cool one side is flat and the other side has this curve to it where the blade kind of fits in so what i love about this is you can put something in here and chop it up and it will stay in here versus sometimes when i'm chopping things on a regular cutting board it'll just kind of go everywhere this curve this bowl like shape in the cutting board will keep things more controlled let's start with a carrot this is something that you could do with the curve part but a carrot something like this i'd probably just do with the flat part so i'll demonstrate that first now this is just on the flat side you start like this hold it in one hand and just kind of roll it just like that boom and you can't even just go straight down if you want but that can make a little bit more of a mess so rolling it tends to keep things together i'll go to the other side i think this is a good thing to demonstrate in the bowl if you just want to chop up celery i'm going to put two of them in here see really can just keep chopping and the celery will stay in one place [Music] do an onion here thank you alaska there you have it pretty cool pretty fun you may even find that it's more fun to use than just using a regular knife and maybe it'll make cooking more fun for you so yeah i gotta find a way to eat everything i just cut now and um thanks for tuning into this little show and tell take care you

Channel: Brady Skye

Views: 17,980

Keywords: cooking, knife, culture, history, ulu, alaska, chef knife, kitchen knives, cooking knife

Id: lKdIcuRBnFE

Length: 6min 6sec (366 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 13 2022