Instructional: Knives and Knife Safety

I once had a friend who said she hated cooking because of all the prep work involved. After asking a few more questions, I came to realize that she was prepping all of her meats and vegetables with a steak knife. No wonder she hated chopping and slicing! It is nearly impossible to get into cooking on a regular basis if half of your time is wasted by a sub-par knife. What people don't realize is that you don't need a fancy, expensive knife set with a 10-slot block to hold it all together. In fact you only need ONE knife, and that is a chef's knife. If you put your money into one good chef's knife, it will pay you back in the time you save and the ease of cooking it creates. Good chef's knives last for years. Here is a summary of our knife setup here at Brave New Kitchen and a very brief introduction to using a chef's knife.

We own 1 chef's knife (bottom of the picture above) and 1 santoku knife (top of the picture above). The only reason we have 2 knives is because we have 2 cooks, so it speeds up prep time when each person can chop and dice simultaneously. All you really need is one of these. These are expensive knifes, but worth every penny. You can buy yourself a cheaper chef's knife at a home goods store, but prepare yourself to replace it frequently. Regardless if you go the expensive route, make sure to purchase a handheld knife sharpener and teach yourself to use it. This will extend the life of your blade, but be sure to use the right sharpener for the right knife. For example, if I use the sharpener purchased for the chef's knife on the santoku knife, it would ruin the blade completely. This is because Japanese blades are made in a different way.

Our chef's knife is Wusthof brand and our santoku knife is from Shun. You can easily see the difference in the shape of the blade edge. The Shun has stayed sharper for longer, but the Wusthof's shape makes it easier to use a rocking motion when you chop.

If you can purchase a little more than a chef's knife, here is the Brave New Kitchen spread. I believe any more than this is not necessary for the home cook.

From left to right we have the chef's knife, the santoku knife (basically our 2nd chef's knife), a boning knife, a paring knife, a bread knife, and kitchen shears. The paring knife would be my second purchase after a chef's knife. It is small and can handle precise jobs such as working with fruit. A boning knife is useful for filleting fish and removing the skin. Removing skin from fish or thin layers of fat/gristle from meat benefits from a more delicate knife than a chef's knife. We have a bread knife because other knives would most likely squish your loaf of bread. The kitchen shears (NOT scissors) are versatile enough to trim parsley or cilantro into your dishes and then cut through chicken bones.

The Chopping Motion:
There are 2 primary ways to move your knife while chopping. Heck, I don't know if you'll find some amazing third way to hold your knife, but do whatever works for you! One method is to place the tip of the blade on your cutting board and move the handle up and down to chop. The tip of the blade never leaves the cutting board, resulting in a rocking motion. This is the way I find most comfortable, as seen below.

Place two fingers or the palm of your free hand over the tip of the knife to create some weight if necessary. This is the main method for mincing or dicing. While chopping, you wouldn't do this because your free hand will be holding the food. (More on mincing vs. chopping vs. dicing later.)

The second method is to keep your hand and the heel of the knife (the part of the blade closest to the handle) down close to the cutting board and move the tip of the knife up and down to chop. A lot of the pros with lightning fast knife-work chop this way. Example:

You can see in the image that the blade is up in the air and the heel of the knife is almost touching the cutting board. This looks more like a "hacking" motion. It's best for larger cuts of food (not like the garlic I'm holding in the photo). You will also spend a lot of time holding the knife completely horizontal to cut through food, which is a variation of this method. The point is, your hand is the fulcrum instead of the tip of the blade.

Knife Safety:
These are a few good rules to keep in mind that will help you and your family stay safe around sharp, professional blades, which is what your kitchen knives are.

Your knife and your cutting board are soul mates. Whenever they aren't in their respective "homes," do not separate them. There is no reason to walk around your home with your knife in hand. Put your knife on the cutting board, lift it for use, put it back down. Lift the cutting board with the knife on it (and your hand holding the knife down) to move everything to the sink. Wash the knife immediately, dry it, and put it back where it goes. It's a bad idea to let your knife clink around with other metal items in a drying rack anyway because it may become dull or damaged.

If, for whatever reason, you decide to move around the kitchen while holding your knife, hold it by your side with the blade pointing down. No stabbing! Keep a firm grip or you may drop it on your foot (or another person's foot, or your cat, or your dog... this is serious business).

When using the knife, keep your fingers out of the way! Curl your fingers in, as in the picture below. You don't want to accidentally chop off a fingertip.

When cutting parallel to a surface, cut away from yourself if possible. If that won't work, use the palm of your hand to keep food steady and reach your fingertips into the air like you're doing jazzhands on that shallot!

Now that you have a basic introduction to knives and their safe use, you can go out and get a good one or supplement your current selection with one or two more choice blades. If you're interested in our Wusthof or Shun blades, here are a couple of links for easy purchase.


 Shun Classic 7-Inch Santoku Knife

This Wusthof blade is made to be more comfortable in women's hands. The handle of our blade is made mainly for men's hands. While I did prefer the blade made for my gender, it was a negligible difference. At the time of blogging, this blade is at an amazing price.

Wusthof Gourmet 8-Inch Cook's Knife

Happy cooking!