by Daisy Dao
Kitchen knives used to be a mystery to me. Plus, I had one knife that I didn't know the name of in my kitchen. Never even knew there were so many types of kitchen knives and did not know their uses. Am I the only one who was like that? I do not think so!
As a newbie, you might want to go to a store and buy a full set of kitchen knives. Most of these knives will never be used. Today, we have come up with the details about almost all types of kitchen knives and their uses.
Contents
What does your knife set look like? Does it contain all kinds of knives? Because there are so many different knives with different uses to choose from. You cannot possibly know about all these knives. Well, if you do not, then this list will surely help you improve your cutlery knowledge.
In the kitchen, chef's knives are the most common knives. From a chef's perspective, it is essential to have a chef's knife in the kitchen too. This knife is easy to handle, and like most knives, it is very sharp. It has a small curve at the tip. The shape of it is triangular.
There are a lot of different sizes of this knife. The range of its size can vary from 6 inches up to 14 inches. Most of the time, a chef's knife that is of 8 inches to 10 inches is ideal for beginner's use. This knife not only dices and slices but also crushes with its weight.
A paring knife can be called a distant family of the chef's knife. This knife has the same kind of curve to it right at the tip of the knife, just like a chef's knife. You do not need to have this knife in your kitchen. Meaning, it is not completely necessary to own one unless you want to be intricate with your work.
If you need to do any sort of intricately detailed work with a knife, then the paring knife is the one you should be looking for. Peeling is easier with it. Also, some trimming can be done with this knife. Taking out the veins of shrimps is easy with this. Sizes vary from 2.5 to 4 inches.
Do you ever find your bread crumbling into small and big pieces when you try cutting it with a regular knife? I used to have that happen to me all the time; the reason for this is that you have been using the wrong knife to cut the bread all along. A serrated bread knife is meant to make this job much easier.
The knife is not used just for cutting bread. It can be used for other purposes as well. You can use it to slice through items that have tough skin, like tomatoes. Also, it can be used for carving a turkey and roasts.
You can use santoku knives for mainly three purposes, which are chopping, slicing, and mincing. Basically, you will be able to do almost all the culinary prep work with the santoku knife.
This knife is available in 5 inches to 8 inches. The edge of the santoku knife is thinner than the chef's knife. Chop all the vegetables, slice meats that have been cooked, and mince all the herbs that you need with your own santoku knife.
Now, the tip of the knife does not have a curve like a chef's knife. Also, there is no bolster at the edge of the knife. But it comes with a scalloped Granton edge that cuts through food easily.
A boning knife can make your life much easier around the kitchen if you are into cooking. The main thing a boning knife does is that it helps to separate bones from meats flawlessly.
This knife can be of two different types. The two different kinds of boning knives are firm and flexible. These knives can be found in 4 inches to 7 inches of length.
They are both somewhat flexible to use of knife. It is curved at the tip. You can separate bones from beef with this knife; but, chickens are easier to cut with it. Compared to a fillet knife, it is quite small.
Usually, as a beginner, you make the mistake of buying a big wooden box set of knives without knowing the purpose of any of the knives that come with the set. These wooden boxes have slots filled with different knives for different uses. But the slot that stays empty for lack of a knife is filled with a utility knife.
A utility knife is, quite simply, a myth. It is completely a fake knife. There is no certain purpose for this knife. The main utility of this knife is that it works as a replacement knife. If you have multiple choppers around, you can use this knife.
In movies, the cleaver is known as the villain's knife. Horror movies sometimes feature this knife as a horror effect. Cleaver can always be found in restaurants. Restaurants use this knife for the purpose of cutting different sizes of meat.
This knife has really thick blades. It has rectangular blades. Though it is not necessary to have a cleaver at home, you can still own one to use for chopping large sizes of meats. Because of its heavy-weight, you can chop through chicken bones easily with this knife.
Smaller than serrated bread knives, serrated utility knives are much sharper. With a jagged sharp edge, this knife has a curve on the tip. This knife is also known as a sandwich knife or tomato knife because it can easily help you fix up sandwiches and make it easy to cut tomatoes.
There are so many vegetables and fruits that you cannot cut and get a good result. Some fruits and vegetables get squashed if you use just about any knife to cut them with. That is where the serrated utility knife comes in. You can use this knife to cut fragile fruits and vegetables without squishing them.
A carving knife is known as a slicing knife, carver, or slicer. The first thought you might have when you hear the words carving knife is that people use it on the occasion of Thanksgiving. What you do with a carving knife is that you carve large meats of all kinds like chicken, turkey, and beef.
Carving knives have blades that are very narrow, and their tips are pointy. They are much narrower than a chef's knife but quite similar to it. This knife has to be long enough so that there is no sawing back and forth with the knife. The size of this knife can range from 8 to 14 inches.
