Chef's Knife: An all-rounder kitchen knife
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Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 Time: 1:19 AM
One type of a kitchen knife is a chef's knife. It is originally used to slice large chunks of lightly boned or boneless beef, but are now being used to cut just about any food. But how to determine which knife is for the chef and which is just an ordinary utility knife for the kitchen? Can an ordinary cook like you safely use a chef's knife? Read on and know the answers of the following questions.
What is a chef's knife?
A knife is the most important tool in the kitchen. However, only a few people understand what a knife really is to appreciate the type of knife they own. Material used in chef's knife comprise of edge, rivet, bolster, tang etc. One of the several types of kitchen knife is the chef's knife. It is usually 20 cm long and 4 cm wide, though there are other chef's knives that are 15 to 36 cm long.
A country of origin of a chef's knife affects how it looks and how long it is. Japanese chef's knife is also widely used, though the French knife has been popularly used for years. However, as chef's knife is now used as an all purpose utility kitchen knife, it doesn't matter how it looks like as long as it can cut the fish, vegetables and any other boneless meat.
How to use a chef's knife?
Today, chef's knife is used to slice almost every food. Unlike other kitchen knife like the turning knife that is only used for presentation or the filleting and boning knives that are used particularly for filleting fishes and boning meat. On the other hand, the chef's knife is a multipurpose knife used to slice, cut, mince, chop vegetables and disjoint a slightly boned meat. It is quite simple to use though you need to learn some technique to avoid cutting yourself and to slice your food more quickly.
Learn how to hold it correctly.
The proper way to hold a chef's knife is use the thumb to grip the knife on one side while your index finger holding the other side at the heel of the blade. The rest of the hand is wrapped around the chef's knife bolster up to the handle. This method will enable you to have more control with the knife's movements.
A knife guide
To slice your food quickly, you must learn how to guide your chef's knife in slicing your food. The guiding hand is the hand without the knife. The guiding hand must secure the food on the board and guide the knife in its slicing motions. There is a proper way to guide the knife so that you won't hurt yourself while cutting the food quickly.
Learning how to do a claw grip will help you in this area. The claw grip is done by curling your fingers inward so that you can hold the vegetables or meat securely with your fingernails. Let one side of the blade to rest slightly on your guiding hand's knuckles so that you can keep the knife's blade at a 90 degrees angle with the cutting board.
You need to keep your fingers from harm's way at all times. Do not get excited and slice quickly right away, take time to get use with the technique first.
How to purchase chef's knife?
If you plan to buy a chef's knife, you need to do your assignment and learn it's components first. Identifying the materials used for a chef's knife will help you purchase a quality knife. Anybody can purchase a chef's knife.Knowing the method as to how to use a chef's knife properly will help you slice your food quickly. Purchasing a chef's knife will enable you to save, as you don't need to buy so many other knives since this type of knife can do just about anything you want to do except cutting big bones.
About the Author
RedStone is definitely the leading online supplier of chefs knife. Within just a short period of time, a robust distribution foundation has been developed and many hundreds of satisfied consumers trust us to deliver in the United Kingdom.
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