The 7 Main Types of Kitchen Knives
- Chef's Knife. This is the standard no-kitchen-is-complete-without-it knife. They're available in lengths from 8 inches all the way up to 12.
- Santoku Knife. Santoku means "three virtues" in Japanese, which refers to the fact that it's good for slicing, chopping, and mincing.
- Serrated Bread Knife. A serrated knife will get you through any task involving the slicing of bread, but there are other uses for it, too.
- Paring Knife. A paring knife isn't strictly necessary as there's really no task it can do that your santoku can't.
- Boning Knife. A boning knife is one with a thin, flexible blade designed to separate large muscles from their accompanying bones.
- Utility Knife. This, quite simply, is a fake knife. There is no such thing as a utility knife! ...
- Cleaver. This is a massive hunk of knife designed for heavy tasks like chopping through chicken bones. ...
Full Answer
What are the best quality kitchen knives?
When you look for top-quality knives, German knives and Japanese knives are at the forefront of your available options. The Miyabi knives have combined heritage as it is a brand owned by a German company (Zwilling, which also owns the popular Henckels brand), while the knives are manufactured in Seki, Japan.
How should the best kitchen knife be?
best kitchen knife set. The handle should be firm to prevent accidents that may come as a result of having a poor quality knife. Weight. Unlike in the past, contemporary materials can combine a variety of alloys to make the knife both durable and lightweight. That means you can find a variety of knives with different weights.
What knives do I really need in the kitchen?
What knives do I need?
- Chef's knife. First and foremost is the chef's knife.
- Paring knife. For smaller items, like a clove of garlic or strawberry, you will take up a paring knife.
- Utility knife.
- Bread knife.
- Boning knife.
- Carving knife.
- Honing steel.
Which kitchen knives should I buy?
The most important kitchen knives are the chef’s knife, the serrated knife, and the paring knife. They’re the three you’ll use again and again, whether to carve a chicken, slice cheese, or prep produce. If you’re looking for an entry-level set (maybe for a new home or recent grad) you really only need those three.
How many types of kitchen knives are there?
There are probably more than a dozen different kinds of kitchen knives, some versatile, others dedicated for one specific use. The 11 knives in this list are the most popular knives for daily cooking and food serving jobs. They are the ones that make up the core of all professional as well as home cook knife sets.
What are the four major types of kitchen knives?
Types of Kitchen Knives and Their UsesChef's knife. A chef's knife is one of the most versatile tools. Any professional chef will tell you this is a must-have. ... Bread knife. Bread knives are long and have serrated edges. ... Paring knife. Paring knives are proof that you should never judge a knife by its size.
What are the 5 popular kitchen knives?
Our Top PicksBest Overall: Mac Mighty Professional Hollow Edge Knife.Best for Butchering: Wüsthof Classic IKON 8-inch Knife.Best for a Precise Cuts: Kiritsuke Oxford Chef's Knife.Best Lightweight: Global G-2 Classic 8-inch Chef's Knife.Best High-End: Shun Classic Blonde Chef's Knife.Best Value: Material Chef's Knife.
What are the 3 most common types of knives?
If you think about the knives that you use again and again, it comes down to three essentials: The chef's knife, the serrated knife and the paring knife.
What's the difference between a chef's knife and a Santoku knife?
A Chef's Knife features a blade tip which naturally causes the chef to 'rock' the blade forward as they complete their cut. The absence of a tip on the Santoku knife means one can slice in a single downward cut. While many chefs successfully employ the rocking method, the Santoku way is faster and more efficient.
What are the 8 basic types of knives and how are they used?
Kitchen essentials: Basic types of kitchen knivesChef knife. A chef knife — sometimes called a chef's or cook's knife — has a long, broad blade with a straight edge. ... Paring knife. ... Bread knife. ... Carving knife. ... Cleaver or butcher knife. ... Boning knife. ... Filleting knife. ... Salmon knife.More items...
What is a serrated knife used for?
