There are two types of people in the world when we talk about cooking. The first type will use every opportunity not to get into the kitchen. These people are usually busy and they don’t have time for cooking. On the other hand, the second group of people considers cooking as a hobby. Those people will use every opportunity to improve the mood of their beloved ones with different specialties.
Being good at cooking is not an easy task. You need to invest a lot of time and effort to learn different tricks. If you are a complete newbie, improving your theoretical knowledge is the first step you need to make. We prepared some basic cooking tips that will make the beginning of your “journey” easier. More precisely, we would want to introduce you to one kitchen essential that we all need – knife.
Different types of Knifes and Their Purpose
In most cases, people use one or two types of knives in the kitchen. However, most of them do not know that there are many more types than we can all imagine. Logically, all of them have different purposes. We will highlight a couple of them that people commonly use.
Chef Knife
We are sure that you have at least one chef knife at your home. Some people like to call it a cook’s knife as well. Both names refer to the same type of knife. Anyway, it contains a long and broad blade with a straight edge.
Unfortunately, it is noticeable that many people don’t use that type of knife in the right way. Thanks to the cured blade, people can easily use it for dicing and chopping. That can especially be useful if you plan to prepare vegetarian meals. Despite that, the broad heel area allows the item to stand up to more pressure during heavy-duty chopping. As we said, if you work with vegetables, it is recommendable that you use a chef knife. That especially counts when we talk about parsnips, onions, and potatoes.
As suggested by Nathan Chase Plummer, a famous YouTube chef, it is one of the most versatile knives. Experienced people use it for different mincing and dicing tasks. In case you don’t possess one, you must purchase it as soon as possible.
Utility Knife
This type of knife is similar to the previous one, but its size is smaller. Despite that, the knife is slimmer as well. You will manage to find some of them with a sharp top. Purchasing those would be a smart solution because it will allow you to do more intricate work.
People often use it for smaller vegetables and foods. For instance, a good example of that would be shallots. Because of the characteristics that we mentioned above, it allows people to use it for more precise cutting work.
Bread Knife
The name of this type says the full story. At first glance, the bread knife looks similar to the saw because of the sharp serrated edge. You can use it for different types of bread. For instance, people use it for baguettes, bagels, and crusty bread.
Electric Fillet Knife
Living in the world of advanced technology brings many benefits to our lives. We got different innovative inventions such as an electric fillet knife. Many people that like cooking are looking for the best way for filleting meat. It seems that this type of knife is the best choice you can make.
Believe it or not, the entire food preparation process can be for around 10 times faster. For instance, one of the most annoying tasks in the kitchen is filleting the fish. You won’t get the chance to enjoy your meal to the fullest if you spent a lot of time preparing it. If an electric fillet knife seems like a good solution for you, you can find the best ones here.
How to Remain Safe When Using a Knife
Safety should be your main priority when working with knives. We don’t want to say that food preparation is an extremely dangerous process. However, it would be good to keep an eye on some details that might put you in danger.
Before everything – Use Only Sharp Knife
Working with a dull knife means that you need to use more force to cut food. Because of that, it might happen that the knife slip, and that can result in different injuries. The only way to avoid that is by keeping your knives sharpened. Our recommendation is to use a knife sharpener or sharpening stone to accomplish that task.
Don’t Use a Wrong Knife
We already explained to you that different types of knives are good for different purposes. However, some additional pieces of advice will help you pick the right knife.
Despite the blade side, flexibility is an important feature that you should put into consideration. Some of the kitchen tasks might require a flexible blade. On the other hand, you will need to use a firm blade in some cases as well.
In the end, we need to highlight the blade edge as an important characteristic. If you pick the right edge, food preparation is going to be quite easier. For instance, serrated knives will be a perfect choice for food with tender centers.
Our strong recommendation is to use a knife only for cutting. Sometimes people want to experiment with things. They would choose to use it for some other tasks. In that way, you can easily expose yourself to danger. Despite that, it can happen that you will damage the knife itself as well.
Knives Need to Be Clean
You will probably say that we are worrying too much. However, we are here to analyze every detail. Many people feel lazy to clean the knives immediately after they finish the work. They usually leave them on the cutting board. Besides that, some people have the habit to leave the knives in a sink full of soapy water clutters. Both things can potentially create an opportunity for injury and contamination. Because of that, don’t be lazy and clean your knives each time when you use them.
