How much attention have you paid to your kitchen knives so far? When you don’t get the perfect slice of bread or the perfect hard vegetable pieces, you may blame your lack of chef skills, but in fact, you may be using the wrong kind of knife to do the job.
Here’s a quick guide to the most important and useful kitchen knives!
1. Chef’s knife
This knife has a thick blade of 15-30 cm. It is used for chopping and slicing. It’s the type of knife that any chef, be it amateur or professional, must have at hand in the kitchen. Perfect for slicing and dicing fruits, vegetables, fish, meats.
It is said that the good knives last forever. Make sure to choose a chef’s knife whose blade is full tang rather than half-tang, because they are more balanced and last longer. Pick a knife that has a decent weight and is comfortable to hold.
2. Santoku knife
This is the Japanese version of the chef’s knife and is the ideal choice when you want to prepare Asian fish, meat or vegetable goodies. The difference from the rest of the knives is given by the small oval scallops found on both sides of the blade, near the edge.
Also, this blade is wider and straighter, which makes it a good choice for chefs that want to chop vegetables and mince herbs. The Santoku knife has a design that makes it a little more easier to get thin slices of vegetables, for instance.
3. The Vegetable knife
It goes without saying. For an easier peeling and slicing of vegetables, this knife is a life saver. It also helps with seed removal. It is 5 to 7 inch long, and you can use it to cut, chop, slice and dice small and large vegetables. Do not try to use the vegetable knife on slicing bread or for cutting and cleaving meat. For outstanding strength and durability, choose a stainless steel vegetable knife.
4. The slicing knife
The slicing knife is best used to obtain fillets of meat or fish. It has a straight or curved blade, smooth or serrated, thin, long and flexible with a length of about 20-35 cm. Although it is not an essential tool for every kitchen, if you cook meat often, then this knife can be really useful.
5. The boning knife
This type of knife is used for boning and removing the meat from the bones. It has an unique feature, namely that it is available in varying degrees of flexibility. If you have a large amount of meat and pieces with large bones to prepare, then you will need a stiffer blade. If you prepare meat from delicate pieces with bones that are more difficult to remove, then a boning knife that is more flexible may be the best choice for you.
6. The bread knife
This knife has a long blade of 15-25 cm, straight, always jagged, which cuts the bread without breaking it. They are quite affordable and most of the time, it is not worth spending more on higher quality, because the blades cannot be sharpened easily and most likely you’ll need to replace it when the blade loses its sharpness. If you want uniform slices of bread, choose a bread knife. It will surely do the job better than the rest of your kitchen knives.
7. The tomato knife
The tomato knife has a slightly serrated blade and is split at the top to grasp the already cut pieces. Easy to use and practical to have in the kitchen, if you eat a lot of vegetables.
8. The carving knife
The carving knife has a long and thin blade, with a sharp tip. It is good for slicing large chunks of meat into narrow ones. So, if you cook a lot of roasts, fried turkeys, or honey-baked hams, it would be nice to have it in among your kitchen knives.
9. The serrated knife
A serrated knife, that usually reaches 6 inches in length, is particularly useful when it comes to foods with waxy surfaces, such as: watermelons, peppers, citrus fruits, tomatoes, pineapples. It can also help you to cut cake layers more easily.
This knife has a jagged edge that can grip and penetrate the waxy exteriors. You might want to use this knife only for slicing. Do not chop food with it.
10. The paring knife
This knife is best used for foods that require an attention to details. Use it to slice and mince garlic, strawberries, or other small foods. The paring knife is also helpful with peeling fruits or vegetables. Usually, it does not have enough weight to slice through food, so don’t try to cut carrots, parsnip or celery with it.
Now that you know what kind of kitchen knives you need to have at hand, in order to make your life and cooking easier, the only thing left is to find a proper storage for them. How about this bamboo drawer or this hardwood knife block? We’re pretty sure they would look fantastic in your kitchen cupboards or countertop.
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