Hello my little knife waving ninjas! Today we’re undusting our ultimate kitchen knife guide with the two most badass knives every beginner should learn about! We’ll learn everything you should know about your sharp, sexy and pointy paring knife and his curvy little brother, the turning knife, or if we may speak a little French (merci beaucoup), the Tournée knife! Let’s cut (for learning purposes, some vegetables)!
What’s a paring knife?
The paring knife is the real kitchen superhero worker! He works all kinds of hard jobs for you, especially the not-so-much-loved-ones! Yes, he is specialized in working over hours, accepting everything and everyone with a big smile on his blade. He’s small, sharp and sexy and he just looooves cutting, peeling and carving vegetables of all kinds!
Where do you use it?
You use it while preparing your basic ingredients for other cuts, this means he does the “dirty” little job for other fancy knives! On the other side, he can do much of the work alone! The paring knife is used for slicing, peeling, cutting, hulling, scraping, etc., but the real magic of it’s use has no boundaries!
What’s a turning knife?
In our ultimate kitchen knife guide we must mention the real nightmare of the newly hired young kitchen workers (insert Vampire music here), the turning knife (buahahahaha)! Why is it a nightmare? Because of the “difficult” turning cut, but we’ll learn much more about it a little later! The turning knife is a small kitchen knife with the specific curved small blade. The curved blade allows us to do interesting “roundish” shapes specific only for this knife!
Where do you use it?
The use is almost the same as for the paring knife, even a little wider! It’s extremely suitable for preparing roundish objects like citruses, apples, potatoes, zucchinis, you get the point! Because of its curved blade, you can do things very quick and easy! He’s one hell of a curvy kitchen knife fella!
What’s the tournée cut?
The tournée cut is a cutting technique, specific for the French cuisine, which enables us to make perfect elongated spherical objects out of food (mostly harder vegetables like potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, etc.). To perform this type of cut you will need the turning kitchen knife! The idea behind it is not only visual, but also practical! French cuisine masters think that this round shape amplifies the ability of evenly cooking and control of the prepared food! But that aside, it looks fancy as f$%&!
How to perform the tournée cut?
To get a good feeling while doing it, first practice the cutting motion on an egg. The egg has the approximate shape of the turned vegetables and gives you a feeling of what you’re doing while applying the cut! After you practiced the hell out of your eggs, try to perform the cut on softer vegetables like pumpkins or zucchini! Cut out pieces of 5-7 cm and start cutting from one end of the zucchini to the other, always having your practiced egg motion in mind. In the beginning it won’t be perfect, but we’ll improve it later. Cut out 5 facets of your zucchini, with the same feeling in your hand as with the egg motion. In the end even out smaller irregularities, and voila, you have your first turned cut! With a little practice, you’ll soon be a true master of the turning cut!
That’s it my little knife waving ninjas! Hope you learned a few new things with the first part of our ultimate kitchen knife guide! There will soon be more, and soon you will become the intellectual master of your kitchen! And as always you can share your knowledge or keep it for yourself, whatever you like! Forever yours!