Shorter than paring knives, fluting knives are sharper and more angled. Sizes vary between 2 inches to 4 inches. Most of the time, this knife is used for decorating food. This knife helps carve fruits and vegetables easily. A fluting knife is used for peeling vegetables that are very delicate.
With a surface area contact that is decreased, a fluting knife makes your life much easier. Meaning, this knife has air pockets. If you are vegetarian or just love salads, then this is the knife for you. Because most fruits and vegetables can be peeled or sliced with this knife intricately.
Cooking is an art. There are so many factors in cooking. Knives are just one part of cooking. It is needed for the preparation before you show off your culinary skills. Mincing knives are important for this reason.
Seasoning is important for your food to taste better. To prepare your seasoning, you need to use a mincing knife to cut, chop, or mince them. This knife can be rocked back and forth to do the mincing. It has multiple blades that are fused together. A mincing knife has many names. Mezzaluna and chopping knife are just two of those names.
These knives are not used too often. But they are important, nonetheless. You may not have a trimming knife lying around in your house. Most people do not even know about this knife, let alone use it. Now, I will be the one to let you know about this knife.
Trimming knives are very small in size. They are usually only 3 inches long. This knife is used to perform small tasks. Trimming knives can be used to make garnishes. They can help you separate meat from bones. You can remove the meat from bones from smaller areas.
Do you love sushi? I know I do! The salmon wrapped dish is a delight. But you cannot have sushi at home without being able to cut salmon. To cut sushi, you cannot use just about any knife as salmon is a delicate fish. This is why you need a salmon knife. It is specifically made for cutting salmon.
Salmon knives are very chic looking. This knife is narrow and long. It usually has very sharp and thin blades. The blades are also very flexible. From afar, they almost look like huge butter knives, in my opinion. This is used for the purpose of peeling the skin off of salmon.
A peeling knife mostly does what its name says it should be doing. It is a very small knife. This knife makes your life easier in a way. When you need to peel your fruits and vegetables before cooking your food, you tend to look for different kinds of peeling products. There are so many peeling products out there that do not work as well as a peeling knife. Professional chefs usually use a peeling knife to peel their fruits and vegetables.
This knife has a narrow, slim, and firm composition, which makes carrying the knife a lot easier. The blade of this knife is slightly curved, and the tip is extremely pointy and sharp.
A grapefruit knife, to put it simply, helps cut grapefruits. This knife is made specifically for this purpose. It has a unique shape. This shape helps to cut open a grapefruit properly. You can peel the insides of the fruit easily from its thick skin with this knife.
This knife is one of the fanciest knives to look at. The blades of a grapefruit knife are usually very dull. It is indeed a very long knife. Most of us love grapefruits. So, the grapefruit knife makes the grapefruit lover's life easier.
Culinary art is not limited to the methods of cooking. There are other arts you can do to make your food look aesthetically pleasing and not just taste good. A decorating knife helps you do just that. When you want to make your dinner look a little fancy, you can use a decorating knife. The same knife can be used to cut fruits and vegetables with different cutting patterns.
There are different types of decorating knives. Most commonly, the knives with zigzags blades are bought and sold to be used. They create a decorative pattern when you make a cut.
Knives are forged in different ways. Some are forged by fusing different metals together. Some are forged from a single compound. A stamped knife is made from the same coil of steel. It is made using strong stamping tools that are resilient.
As steel is light in composition, the stamped knife made from it is very thin and light. So, it is easy to carry.
Stamped knives are cost-efficient because the manufacturing process of this kitchen knife requires less money. This affordable kitchen knife also takes less time to be made.
A butter knife is obviously used on butter. It is not actually a knife. For its shape, it is called a knife. It has no sharp edge on it to cut anything, and it is very blunt. You cannot use it on anything other than butter, jams, and other food you can spread on bread.
This knife is used mostly like a spoon. You scoop up butter or other spreads like it and spread it around on bread or toast with it.
Kitchen knives are a commodity that almost everyone uses on a regular basis. Most people have to go to the kitchen almost every day. That means they have to, at some point, peel, chop, or slice all kinds of vegetables and fruits or cut meats of different types with different knives.
Most people do not need to know about all kinds of knives. But, if you are a professional chef, then you probably have to learn about all types of kitchen knives and their uses. You have to know what to buy. That is why you need to know about the different brands of kitchen knives.
Today, I will walk you through a few of the best kitchen knife brands, so you can learn about them and buy the best ones to put them to work.
The Zwilling J.A. Henckels Cookware is one of the best brands out there. You can find different kinds of knives here. And, they manufacture top quality knives as well.
It started in 1731, and is still making great quality products. The company is located in Solingen, Germany, and recognized all throughout the world. Precision of the knives from this brand is amazing!
