For a versatile, multi-tasking knife, choose a utility knife for all those small cutting tasks, such as chopping shallots, chopping herbs and cleaning and chopping. Multi-purpose knives are a mix between cutting and paring knives. They have scalloped edges and blades that are slightly longer than standard paring knives. A sharp utility knife is very efficient for cutting fruits and vegetables, and is an ideal tool for preparing food.
Sheep's foot knives have a rounded tip with a straight edge, making them perfect for chopping and julienne fruits and vegetables. Butcher knives, which are used to shred cuts of meat or to trim fat, are commonly found in butcher shops and restaurants. This type of knife has a slight curve, which helps cut meat. Many types of butcher knives also feature granton edges, which allow you to cut meat easily without tearing or shredding the product.
With long, straight blades, the slicing knives are designed to cut cooked meats such as smoked hams, roasted turkeys or sirloin steaks. These knives usually have a long blade with a rounded tip. Many meat cutting knives also have granton edges, which prevents meat from breaking while cutting. French oyster knives have a short, wide blade with a sharp edge that is perfect for finding the crease in oyster shells.
Gyuto knives are similar in use and shape to chef's knives. However, there are several key differences between a gyuto knife and a chef's knife. Gyuto knives are lighter and thinner than chef's knives, and have a flatter edge. This allows the knife to have faster push cutting capabilities and makes it easier to handle.
Nakiri knives have sharp edges and thin blades that are perfect for cutting vegetables and fish into thin slices. With an opaque, rounded edge, butter knives are usually served with breads for spreading butter, jelly, or other ingredients. Knives with a wooden handle used to be very common, but they have fallen into disuse due to food safety issues. While attractive and comfortable to use, wooden handles are not as durable as other options and can trap bacteria.
Stainless steel knife handles require virtually no maintenance, are very durable and easy to clean. In addition, stainless steel handles provide balance for knives with long blades. On the other hand, stainless steel handles can become slippery when wet. Plastic knife handles are the most popular type of knife handles because they are very durable and easy to clean.
While plastic is durable, if plastic handles are exposed to extreme temperature changes over time, they can start to crack. There are also different types of plastics you can choose for your knife handle, which are listed below. RH Forschner Fibrox handle knives are NSF listed, dishwasher safe and non-slip. Nylon knife handles are durable, easy to clean and economical.
Proflex polyresin knife handles provide a secure, non-slip grip and are NSF listed. Resin handles are lightweight and comfortable to hold. Lightweight, sturdy and comfortable, styrene handles are ideal for most kitchens. Knives with a polypropylene handle usually have a textured grip and are easy to clean.
They are generally an economical option. POM knife handles are more durable than. They are also more resistant to high heat and water absorption than other types of plastic handles. Dexter-Russell V-Lo handles are durable, easy to clean and feature an incredibly comfortable grip that is soft to the touch.
Mercer Millennia Santoprene handles are a blend of Santoprene and Polypropylene. Not only do they provide a comfortable, non-slip grip during use, but they also don't break down when exposed to cooking oils, hot environments, or cold temperatures. VG-10 steel is a type of Japanese steel that is commonly used to make professional quality cutlery. While this type of steel was originally designed for Japanese markets, its excellent edge retention, sharpness and durability made it popular in international kitchens as well.
But, because of their excellent craftsmanship, durability, and quality, VG-10 stainless steel knives can be more expensive than other options. San Mai is not a type of stainless steel, but a process of forging and rolling the metal to create a durable blade. This Japanese process involves sandwiching a high-carbon hard steel core with more flexible, lower-carbon steel. The result is a blade with excellent edge retention and sharpness, flexibility and durability.
Forged knives are manufactured when a heated steel rod is formed approximately under a drop hammer, which compresses the steel with immense pressure. After forging the basic blade shape, the blade goes through a grinding and sharpening process to form its final shape and cutting edge. Stamped blades are formed when a hydraulic press or punches the blade shape of a steel sheet. This process creates the basic shape of the blade, called the blank blade, which is then ground and sharpened to give it a cutting edge.
A classic chef's knife is the most important knife in your collection. McDermott recommends an 8- to 10-inch chef's knife, which he recognizes may be a little longer than most people are comfortable at first. However, the longer cutting edge makes the knife more versatile and efficient. The more blade you have, the more knife you have to do the work for you,” he explains.
And the larger the blade you have to cut an ingredient, the safer it will be. A chef's knife is the ideal tool for more than 90 percent of daily kitchen tasks, says McDermott, which includes most sliced and diced fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. And while a chef's knife may be the king of the kitchen, it shouldn't be used for butchering or carving poultry, for removing the skin from large vegetables such as pumpkin, or, as some people have tried, to drill a hole in cans. The breadth of a chef's knife blade makes it difficult to handle for tasks that best fit a smaller knife.
Choose blades that are full tang (a full piece of metal with the two pieces of the handle attached to the sides) rather than half tang (a piece of metal that extends the entire length of the knife, but only part of the width, or that does not extend the length of the knife and is instead attached to the handle). Full-tang knives are more balanced, more robust and more durable than half-tang models. Our test kitchen also often prefers forged chef's knives, which are made of a single piece of forged steel, heated and crushed to the desired shape. The other option is a stamped blade, which is cut from a large steel blade and is usually lighter, a quality considered undesirable in a chef's knife.
