We are plunging wholeheartedly into a month of How To tips and tutorials, and we are asking you what you would like to learn in the kitchen. But first, we want to make a note on the most requested How To of them all: How to acquire great knife skills. Here's the secret — are you ready for it?
Unfortunately the real way to acquire truly mad knife skills is not very sexy. It's just the old-fashioned answer:
Practice!
Yeah, that's not really exciting or new, I know, but as we kick off this month, I wanted to make a point of it. We hear requests for knife skills tutorials all the time. And while we are definitely committed to bringing you tips, videos, and tutorials on how to use your knives most efficiently, in the end the only thing that will really help you be proficient with cutlery is practice.
Did you see Julie & Julia? I absolutely loved that scene where Julia Child, having just been humiliated in her first professional cooking class, stands and chops what looks like 30 pounds of onions in one go. The scene is played for laughs, with Paul Child staggering away and his eyes streaming with onion tears. But Julia's determination is very real, and I just loved the way she bent towards her work, so fiercely committed to training every fiber of her being in this skill.
Like I said, we are definitely working to bring you better tutorials and more helpful tips on holding your knife and using it effectively. It's so great to have someone show you a better way to grip your knife or to use it well. But in the end, the best way to acquire really great knife skills is to do what Julia did here: Get 30 pounds of onions or carrots, and dice them. Dice them fine, dice them coarse. Slice them thin and thick, and train your muscles into good habits.
Knife skills are unlike many other kitchen tricks and techniques; there aren't many secrets or insider tips to make them easier. You just have to practice, and I certainly know the need of this myself! Have you ever done this? Chopped a few pounds of something at one go?
Knife Skills Tips and Tutorials:
• Knife Skills: How to Hold Your Knife
• Knife Skills: The Claw
• How To Dice An Onion: The Video
• Knife Skills: How to Mince Garlic
• Knife Skills: Keeping Your Knife Sharp
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I took a knife skills class that taught a few practical tips (like grip position, and the order of cute to chop an onion, etc.) that I would never have gotten to just through practice. I now practice these things (mostly when faced with too much produce, or an upcoming food event of some kind), but I had to learn the techniques before i could practice them...
Every time I make the recipe that calls for three pounds of onions I break out the mandoline. I can't even see straight after a single onion, three pounds would kill me.
Three pounds of potatos or carrots, though, that I could do. Might be fun.
Sur La Table offers a Knife Skills class (I would guess Williams-Sonoma does, too, though I've never taken theirs) and I highly recommend it. From learning simply how to hold a knife to proper cutting technique, the class covers it. I think they have a second, less basic class as well (for meats and such) -- check your local Sur La Table, or even your local community college (I know mine offers one).
Nothing worse than practicing something the wrong way. If you do that, then breaking a bad habit is tough to overcome. Learn technique first -- practice is second.
I have to plug community colleges. George Brown CC in Toronto has a fantastic culinary program where you can take intro/interest courses. I took their knifes skills course and haven't looked back. Learning the proper technique is key!
An onion on a mandolin? I can't think of a worse way to chop an onion. I have tried it and it makes the onion smell so much worse then need be. A sharp knife and a good draft is key to onion chopping.
And YES, practice is what makes the skill. I remember when I thought I would never learn to curl my fingers properly but soon enough it all came together.
A little off topic, but since a theme of this seems to be the onion tear effect, I've tried putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth technique (which I believe I read on this blog) and it works a charm - I honestly no longer shed tears.
Contacts are my onion savior! As long as I'm wearing contacts and not glasses I can cut onions forever.
@Saddler, I don't care how sharp your knife is, after 3 pounds of onions you just want to not be worrying about where your fingers are in relation to the blade. The mandoline is faster and I can use the pusher so it's safer when I can't see. And for me, one onion, sharp knife or no, means I can't see.
If faced with 30 pounds of onions (or maybe 2 medium sized ones)....I pull out my Pampered Chef version of the Slap Chop! Does this make me a heathen?
Yay, thanks for choosing this topic, it was one that I (among others) suggested and really wanted to learn more about. Practice is definitely important (I love that scene in J&J!) but you have to learn how to hold the knife and use it first. I just recently learned how to properly hold a chef's knife from a youtube video LOL. Anyways, thanks again for this post! I'll definitely check out the links!
The Natural Gourmet Institute in New York used to offer a knife skills class as one of its public classes. A couple of friends took it and said it was good.
I vastly improved my knife skills by working as a kitchen volunteer for Gods Love We Deliver. Three hours a week, turning 50-lb bags of carrots, onions, and celery into quarter-inch dice. Excellent practice....
Ahhh, I loved that scene in the movie!
