Basic Skills: Using a Chef’s Knife
For a chef, the knife is his third hand. A chef needs a good knife, like a sharpshooter needs a good rifle, like a swordsman needs a good sword. A good knife, and the skill to use it well, can make a chef. So how much do you know about how to use a knife?
We know that the types of knives in the kitchen include fruit knives, cleavers, kitchen knives, and so on. Among them, kitchen knives, or chef’s knives, are the most common in Chinese home kitchens. The main shape of the kitchen knife is a rectangular blade, slightly thinner. It can cut most dishes. Let’s discuss the use of kitchen knives today.
Table of contents
Your chef’s knife needs to be sharp
The best way to care for a fine knife is to master the skill of sharpening by hand. But whether you use a stone, or a high quality electric sharpener, the important thing is that your knives be razor sharp and free of corrosion.
Straight cut method with a Chinese chef’s knife
The straight cutting method is the basic method in preparing dishes. The blade of the chef’s knife is perpendicular to the food material and pushes and pulls in parallel to cut the food material. When we cut ingredients that are easy to cut, such as potatoes, we can use the straight cut method, and cut the potato with a slight force, without pushing and pulling back and forth. This cutting method can make the shape of the cut food material even and neat. When the knife falls, pay attention to keeping it vertical and not to shift its position. When holding the knife with your right hand, your left hand should press the ingredients firmly. This knife method can generally be used for radishes, cucumbers, cabbage, potatoes, etc.
Push-cutting method with a chef’s knife
The push-cutting method keeps the blade of the kitchen knife perpendicular to the food. When cutting, the knife is pushed from the back to the front, so that the food is finally cut off at the back of the knife. When the food is cut, repeat the action of pushing forward without pulling back. The push-cut knife method is mainly used for relatively soft, easily broken or scattered food materials, such as hard-boiled eggs, tofu, etc.
Push-pull method or sawing with a chef’s knife
The push-pull cutting method is more difficult to master. In this Chinese kitchen knife method, the blade is perpendicular to the food. When cutting, push the knife forward and then pull it back. This push-pull knife method is similar to using a saw blade, so we also call it “sawing.” When using this method of cutting, we must not be too fast, and use lesser force to cut out uniform ingredients. When cutting, press the ingredients firmly with your left hand so they cannot move, otherwise the thickness of the ingredients will be uneven. The saw blade cutting method is generally used for thicker, boneless food materials, for example, cutting meat into thin slices.
Crushing garlic and ginger
Do you know how the Chinese cut garlic and ginger? Do you think we will use one of these cutting methods? No, we don’t cut garlic or ginger. We use the flat knife method. This method is very simple. Hold the knife flat and tap the food with the flat surface of the knife to crush the ingredients. All home cooks I have seen use this method.
Cutting meat containing bones
When we want to chop meat with bones, such as a whole chicken, we need a stronger kitchen knife or meat cleaver, which is a bit thicker and sharper than the usual kitchen knife or vegetable cleaver. When we use such a knife to chop chicken, for example, we need to use the back of the blade more, because that is where the force of the chopping motion is concentrated, and we can better control the force. If the first cut did not completely cut the chicken, then when cutting down for the second time, you need to pay more attention to the traces of the first cut. If the position of the second cut is shifted, the chicken will become unsightly, and there will be some hacked-up, shredded chicken.
Safety
No matter which knife method we use, we need to pay attention to safety and not hurt our hands. If you are a novice using a knife, your left hand should react quickly. When the knife in your right hand has chopped up a piece of food, your left hand needs to move a certain distance toward the back of the food. If your left hand does not move in time, then you may be injured. Use the claw method to hold the food, such that your fingertips and nails are curled back toward your palm, rather than extending outward past your knuckles toward the blade of the chef’s knife. Fingertips are easily cut when exposed.
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