Best for cutting and chopping items that are too small for an 8- to 10-inch blade, such as chopping garlic, peeling strawberries, or peeling fruits and vegetables. As the name implies, a boning knife is the best blade for cutting or boning fish, meat, or poultry of any size, whether it's a 3-inch long anchovy or a 150-pound pork garnish. Most knives are designed to cut straight lines, McDermott says. But when it comes to anything with a rib cage and joints, there is no such thing as a straight line in the body, so you need a blade that can move and flex.
A boning knife gives you that margin. A boning knife should not be used to cut bones, but rather to cut around bones. A good boning knife will have the flexibility to deftly separate meat from bone, as well as cut joints and cartilage. While a steel sharpener isn't a knife, it's still an essential tool for your knife block.
A honing steel is designed to keep your knives at their maximum point of sharpness for as long as possible. A honing steel is probably the second most important tool in the kitchen after a chef's knife, says McDermott. Passing the knife along a steel realigns the teeth (or fibers) of the blade, leading to a sharper edge and therefore a cleaner cut. Knives should be sharpened every time you use them, but since sharpening doesn't actually sharpen the blade, McDermott suggests home cooks sharpen their knives professionally once a year.
A paring knife is basically a mini chef's knife with a small blade that offers greater versatility and precision. While the chef's knife works for cutting hard vegetables, the peeling knives are ideal for peeling apples and potatoes, chopping small amounts of garlic and onions, and coring tomatoes. Blade measures no more than 3.5 inches, making it ideal for detailed work such as creating a garnish. A paring knife is useful when working with small or tender vegetables and fruits, such as ginger, strawberries, garlic, and shallots, but it is not suitable for harder vegetables, such as carrots, beets, and pumpkins.
Remember that you never want to apply force with a paring knife, so if you find yourself flexing your muscle, replace it with a heavier blade to avoid injury. This is truly a utility knife: it fulfills multiple functions. If you want the weight of a chef's knife with a little bit of the precision of a paring knife, the utility knife is the tool to turn to. Blade is longer than a paring knife and narrower than a chef's knife.
A utility knife is usually six inches long and works well for cutting fruits, tender pieces of meat, or sandwiches. As the “knife” of all trades, it is a practical choice for the everyday chef. Long, thin and strong, this knife is used to remove meat from bone. Its thinness allows it to move with the curves and curves of the bone and effectively separate the meat, creating as little food waste as possible.
When using a boning knife, it's important that you don't try to cut bones. There are two versions of a boning blade, flexible and rigid, and both serve a specific purpose. If you look at a chef's knife kit, chances are you'll find both in their collection. Both types of boning knives have narrow blades five to six inches long that reach a very sharp point.
This type of flexible blade is suitable for removing skin and bones from poultry and fish, while a stiff blade knife allows you to use greater force when working with thick cuts of meat such as beef and pork. Keeping a bread knife sharp can be a challenge, as a special sharpener is needed to sharpen each surface of the serrated blade. However, learning this special skill is worth the effort of keeping a knife sharp. When it's time to achieve a clean and precise cut in a turkey, ham or roast, the carving knife is ideal.
A good carving knife is usually fifteen inches long. Its thin blade has a slit that prevents food from sticking to the surface. Whether you're cutting a roasted sirloin into paper-thin slices or a pork tenderloin into thick and juicy portions, a carving knife is the perfect tool. Tomatoes are notoriously difficult to cut because their skin is prone to breakage and their insides are easily crushed.
The very small grooves on the tomato knife blade grip the tomato skin and reduce tears, allowing you to easily cut the skin and preserve the fragile texture of the tomato. The chef's knife is paramount in Western kitchens, but in China the knife can take the place of everything from a paring knife to a chef's knife. So, if you're interested in investing in a utility knife, consider a Chinese-style blade. These knives are lighter than their American counterparts, making them useful for many more kitchen tasks.
A chef's knife is a great multitasking tool, but for delicate jobs like removing seeds from peppers and coring tomatoes, it's best to use a small, agile peeling knife. This doesn't mean you have to buy all your knives in the sun, but rather that you should consider what you like to cook the most and adapt your knife collection to suit your needs. They are slightly longer than utility knives, but shorter than chef knives, allowing you to use them as a chef's knife or utility knife. Butter Knife A butter knife has a smooth, blunt edge and a wide paddle-like shape, allowing the diner to spread butter without scraping crumbs or accidentally cutting bread.
Look for vendors who can lead you to a knife that fits you; don't fall prey to those who tell you which knife to buy. With a length of between 4 and 7 inches, the utility knife is generally used to cut food that is too small for a chef's knife. Some knife makers dispense with the handle completely, instead creating a knife with a single piece of steel, so that the tang also functions as a handle. A fish knife is any type of knife used to prepare seafood and can be used to fillet, descale and remove bones from fish.
A chef's knife, sometimes called a chef's or chef's knife, has a long, wide blade with a straight edge. The most basic type of table knife, a table knife is the standard type of knife you'll use for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. A boning knife is the best knife for cutting meat bones and trimming cartilage to create the perfect joint or cut before cooking them. Therefore, it is wise to store them using a steel knife block or a magnetic rack.
Browse our collection of knife blocks, shelves and purses to find styles that fit every kitchen. The sharpness of the knife is dictated by the precision with which the edge is ground, and this will depend both on the quality of the knife and how often you sharpen it. . .
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