We briefly mentioned this technique in our round-up of knife skills lessons last week, and today we wanted to spend a little more time with it. The "claw" is all about being safe with knives and preventing any kitchen misadventures. Here's how it's done!
Knife Skills: The Claw
Perhaps obviously, this technique is called "the claw" for the shape your hand should be making while you do it! As in the picture above, curl all the fingers and the thumb of your non-knife hand like you're imitating an angry bear. (Roar!)
Keep this shape and go to your cutting board. Rest the tips of your fingers on top of whatever you're about to cut. Your fingertips should be perpendicular to the surface of the food, with your fingernails acting like a shield.
Your thumb should be perpendicular to the food as well, but on the side. The thumb also helps keep the food stable while you're cutting. Here's a shot of the thumb position:
With your fingers in this position, you run much less risk of a serious injury than if you were holding the food with the pads of your fingers. If the knife slips while you're in this position, it will only hit against your hard fingernails. Even if it does knick the skin, the injury will be far less severe.
Depending on the size of the food is that you're trying to cut, you can rest your wrist on the cutting board. This adds some extra stability and control.
This position can feel a little cramped and unnatural at first. Spend a few evenings actively using this technique and you'll get the hang of it. It also helps if you happen to have a chef on hand to shout at you every time you forget, we happen to know...
Related: How to Dice an Onion: The Video
(Images: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)
Comments (6)
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I can't resist a quote from Toy Story:
The Claw! The Claw! The Claw chooses!
view Michelle of Montreal's profile
I work in a restaurant and the other day I noticed the sous chef using the claw, but with an addition. I have yet to try this myself, but it seemed interesting: he used his knuckle as a guide for the knife (as in, the blade was always resting against his knuckle). This seemed to allow him to make more uniform slices and also go a bit faster.
view rach1007's profile
My dad uses this technique (with the addition of what the poster above mention with the blade always resting against his knuckles) and everytime I go home he always tries to teach it to me. Chopping vegetables seems to be the one thing in the kitchen I really can't master and it drives him crazy. Seriously he's tried to teach me it like 50 times.
view girlonthem00n's profile
the idea of keeping your knuckle on the blade is so that with every slice you can use your thumb to drag your knuckles down the thing being sliced. providing you acquire the skill of not lifting the blade too high, (keeping it on your knuckles,) you can slice *very* fast that way.
another tip is start with a smaller knife and get bigger as you practice. if you can, try and find a video of Graham Kerr slicing an onion without looking. he does it as a stunt, but the technique is all there. and he does it with a large paring knife. I found it easier to learn using a 5 or 6 inch knife rather than the normal 8 or 10. since you are whipping the knife up and down, the shorter knife has less momentum to overcome when stopping the upswing.
btw, as an RSI sufferer, I don't recommend resting your wrist as pictured.
view circusboy's profile
It also helps not to have your nails bitten to the quick. Yuck!
view ladymantle's profile
Don't underestimate the importance of height when using a knife. If you are short (like me) high countertops make things difficult. Once I switched to the appropriate height, the chopping & dicing etc. became so much easier. Plus the addition of a good knife didn't hurt...
http://concretemagnolia.blogspot.com/
view Hbeydene's profile