Basic Food Preparation Knives

Friday, November 16th, 2012 at 9:30 am

While Japanese kitchen knives are quickly gaining in popularity with many Western consumers, most cutlery produced today is Western made and purchased globally. Below is a list of most if not all Western made and their varied styles most commonly used in both home and professional kitchens:

A paring knife is designed to slice, core, peel, dice small vegetables or fruit, and mince herbs and garlic.
The blade of a paring knife is stiff with a sharply pointed end and can measure from 2.5-inches to 4-inches long. It is typically made of stainless-steel with a beveled edge, and now, ceramic, which is becoming more and more popular to both novice and professional cooks.

An all-purpose kitchen knife is similar to a Japanese Petty knife. Its blade can range from 4.5 to 6-inches long and is used to cut and trim meat and larger vegetables and may be serrated or plane edged. Blades are available in stainless-steel and ceramic depending on the brand. This one is great for cutting sandwiches.

Bread knives have rigid serrated blades which allows it to cut through a hard crusted bread without tearing or squashing the softer centre. Blades are available in stainless-steel and ceramic depending on the brand, plain or with scalloped edge. Also excellent for slicing less firm tomatoes.

A meat carving knife is typically 7 to 10.2 inches long. Its flexible blade (plain or serrated) comes to a sharply pointed tip which helps to easily free meat from the bone. Blades are available in stainless-steel and ceramic depending on the brand.

A boning knife has a narrow rigid blade that curves upwards making it easy to work the blade around bones, especially fish.

A meat cleaver has a strong heavy, wide (4 to 6-inches), thick blade with a tip that slightly curves upward. It is primarily used to chop meat, sever and prepare joints, however, it is not meant to be used to chop through large bones.

Meat carving forks are designed to hold meat in place while being carved. It comes with a guard, similar to a bolster, to prevent your hand from slipping onto the butt-end of the blade. Carving knives are sold separately or as part of a set which consist of a carving knife, fork and in some cases a sharpening steel.

A Chef’s knife, often referred to as a Cook’s knife, is an all-purpose knife used to tackle larger scale chopping jobs. Chef’s knives, or Cook’s knives, are available in several sizes ranging from 6 to 10-inches, depending on the brand. Blades are available in stainless-steel and ceramic depending on the brand, plain or with scalloped edge.