Knives & Cutlery

Cutting up a whole pineapple can seem like a daunting task. With prickly leaves and a tough outer skin, it’s a surprising pick for the international symbol for hospitality. Nonetheless, it’s easy to break down a whole fruit with the method I’ve laid out here! Pineapples are available year-round, but did you know that it’s peak season right now? They’re at their best from March through July, just in time for all of your favorite tropical, warm weather recipes.

Today’s Lesson: Knife Skills The Goal: 20 lessons, 20 days to become a better cook at home Enter to win The Kitchn Cookbook: Simply share and tag photos of your Kitchn Cooking School progress on Instagram and Twitter with #kitchnschool to enter for a chance to win. We’re giving away one copy for every homework assignment during The Kitchn’s Cooking School. See rules and regulations.

There are certain foods that just scream “summer,” and watermelon is definitely one of them. From its bright-colored flesh to it sweet, refreshing taste, this fruit is a summer essential. While there’s not one right way to cut a watermelon, there are certain ways that are faster and less messy. Here’s my favorite. Whole watermelons can be tedious to cut up. They’re large, kind of awkward to work with, and super messy.

I love acorn squash. You love acorn squash. But these gourds can be a real pain in the you know what to cut in half. Let’s just make sure we all survive the winter with our fingers intact and no visits to the ER for stitches. Here’s the best way I’ve found to cut an acorn squash in half. Use your sharpest, sturdiest chefs knife for this task.

Slicing a tomato is pretty boring. In general, just use a serrated knife and aim for uniform steaks. Pop one or two on your burger or salad and dinner is served. But sometimes plating calls for something more inspired. Maybe you’re trying to impress someone, or maybe you just want to treat yourself. Whatever the case may be, you’re in luck! Jacques Pépin has spilled his technique for turning a humble tomato into a work of art.

There are some kitchen chores that grow tedious when volume becomes a factor. For example, slicing a handful of cherry tomatoes goes quickly, but when you have a pint or two to get through, the task feels daunting. Cutting cherry tomatoes is a necessary evil because slices are easy to eat in salads and cook faster in quick pasta sauces. So how can you cut a bunch of cherry tomatoes in half at once instead of slicing a whole pint one by one? There’s a trick.

There are a dozen different ways to cut a tomato, but the best method depends on the tomatoes’ intended use. Tomato wedges are ideal for salads of all kinds — tomato salads, green salads, or for just eating drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. The goal for cutting tomatoes into wedges is to keep the tomatoes’ seed jelly intact once cut. Thinking about how a tomato grows and learning its parts will make slicing it much easier.

Sometimes it’s the littlest things in the kitchen that can elicit the feeling of pure joy. For me, it’s a kitchen tool I received as a wedding gift — one that, right now, is making the bounty of perfectly ripe summer tomatoes even more enjoyable. Roughly the size of a utility knife, with a serrated blade and a sharp, two-pronged tip ideal for coring, tomato knives are a tool of pure genius. For a true tomato-lover, these knives are the darling of the knife block.

Maybe instructions for slicing a tomato seem silly, especially since no matter how you slice a ripe tomato, it will still be meaty, juicy, and mouthwatering with nothing more than a sprinkle of salt. If you’ve ever had a luscious tomato fall apart before you could get it on that BLT, though, you understand that just one important trick means the difference between a sliced tomato and a perfectly sliced tomato. Cutting against the core is the key to keeping slices intact.

Exactly what does a recipe mean when it calls for an ingredient to be diced? Here’s what that common cut looks like, it’s standard size, and why it’s used in certain recipes. Dice refers to ingredients cut to a small, uniformly sized square. The standard size is a 1/2-inch square. Basically that’s the size of — you guessed it — a die. Of course, the size can vary (some recipes may call for a two-inch dice), but most often this is the size to go with.

For years I had my knives sharpened by a grizzled older gentleman who occasionally drove through my neighborhood in a converted Mr. Softee truck, ringing his bell to summon customers and using the same grinding wheel to hone everything from paring knives to hedge clippers. I loved the price (low) and the convenience (house calls!