Serrated knives, with their scalloped, toothlike edge, are ideal for cutting through foods with a hard exterior and softer interior, such as a loaf of crusty bread. The principle behind a serrated knife is similar to that of a saw: The teeth of the blade catch and then rip as the knife smoothly slides through the food.
How do I choose a kitchen knife?
While it matters how well a knife cuts and how sharp it is, knives are really a personal choice. You need to find one that feels comfortable in your hand....A good knife should have:a comfortable, decent sized, non-slip grip handle.good balance.a nice curve on the blade.
What type of knives do chefs use?
The Chef's Knife (French Style) The first and most important is the chef's knife. This standard knife has a broad blade that spans about 6-12 inches long. It usually translates to faster and easier slicing, dicing, chopping, and Julianne. The 8'' French style knife is the perfect size for all cooks.
What is the most used knife in the kitchen?
The chef's knifeIt's right there in the name: The chef's knife is one of the most frequently used and versatile tools in the kitchen. Chef's knives are typically between 8 and 10 inches, although they can be as short as 6 inches and as long as 14 inches.
What knife do I use to cut vegetables?
You use the chef's knife for chopping herbs, cutting vegetables, and carving and cutting meat and fish.
What knives does Gordon Ramsay use?
Gordon Ramsay uses both Wüsthof and Henckels branded knives; the brands are known for quality products, and they are two of the best knife manufacturers in the world. Wüstoff has been making knives since 1814, and Henckels has been around since 1895.
What is a flank steak knife?
Flank and shoulder knives are a variation of boning knife with longer blades that are designed specifically for cutting flank steaks. Their straight, stiff blades are perfect for generating precise cuts while boning, trimming, and jointing.
What is the largest knife a chef can use?
With a wide and long blade, cleavers are some of the largest knives a chef will have in their cutlery kit. Despite their size, cleavers feature thin and lightweight blades that can be used for a number of tasks, such as crushing garlic, chopping vegetables, and slicing meat.
What is a paring knife?
Paring knives typically have blades that range between 2 ¼” and 4 ½”, and there are a number of different styles of paring knives.
What is utility knife?
Utility knives are a mix between slicing and paring knives. They feature scalloped edges and blades that are slightly longer than standard paring knives. A sharp utility knife is very efficient for slicing fruits and vegetables, and they’re an ideal tool for food prep.
What are kitchen knives used for?
Knives are the most important tool in a chef's kit, and they can be used for just about any food prep task from chopping onions and butchering a cut of beef to opening oysters and slicing bread. But, there are different types of kitchen knives that are designed for various purposes. In this guide, we'll cover the types of knives and their uses, ...
What is a bird's beak paring knife?
Bird's Beak Paring Knives. This type of paring knife, often referred to as a curved par ing knife or tourne knife, has a blade that curves downward, mimicking the shape of a bird’s beak. Bird’s beak paring knives are designed for peeling rounded fruits and creating garnishes.
How to keep knives from spreading?
To ensure that you’re storing your knives sanitarily, we suggest using a magnetic knife holder or knife rack.
What is a stamped knife?
A stamped knife is a type of kitchen knife manufactured from a single coil of steel, which is then bent into the shape of a knife with the help of resilient and strong stamping equipment.
How are stamped knives made?
As mentioned earlier, the stamped knives are manufactured by stamping a thin coil of steel. As steel has a lighter composition than other metals used for making knives, a stamped knife is very thin and light compared to other knives.
What is a chef knife?
A chef knife, which is also known as a chef’s or a cook’s knife, is a kitchen knife that has a long and broad blade with a very fine and straight edge. The knife’s blade is not evenly sorted since it is very wide near the heel of the knife, which gives it a pointed tip. The heel of a knife is near the bottom-most edge of the blade, and it is the farthest from the tip of the knife. The heel is essential and is highly utilized by chefs and cooks in cutting denser and thicker food products.
What is the best knife for filleting fish?
