For those passionate about cooking and related kitchen activities, a knife is one of the most important cooking tools to enhance the way food tastes. How ingredients are chopped, minced, diced and sliced can affect the final output in context of both – appearance and taste. Hence, understanding knife skills as well as building a collection of a few basic types of knives can leverage the experience of cooking and eating meals. Here are seven key types of knives to know of and have in your kitchen.
Chef's Knife
This versatile knife is the workhorse of the kitchen. It has a broad, sharp blade that tapers to a point, making it ideal for chopping, slicing, and dicing a wide variety of ingredients.
Paring Knife
Paring knives have a small, narrow blade that is perfect for peeling, trimming, and precision tasks like deveining shrimp or removing seeds.
Santoku Knife
Originating in Japan, the Santoku knife has a shorter, wider blade with a flat edge, ideal for slicing, dicing, and chopping fruits, vegetables, and boneless meats.
Bread Knife
A bread knife features a serrated blade that makes it easy to slice through bread and other baked goods without crushing them. It's also useful for slicing tomatoes.
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Utility Knife
This knife is often intermediate in size between a chef's knife and a paring knife. It's great for general-purpose cutting tasks and can be used for slicing smaller fruits and vegetables.
Boning Knife
Designed for removing bones from meat, poultry, and fish, boning knives typically have a thin, narrow, and flexible blade that allows for precise cuts.
Cleaver
Cleavers have a large, heavy, rectangular blade and are mainly used for chopping through bones and tough cuts of meat. They're commonly associated with Asian cuisines, particularly Chinese.