This company started in 1814 and is still running fabulously now. The main brand is situated in Solingen, Germany. Wusthof started by making trident knives. Now, they make the best hot-drop forged knives.
Using two-ton forging hammers, the knives are made. The precision of the knives is spectacular. Stainless steel is used, which is high in carbon. Blade and handle quality is remarkable.
If you want the most convenient gadgets for your kitchen, then you need to get the kitchen knives from Damascus Knives. They have all kinds of knives. But, they even have knives that cannot be used for culinary purposes.
You can depend on the knives that Damascus Knives manufacture. These knives are accessible effortlessly. The staff there is great too. They give you suggestions on what you should get depending on your need.
The kitchen knives from the Top Cutlery Knives are very handy. They produce knives for all sorts of people like chefs, hobbyists, hunters, and more.
Functional knives are made from this brand. These knives are strong, and you can trust in the quality every time you use this.
I have used enough knives in my life to know and understand more about their quality and configuration. A lot of knives tend to get damaged or rusted sooner than they should. Some even bend easily, and that ruins the original shape.
All that depends on the steel of the knife. The better the steel, the better quality of the knife. Let us learn more about the best kinds of steel that make up the knives.
This steel is the best knife steel in every way. Companies from all around the world use this knife steel, making their knives corrosion resistant, tough, and sharp with an excellent edge.
With nearly the same composition as Bohler M390, CTS-204P consists of Chromium, Vanadium, Molybdenum, and Tungsten.
Durable in quality, this knife steel is made by Crucible Industries. It is a good quality knife steel that has a resistance to breakage and chipping. The amount of vanadium in this steal gives it a fine grain structure.
The composition of this knife is similar to that of Bohler M390, CPM-20CV, and CTS-204P. It is composed of Tungsten, Molybdenum, Vanadium, and Chromium. It is made by the Carpenter Technology Corporation.
Among Spyderco and Benchmade, this steel is very popular. This blade steel shows good toughness but is not up to the mark compared to M390.
Quite similar to the S90V, this knife is made of a durable steel. Although the toughness of this steel is not that great, the edge retention is amazing.
A knife is supposed to be sharp. Without the sharpness of a knife, you cannot use it for almost any purpose. You cannot even cut, dice, mince, or chop anything correctly. So, you need to keep your knife from getting dull. To do so, you have to get it professionally sharpened at least once a year.
Did you know there are sharper knives than the average ones? One slice and it can cut through fruits, vegetables, and other food like it is nothing. I know about the sharpest kitchen knife in the world, and I will let you in on the knowledge.
The sharpest knife ever made in the entire world is this knife. It is made out of high-quality European steel. The design of the handle on this knife will reduce wrist and hand fatigue. You can use it as a normal chef's knife for dicing, chopping, slicing, and mincing vegetables, fruits, and meats.
The blade is long, and also has a sloping curve on it. This knife is very easy to wash as it is dishwasher safe. The handle got a non-slip patented Fibrox Pro. This one is an excellent choice not only for home chefs, but also for professionals. The blade and handle ratio provides the perfect balance. You do not need to sharpen it as much as regular knives.
With the use of tempered stainless steel, it is crafted into the sharpest knife that it is. The handle is ergonomic and the use of a thermoplastic elastomer ensures a good grip. The length of this knife is 7.9 inches. It comes with a warranty with the commitment that it will have no defects in the material and workmanship of the knife.
Are you a beginner at using a chef's knife? Everyone was at one point in their life. It is hard to use a chef's knife without ever having practiced doing it.
The feel of the knife may be too unfamiliar. You find it too heavy. It can feel unbalanced in your hands. You may even hurt yourself by it. So, you can use certain knives as a beginner in the culinary world. If you are up to a chef's knife, you should definitely check this out.
This is the best kitchen knife to use for a beginner. When I started to be more present in the kitchen, I bought and started to use this knife. As a beginner, you should too.
There are many chef's kitchen knives out there. But this one is great for people who just started out on their journey of culinary art. Forged from high carbon steel, the steel of this knife is stainless. The kind of material that is used to make this knife is the reason it is so strong and sturdy.
You can use this knife for cutting, chopping, mincing, and dicing. There are rust and germ-resistant elements in this knife. It does not switch the taste of food to metallic and does not brown the food as well.
Although this knife is not dishwasher safe, it is made of German stainless steel that gives it great durability. The transformation between the handle and the blade is seamless. And the whole knife is very well balanced. Thus, it is easy to use.
This kitchen knife is very easy to clean because it does not soak up food elements. The blade is quite sharp with a curved tip, and this sharpness can be maintained for quite a long time.
Children mostly want to be like adults. When they see their parents in the kitchen cooking their food, they feel the urge to do the same. They want to chop fruits and vegetables like their parents. So, the parents opt for plastic knives for their kids.
