The Right Knives for a Meat Lovers

We guess you are the meat lover, right? So you should know how important is to have the right tools in the kitchen – proper knife.

Whether you’re slicing chicken strips or trying to dig into a steak, having the correct knife makes all the difference. Imagine trying to cut your favorite, juicy steak with a regular dinner knife. Using the right knife does more than make cutting meat easier; it can help improve all your cooking by ensuring your meat has the right texture and thickness. It’s also safer faster.

Without a good butcher’s knife and cleaver, you’ll find yourself struggling to cut through a single slab of meat. Not forget that using the wrong knife can bruise the meat – damage and prematurely dull smaller blades if you try cutting foods too thick and tough.

First of all to choose a good knife you need to feel it – how it set in your hand. Your personal best knife will have a good balance, and feel comfortable and secure as you wield it. It should be hefty enough to slice easily through meat, but light enough to be wieldy and precise.

When you have all this set, you can fully enjoy your meat lover world and cooking paradise.

CHEF KNIFE

The first, and most versatile, knife in any kitchen is the chef’s knife. Whether you’re slicing meats or dicing tomatoes, the chef’s knife can get it done. With a slightly curved blade, the sharp tip and the deep heel, the chef’s knife is an extremely stable, dexterous knife. It will work well for cutting through thinner raw meats, such as chicken, as well as through just about any vegetables or fruits you could need. Good chef’s knives are usually high carbon stainless steel, as this provides the best edge retention, sharpness and hardness.

A major difference between the two knives…a chef’s knife is used for cooked meat while a butcher’s knife is used for raw meat.

BUTCHER KNIFE

A butcher’s knife is usually heavier than a chef knife. They also usually have a curved blade, which is perfect for slicing through thick cuts of meat. It is more specialized, meant mainly for cutting through thick, raw meat. They are usually heavier than a chef knife, with a slightly curved blade as opposed to the chef knife’s straighter, tapered blade. This curved blade is meant to rock back and forth, for chopping, trimming and slicing the edges of thick meats.

MEAT CLEAVER

A cleaver uses sheer chopping power as opposed to precision, and can slice through bones without cracking them. This not only makes chopping meat efficient, but also ensures no one ends up eating shards of bone. With a cleaver, you can chop your way through whole chickens, and avoid dulling your chef’s knife on other hard foods, like squash.

BONING KNIFE

Finally, you need to pick up a boning knife. When the time comes to remove bones from meat, you can’t get a better tool that a boning knife. In fact, if you try to use a meat cleaver or a butcher’s knife to take care of it, you will find yourself frustrated and disappointed. The blade of a boning knife is flexible, narrow and sharp, making it easy to get into crevices and carve out as much meat out as possible. This thin, specialized knife is flexible and sharp, meant to closely remove meat, fat and cartilage from bones, cutting around edges and joints to get it all off. Boning knifes are worth investing in; the most common length is 5”, and make trimming hams and legs dead simple.11

SLICING KNIFE

You also need to get a slicing knife and/or carving knife. Both knives are used for cutting cooked meat. These thin knives usually measure 8 to 12 inches long, have a rounded tip, and are used to slice meat thinly, such as you would on roasts and hams. A carving knife has a long, narrow blade that comes to a point. It is used mostly to carve turkey and other poultry, it also works great for bone-in cuts such as lamb and roasts. Carving knives are similar to slicing knives, but instead of a large rounded tip, taper to a sharp point. Slicing knives are better for large boneless meats, like a roast, while carving knives excels at cutting around bones and cartilage, similar to a boning knife. Think carving a Thanksgiving Turkey, for example.

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