How can i easily tell which of my knives are best for what type of cutting situations?
How can I tell what situations my knives are meant for?
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Answers ( 1 )
All knives have functions by design, but generally speaking the one best all around knife is a Chef's Knife, it has multiple functions and versatility. The blade is usually long, wide and shaped like the sail of a boat, with a long curve and sharp tip. The blades are usually 8 to 10" inches long. The blade is slightly curved to allow a rocking motion when you cut. That's the best all around knife for use in a kitchen, they are sharp, durable and multi-functional, you can use them for all your chopping, dicing, mincing, slicing needs. You really only need that one knife in the kitchen, and it will serve you well. And the simplest thing to keep in mind is if the blade is wider, curved with a sharp tip, no matter how long the blade is, it's for slicing or chopping.
There's the Santoku knife, which is also similar to a Chef's knife, it's an all around knife, with one difference, it's not meant to "rock" when you cut, it's a hard straight chopping move that you use when you cut. It's a good durable knife to have. Some designs have a line of little indentations that are there to help keep food from sticking to the blade. But I'd still put the Chef's knife ahead of it for kitchen use - it's nice to have one but a Chef's will do everything you need.
Then there are much smaller knives shaped similarly to the chef's knife but about the size of a finger, and they are what are called utility or paring knives - they are for small jobs, like cutting vegetables or fruits.
The other types of knives have very specific purposes - a very long serrated blade is either for carving or slicing through roast, or for bread slicing. The carving or bread knife is usually about 10" long and narrow, with sharp serrations over the length of the blade. The blade is narrow for ease in slicing, that it doesn't get stuck while slicing. A difference in the bread knife is usually the blade is offset from the handle to allow you to slice right down to the cutting surface. The knives themselves may be interchangeable by their similar design, so either one can serve dual purpose. This particular kind of blade is great for slicing turkeys, roasts and any kind of bread. On a personal note here, from experience, I had for years abandoned serrated knives completely, they are so sharp that it's actually easy to slice through anything, and that includes fingers, so one must be especially careful when using a serrated blade knife. I worked in an ER for a bit, got to see a lot of people with that kind of injury, even caused a bad injury on myself. I've just started using them again, but I will always take extra precautions, they will slice through wood like a saw blade, so take care when using, and they hurt like mad if you do cut yourself.
Steak knives also come into this category of serrated blade - they are sharp, have a very sharp tip, but may be needed for cutting through steaks and chicken. They are the same size as dinner knives, just sharp and pointed.
There's a meat cleaver - I don't think anyone would confuse the purpose of that - it's a big square-shaped chopper, meant to chop big pieces of meat or poultry, or bone, like a butcher uses. They don't slice, they chop. And the extra word of caution with those too.
Boning and filleting knives are used for meat and fish, they are long, narrow, very pointy, and very sharp. The meat boning knife is a little wider, thicker and sturdier than the fish fileting knife which is narrow, light and flexible. The boning and filleting knives are not included in knife sets, and most people don't have them in the kitchen, they aren't popular home knives, so I wouldn't worry about them, unless you already have them, this way you know what they are. I had a filleting knife, that I used to slice tomatoes, that was about the only use I had for one, I was never going to fillet fish to be honest, too much bone to deal with.
Here are a couple images to see the differences - note the difference in blade shape for the Santoku and Chef, and how the Chef could rock back and forth on the chopping board as you cut. The Santoku can't do that with it's very slight curve to the blade. :