The Best Knife to Use to Cut Your Favourite Foods
Every chef knows that one of the most important factors in the kitchen is using the best knives for the job. This can make all the difference in helping you to prepare better meals as well as making cooking more efficient and safe.
Using the wrong knife can lead to tearing and squashing and can make delicate and complex jobs much harder. Not only is it easier and more efficient when you use the right knife for the job, but it is also far better for your knives, helping to keep them in the best condition and ultimately improving their longevity.
In this guide:
- The Intro
- How to Choose
How to Choose the Right Knives for Your Kitchen
You don’t need to buy every different type of knife for your kitchen at home, but it’s a good idea to start out with a few of the most common and most versatile and build up your collection from there.
If you’re unsure of which knives you should invest in for your own kitchen, take a look at our table and find the foods you most often prepare to choose the best tools for your needs.
| Fruit and Vegetables | Peeling and slicing | Paring knife | The small size makes it easier to do more fiddly jobs like peeling and slicing |
| Chopping and cutting | Utility knife | The extra length on this knife makes it ideal for bigger jobs that a paring knife wouldn’t be suitable for | |
| Chopping large fruit and veg | Chef’s knife | When chopping large hard vegetables like cabbage, you’ll need the extra length and width of this knife | |
| Meat | Butchering | Cleaver | This wide and straight blade has enough power to work through joints of meat and bone effortlessly |
| Carving | Carving knife | The blade is long, thin and sharp so you can get even slices of meat | |
| Deboning | Boning/Fillet knife | These knives can be flexible for deboning or stiffer for thin slices | |
| Steak | Steak knife | This serrated knife makes cutting steak much easier | |
| Fish | Deboning | Boning/Fillet knife | A thin and sharp blade which makes light work of this delicate job |
| Sushi | Sashimi | You can achieve incredibly thin slices with this long blade | |
| Cheese | Hard cheese | Cheese knife | These knives often have holes in the blade so cheese doesn’t stick |
| Bread | Loaves and baguettes | Bread knife | The serrated edge helps to work through hard crusts and soft dough to avoid squashing |
| Herbs | Finely chopping | Mezzaluna | The curve of this blade allows for efficient chopping as you roll it back and forth over the herbs |
This is just a selection of some of the most popular and common knives which you may use in the kitchen. If you only have space for a few knives, we would advise investing in the following:
These blades are likely to be most useful and versatile so are a great place to start when building your collection of knives. However, if you like to prepare a lot of fish or you often use fresh herbs, it may be worthwhile to choose a specialty knife that you will use often.
We have a wide selection of kitchen knives which are perfect for the professional and home kitchen. You can browse and buy single knives to add to your collection or purchase a set to get you started.
Make sure to visit our blog for more kitchen and knife tips to help you get the most of your time spent in the kitchen.