Different Types of Knives and How to Use Them

Kitchen knives are quite a complicated thing if you start trying to figure out how to use each type of knife. The chef of any respectable restaurant knows that a knife is one of the most important tools for his work. When it comes to ordinary people, it’s up to each of us to decide how many knives we need for comfortable cooking. But in order to do this, we need to first find out what options we have.

We at 5-Minute Crafts decided to create a guide that will probably make you look at the knives that you keep in the kitchen from a different angle, and perhaps find the correct way to use them.

Chef’s knife

• It’s a big knife with a blade no less than 8 inches in length.
• Initially, it was meant for cutting beef, but today it’s used for various functions like chopping, cutting vegetables and meat, and separating large pieces.

Santoku

• Santoku is the Japanese version of a chef’s knife.
• It has a slightly different shape than the chef’s knife. It is a bit shorter and its blade is almost not curved.

Cleaver

• A cleaver is a big knife that is necessary for chopping thick pieces of meat.
• It is used for splitting through soft bones and cutting solid vegetables like pumpkin.

Utility knife

• A utility knife normally has a more pointed shape than a chef’s knife.
• As the name states, this knife can be used for various reasons like cutting fruits, soft meat, and sandwiches.

Vegetable knife

• A vegetable knife is usually small.
• It is not meant for cutting large or hard vegetables.
• Most often, it’s convenient to cut soft small fruits and veggies like tomatoes, ginger, strawberries, etc.
• Also, this knife is best for peeling vegetables and fruits.

Tourne knife

• This is a curved knife with a blade that resembles a bird’s beak.
• It is used for peeling round fruits and vegetables.

Cheese knife

• There are many types of cheese knives.
• A knife with holes is used for cutting soft cheese.
• If the knife has a jagged tip, it will be good for parmesan and brie cheeses. Not only is it useful for slicing cheese but for serving it as well.

Pizza cutter

• A pizza cutter is a knife that has a round blade that can rotate.
• Initially, the pizza cutter was used for cutting wallpaper.

Bread knife

• A bread knife has serrations that help cut soft bread while not changing its shape.

Fillet knife

• A fillet knife is a long, thin, and flexible one.
• It is mainly used for cutting fish fillets.

Steak knife

• This sharp table knife with serrated blades is oftentimes called a steak knife.
• These knives are served with whole meat dishes.

Decorative knife

• This knife is used for the unusual slicing of soft food, like cheese, when serving it.

Zest knife

• A zest knife (or zester) is another type of knife with a very narrow application.
• Thanks to the sharpened holes, this knife can cut thin strips of zest from lemons, oranges, grapefruits, and other citrus fruits.
• It is mainly used for decorative purposes.

Vegetable peeler

• It’s an irreplaceable knife for peeling thin layers of peel from potatoes, apples, cucumbers, and other fruits and vegetables.

• If you need to cut some veggies into very thin slices, the peeling knife can be helpful too. For example, when you want to cook chips.