Cooking Utensils - Choosing Knives

When choosing a collection of cooking utensils for your kitchen it's important to have a wide selection of knives available for the variety of tasks that occur while preparing a meal. However, if you are not going to acquire a large selection of knives there are several types of knives that are highly recommended to have in your collection of cooking utensils.

Chef's Knife

The Chef's knife is one of the primary knives you should have in your cooking utensils collection. It's a knife that can be utilized for most tasks. A high quality Chef's knife will easily slice, mince, chop, dice and be efficient with most other tasks performed with a knife. Most of the Chef's knives range in size from six to twelve inches with the eight inch knife being the most popular.

Bread Knife

If you make your own bread or you buy loaves of bread that have not been sliced, a quality bread knife should be in your cooking utensils collection. It can provide an even slice and will provide a nice appearance for the remainder of the loaf. Most bread knives have a serrated blade and they usually are about six to ten inches in length. The serrated blade provides a nice slice and is far preferred than other types of knives for cutting bread.

Paring Knife

It's a good idea to add a paring knife to your cooking utensils collection since they are ideal for taking out seeds or making garnishes or taking the veins out of shrimp and can be used for other types of intricate tasks while preparing a meal. Paring knives are typically about two and half to four inches in length.

Utility Knife

A utility knife is also an important knife for a small collection. Utility knives are medium size knifes and are designed for various tasks in the kitchen. It's not a good idea to utilize them for heavy cutting procedures and it's not designed for peeling small types of fruits or vegetables. Some varieties come with a serrated edge.

Boning Knife

A boning knife is appropriate for a collection of cooking utensils in order to take out the bones from the meat items that you have selected for your meal. They typically have a thin blade and are typically five to six inches in length. A boning knife that has some flexibility is a good choice for removing bones from chicken while a stiff type of boning knife is a good choice for taking out bones from beef as well as pork. When putting together a collection of cooking utensils make sure you have some high quality knives and life in the kitchen will be much easier.