Improve Your Knife Skills in the Kitchen

Knowing how to wield a knife in the kitchen is a skill that will stay with you. You’ll increase your kitchen safety when working with food, and build up your speed when it comes to food prep. If not done correctly, it’s also an easy way to injure yourself.

It takes years to perfect knife skills, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a head start with these five tips to improve your knife-wielding abilities.

1.      Choose the Right Knife

The first thing to think about is what you enjoy cooking and what kind of food you’ll be preparing most often, then you choose your knives based on that.

An easier option is to buy yourself a knife set, but if you need a knife that will be used for a specific job, then a multitasker knife might not cut it. (See what I did there? Knife joke!)

When you have the best knife for your needs you’ll prep more efficiently, it’s safer, and you cut evenly, which gives you a better process for cooking.

Looking into specifics, here are some of the knives you should look into.

·       Paring Knife: Used for intricate cutting, like slicing small fruit, skinning, and peeling.

·       Chef’s Knife: This knife is a multitasker, ideal for meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables. Be extra cautious with this one. Its large size and need for sharpness make it the knife that can cause the most accidents.

·       Utility Knife: Bigger than a pairing knife, smaller than a chef’s. Use this when you need something in between the two.

·       Boning Knife: This is the one when you’re trimming fat or cutting meat on the bone. It has a narrow blade with a sharp point, which makes it good for precision.

·       Bread Knife: It’s not just for bread, although it is useful for that, but you can also use this knife for cutting fruit.

It might be an obvious thing to say, but when you’re using knives, always be careful. Keep that sharp end on the food and off your fingers.

2.      Know the Basic Cuts

The Slice

Use this technique for meat, large vegetables, and rough slicing herbs. You need a flat, stable surface to rest your food on. Curl the fingers of the hand holding your food in place and tuck the knuckles underneath.

Hold the tip of the blade against your chopping/cutting board and angle your knife upwards. Without lifting the tip of the blade, pull the knife back slightly until it slides into the food.  Continue by pressing downwards and forwards, using the full length of the blade to slice through your food. Repeat, using a circular motion, ensuring the blade tip is in constant contact with the board.

The Chop

This method is for the precision cutting of vegetables and herbs. This is an alternative to the slice, which means you can opt for either technique.

Once again, you need a flat, stable surface to rest your food on and you need to curl your fingers on the hand holding your food in place.

Hold the flat side of your blade against your knuckles and lift the knife off the board. Press the knife down in an even stroke, shifting the knife slightly forward as you go. Lift the blade and repeat the movement.

The Back Slice

This is the cut when you need delicate slices with minimal crushing. Food like herbs. Hold the food with your curled hand, and the tip of the blade against the board, with the flat of the blade resting against your knuckles. Hold the knife at a low angle and pull the blade back steadily.

Use the whole length of the blade to slice the food, with no downward motion at all. Keep pulling back until the tip of the blade slices completely through the food.

The Rock Chop

This is the technique for mincing herbs, zest, and other aromatics. Roughly chop the food, using either the slice or the chop, then gather it in a small pile. Place the tip on one side of the pile, holding it steady with your hand.

Rock the knife up and down, re-gathering the ingredients occasionally, until they are as finely minced as you'd like them.

Sometimes seeing the methods in action will benefit your technique, but as always, practice is the best way to refine your skills.

3.      Maintain your blades

Don’t mistreat your knives! Caring for your blades increases longevity and it makes food prep safer and easier.

You can make a large difference with small basics of blade maintenance. Wash them by hand rather than the dishwasher to prevent corrosion, don’t move food around your cutting board with the sharp end, and regular sharpening makes for a safer and easier cutting experience.

4.      Holding your knife

Gripping properly will go a long way to reducing accidents and making cutting easier. Find the hold that’s comfortable for you, but for the best control, keep your grip high on the knife’s handle with your thumb and index finger gripping the blade’s heel.

5.      Concentrate

It’s repetitive, true, but you are using a sharp blade around delicate fingers, so focus on your cut and don’t be distracted. Avoid hurting yourself by paying attention.

Improve Your Knife Skills in the Kitchen

Now you know the basics of knife skills in the kitchen, you have the fundamentals to build upon. The more you cook, the better you’ll get at chopping, slicing, and whatever other method you opt for.

The most important thing is to be safe and cautious.

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