Ina Garten Just Changed The Way We Will Store Knives Forever

This makes total sense.

Southern cooks know some of the smartest storage strategies. They're born out of necessity—and a deep desire to not waste food.

For example? My great-grandmother taught me to always store my flour in a drawer or pantry. Why? Kitchens get a lot of light, and Southern kitchens stay warm in the hot months. That's a recipe for rancid flour (and rancid oil, too).

When I moved into my house a few years ago, my grandmother told me to find the coldest part of the house and make it my onion and potato storage spot. Since many Southern homes don't have a root cellar, it's hard to find a consistently cool place, but wherever it is, that's where your root vegetables should go, my grandmother said. It'll give them a longer shelf life and prevent sun exposure that turns them green, so my vegetables are kept in a linen closet near my kitchen. I'm not even kidding.

But now Ina Garten has taught me a storage tip I'd never heard or even considered, one that's likely to help my knives last longer and stay sharper.

On Instagram, the author of Go-To Dinners, shared that "someone asked me recently why I put my knives in my knife block the way I do, and I realized I do it differently," she said in a video.

She grabs a paring knife and demonstrates the way most people would store their knives, sliding it in with the spine and bloster facing up, toward the ceiling, and the blade edge facing down. But that, Garten says, is not the way she does it.

"If you put it in right side, the usual way, as you put it in the blade is scraping against the wood, and I don't think it's good for the blade. So I put it in upside down and I think it saves the blade," she said.

The former market editor in me knows that knife manufacturers spend a great deal of resources and time finding the best ways to store knives so theirs will last longer and stay dependably sharp. But I can't help but wonder if there isn't some truth to Garten's strategy.

Blades are dulled as they're used. Friction with other surfaces, whether you're slicing a carrot on a cutting board or inserting them into a knife block, would most certainly have a negative impact, if only marginally. Still, it's that progressive damage to the blade that makes them dull—and eventually not safe to use.

If you can flip your knives over in the block, follow Garten's advice. It might help you go longer between times you need to sharpen the blade. Just be sure to share your new storage trick with the whole family so everyone can be aware which side the blade is before they reach for a knife to slice peppers or chop pecans.

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Read the original article on Southern Living.