How are your knife skills in the kitchen? Do you know what to do when a recipe calls for the onion to be minced? Is it different than dicing? How about a chiffonade? Do they all require different knife skills?
Are you confident enough in your kitchen knife skills to teach the proper ones to your kids?
Check out these tips and suggestions to see how your kitchen knife skills are. Then, teach your kids correctly from the beginning.
First up…do you know how to hold a chef’s knife? Wrap your hand around the handle of the knife while pinching the top of the blade with your thumb and index finger. This should be where it meets the handle. If you think you want to keep all of your fingers on the handle, try it this way instead. Pinching the blade with your fingers will give you much more control while it’s in use. Practice this skill and show your kids how to use a chef’s knife. This is one of the basic kitchen knife skills to master.
Let’s talk about chopping. Is there a kitchen knife skill for chopping?
Yes, there is. Don’t lay all of the fingers of your opposite hand flat on the board to hold down and/or guide your ingredients. Instead, curl back your fingers into a claw formation, so your knuckles are the first thing the side of your knife hits. Your fingertips stay safe from any accidental slips, and you have more control. Kids want to hold things flat. This is an important kitchen knife skill to teach them. Once they practice a little, it becomes easy for them to do.
For best results when using a chef’s knife, do not use it like you would your table knife. For this set of kitchen knife skills, keep the front tip of the knife softly planted into the cutting board at all times. Rock the blade back and forth from front to back across the ingredients to ensure you make clean, even cuts. Don’t try to saw through the food. This kitchen knife skill is a little harder for kids when they first start using a knife.
Maybe you need chopped herbs. These, typically, don’t require even-sized pieces. So, move your knife through the ingredients roughly using a rocking motion starting from the tip of the knife. To get the most flavor out of your herbs, make sure to use a super-sharp knife. Aim for minimal cuts to get the best flavor from your herbs.
More Kitchen Knife Skills…Slicing
Another one of the kitchen knife skills to work on is slicing. If you want to slice, lay your food flat on the cutting board and hold your knife perpendicular to your ingredient. Use your non-dominant hand to guide the ingredients to the knife, drawing the knife through the ingredient in even slices. Follow the previous rule of not lifting the front end of the blade off the cutting board.
Dicing
If the recipe calls for diced ingredients, this means you need small, uniform pieces. This kitchen knife skill can be hard at first. It’s best if whatever you are dicing can lay flat on your cutting board. If it doesn’t, cut it so it will. Then, make thin slices in one direction. Turn it and continue to slice into even pieces.
Mincing
When you need to mince something, you’ll need to slice, rotate, slice, and repeat until you get tiny pieces. When working with your kids, this might be one you want to wait until they are more proficient with their kitchen knife skills.
Julienning
Let’s talk about julienning. You want thin, matchstick like pieces. These need to be uniform in size. Slice your vegetables into thin pieces, stack, and repeat.
If you need herbs or vegetables to be used as garnishes, you may need to chiffonade them. Stack your basil leaves or whatever you are cutting into a uniform pile. Then, tightly roll up the pile into a long thin piece. Hold tightly and slice into thin slices. They will turn out looking like ribbons of basil.
These knife skills are valuable assets in the kitchen and are an important part of our daily life.
Check out other tips and skills at https://www.forkscorksandbrews.com/forks/