Salmon Knife. Among all the different types of kitchen knives, a salmon knife has the most unique design in terms of its length and composition. It is very long with dual-edge and high flexibility and is mainly used for filleting big fish.
How long is a boning knife?
Despite its small and slim composition, a boning knife is very hard and rigid and has a very sharp tip. Generally, it is only six inches long and is lightweight, but many other knives are preferred for cutting through different types of meat.
Why is the tang of a forged knife important?
The tang is unsharpened and is crucial for maintaining the balance and weight of the forged knife . As forged knives have strong and hard composition, their manufacturing and service cost is very high. So, they are not available at reasonable prices in cutlery and local stores.
What is a handle knife?
After the steel is stamped into the required knife shape, a handle is made to suit the blade length, width, and overall configuration of it. Later, the knife undergoes the processes of hardening, sharpening, and polishing to provide a sharp edge, ease of use, and a leveled finish.
Anatomy of a Kitchen Knife
To effectively use a knife, you should understand every part of a knife to utilize the function of its parts properly.
Types of Kitchen Knives
Now that you know the different parts of the knife, you should also be aware of the different types of kitchen knives there are. This will give you a better idea of what you’re lacking in your kitchen, and the kinds of knives you should invest in.
Best Knife Blade Material
Knowing the type and material of a knife’s blade is important in picking kitchen knives that suit your needs. Your knife’s durability, strength, and efficiency will depend on the blade. Here are some of the pros and cons of each material.
Best Kitchen Knives
With all the features outlined above, you must have some idea of the type of kitchen knife your kitchen is lacking. Below are our recommendations for the best kitchen knives you can easily buy.
How to Sharpen Kitchen Knives
No matter what knife you end up choosing, you’ll need to sharpen it eventually. Sharpening your knife as needed allows you to get the most out of your blade; a dull knife will give you terrible cuts, and even be unsafe in some circumstances. Here are some pointers to remember in sharpening a knife.
Wrap It Up!
There are many types of kitchen knives, and each serves a specific purpose in the kitchen. In choosing the type of knife to purchase, you’ll need to know what you’ll be using it for to choose the perfect knife for your needs. It’s also important to know every part of the knife and how they work to maximize its function.
Types of Kitchen Knives – an Introduction
The types of knives that every cook needs in their kitchen can vary depending on the types of cuisine they like to make. While one-pot meals are great, sometimes you want a nice cut of meat—which requires several types of specialty knives.
Santoku Knife
A santoku knife is a Japanese knife that is shorter and thinner, typically six to eight inches, with a straight edge and flat back.
Utility Knife
A utility knife is a type of knife that has many types. They are used for different purposes in cooking and can be found in most kitchens.
Kitchen Shears
Kitchen shears are not technically a knife, but they are still an important tool in the kitchen.
Boning Knife
A boning knife is a type of kitchen knife that has a long and narrow blade. This type of knife is typically used to remove the bones from meat or poultry when it is being cut up into small pieces for cooking purposes. The sharp point on the end can also be helpful in separating skin from flesh while doing this tough job.
Bread Knife
A bread knife is a type of knife that is used to slice bread without squashing it. A bread knife comes with a serrated blade that can slice through soft, tough, or even hard types of bread effortlessly.
Cleaver Knife
A cleaver knife is a type of kitchen blade that comes with a thick and heavy handle. A typical weight for these types of knives can range from one to four pounds, which allows the user to cut through meats easily because it will not buckle under pressure.
1. Multipurpose Knife
This knife is often referred to as the chef’s knife. You will come across this knife more often because many people frequently use it.
2. Large Knife
Another name for this large knife is the cleaver knife. Men are more suitable to use this knife due to its shape and size.
5. Bread Knife
A bread knife is also known as a serrated knife. This knife is easy to find. If you order a cake, it will also include this bread knife in the cake box.
6. Cheese Knife
This knife is for cutting cheese. The cheese in question is that of large in size so that it can be cut according to taste. The shape of this knife is also quite unique. It also has a side hole.
