Ripsaw

We have several knife buying and sharpening threads, but we have no technique threads. I was hoping some of the professionals would share with us the proper way to use our cutlery. I've been contemplating taking a knife class at the French Culinary Institute, but I decided to check in here first. Should we buy a cheap bag of potatos and start slicing? Buy old produce to practice on? Fingers tucked in, I know. How do you properly slice garlic, onions, filet, etc.? How do you get those paper thin slices? Any help would be appreciated.

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snowy

Knifework is really all about practice.

Yeah, there's technique involved, but you can observe that by watching any good chef on Food Network--Mario Batali, Rachael Ray, and Sara Moulton are all chefs whose knifework helpful.

Just make sure you have good, sharp knives that rest comfortably in your hand. If a knife isn't sharp or doesn't fit right, it becomes dangerous. Precision and speed are things you will get to over time. I worked as a prep cook for several months, so I'm probably faster at slicing vegetables than a lot of people (for instance, I slice a cucumber WAY faster than Rachael Ray EVER does) but I got that speed through work. Don't expect to have good knifework overnight--my knifework still has a long way to go

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rockzilla

Like onesnowyowl says, it's all about watching the pros, practicing and having a really sharp knife. You really can't explain the proper way to hold a knife over an internet forum, you have to watch someone and have someone there to see if you're doing something wrong. You'd be better off taking the class than having us explain knife skills to you.

doodlebird

i'm with rock on this.
take the class.

and with snowy, too.
practice, practice.

either find a place near home that will sharpen your knives regularly.
or get a stone & steel to do it yourself.
(you should learn how to use these in class)

and as for watching knife skills,
watch the iron chef shows.
those guys fly.

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doodle

snowy

Hiroyuki Sakai is the man to watch, as is Morimoto doing sushi. Holy moly.

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ironchefkorea

Jacques Pepin - La Technique.

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JARM

Rather than merely plugging for the Food Network, as my colleagues some to be doing, I can at least make a few quality suggestions. First, I am assuming we are all talking about your basic 8" chef's knife. A well designed knife has a full tang and thus plenty of weight in the handle so that you don't have to artificially balance it as you are working. In general, the knife should be gripped high on the handle near the blade with thumb and forefinger foreward for steadying. Use the knife by keeping the tip down and rocking up and down to chop. For mincing, use the same technique but instead of moving the food, rotate the knife over the item to be minced. Everyone else is quite right, however, that it takes a lot of practice!

ironchefkorea

actually, rocking up and down is improper technique. when you rock your blade, you're relying more on the force of your arm than the sharpness of the blade. using the force of your arm will put excess pressure on the material you're cutting, resulting in sloppy strokes. it works fine for mincing and other rough cuts, but for meat, fish, and various produce, you should stick to the down-forward motion.

when you cut, start as far forward on the blade as the material which you are cutting will allow. make your cut in a single down-forward motion. the ability to make these cuts clean and straight will come with practice.

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If it wasn't for microsoft, if we lived in the middle east? Y'all wouldn't have no hands....

deri

how do you tell when your blade needs sharpening with a stone vs realigning the teeth with the diamond rod?

ironchefkorea

you should be steeling your blade before every day's use. if you're steeling 10-15 times and your edge is lost quickly, then you need to take it to a stone. the human error of knife strokes often leads to the uneven dulling of blades. the steel fixes this problem, but will dull quickly if the blade needs to be stone-sharpened.

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If it wasn't for microsoft, if we lived in the middle east? Y'all wouldn't have no hands....

Mephisto2

There's a whole web-site dedicated to this.

Let me see if I can dig it up.

What have knives taught me? Don't under estimate how sharp precision German blades can become. Your fingertips will pay the price...

Mr Mephisto

rockzilla

It's important to note that you're actually a lot safer using a razor-sharp knife than you are using dull one. A sharp knife will go exactly where you want it to, but a dull knife can slip around and just because it's not sharp enough to get through a cucumber, doesn't mean that it won't go through your thumb.

chef001_2003

again it is almost impossible to explain with words only how to cut things. watch tvfood
racheal ray, alton brown, sarah moulton are great sources for the basics. check out food networks web site for some demo videos. Again the most dangerous knife is dull, like rockzilla said. Also, if you do cut yourself with a sharp knife it will be eaisier to fix and leave a smaller scar. Experience talking there.

as stated above a few times take your time, speed comes with experience and watch what you are cutting with full concetration until you learn where the knife is and where it is going(ie talking to other people, kids etc.). it takes years of practice and multiple cuts to be able to cut without looking

ratbastid

Also, most home cooks should take their blades to be professionally honed when the time comes. It's a precision job that is easily botched, and most of us just don't have the skills.