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I like going to the supermarket, because besides feeling excited by the many different types of things that can be found there, I get to go to some of the booths set up there on purpose for the sake of promoting a certain product to have free food or drink tasting, haha. (now, don't we all love free stuffs?)
There is a particular section I love to go to, and it is the kitchen tools section. I am forever amazed and mesmerized by the creativity and innovation of a human mind to have the ability to create so many different tools to ease our daily life inside a kitchen. Of course, the main point of this post is about-knives.
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Ever wonder why are there so many different types of knives when the sole purpose of a knife is basically to just, cut stuffs?? Some of us might wonder, what's the deal with those fancy shapes and sizes? But do you know, these different types of knives are actually designed in a certain way to fit a certain criteria and purpose?
Therefore, I would like to introduce and talk about some of the common knives we might come across sometime somewhere and what are they made for.
BREAD KNIFE
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If you haven't know yet, the picture above is what we call a bread knife and it's purpose is just as direct as it's name, to slice a bread. The serrated design of the knife is so to ease the slicing process and not damage the shape of breads, be it a soft loaf or a hard loaf.
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Also, there is an extra advantage of a serrated knife(that is another name for a bread knife), and that is this particular knife is very good for slicing tomatoes! Yeap, you heard me, it is good for slicing tomatoes as well as bread, and it is actually not surprising given that the serrated edge of the knife is very sharp and you do not need to put any pressure when doing your slicing(therefore, you can finally say bye-bye to squashed tomatoes!!lol.). So I'd gladly recommend each household to own at least one serrated/bread knife for slicing of fragile items besides bread.
PARING KNIFE
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A paring knife is the small kind of knife we see a lot and NO , it is NOT meant for kids unless it has underwent special designs to make it child friendly (e.g. of brands that design child friendly knives : Kuhn Rikon, Kai, Curious Chef).
The name "paring knife'' is named as such because most of the time, it acts as an "assistant" to the main knives that we used for our cutting or slicing. Sometimes if the items are too small for the knives we are holding to cut, that is where the "paring" knife comes to the rescue (like, Batman and Robin,lol.).
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There is one way where a paring knife is the "main hero" and not "sidekick" though, and anybody who wants to do it has to have at least a basic knowledge of how to handle a paring knife. And that it this:
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Yeap, all those beautiful fruits or vegetable carvings we often see on tv, events, competitions etc. are created with this "sidekick" baby. Therefore, never underestimate the versatility of a paring knife!!
TURNING KNIFE
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A turning knife is slightly different than a paring knife even though you may often find these two knives lay side by side on most racks(just because of their similar sizes). A turning knife is just like the above, as you can see, the shape of the knife is curved like a half moon shape. The reason is fairly simple, it also acts as a decorative knife just like a pairing knife but it focuses more on making a food product curve or round.
A good example would be what we called "turned potatoes" where you can find them lying around restaurants dishes:
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Turning knives are not only meant for potatoes, you can also use it to "turn" carrots, cucumbers, radish etc. (do bear in mind that the wastage percentage is very high). You may want to ask, why "Turning knife"? Well, to simplify the explanation, it all got to do with how the way it's held and used.
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An item say, a potato, is shaped by the knife from top to bottom to create a nice round, oval shape and the whole process will feel as if you are turning the potato from side to side instead of regular trimming it(this requires skills and I dare say it is not easy to master this skill). If you want to make turned potatoes or turned carrots but do not want to get a turning knife, there is another alternative to create a similar shape, and the good news is that it is a lot safer and cheaper and you will definitely find it in almost every kitchen you come across, and that item is this:
A Peeler
You are welcome.
BONING KNIFE
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Just like the bread knife, the purpose of a boning knife is just like how it is named-to de-boned meat items. Has it ever cross your minds how a piece of chicken chop from a chicken leg is done, leaving no room for any sort of bones in it? There you have it, with a boning knife, you can literally cut out any meat leaving the bones intact (with skills, of course!).
A boning knife is designed in such a way that it is able to trace and slice a meat off it's bones cleanly and if you are curious, you can get one and try it on a chicken, all you need to do is understand the structure of the chicken so that it can ease the process of de-boning a chicken.
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Besides, if you are wondering what's the good of having a de-boned chicken because what can you do with the bones if you don't want to waste it? Easy, home-made chicken stock!!
Just dump a few carrots, onions, celery, de-boned chicken bones and water into a pot, let the water boil for 10min on high heat and once it starts boiling, turn down the heat to low heat and let it simmer for 45min and wala~home-made chicken stock is ready for soups or sauces.
One side note though, a boning knife is only suitable for meat items and NOT meant for fish items, because fishes are very fragile and the structure of a boning knife is very solid. That's why you will need a different knife to de-bone a fish.
FILLETING KNIFE
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A filleting knife is a knife that is meant to handle seafood especially fish items. One thing interesting about a filleting knife is that it has a very unique structure to it. Unlike most other knives, a filleting knife is designed with a special material so that it is bendable. Nope, I am not kidding, a filleting knife IS bendable.
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The filleting knife's structure is usually thin and long, and it's signature characteristic is it's ability to bend on both the left and right side. It is designed this way so that it is easier to trace and de-bone a fish compare to other knives. and that is how you get your clean fish fillet!!
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CHINESE BUTCHER KNIFE & JAPANESE KNIFE
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To be honest, how many kinds of knives do we see an Asian Cuisine Chef uses throughout his/her career besides his/her trusty ol' butchering knife or, for a Japanese cuisine sensei, a good pair of Japanese knives?
Unlike most Western or European cuisine chef who is usually trained to master all kinds of knives and maximize their "calling", an Asian cuisine chef is usually trained to master only one type of knife to cut, slice, butcher, dice, fillet, carve, decorate etc. etc. etc. (note: different kind of cuisines have their own uniqueness and specialty, so there is no comparison between any of them).
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That is why I decided to put a common Chinese butchering knife and a Japanese knife together because most of the time the chefs only use one knife for everything like i stated earlier.
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FRENCH/CHEF KNIFE
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The French knife or what we commonly called as a Chef knife, is one of the most common knives in the market. I guarantee at least 90% of every household owns one of this knife and if you did not know the name of this knife before(yes, it has a name), now you know. A chef knife is like "THE" knife among all the knives as it acts as a multi-functional tool to do everything I just talked about from the other knives above (does the name "chef knife" makes sense now?).
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The structure of the chef knife is also specially designed. Although not as solid as a boning knife, the back of the knife is designed to be solid enough to butcher chickens with bones still intact, and the front of the knife is thin enough to de-bone fish fillets, once it is sharp enough it can also slice bread and yes, fragile items like tomatoes, and even though it may not be able to do detailing on fruits and vegetables like how a paring knife could, it does acts as a paring knife's "assistant". So besides the bread knife, if you haven't have a chef knife in your kitchen yet, please, I highly recommend this knife as well!
SHORT VIDEO
I actually filmed a short video of how I de-boned a chicken leg and although it is not as clean as I would like it to be, and I may appear clumsy(because I was so conscious of the whole filming process), nevertheless, I hope you get an idea on what a chef knife could do besides those regular cutting and chopping functions.
NOTE: I made sure to wash my hands first before handling everything
Please don't mind nor bother if you are curious about my uniform's logo, it is actually from when I was in college and since it is a good quality chef's jacket aside from that enormous logo design , I did not want it to collect dust in my cupboard, thus I always wear it to work (no, sadly it is not free).
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