7. Chopping Knife
It is also known as the mincing knife. This knife has a function to finely chop the meat. Usually, this knife is more widely used by professional traders and chefs.
8. Paring knife
A paring knife has the function to peel the fruit’s skin. This knife can also be used to peel vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and onions.
9. Carving Knife
A carving knife is a knife that has a function to engrave in a place. It could be that the places that are carved are fruits and vegetables which, when seen, have their own art. This knife is generally owned by many artists. An artist who has the imagination to make a fruit or vegetable into an art.
What is utility knife?
As the name suggests, a utility knife is meant for dealing with general cutting tasks instead of specific ones. You can use these knives for cutting vegetables, fruits, meat, cheese, or other stuff as well.
What is the difference between a Nakiri and a Cleaver?
However, Nakiri knives are also rectangular but they are lighter than a cleaver.
How wide is a Nakiri knife?
Their rectangular profile isn’t wide, just like a cleaver. You will find them almost half of the width of a cleaver. Not just that, these knives are offered just under 10-inches long blades. A Nakiri holds a thin profile but it features an impressive sharpness to deal with all kinds of vegetables, fruits, and herbs.
What is a meat cleaver?
Meat Cleavers. As the name suggests, meat cleavers are officially meant for dealing with the meat and they are mostly used by butchers and nonveg chefs. If you are a meat lover, then this knife type is a must-go for your kitchen fleet. As compared to other knives, these knives are larger and heavier than anybody else.
How long is a knife blade?
It could have a longer blade, but the blade will be narrow, slim, and sharp in any case without any doubt. Generally, you will find up to 07-inches of long blades. However, this is not the necessary case at all because this all depends on Knives brands. Most knives tend to be hard, tough, and straight to work well.
What is a Santoku knife?
Santoku Knives. This is the second most popular and could be considered as a backup or maybe an alternative to a Chef knife especially if you like Japanese kniv es. Santoku is a Japanese word with the meaning of “three uses”. So, a Santoku knife is meant for three specific uses.
How long is a Santoku knife?
That being said, you can use a Santoku for all these types of cutting. Unlike a chef knife’s length of 08 to 12-inches long blade, a Santoku knife only holds a blade with up to 08-inches of blade length. As compared to a chef knife, a santoku could be made up of High Carbon Steel for an affordable deal.
Santoku Knife
Considered an Asian version of the classic chef’s knife, the Santoku knife is actually a bit shorter and thinner. Expert chefs might go for this blade instead of the chef’s knife if they prefer to work with a lighter tool. An interesting thing about this knife is that its name means “Three virtues: slicing, dicing and mincing”.
Utility Knife
When facing an ingredient that’s too small for a chef’s knife, the utility knife comes in handy. The utility knife measures between 4 and 7 inches, and it’s perfect for precise and fine chopping, slicing and trimming of soft and small items.
Boning Knife
As the name states it, the boning knife is used widely to separate the flesh from the bones of chicken, to fillet fish and to cut up meat. Boning knives are about 3 to 8 inches in length, and they can also be perfect to trim vegetables.
Bread Knife
The shape and size of bread knives are ideal to slice up bread, baguettes, cakes and, if used correctly, even meat, poultry and seafood. The teeth of the knife make it perfect to cut through the bread without squishing it or pushing it down.
Cleaver Knife
This type of knife is the bulkiest and biggest you can find in the kitchen, and it can be a bit scary if you don’t know how to use it. With its wide and heavy blade, the cleaver knife is ideal to beat meat, pulverizing poultry and crushing garlic.
Paring Knife
The paring knife is one of the most noble ones and it's perfect to create garnishes for all your meals and beverages. This type of knife is usually between 3 and 4 inch blades and can be used to cut and peel fruits and vegetables and even trimming excess fat from meat.
Steak Knife
The steak knife is actually one of those few that can be used for cooked food instead of raw and during the preparation of a meal. A steak knife can have serrated, non-serrated or semi-serrated blades, and they can stay sharp for way longer than other types of knives.