File your paring knife under the category of “small but mighty tools.” With a blade that averages about three inches in length, this is the knife we reach for when our chef’s knife feels a bit too cumbersome. In addition to peeling and trimming fruit and vegetables, here are five smart ways you can put your paring knife to work. While serrated knives are your best choice for slicing tomatoes, you’ll want to reach for a small paring knife to remove the core.

This month, we’re exploring all the different considerations that go into finding the right knife for you — and there are several. Are you buying your very first knife or are you already a member of the knife club? What are you planning to use the knife for? Are looks important? And what’s your budget? Still, when it comes down to it, there’s one thing that is critical — and that’s how it feels in your hands.

Keep your knife skills sharp by knowing just what a recipe means when it calls for an ingredient to be finely chopped.

The next time a recipe calls for minced garlic or chiles, this is exactly how you want to use your knife to produce that cut.

I have been using the same single cutting board for several years. It is bamboo, maybe? I think it is bamboo. I am happy with it, but are my knives happy with it? Is it the best kind of cutting board? Am I secretly doing something that is ruining them in some way I do not yet know of but will live to regret? If you have these questions, too, read on to find out what your knives want you to know about cutting boards. This is arguably an overstatement. There are uses for glass cutting boards.

You don’t need any fancy grips or gadgets to keep your cutting board in place while you work — you just need some good old-fashioned ingenuity. This little trick, which is common practice among professional chefs, will save that board from sliding all over the counter while you dice and chop. It’s of utmost importance to keep your board from slipping while cutting; it’s knife safety 101.

You finally took the plunge and invested in a good knife — or maybe a few good knives. Either way, you’ve spent good money and your blades deserve a storage place that will keep their edges pristine for as long as possible. Here’s what not to do, and three ways to do it right. Tossing your knives in a drawer along with other kitchen gadgets and cutlery is a lousy idea.

Having a visual image of various cuts and ingredients will help you to become a more agile and intuitive cook.

Here's everything you need to know about preparing sweet potatoes.

This is what a julienne cut looks like and how it's frequently used in recipes.

Of all the disastrous kitchen scenarios you can face when you show up at a rental cabin or beach house, dull or flimsy knives might be the most painful. So what do you do if the kitchen you’ll be cooking in for the next several days or weeks has crappy knives? Here are a few solutions, depending on how you’re getting to your rental and how long you’re staying.

Q: I have been cooking since I was a teenager, but I have not mastered the proper way to cut tomatoes and chicken. Every time I try to cut either one of these, the slices are uneven and I end up making a mess. Do you have any suggestions on how to cut these ingredients successfully without smashing the tomatoes or messing up the chicken? Thank you! Sent by Maia Editor: For cooked chicken, I like to let the chicken cool off a bit, as it’s easier to cut up when it’s firmed up a bit.

The words dentist and knives together in the same sentence don’t sound very pleasant, do they? Don’t worry, they have nothing to do with any painful dental work, but instead are a good way to think about knife honing and sharpening! We have talked about how a honing steel doesn’t actually sharpen knives, but actually just realigns the edge of the knife back to the center. One extremely wise comment came in from our reader: This analogy is absolutely perfect.

While those big knife blocks seem to send the message that every kitchen needs a dozen knives, it’s really not true. Invest in a good chef’s knife and small paring knife and those can take care of almost all of your slicing and dicing needs. There is one more knife, however, that is essential for cutting bread and tomatoes: the serrated knife.

The first time I took my paring knives to a knife sharpenerI’d wager that paring knives are the real workhorse of many kitchens. I know my three spend more time in the dish drainer after being cleaned than they do in the drawer with the other knives. Cheap paring knives aren’t that sharp to begin with, and months of slicing apples, cutting sandwiches in half, and sawing through plastic packaging (What? How do you get the plastic ring off the mayo jar?) don’t improve anything.