A set of good culinary knives is essential for good cooking.
A set of good culinary knives is essential for good cooking. A basic or beginning set should contain at least a chef's knife, a slicer, a boning knife and a paring knife. Specialty knives such as a bird's beak or tourne knife, a cleaver, a cheese knife and a filleting knife are found among a professional chef's collection. Knives made of high-carbon steel hold their edge best, but stainless carbon steel doesn't stain and holds an edge almost as well.
Chef's Knife
A chef's knife, sometimes called a cook's knife or a French knife, comes in standard lengths of 6, 8, 10 or 12 inches. They are used for all sorts of cutting chores from slicing, dicing, mincing and chopping to crushing garlic cloves. Well-balanced for culinary work, they are heavy enough to be used on meats and thick fruits and vegetables.
Slicer or Carving Knife
Slicers or carving knives are used for such things as slicing cooked poultry and meat. Thinner than the chef's knife, they may even be flexible. The edge can either be tapered or fluted, and the point either round or pointed. A carving fork is a nice compliment to this knife and is used to hold the meat while it is being carved.
Boning Knife
A boning knife is designed to remove the main bone from raw meat. Its blade is usually 5 to 6 inches long and narrow for easy movement around the bones. It also has to be rigid because of the work it is designed to do. Larger cuts of meat require the largest boning knives, while the more easily manipulated smaller knives can be used on smaller cuts.
Paring Knife
A paring knife is used for peeling and trimming fruits and vegetables. They are small, with a 3 to 5 inch straight, narrow blade that is pointed at the end. They are easy to use and work well for coring fruit and for slicing or dicing small items such as garlic or shallots.
Specialty Knives
Chef's knives are used for all sorts of cutting chores.
There are other useful knives that are part of a chef's collection but may or may not be everyday items in the kitchen. Bird's beak or tourne knives are paring knives with blades curved like a hawk's beak that are ideal for cutting the curved edges of tourneed (oblong) vegetables. Cleavers are chopping tools that are heavy enough to cut through some bones. Cheese knives have either a short thick blade to cut through hard cheese or a long narrow blade for soft cheese. A filleting knife is a boning knife with a long, thin, flexible blade especially designed for filleting fish.
Tags: boning knife, chef knife, beak tourne, chef collection, culinary knives