Kitchen Tip – Four Most Important Knives For Any Kitchen

Just like when you are selecting your cookware, with knives quality is way more important than quantity. Most kitchens can get by with a collection of four basic knives:

Chef’s knife – Includes 8-10 inch blade. The top of the knife is flat and the cutting edge has a deeper curve to it. This curve makes it ideal to handle the gentle rocking that is called for when chopping large quantities of food. More recently, chef’s knives are being made with fanned edges and grooves to prevent sticking. The chef’s knife is the workhorse of your knife collection and you will find yourself using it most of the time.

Boning Knife – smaller than a Chef’s knife, only 5-8 inches, the blade is usually thinner and a little more flexible. This is perfect for cutting tenderloins out of larger pieces of meat or peeling the skin off of fish.

Paring knife – This is the small knife in our collection and should be used for detail work and other small jobs. It can come in a curved or flat blade depending on personal preference and is usually about 4 inches long.

Serrated knife – And finally, the fourth knife to round out our collection is a serated knife or bread knife. This knife is also ideal for cutting things with soft skins like tomatoes or fruit like watermelon.