Few people handle kitchen knife with the skill and precision of an experienced chef. In fact, many of us feel a little awkward in the use of knives in the kitchen. The idea of handling sharp objects, causing a kind of kitchen disaster is enough to make some opt to eat outdoors. However, if you play safe and take time to learn some knife skills, it is possible to make the most of a good set of knives and start cutting away with confidence.
Before you begin, there are some things to consider while using a knife. Never cut on an open table, whether made of glass, marble or metal. Damage or dull the knife and put probably some nasty cuts on the table, too. Instead, use a cutting board and always cut into cubes. You should also ask you cut before, and if with a knife from place to place armed, it is best to avoid it with the tip of the blade facing down and the edge to the implementation of blade backwards to cuts or other walkers .
So what should you know? In no particular order, here are our five knife skills.
Clean the knife
While this may seem obvious, keep your knife clean is essential for the proper use of knives - it is his simply lazy and let slip the deep cleaning. could contaminate the process kills for cleaning between each use, harmful bacteria, the food.
To clean your knives with warm water and soap dish, making sure the cutting edge directed away from the body and keep your fingers away from the knife blade. After washing, it is preferable to knife with paper towels instead of dish towels are not tearing the fabric dry.
Part of a knife that many people forget to clean the knife. eliminates side issues of cleanliness, washing the handle of a knife that there are too slippery, not what you wanted, would discover while cutting. You should also avoid the blade soak in the sink for two reasons. First, knives and their handles, especially those made of wood, the more difficult to clean thoroughly after soaking in dirty water. But most of all in the sink next knife can be hidden from view U-boat, with the risk that you achieve something and you accidentally cut off.
Sharpen your knives
You have your knife s-harp. This may seem obvious, but it is important if you want to get the most out of your knives. This is not something you often - professional chefs sharpen their knives once or twice a year - but that you have a sharp blade is always important
A sharp knife is safer in particular. The direct edge of a knife, the more pressure it takes to cut something. More pressure from the hand and the knife does not apply to a piece of food, rather than the more likely you are to slip and cut off the hand. Sharpened the knives and the time it takes to prepare your meals, as your will cut faster and more accurate.
To sharpen a knife with a sharpening stone, also known as a whetstone. You need to lubricate the stone with oil or water to reduce friction. Hold one side of the knife, against the size as if you cut a thin slice of it. Press lightly and slide away from the body. To feel this end, both sides of the blade until the blade is sharp. Clean the knife to remove all chips from the blade loose, and test the blade on a piece of fruit or vegetables sweet. The blade should be decided with very little pressure.
When running, you can not feel what send a dangerous job, let alone most manufacturing companies your knives for professional sharpening knives. Just to the company and inquire about their policies.
Chopping
The hash is probably the most basic knife skills and easier to perform, and you can use for a variety of food preparations. You can cut almost any type of food that does not need to cut them regularly. For example, vegetables such as lettuce or shredded cabbage, usually without too much attention, as the portions are large or small.
To hold the knife, your middle, ring and little fingers to put the handle and handle of the knife with your index finger and thumb. may have essentially two basic ways to hack it: The wrist pivot method or the method of rotation. The wrist pivot method is simply to keep the heel of the blade - the part of the blade nearest the handle - close to the cutting board and points the tip of the knife up. This forces you to use your wrist as a pivot point, rotate it from top to bottom, to bring the blade and in a chopping motion. The method of rotation, on the other side holds the edge on the other side of the piece of food, cut - cut by your hand and wrist up and down.
Since you do not want to cut yourself while you are cutting, keep the food is really important. It is better to roll the finger to get control of food and to avoid cutting your fingers. As you cut, move your finger back slightly with each cut.
Dicing
In view of cutting is mainly for food, who do not need to in uniform shapes and sizes are cut from exactly the opposite is used. Cutting is good for cutting food into cubes, even in the face. This not only makes the pieces of food look beautiful and professional, it can also bring out the flavor of certain foods such as onions and carrots, if they cut precisely. You can dice food in any size, certainly, but there are three main types of cubes - cubes (three-quarters of an inch or 1.9 cm on each side), medium (half-inch or 1.3 cm per side) and diced (¼ inch or 0.6 cm on each side).
To practice, diced, it is preferable to a softer, lighter foods, like potatoes and sliced onions. If you practice enough, harder vegetables like carrots are just as easy to roll the dice. To die first cut food into pieces of equal length square face. Put the pieces together, the whole group in as many dice as possible.
Julienning
As a cup of dice, julienne, a little, a lot of fine cut and takes a little practice, but when you once dominated, it can still have a lot of flash decorative recipes. The exact dimensions of a julienne are one-eighth inch (0.3 centimeters) by an eighth of an inch by 2.5 inch (6.4 centimeters), but most cooks just use the size of a match to describe this particular section .
Julienne To cut food into eighth-inch rectangular plates. Then pile on the other boards and longitudinally into strips one-eighth inch. If you have no ruler handy, and probably not the best way is the size of your strips to judge it, keep your discs against the handle of your knife. Use the rivets in the handle - mounting points in the little round metal that hold the blade and the handle together - everyone has a blank strip of measure to another.
