Knives – The Bare Essentials For The Healthy Kitchen

Each knife has its uses, but most people aren’t going to have a couple dozen different kinds of knives in their kitchen. However, even the most casually used kitchen would do well to have at least the following types of knives:

Paring Knife: This kitchen utensil is a small knife with a straight, sharp blade. It’s usually three to five inches long. The blade is thin and tapers to a point at the tip.  This small knife is easy to handle, and as the name implies, used for paring foods. It’s also good for cutting up small items, coring apples and such, and mincing garlic and other foods. The paring knife is one of the workhorses of kitchen utensils.

Chef’s Knife: Another versatile kitchen utensil, the chef’s knife comes in various lengths from 6 inches to 12 inches. Smaller sizes are called mini chef’s knives. People with larger hands do well with the longer blades, while a person with a small hand will find the mini chef knives balance better in their hands.

This knife picks up where the paring knife leaves off, and can cut bigger vegetables, fruits and meats. It’s an all purpose knife than can chop, dice, mince or slice foods. The bigger size makes it better suited for the heavy duty work, and making thicker slices than a paring knife.

Serrated Knife: Instead of a straight edge, the serrated knife has notches in the blade. It can be anywhere from 5 to 10 inches long. This sort of knife is best used on foods that have a hard exterior with a soft inside. A perfect example is a loaf of homemade bread. The blade is also good for slicing tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables.

Cleaver: You could make do with the above three, but a cleaver would be a useful addition. This knife had a wide blade, usually about 6 inches in length. It can be used to chop and shred foods like the other knives, but is also good for pounding and crushing ingredients. Additionally, this knife is good for cutting through hard materials like bones in chickens. It can pulverize meat, and the flat of the blade can be used to crush garlic. It takes up a lot of space in a kitchen drawer, but usually comes with a hole in the blade for ease of hanging which takes care of that problem!

Choose Good Quality Knives For The Healthy Kitchen

The more cooking you do, the more you will appreciate using good quality knives, and may wish to expand your selection to include more types. If you’re just equipping your kitchen, however, start with the 3 or 4 basic knives and go on from there. You’re better off having a few good quality knives than several types of knives of inferior quality.

Go for good quality paring, Chef and serrated knives to make your meal preparation easier, plus the cleaver if you can afford it. A good knife is a prized kitchen utensil.

Knives Are Essential Utensils In The Healthy Kitchen

There are all kinds of useful utensils to make cooking easier. Kitchen stores and aisles for kitchenware in other retail stores have a bewildering array of items used in cooking. Some kitchen utensils are for a very specific task and may not be used very often, while others are versatile and used almost every day.

Knives Are Needed Daily

If you do much cooking at all, you’ll use not one, but several kinds of knives. Each of these kitchen utensils has a specific function, like chopping, slicing, or filleting food.

However, all knives have pretty much the same parts, as shown in the picture below.

The blade is pretty self-explanatory. It’s the most important part of the knife, and the quality of the blade determines how well the knife cuts. Good quality blades make it much easy to do food preparation for cooking.

The bolster is part between the blade and the handle. Obviously, it needs to hold the blade securely to the handle. It’s also worth noting, however, that there is an advantage to having one that is not the full width of the end of the blade. It makes it easier to sharpen the full length of the blade if the bolster doesn’t get in the way.

Running through the bolster and handle is the tang. It’s an extension of the blade. The tang not only provides a way to attach the handle, but it helps give the knife a good balance. It also strengthens the knife and makes it more durable. The higher quality knives have a tang that runs the full length of the handle, making it strong and well-balanced.

Handles encase the tang and give you a hand hold on the knife. They are made of many different materials, including wood, metal, or various types of plastic. The handle should be sturdy, and easy to hold.

Types of Kitchen Knives

This should give you some idea on what to look for when buying a good knife. As to which knives to buy, there is a wide selection available: Some of these include:

• Boning Knife
• Butter Knife
• Cheese Knife
• Chef’s Knife
• Cleaver
• Deli Knife
• Filet Knife
• Frozen Food Knife
• Mincing Knife
• Paring Knife
• Sandwich Knife
• Serrated Knife
• Slicing-Carving Knife
• Steak
• Utility

There are also specialty knives for chestnuts, clams, deveining, grapefruits, lettuce and oysters, plus specialty knives for different types of cuisines such as Japanese and Asian.

Having good kitchen knives is essential to the healthy kitchen, but you don’t have to buy every kind available!