Discover Your Knives

a little tutorial on knives This video about knives is a part of our online series of private cooking classes.  You can take these home cooking classes from the comfort of your home (in your pajamas??) or between meetings at work.  Culinary arts has been on the rise in recent years, with chefs young and old heading back to school to soak up the finest that the culinary art colleges have to offer. We know that is not realistic for many so we have created a series of online cooking classes to add to your options.  So, take this online culinary class for a quick refresh on the knives you have in your knife block.  We’re going back to the basics.

Welcome to the world of knives!  There are so many kitchen knife sets to chose from: Henckles, to Ginsu to Wusthof knife blocks, and then there are the different kinds of knife sharpeners, where do you even begin?  We have had many questions from people just looking for a little clarification as to what knife to use and when.  So, we turned the camera on Caitlin for a bit of a refresher.  Here are some tips and tricks to help you know which knives to choose when picking from your knife block.

Chefs Knife: The Chefs Knife is the largest and most important knife in your knife block.  It has a curved edge and a heavier handle. The heavier the knife on your wrist, the better as it will help you to get a good solid cut.

Serrated Knife: The teeth on a Serrated Knife help you to cut through items that have a hard flesh.  The Serrated Knife is also your go-to knife for breads.

Boning Knife: The Boning Knife is thinner and lighter weight – the blade usually bends a bit.  This knife is great for cutting meats because it is super sharp and helps to get the knife right up against the bone to separate the meat from the bone.

Paring Knife: The Paring Knife helps when you make small details or peeling smaller items such as fruits.

Tourne Knife: The Tourne Knife is a very tactical knife. Us this knife to to create a curve on your vegetables as you slice them.  It is a great knife to use when you peel potatoes.

We hope that this back to the basics online cooking class has been helpful to you.  We offer many online cooking lessons that can help even the most experienced of chefs. Now that you know what knife to use and when, check out our video on How to Sharpen Knives for some additional online culinary training.

Remember, please be extremely careful when handling your knives!