- For me, they're really just three essential knives
I use regularly.
Today I'll show you the basics
on how to best choose, use and care for each one.
Hey, I'm Kelly, a Culinary Producer at Tasty,
and these are my three favorite knives.
The first knife I wanna talk to you guys about
is the chef's knife.
It's where I really suggest you invest your money
since it's what you'll be using on a daily basis.
There's two types of chef's knife,
there's a Western style and the Japanese style.
The Western style has a bellied blade,
which makes it easier for the rocking motion
when you're chopping, it also is a thicker steel,
which is gonna make it hold up more over time,
but it is a little bit heavier in your hand.
The second knife is a Japanese style knife.
As you can see, it's a straight edge blade,
which is better if you like to do
the chopping up and down motion.
It is made of a lighter steel, which makes it sharper,
but it is prone to chipping.
Out of these two options, I prefer the Western style knife,
because I like to use the rocking motion when I chop.
But at the end of the day, I really want you to choose
what feels right for you.
Before you get to chopping, the first thing you need to do
is make sure that your knife is actually sharp.
You can either take it to get professionally sharpened,
you can use an electric sharpener, or you can use the stone,
like I'm gonna show you today.
This is a sharpening stone.
There's two types of grips.
There's a higher count and a lower count.
You wanna start at the lower count to really get it sharp,
and then you just wanna get it really wet,
so your knife will easily glide across the stone.
And then you're gonna hold it at a 15 degree angle
and pull it toward you as you're sharping.
And you just wanna gently glide it across the stone.
So you wanna do this about 10 times per side,
depending on how dull or sharp your knife is,
then get it wet again and do the other side.
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So now that I've sharpened it on the coarser grit,
I'm just gonna turn it over and do it on the finer part.
This is like gently just making our knife perfect.
So after you've done that, you just wanna wipe it off
and clean off any grit that's leftover on your blade,
and you're good to go.
So in between sharpenings, you wanna use this honing steel.
A lot of people might think it's to sharpen your knife,
but it's actually used to maintain your knife.
It helps realign the blade's edge in between sharpenings.
So what you wanna do is hold this steel horizontal,
and then hold your knife in the other hand
in a vertical position, and at a 15 degree angle,
just bring it down, just like we did with the sharpening.
And then do the backside.
Now that are knife sharp, let's get to cutting.
So what you wanna do, is put your thumb on one side
of the blade and your index finger on the other side,
then you're gonna wrap your three remaining fingers
around the handle.
And you notice that you have a really good grip.
You'll feel in control, and it will almost feel
like an extension of your arm.
So you do not wanna have a flat hand like this,
you will chop your finger tip off.
What you wanna do is create a nice claw,
that will guide the knife and keep your fingers safe.
The first thing I'm gonna show you how to do
is rough chop an onion.
It's name is exactly what it means.
We're just gonna roughly chop it,
we're not gonna be precise about it.
The first thing I'm gonna do
is chop the top of the onion off
to create a flat surface.
Then you're gonna cut it straight down the middle
from the root.
Peel the onion skin off.
So now that I have one half of my onion,
I'm gonna take my knife and do about
1 1/2 inch slices going almost to the root.
And then I'm gonna take my knife
and cut horizontally across the center.
Lastly, I'll cut across the top of the other way
to create a rough chop.
And here's our rough chop.
The next thing I'm gonna show you is the dice.
This is a more precise smaller cut
that will help your food cook more evenly.
So I'm gonna dice a potato.
And the first thing I wanna do
is create an even surface for my cutting.
So I'm gonna cut the potato down the middle
and lay it flat on my board,
this way it won't rock when I go to do the other cuts.
Then I'm gonna take my knife across the top
and just create long vertical slits,
trying to be as precise as possible.
Lay it flat again, and do one more cut down the middle.
And you can see we have almost like a baton shape
and it's equal on all sides.
Turn them again and go back the other way,
creating about 1 1/2 inch pieces.
And if it's easier, just do a few at a time.
Start small, and then you can perfect your cut.
This is our dice.
So all the pieces are uniform, they're a little bit smaller
than the rough chop and they look great.
The last cut I'm gonna show you with my chef's knife,
is the mince.
It is the smallest type of cut you'll see in a recipe.
So I'm gonna show you how to do that with garlic.
First you wanna take one clove off your bulb
and use the heel of your knife to press down,
and that will help remove the skin.
Cut off the little stem,
and then you're just gonna take your knife
and finally rock back and forth one way,
turn that pile another way and finally chop the other way.
And if that still doesn't feel small enough for you,
just go back and forth with your knife,
rocking back and forth, swiping off any garlic on the blade
and keep going.
So there you have it,
here are three cuts with our chef knife.
We have a rough chop, a dice and a mince.
My next favorite knife is the paring knife.
