Sunday, March 27, 2011

The Three Most Useful Knives You Will Ever Own: The Paring Knife


A paring knife doesn’t spring to mind as the most useful kitchen knife, and to be perfectly honest, it probably doesn’t get as much use as a mainstay like the classic 8-inch chef’s knife. However, given a choice, I would personally prefer to have a high-quality paring knife and a merely decent chef’s knife, rather than the other way around. The reason? A paring knife usually fills a niche that most other knives don’t. If you cook at all, you probably have at least three knives: a French-style chef’s knife, a 6 inch utility, and 2 inch paring knife. Because of their size, the chef’s and the utility serve a lot of the same functions, like slicing meet or dicing vegetables. What they don’t do, however, is intricate work. Ever try to devein a shrimp with a chef’s knife? How about peel a potato? You wouldn’t (I hope), because you would probably end up skewering yourself or butchering the food.
It's not the size of the boat, it's the motion of the ocean

Here’s what to look for:

Blade style: Get a spearpoint. This classic style works in almost any situation, while less-common blade profiles like a sheep’s-foot generally do one thing well, and everything else mediocre. Serrated is dumb.
Top: Spearpoint
Middle: Sheepsfoot
Bottom: Crazy moon knife


Blade steel: A good steel is important in any knife, but it is doubly true for a paring knife. Given the tight space and intricate work you are going to be doing with the paring knife, a dull blade that will catch or slide on the food you’re working with can easily end up with a trip to the emergency room. 440C or above, no exceptions.

Guard: The guard is the point just between the edge and the handle, and protects your hand from running under the blade. This is somewhat counter-intuitive, but a thinner guard works better in a paring knife, as you can fully take advantage of the limited cutting area- as long as the guard extends past your finder and you pay attention, you should be safe enough.
Living on the edge with no guard


Get: Any of the brands I mentioned in this post will work great, but I would lean toward the mid-range or higher.

16 comments:

  1. Really nice knives you got here ;D

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  2. Nice, I get a lot of use out of my paring knives. I have a spearpoint and sheepsfoot, and the spearpoint definitely does more work. I would actually prefer no edge guard, since I like to use the whole length of the blade sometimes.

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  3. oooh i love cooking knifes, the sharper the better! :D

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  4. The parring knife is so useful. Spearpoints are very good

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  5. i need some new cooking knifes, i only have a few worn down steak knives.

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  6. crazy moon knife looks awesome haha

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  7. Hmmm, well put, I guess I have to go get a new knife then

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  8. I think I do the majority of my work with a non-serrated steak knife. I've been interested in getting a ceramic knife, but the most useful thing I can think of is seeing how many metal detectors I can get past with one.

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  9. The paring knife is actually my favorite, I find larger knives are rather cumbersome for most things.

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  10. cool, some practical info here. :D

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. since I am trying to become a better chef, this helps a lot...thank you!

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  13. Ahhhh. I love my paring knife. I think I use that thing more than any other *kitchen* knife that I own.

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  14. I thought it was:
    It's not the size of the swell, it's the motion of the ocean.

    Cus like, you know, alliteration? :P

    Nice knives though!

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