Being able to cut a large variety of ingredients properly and in a multitude of ways is one of the core skills of a great home cook.
The more knife skills you develop, the faster you’ll be able to process ingredients, prep meals, and safely wield one of your most necessary kitchen tools.
However, this is also where a lot of home cooks mess up. This can delay your progress as a home cook, and in the long run, it can cause some serious injuries.
So, we’re going to give you our top 5 knife tips that will help you use your knife block faster and more effectively.
Let’s get started.
1: Safety First
Cutting yourself poses a health risk to everyone eating your food, and it doesn’t feel good, to say the least. So, it’s important to make sure you handle your knives safely.
Here are the top knife safety practices you need to keep in mind:
- Never point the knife towards yourself.
- Tuck your fingertips in and use your knuckles as a guard when chopping or slicing ingredients.
- Keep your knife sharp.
- Never cut towards yourself
- Do not force the knife through bone or other very hard pieces
2: Learn Your Cuts
Do you know the difference between chopped vegetables and julienne vegetables? Do you know how to properly separate a chicken drumstick from a thigh? If not, take time to watch a quick tutorial video for each specific cut as you need to learn them.
Cutting vegetables wrong can greatly change the texture or consistency of a dish, and separating different parts of meat improperly can be dangerous. We’ll use the chicken leg example again. You can slice the meat carefully to the bone, spot the joint, and easily pop it apart safely. A beginner might hack through the bone and risk bouncing the knife back at themselves.
Learning different cutting techniques will help improve the presentation of your meals, and it will ensure you’re doing things safely, too.
3: Keep Your Knife Sharp
A dull knife will struggle to cut through ingredients. Think of slicing a tomato. A sharp knife can glide right through and make paper-thin slices, but a dull knife will mash through it and spill juices all over your counter. Not to mention, a dull knife causes far more painful wounds when accidents happen, and it’s more likely to jump out of a cut.
You can find simple knife sharpeners for cheap online, but we recommend taking the time to learn how to use a proper whetstone and honing rod. The results will be far more impressive, and your knives will last longer.
4: Choose the Right Tool for the Job
Always use the right tool for the job. If you purchase a full knife block, you’ll likely get a paring knife, boning knife, carving knife, and chef’s knife at the very least. You may even get a cleaver or bread knife. Choose the knife designed to take on the task you’re doing. It’ll work more efficiently.
5: Practice
You won’t learn these skills immediately. Even the easy ones will likely take a bit of practice for them to become second nature. Use every opportunity you have to practice these knife skills and master them.
Check Out Flavorful Home for More Guides
If you want more tips and tricks like this, browse the long list of articles and recipes at Flavorful Home. You’ll find in-depth tutorials, simple recipes, and other resources that will make you a great home cook.
