Knife Skills
Let’s Get Slicing And Dicing
In learning knife skills, so you can cut fruits and vegetables quickly and safely, I want to describe how to hold the knife.
My explanation will include using an 8 inch chef’s knife for our demonstration. You will hold the knife in your dominate hand with your index finger and thumb very close and even touching the blade.
The blade will have a curve to it which will aid in rocking the blade from the tip to the handle. That’s the motion you will be looking for as you chop.
Once you understand how to hold the knife we can move on to how to hold the fruit or vegetable you are cutting.
Hold your non-knife holding hand in a claw like shape. Your index finger will be the guide. The index finger will be placed on top of the vegetable in the most forward position compared to all your other fingers and thumb.
This finger is the most important one and will keep you from accidentally cutting yourself.
Start with the blade on top of the vegetable and leaning against your index finger (keep it slightly bent with the knuckle sticking out towards the blade) and start the rocking motion with the blade.
As you cut, slide your guide hand just a little bit back after each cut depending how thick you want your slices.
In learning knife skills, practice is very important so practice, practice, practice. One of the best vegetables to practice with is celery so give that a try.
To dice an onion or mince garlic, it’s helpful to make your first slices very thin. When you turn your onion or garlic to cut in the other direction, your pieces will be very small and you will spend less time chopping.
Believe me, you will appreciate this time saver when you are dicing onions.
Tip- to remove the garlic smell from your hands after mincing garlic, take a stainless steel spoon and rub your fingers over the spoon under cold running water. The garlic smell will disappear. Really.
If you can master these knife skills, cooking will be that much more enjoyable as you will be faster, safer and more efficient with your time. And it’s fun.
Watch the video below to see an actual demonstration of how to chop an onion and garlic.
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