It has a shorter blade than the chef's knife,
and I love it because it's great
for those intricate knife cuts that you might wanna do.
So let me show you three great ways to use it.
The grip on a paring knife
is gonna be a little bit different than a chef's knife.
You're gonna wrap four of your fingers around the base
and then put your thumb right where the blade begins.
You really wanna hold it tight, so you have precise control.
Paring knives are great for coring fruits and vegetables.
So for this jalapeno, I'm the first slice the top off,
and then use my knife to go around the edge
to remove that white pith.
And I'm just gonna thinly slice it with my paring knife.
So you can do this with your chef knife,
but I think it's a little bit easier when it's smaller
so you have more control.
So to remove the seeds in my jalapeno,
I'm just gonna cut it lengthwise to split in half.
Then I'll take the tip of my paring knife
and just go along that white edge again,
just to remove all of those little pieces.
And if you have to go around twice, don't worry about it.
And look, it comes off in one piece
and then we can just shake out all those seeds,
all that spicy stuff.
Paring knives are also great for removing
the tops of strawberries.
So you're gonna take your strawberry in one hand
and your knife in the other,
and just gently bring the knife across the top,
using your thumbs as a base to hold it in place
and remove it.
And then if you wanna go in and remove the core,
just bringing it around the center and pop it up.
So another great cut a paring knife can do
is segment your citrus.
It's a little bit more difficult cut,
but I'll show you how to make it easy.
The first step to segment an orange
is to cut off the top and the bottom,
and this is again, gonna create a sturdy base.
So the next step is to take your paring knife at an angle
and just go along the side of the orange,
following the pith to remove all the white part.
So this type of cut is great if you're gonna use oranges
in a salad or as a garnish.
If you still have a little bit of white,
don't worry about it, you can go back
and clean it up with your knife.
So all you're gonna do is take your paring knife
at an angle and kind of cut down in the V motion
to remove the segment.
So there you have it, a perfect little slice of orange.
The next cut I'm gonna show you what the paring knife
is a chiffonade, and I'm gonna start with some basil.
I'm gonna take big leaves
and stack them on top of each other.
Try to get all the same size leaves
and then roll them up from the bottom to the top
in a tight fashion, kind of like a cigar.
So once you have it all rolled up tightly,
you're gonna take your knife,
and just starting from the front
and then going to the back, cut nice, even slices.
And this is different than the rocking motion
you might do with other types of chopping,
you're gently pulling it back
so you don't bruise the basil.
So this type of cut is great to use as garnishes
or even stirring into pasta sauce right at the end,
so you get tons of fresh basil flavor.
The paring knife is a great tool to have in your kitchen,
it is super versatile.
But let's move on to the last knife
I'm gonna talk about today.
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I love the serrated knife.
I feel like it's a little bit underrated
and I like to think of it as a kitchen saw.
Its teeth on here, make it super sharp
and great for cutting through tough exteriors.
One of the most common uses for a serrated knife,
is cutting bread with it.
It helps get through the hard exterior
without squishing the soft interior of the bread.
You're gonna hold a serrated knife
just like you would a chef's knife,
make sure you get a really good grip on it
before you start cutting.
So I have a baguette here,
and I'm gonna use my serrated knife
to cut it on an angle to make crostinis.
So I'm just going back and forth, just like a saw,
to cut through the bread and you can see
it held its shape without squishing the interior.
So if I took a chef's knife to try to do this,
first of all, you can see how much trouble I'm having.
So you can see that this one is squished
and this one held it shape when I used the serrated knife.
Serrated knives are also great
for cutting through the tough skin of citrus.
You don't wanna use the chef's knife on citrus,
'cause of the acidity can actually dull your blade.
So to cut this citrus, I'm actually gonna cut
really thin rounds and use my serrated knife
going back and forth just like I did with the bread
to create nice, even slices.
We have these cute little rounds
that are evenly cut along all sides.
So these lemon wheels are great for a garnish,
for a cocktail, or even putting it on top of fish or chicken
when baking to add tons of flavor.
So another way to cut citrus is in wedges,
and you would use the serrated knife for that as well.
So first I'm gonna cut it in half,
and then place the cut side down,
cut it in half again,
and then cut in half one more time.
And you have a cute little wedge.
Another cool way to use a serrated knife
is to level your cakes,
so when you assemble them, they're not lopsided.
You're gonna insert the knife halfway through,
and then rotate the cake
as you're cutting in a sawing motion.
And then you can take the top off
and have a nice level cake.
So this layer will stack perfectly in a tiered cake.
The last thing I wanna talk to you about
is caring for your knives.
First off, make sure you wash
and dry them really well after each use.
The second is invest in either a knife block
or a knife guard to keep them safe and sharp.
So that about covers it.
I left a few links below for my favorite type of knives.
Leave your questions in the comments
and thanks so much for watching.
Bye.
- [Man] Oh, yes.
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