There are also some good knife skills books (Knife Skills, Knife Skills Illustrated, Mastering Knife Skills) and videos as well - just to get the basics - but practice makes perfect and with good knife skills I rarely break out the fancy equipment. After injuring both hands, which isn't visible but affects my fine motor skills, I revisited a few knife skills books and even learned how to modify techniques to allow for my new limitations.
Yeah, got to echo the making sure you're practicing the right way. As one of my music teacher's put it "practice makes permanent".
I took the knife skills class at Brooklyn Kitchen and finally learned how to slice an onion without tears! It helps if you 1. hone your knife first 2. wet your knife a little and 3. slice rather than chop.
Imagine my dismay when I saw Meryl Streep hacking away at the onions in Julie/Julia. Why didn't someone tell her?
AdrianaV -- I think Meryl hacked her onions because that's the way Julia did it.
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
I got the pampered chef version of the slap chop for Christmas and I can't bring myself to use it. I get some real satisfaction out of chopping vegetables (and the like) myself. It's a skill that I'm always improving but I just love producing a beautiful finished product, even if no one else ever notices the uniformity in the cuts that I work so hard for. I guess it's sort of like refusing to give up my paper books for an e-reader.
My problem is dull utensils. I have non-serrated knives simply because I figured they'd be easy to maintain sharpness. I have a honing stick AND a v-type knife sharpener. But it doesn't work! I feel like all I am doing is dulling my blades further :( What am I doing wrong?
AdrianaV - I sent my husband to the Brooklyn Kitchen class as a Xmas gift and he came back with all sorts of tricks too.
If you really want to know how to use your knives correctly, take a beginning knife skills class. They're inexpensive and totally worth it.
@Renai Marie - Contacts are my savior, too!
I think the knives make a huge difference too.
Using good, well-balanced, sharp knives makes cutting soooo much easier than using old, cheap, dull knives. Regardless of knife skills.
It's also good to know when you Get There. My knife skills are not awesome, but they are good, and they are better than they used to be. I'm one of those who always chimed in "knife skills, knife skills!" when asked what I need to learn. Then reading a lot of the questions and comments over time, I realized: heck, I HAVE knife skills! By focusing on it and practicing (though not in the Julia manner!) I did gradually make a big improvement, which I didn't really notice as I've been waiting for awesomeness to dawn. If I want awesome skills, I need to go get 30 pounds of something and hit the stopwatch. But I don't really need that. Good is good enough.
The scene's fiction, didn't happen in real life, isn't in Child's book.
And practice is indeed the way to mastery. !0,000 hours
Great topic. Witnessing *amazing* knife skills can be impressive but also a bit humbling. I appreciated @cmcinnyc's post about "good enough", though.
On a somewhat related note, watching Jacques Pepin work with a paring knife reminded me that there are a lot of cases where that small knife can be much more effective than a chef's knife or santoku, one of the chief advantages being that there's not much blade for the food to stick to (subsequently getting pushed off the top of the blade and then rolling off the cutting board). Try cutting zucchini with a paring knife and there's a good chance you won't want to go back to the big knife.
My friend learned as a student at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris that the sharper your knife, the less you cry. In fact, the title of her cooking memoir is just that. She also taught me how to cut an onion properly which I tried and cannot figure out how to explain in words.
@Tiamat_the_Red, I do five to ten pounds of brunoise onions almost every night at work, I don't cry one bit. Get a draft going. If you light a stick of incense and put it where you are going to chop onions you can see where the onion gas is going, open windows and doors in the room, turn on the hood vent, play around with the air flow in the room, try a different place to cut the onions. Once you have a situation that works, it will be easy to reproduce it. At work I have a two foot section of work bench that gives me the proper air flow, if the onions "creep" out of the zone even a little bit, I know about it quickly.
@jdinnyc, did the onion cutting go something like this...
Look at the onion like a globe, roots are south, cut the onion in half from south to the north, right through the root. Then cut off the north poles of each onion. Peel the onion, then holding the knife north/south cut the onion almost the whole way south but not through the last layer or three, start on either the east or west side depending on left or right handedness and continue to the other side, you should now have an onion that is still one piece but has a couple hundred "fingers" coming up from the root end, now turn the onion and cut east/west starting at the north end working your way down to the end. Voila, diced onion.
Jamina1-Sometimes your best bet is to take your knives to a professional knife-care specialist who will sharpen and hone your knives. The tools you have just hone them. Having good knives also makes a difference...
We teach knife skills classes in LA! Yay! www.chickswithknives.com xoxo, Rachael
there are plenty of videos on YouTube that show you how to chop an onion and I would assumer other veggies, too. that's how i learned to chop an onion.