First of all, it’s worth briefly mentioning what kind of knife to choose for this or that product.
- The chef’s knife is our most important and indispensable kitchen knife. Its blade length can vary from 6 to 12 inches (15.24 cm to 30.48 cm). The standard size is 25.40 cm. It can be used to peel, cut and chop vegetables, fruits, process meat and almost any kind of food. Also chef’s knife is called a Santoku knife – which has the geometry of a goat’s leg.
- Slicing knife (Slicing knife) – has a long, thin blade and is designed for cutting raw fish, vegetables and fruits, cutting thin slices. The blade is usually 20.32 cm long.
- Carving knife, can go with fork (Carving knife and fork) – knife, with a long narrow blade, used for slicing hot roasts. It is often paired with a fork (Roasting fork), which has two long tines to hold the food. It should have a comfortable handle, preferably with a safety catch to protect your hands.
- Fruit and vegetable peeling knife (Paring knife) – designed for peeling and cutting fruits and vegetables. It is light, sharp, with a short, stiff blade. Its blade is usually only 5.08 cm long. – 7.62 cm.
- Serrated knife (Serrated knife) – The “teeth” of this knife can slice fragile and delicate foods such as bread, moist muffins.
- Sole filet knife – This knife is designed for cutting into fillets of fish or meat. It has a long, thin and flexible blade.
- Boning knife (Boning knife or Deboning knife) – has a long, non-bending blade, 8.89 cm – 15.24 cm long, has a curved blade point that can reach the joints of meat and poultry.
- Butcher knife or Cleaver – The thick and heavy blade of a hatchet is used most often for chopping bones. The back or side surfaces can be used to “chop” escalopes.
There are many varieties of knives for use in the kitchen: mezzaluna, cheese slicer, pizza knife, oyster knife, and others, but only three knives are essential: a chef’s knife, a vegetable knife, and a paring or paring knife.
Once we’ve chosen the knife we want to use, let’s get to work.
The first thing we need to learn is the correct grip of the knife.
- Grip the blade as in the picture with your thumb and tucked index finger. The thumb lies sideways, along the handle of the knife, and the index finger sort of wraps around the handle from above
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- With your remaining three fingers, wrap the remaining three fingers around the handle of the knife
- Don’t grip the blade and handle very tightly or you won’t be able to use the knife for long. Hold it not relaxed, but firmly enough – confidently.
The most common mistakes to avoid:
- Do not place your thumb or index finger on the knife’s edge
- Don’t hold a knife like a sword
The second point is how to hold your fingers correctly. We have one hand occupied with the knife, let’s deal with the other hand that holds our food.
- Fingertips should always be tucked inward.
- The second phalanges of the index and middle fingers are almost perpendicular. The blade of the knife is pressed against the folds of the fingers and slides over them when slicing.
- The thumb should be pulled back, otherwise you’ll get carried away and cut your nail off in two. It kind of wraps around the vegetable or fruit and pushes it towards the knife.
The third point is which part of the knife to cut with?”
When slicing foods, we can use different parts of the knife blade. From left to right:
- The part of the blade at the point. This is the sharpest and narrowest part of the knife. It is used for delicate slicing or slicing small pieces.
- Centerpiece is used in most cases.
- The palm is used for labor-intensive slicing when you need to apply more force.
And finally the fourth point is how to guide the knife correctly?
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Imagine the handle is attached to the rim of a wheel rotating along the cutting plane, keeping the tip of the knife on the board.
It takes practice and time for your hands to get used to slicing like the big name chefs in movies or shows. Start learning gradually, first without food, and when you realize that your hands are making the right moves move to merciless slicing of onions and carrots, but don’t worry if you don’t get perfect slices from the start, everything will come with time and practice, you have to shed a lot of tears over the onion before you get perfect cubes or slices of the same thickness.
Many slicing techniques are used in the professional kitchen.
Let’s take a look at the main types:
Shingling
Dicing
Julienne slices
Chiffonade slicing
Cheese slicing.
- Parmesan, pecorino, grana padano are not cut in slices, especially since this is difficult to do with an ordinary utility knife, but are broken off with a special spatula.
- Brie and Camembert are served whole, complete with a table knife, with which eaters cut off pieces of the desired size.
- Mozzarella is cut with a serrated blade.
- Moldy cheese is diced with a small all-purpose tool with a wide blade.
- Semi-hard cheeses (Russian, Dutch, Gouda) are cut with a universal with holes in the blade.
- Thin slicing of semi-hard cheeses is done with string knives or a knife resembling a spatula with a slit in the center part. It is also known as a “cheese slicer” – it was invented by carpenter Thor Björklund from Lillehammer in 1925.
Slicing bread
- Bread is cut exclusively on a board designed for this purpose. Never use a board for vegetables and even less for raw meat.
- A separate bread knife is used for slicing bread, often with a serrated sharpening.
- Slices of molded bread are cut in half: perpendicular to the base, parallel to the base, diagonally. Baton slices are served whole.
- The approximate thickness of the slice is 1 centimeter. Thinner slices are made only for layered sandwiches.
Slicing meat
- The knife should be appropriate for the type of meat to be cut – fillets/meat with gristle, white/red meat and so on.
- There should be no serrations on the blade of the meat knife.
- Meat is only cut across the fibers, not lengthwise.
- Meat from the bone is cut by holding the bone itself with a paper towel, and the cut itself is made in the direction away from the bone, about 1 cm wide. If it is a rib part, do the same or remove the ribs altogether.
In the process of work the knife loses its initial sharpness and to maintain it you will need a mousate, with it the cutting edge will remain perfectly sharp throughout the work. And to avoid losing sharpness due to the surface on which you work, we advise you to use an end board – monolithic of small bars with vertical fibers, such a board does not dull the knife, almost eternal and environmentally friendly.