When it comes to knives, it can be confusing to know what’s what and many of us are never 100% sure we’re using the right knife for the job. If you don’t know your chef’s knife from your cleaver or you’re secretly using your bread knife to chop veg, then take a tour through your chopping block with us and learn how to choose the right knives for the right purpose.
The Big Four
If you only have four knives in your kitchen, make it these four.
Chef’s knife: The closest thing to a multipurpose knife out of the four, this got its name for a reason. The blade will be between 6 and 14 inches long and 1 and a half inches wide, curved toward the tip. You can cut meat, such as large cuts of beef, or you can chop vegetables with it.
Pairing knife: The younger sister of the chef’s knife, this shouldn’t be bigger than 4 inches and is handy for more detailed work from peeling fruit and veg to deveining prawns.
Serrated knife: Repeat after us - this is not a bread knife. Yes, it looks like one. Yes, you can slice bread with it. But it’s shorter, sharper and great for slicing vegetables like tomatoes, or cutting bagels.
Boning knife: This one is thick, flexible and surprisingly strong - between 5 and 8 inches, it’s designed for detaching meat from bone as you’d guess from the name.
Large knives
Cleaver: This one is seriously hardcore - mostly used in restaurants (and horror films), serious foodies want to have it for getting through bone.
Bread knife: You’ll probably be familiar with this one, but did you know the reason the edges are serrated is so that you can slice cleanly through the bread without crushing it?
Carving knife: This is a longer, thinner version of the chef’s knife that lets you cut more precise slices of meat, especially roast meats. This is the one you whip out during Sunday lunch.
Small knives
Mincing knife: Handy for finely cutting vegetables or garlic.
Peeling knife: Like the paring knife, this one's for fruit and veg - use it to remove the skin.
Speciality knives
Cheese knife: Not really an essential (depending on how much cheese you eat), but it does make you look fancy if you’re throwing a dinner party. Does what it says on the tin.
Grapefruit knife: Channel your inner Downton Abbey with this blade that looks a bit like an artist’s knife. Handy for separating fruit from peel, or gesturing sadly about the decline in the British aristocracy.
Featuring our Total release system - a unique combination of holes and ridges allows food to slide effortlessly off the blade - and comfortable ergonomic handles for safe slip free grip, our range of Circulon knives have been designed with home chefs in mind. Making them the only set that you - and your kitchen - will ever need.
Check out our Circulon Knives now at John Lewis and Lakeland.