Different types of Knives and uses

Knives Are Kitchen Essentials – Right Knowledge Helps To Buy The Correct Kind Of Cutting Tool

A right cutting tool helps to prepare food quickly with ease and safety. In this post, we will discuss knives available under different names. So, getting the right one suitable for the task is challenging. The right knowledge about the types of knives and their uses will help you choose the correct one.

Kitchen knife anatomy

• Point – Blade end sharpened to a fine point used for scoring or piercing food surface.
• Blade – Actual part used to cut and is generally made from steel. You can even find titanium, plastic, or ceramic materials.
• Edge – The sharpened portion of the blade used to do the cutting task. Sharpness gets dictated by the fine edge, quality, and frequency to sharpen it. It can be straight or serrated.
• Tip – The front part just beneath the point is called the tip used for delicate cutting and chopping.
• Spine – Blunt part of the blade opposite to the edge is called the Spine. Its thickness offers the blade strength. It offers balance to the knife. Thicker spine = stronger blade!
• Heel – The blade’s lower edge is the heel. It is the widest section and chefs use this edge when more pressure is needed to cut through tough or thicker food items.
• Tang – It is the unsharpened section of the blade, which connects the handle and the blade edge. It offers the necessary weight, balance, strength, and stability to the knife. Full-tang [one which runs from the blade’s one end to the butt] is regarded as the best knives.
• Handle – It is also called ‘scales’. It is the part that chefs grasp in their hands during cutting. Many materials are used to design the handle. It can be designed or straight. Features can be ergonomic for comfortable holding. Some manufacturers dispense the handle and create a single steel piece, where the tang functions as the grip.
• Bolster – It is the raised part between the handle and the blade. It places a small space between blade and hand to avoid the finger from slipping onto the blade while cutting.
• Handle Rivets – Screws or rivets are used to fix the handle section to the tang. Some manufacturers forego rivets and use epoxy or resin to attach and cut on the expense.
• Butt – It is the handle end and knife’s bottom area.

Different kinds of basic knives

Many types of knives are available and each one is designed for a specific use. You can check the Brabantia Knives collection on myredrhino.com.

Basic kitchen knives

Basic kitchen knives are frequently used types, which no amateur or professional cook must ever be without.

Chef Knife

It is also popular as a cook’s knife. It has a long blade with a straight edge. However, it is wider across the heel and tapers to a fine pointed tip. The chef knife’s curved blade allows you to rock it forward and backward on the chopping board.

A broad heel enables to handle more force while cutting hard and thick food like potatoes, parsnips, or onions. The Brabantia Chef’s Knife from Tasty+ Collection is a great all-rounder. It is a versatile cutting tool ideal for daily mincing and dicing tasks.

Bread Knife

It has a long and evenly sized blade and sharp serrated edge similar to the saw. It is designed to use on soft food. The sharp-edged long blade makes it ideal to saw through different types of bread like bread rolls, crusty bread, bagels, and baguettes. It is the grooved edge, which makes the cook cut through soft textures without crushing it out-of-shape.

Cakes with soft and fluffy textures can be sliced with bread knives as they will not damage the shape or knock the air out from the sponge. The Brabantia Bread Knife from Tasty+ Collection can also be used as a cake leveler to even out sponge cake after baking.

Paring Knife

It has a slim and short, evenly sized blade including a pointed tip. The paring knife is light and allows the chef to handle delicate work with ease. It is a great knife to slice, chop, and cut vegetables and fruits. Besides, you can use the Brabantia Paring Knife from Tasty+ Collection to perform multiple kitchen tasks.

Even if it is light, a paring knife can work on hard foods like potatoes. They are easily maneuverable to perform delicate tasks like trimming, peeling, and removing seeds from vegetables and fruits.

Utility Knife

The shape is just like the chef’s knife but slim and small. The sharp tip tapers to the spine allowing for the extra intricate task. The Brabantia Utility Knife from Tasty+ Collection is great for chopping small vegetables like shallots.

