Whether you’re a professional chef or just a parent cooking for your family, if you’re serious about cooking, it’s important to have a good range of knives. There are many different kinds of knives out there that specialize in different ways. Here, we’ll show you the essential knives that you should have in your kitchen, as well as some more specialized ones. Let’s get started!
Chef’s Knife
The Chef’s Knife is the main knife in your kitchen. It has a standard knife shape with the blade curving up towards the end, making it easier to cut by rocking the blade back and forth against the board. This knife is very versatile, being able to take almost any task in the kitchen and does a decent job of cutting just about any type of ingredient. Some of the downsides to using a chef knife can be that it dulls out faster than specialized knives and requires frequent sharpening.
Damascus Knife
Damascus steel knives have been acclaimed for centuries made from layers of steel and alloys and forged with hands and machines are an ideal tool for the kitchen and can do any task from cutting, slicing, dicing, mincing, and crushing all types of cooking ingredients.
A good sharp Damascus Knife can replace a full cutlery drawer of cheap knives. The most important knife in your kitchen. If you need only one universal knife suitable for processing meat, fish, and vegetables you can get one quality Damascus knife.
If we talk about the quality of Damascus always buy VG-10 Steel is used to make the blade core wrapped with additional 72 layers of Damascus steel (36 layers on each side). The 8-inch blade reflects a beautiful Damascus pattern.
Elegance, beauty, and quality are the main three attributes of any knife and if you buy a Damascus blade you get all of them Buying a knife collection is always a very good decision, particularly if you get the deal that allows for better savings. There are a Set of five kitchen knives containing a selection of the essential kitchen knives including a Knife, a Slicer, Santoku, a Utility Knife, and a Paring Knife made with Damascus steel if you are a professional chef or love to have some excellent craftsmanship knife always buy set of Damascus knife.
Utility Knife
Another must-have in your kitchen toolset is the utility knife. This knife is significantly smaller than the average knife and has a thinner blade. It’s used mainly for cutting individual fruits and vegetables. Compared to a chef’s knife, the utility knife is much sharper, making it a great tool for cutting through hard fruit skins, dicing through cabbage, and handing pretty much any vegetable preparation.
Santoku Knife
The Santoku Knife is the Japanese version of the Chef’s Knife and it was made to be good at three tasks: slicing, mincing, and dicing. It has a similar appearance, but is shorter and has a flat, non-curved blade. The blade is also lighter which makes it easier to cut through with more precision.
Kitchen Shears
Another important part of your kitchen toolset is the kitchen shears. The kitchen shears differ from normal scissors by being much lighter and easier to make rapid cuts. The blade is lightweight and the handle is usually rubber for added grip. However, due to being lightweight, the blade is much weaker and harder to sharpen than normal scissors.
Paring Knife
The paring knife is one of the most versatile knives in your kitchen. The paring knife is usually very short, about 3-5 inches, and one of its features is the pointed tip. With this shape, the paring knife is used for cutting vegetables, slicing cheese, and trimming excess fat from meats.
Specialized Knives
The knives mentioned above are great for multiple uses. However, if you find yourself preparing a type of ingredient often or are interested in improving certain cuts, then having a specialized knife can help in many ways. These knives are made for much more specific tasks and can make a tremendous difference in your cooking.
Yanagiba Knife
If you’re interested in making your own sushi at home, you definitely need the Yanagiba. This knife is specifically made for cutting raw fish in one motion. The Yanagiba knife ranges between 7 to 12 inches and the blade is flat on one side, for a sharper angle and to prevent food from sticking on. The best Yanagiba knives are incredibly sharp and are usually custom made from Japan in order to obtain the level of sharpness.
Boning Knife
The boning knife is like a paring knife but made for meat. It’s short and has a pointed tip just like the paring knife, but has a narrower curve to make it easier to cut through tough ingredients. It’s also thicker and made with stronger material. The boning knife was designed to remove meat from bones and to make detailed cuts on raw meat.
Cleavers
If you find yourself preparing big chunks of meat, you’ll need to have a cleaver in your kitchen. Cleavers are easily the biggest knife in your kitchen and are made for heavy-duty meat chops. It has a wide blade for extra support when cutting through thick things like bone. With the weight and durability, it’s also great for cutting up vegetables and crushing garlic.
Bread Knife
Most loaves of bread are sold pre-cut, but some are left whole to preserve the quality. If you’re buying whole loaf bread or baking it yourself, you’ll need a bread knife to prepare it. Using an ordinary knife won’t do since it has a hard time cutting the loaf smoothly from start to finish. The bread knife is long and has teeth to rip through the soft fibers with ease and make a clean cut.