Parents think they are training their kids with plastic knives. But plastic knives and real knives are completely different things. The technique that you have to use using a plastic knife is different than that of a real knife. That is why you should let your children use kid-friendly kitchen knives.
This knife is a very small 4-inch knife that you can let your kids use. Let them be careful and make them take proper precautions, and you are good to go.
The Victorinox 5 inch knife is best for the use of children beginning to learn cutting with knives. This one is easy to hold with small hands as well. Even adults use this knife for various purposes.
When it comes to kitchen knives, Wusthof remains an unbeatable kitchen knife for its precision. It is very small compared to most chef's knives, and it is only 6-inch in length. All things considered, it is a bit expensive.
Knives are used by both home cooks and professional chefs. You do not just use kitchen knives for cooking, you can use the same tool for making culinary art. To hone your skills with knives, you have to practice using different kinds of knives. But, to do so, you need to know some things to choose the right kitchen knives.
Do not procrastinate about learning the use of different knives. Let us dig in to learn about the things that you need to consider before choosing kitchen knives.
You earn your money through hard work and dedication. Plus, you do not want to waste your hard-earned money on kitchen knives. This is why you need to create a budget and stick to it when shopping for knives. Knives under 25 dollars are just as good as expensive ones.
Always look for knives with great durability. When you are shopping for kitchen knives, you need to look for the ones that will not get damaged or rust easily. It will be a waste if that happens.
The composition of the steel that is used to make the blade of the kitchen knife you will buy is important. Different knives are made from different types of steel composition. You need to find the ones that make the knives sturdy.
The length of a kitchen knife depends on what you are looking to use it for. If it is for kids, then go for smaller knives. But if they are for you, then look for what feels the most comfortable.
The brand of the kitchen knife is a necessary element you need to know of when buying a kitchen knife. Different brands produce different kinds of knives, and they come at different costs. You should look into the brands we have already discussed in this article.
The flexibility of a knife is something to look for. Also, the blades of the knife need to be flexible. With which material the knife is made determines the flexibility of the blade.
The comfort of the knife can be determined by two things, the weight of the knife and the build of the handle. So, keep this in your mind when you are buying a kitchen knife.
A lot of knives have no business existing. These knives are basically terrible to use. It may be for the knives being badly made. Also, it can be because of something completely different. Maybe the shapes and sizes of the knives are completely off, to begin with. Try to avoid these kinds of knives for your own sake.
I have had some terrible experiences with bad knives. There are many brands that manufacture this kind of knife.
As far as I remember, and after doing some research on it, I found the Buck 110, Medford Praetorian, the Spyderco Delica, the Emersons, the Brous Blades, the Spyderco Para 3, and the CRKT M16 to be such terrible knives.
Knives have a simple purpose. It helps you prepare your food. You can cut fruits, vegetables, and meats of all sorts with different knives.
Chef's knives are used for multiple purposes. This triangular knife can be rocked back and forth while slicing, dicing, and chopping different food items in the kitchen. You can even mince herbs or garlic with this knife. It is common to use this knife for almost all jobs.
A paring knife is the most similar to a chef's knife than any other knife. The design is different; but, you can use this knife just like a chef's knife.
Available in different sizes, this knife is quite similar to a chef's knife. The build of this knife is only slightly different from a chef's knife.
This is, basically, a fake knife. This is a knife with no specific purpose. It looks different from a chef's knife but can be used as one.
A carving knife is used to carve different food items. This knife is used famously for carving a turkey at Thanksgiving.
This knife is just like a paring knife. A paring knife is very similar to a chef's knife. Thus, fluting knives can be used as an alternative to a chef's knife.
Kitchen knives are unique in ways that there are different knives which are made for certain purposes. Professional chefs have more chances of using all kinds of different kitchen knives than home chefs. But everyone has to know about different types of kitchen knives and their uses. They have to hone their skills.
You use kitchen knives almost on a daily basis. It has become almost like a second-nature to you. That is why you should keep track of the different knives that are trusted with different tasks. Then, you should go buy the knives you need with your requirements in mind.
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
About Daisy Dao
Daisy grew up on the beautiful Honolulu island where she often found herself spending most of her day enjoying the ocean scent in sea waves. As such, Daisy came to appreciate the art of cooking seafood. She has experimented with baking, roasting, broiling, poaching, grilling (and every other cooking technique you can think of); and with all kinds of spices too. Now she is ready to present her experience: the art of cooking healthy food without any pre-packaged ingredients; food product recommendations for people who need a bit more guidance on what goes into their bodies; how to maintain an active lifestyle without having to give up your favorite foods!
Be with Daisy: 
Kitchen Goodness
Check for FREE Gifts. Or get our Free Cookbooks right now.
Disable the Ad Block to reveal all the recipes. Once done that, click on any button below
|
|
|
|