Many qualities of the utility knife are similar to the chef’s knife but are useful to work on small food items for precise cutting tasks. When the chef’s knife is a little bit to do the task grab the utility knife!

Carving knife

It is a slim and long knife that tapers to a sharp point. It is also called a ‘slicing knife’. It is the longest kitchen knife. Its width is narrow, so less drag gets produced as it cuts through the food. Thus you get uniform and clean slices. The Brabantia Carving Knife from Tasty+ Collection is great to cut meats like beef, lamb, pork, or poultry. It produces neat, thin, and even slices.

You can even use the carving knife to handle large fruits like watermelons. They are hard to slice through with broad or small knives. The thin and long blades allow cutting large cakes because perfect slices can get cut in a single smooth motion.

On myredrhino.com, you can check out the Brabantia’s Drawer Knife Block plus Knives from TASTY+ Collection. It is a set of three knives including a chef’s knife, a carving knife, and a bread knife. A great gift for a passionate chef’s from Brabantia!

Boning knife

It is a slim blade with a sharp edge tapering upwards to form a fine and pointed tip. It is short [around 6”] with rigid construction. It helps to cut meat bones as well as trim cartilage to get an ideal cut before cooking.

The slim blade with a pointed tip allows cutting around bones without spoiling the surrounding flesh. Its rigid blade can even cut through cartilage. Boning knives are easily maneuverable!

Cleaver Knife

It is also popular as the ‘Butcher’s knife’. It has a rectangular and flat shape. They are the broadest and heaviest knife with a hone near blade spine for hanging. It is helpful to chop meat.

The heavy and large design allows cutting through the bone making it a great tool for prepping raw meat. It is also used to crush ginger or garlic cloves against chopper board. You can check the large, medium, and small size chopping board on myredrhino.com.

Fileting Knife

It is a slim and long knife with a flexible blade. The tip is finely pointed to easily pierce through fish skin and remove the intricate bone without crushing the delicate flesh surrounding it. Chefs can create perfect fillets as they can flexibly cut around the whole fish’s backbone.

Salmon knife

The knife has a flexible and long blade with a double edge. It is designed to remove skin, fillet, and slice large fish like salmon. The knife blade is slender and can fit between flesh and skin without disturbing the delicate fish.

Chefs can create tidy and clean fillets without any concerns about maximum waste. Several salmon knives have indentations or dimpling along the blade’s surface to reduce drag while cutting as the raw fish is unable to stick to the steel blade.

Different kinds of knife edges

• Straight edge – A common edge or flat ground edge found in utility, paring, and chef’s knives.
• Serrated edge – It has sharpened ridges and grooves along the blade. Tough food gets cut with ease and even soft food gets sliced without crushing like the bread knife.
• Scalloped edge – It has dimples along the blade sides to stop food from sticking to the knife surface like the salmon knife.
• Hollow ground edge – The edge tapers from the middle to create a too fine and sharp edge. However, it is vulnerable to breakage and needs frequent sharpening like the Nakiri knives from Japan.

The best material for knives is undoubtedly stainless steel as it is rust and corrosion resistant as well as durable. The blade also resists staining but as it is an alloy ensure to check the quality. Ensure to buy from reliable suppliers. Myredrhino stocks kitchen knives from quality manufacturers like Brabantia, so rest assured that the knives you buy are made from premium alloy.

Knife sharpener

Every knife collection in the kitchen needs a sharpener. You can choose sharpening stones that resemble metal brick with fine to coarse grit. You will need to hold the blade edge at an angle and then draw it down several times until the blade gets sharp. The home cook can control the sharpening process. Sharpener allows sharpening multiple knives like the Chef’s knife, paring knife, etc.

Other kitchen tools from Brabantia’s Tasty + Collection that you can check out on myredrhino are –

• Serving spoon plus spatula
• Skimmer plus ladle
• Soup ladle plus scrapper
• Spaghetti spoon plus measure tool
• Spatula plus cutting edge
• Spatula plus fork

Just give the online store a visit!