The Five Knives You Need In Your Kitchen (And How To Use Them)

I'm Frank Proto, professional chef

and culinary instructor,

and today I'm gonna talk about the knives

you need to have in your kitchen.

I'm gonna show you how to use a paring knife,

a chef's knife, a serrated knife,

a boning knife, a peeler,

and a honing steel.

This is Kitchen Knives 101.

The paring knife is a great utility knife

for any small test you're gonna do in the kitchen.

Generally, a paring knife is four inches long.

It has a non-serrated edge

and a little bit of a slope

and it's super ideal for doing things with your hands.

You're not ever really gonna chop

on a cutting board with this.

You're using it wrong if you are.

But if you're peeling, shaping, de-veining,

that's what this knife is for.

In front of me, I have an apple.

And generally, I'm gonna use a paring knife

to peel this apple.

So let's give it a shot.

You can see that I'm holding the knife in one place

and turning the apple into it.

I'm gonna try and get one long peel.

All right.

I think I did good.

I can trim off the top.

Trim off the bottom.

I'm just gonna cut it into quarters.

And here's another really great thing

that a paring knife is good for:

getting out the cores of your apple.

Make nice, easy movements with this.

It's a super versatile knife in the kitchen.

It doesn't need to be super expensive.

This one costs about $8.

It stays sharp a long time,

feels good in your hand,

and it gets a lot of work done.

Don't be fooled by the size of this knife.

当你sed correctly, it is a kitchen powerhouse.

The next knife you're gonna need

in your kitchen is a chef's knife.

A chef's knife is generally eight to 10 inches long.

It has a blade curving upwards along its length

ending in a narrow point.

Now, traditional chef knife doesn't look like this.

This is more of a Santoku, or a Japanese chef knife.

Usually traditional chef's knife have a longer

and thinner blade at the front.

But this is my personal knife,

and this is the one I use all the time.

A chef knife is used in the kitchen

for a wide range of items.

You can chop, you can butcher,

but I like to use it to slice tomatoes.

The knife does all the work.

If you're pushing down on this,

your knife is not sharp enough.

You should be able to lightly

saw away and get a beautiful slice of tomato.

That is a super sharp chef knife.

No kitchen is complete without a serrated knife.

A serrated knife is like a mini saw.

It has these teeth on it,

and it's really good for cutting things

that are crunchy on the outside

and soft in the middle,

like this baguette.

The teeth on the blade break through the crust of the bread,

and we get beautiful slices.

No one likes squishy bread.

All you gotta do is a nice easy sawing motion.

And this knife does the job.

It's basically a mini chainsaw.

The slice is perfect for a bruschetta,

pan con tomate,

pretty much anything you wanna throw on it.

Now, this knife might not be a common knife in your kitchen,

but it is in mine,

and it's called a boning knife.

It's got a thin blade and a pointy tip.

It's super sharp and super precise.

The boning knife helps you separate meat from bones

with very little waste.

And I'm gonna show you how to do it

with this chicken thigh.

I'll take off the skin,

push the back of the knife against the bone,

and follow the bone.

We go along the other side.

The front of the knife rests on the bone,

and we pull it towards us.

I pinch it between my thumb and pointer.

I stick my knife through

and then free that bone up.

Scrape a little that meat back,

and I'm gonna cut out the bone and the cartilage

and use that for stock.

That is a beautiful boned out chicken thigh.

Now, my next knife is not technically a knife,

although it does have some blades on it,

and it is essential for every kitchen.

A peeler makes it super easy

to remove the skin from fruits and vegetables.

It's fast, efficient, and sharp.

Not only that, it's super inexpensive.

This probably costs four to $5.

通常情况下,我从themselv教人们砍掉es,

and the peeler is pretty much

the only exception to this rule.

It is a blade,

and you are kind of cutting towards yourself,

so you have to pay extra attention

when you're using a peeler.

And I'm gonna show you how to do that with this potato.

I have a top and a bottom,

and they're interchangeable.

So I like to take the top off.

If there's any sort of eyes in there,

that's what this little hooky loopy thing is for.

You get in there and you pop those eyes out.

So do the top of the potato,

do the bottom of the potato,

and then all we have to do here

is connect the top and bottom

in nice smooth strokes.

A potato should not take you a long time to peel.

It should take you minutes.

Maybe even less than a minute if you're good.

And that is how you peel a potato.

The last essential tool for your kitchen

is not a knife at all.

It is called a honing steel.

A honing steel does not sharpen your knives.

What a honing steel does

is if we look at this blade under the microscope,

we're gonna have lots of fine micro serrations like this.

As you use a knife, they get bent and twisted.

If you run it over the honing steel,

it brings them back to the original form

and keeps your knife sharper longer.

If your knife is dull

and you look at it under a microscope,

it's gonna look like this,

rounded over.

You can run it over the steel all day and all night,

and you're not going to get a sharp blade.

From this point, you're gonna need a stone

or you're gonna need someone to sharpen it for you.

Grab the steel in your non-dominant hand.

It has a little guard here so you don't cut yourself.

So basically you're gonna run it

over the steel at about a 20 degree angle.

You're gonna need your protractor, kids.

You want to put just enough pressure

that the knife is pushing against the steel.

Down on each side,

and that'll give us a nice tuned up edge.

If you're not comfortable like that,

you could do it away from you.

And if you're not comfortable like that,

you can put it on the table

and do it here like this.

So you have three different options

on how you can use the honing steel.

Whenever I set my culinary station up,

my steel would always be here.

And every five to 10 minutes I take it...

Run my knife over the steel and put it back.

So let's see how this knife does with this lemon.

There's not a lot of resistance.

Cuts through the lemon pretty good.

But let's run it over the steel and see what happens.

Look at that, how it grabs nice and easy.

I'm barely putting any pressure on it.

And we cut nice straight through.

You notice how I'm using a sawing motion?

When you're cutting delicate fruits and vegetables,

that sawing motion is your friend.

A honing steel might not be a common piece of equipment,

but it is an essential tool in my kitchen.

These are the tools that I use most often,

and they will help you become a better cook.