A good knife technique can save you lots of time in the kitchen, but this only comes with practice. The good news is that there are plenty of online resources, including videos that can teach you these skills. The other essentials are a sharp knife and concentration. Practice slicing and chopping and dicing until these skills start feeling natural, and only try to speed up when you are confident in what you are doing.
Keep your knives sharp
It may sound strange, but accidents are more likely if you use a blunt knife. This is because you need more force when using a blunt knife and that can cause the knife to slip and cut the wrong thing – like a finger. Knives can be sharpened at home using a steel or a knife sharpener.
Use a stable surface
A damp cloth or kitchen towel placed under your chopping board will stop it from moving about on the work top and causing a potential problem. If you have just bought a new kitchen from a local provider like Essex Kitchens provider http://www.rgcole.co.uk or someone closer to home if you’re outside Essex, then you’ll want to take care of your investment. The National Food Service Management Institute has produced a helpful factsheet of knife safety tips.
Choose the right knife
Depending on the task, you need a different type of knife. For example, a serrated knife should be used for slicing bread but you need a chef’s knife if you are dicing, chopping or slicing ingredients for a meal. Paring knives are needed for peeling and trimming small fruits and vegetables.
Hygiene
It is important to keep your kitchen knives clean. Even when in use, if oil or grease gets on to the handle, the knife should be washed straight away to make sure that you have a good grip on it. After use, knives should be washed immediately and never left in a bowl of soapy water with other items, as someone might grasp the blade by mistake. If you choose to use a dishwasher it should be loaded with the knives pointing downwards. Serious accidents and even deaths have occurred when knives have been loaded incorrectly, as in this case reported by the Guardian.
Remember the family
Never walk around in the kitchen carrying a knife with the blade facing out because you never know when someone may walk or run into you. Keep the blade facing downwards and make sure that everyone knows what you are doing. Always concentrate when you are using a knife – even a momentary lapse in concentration can be enough to cause a serious accident.
Store knives safely
Probably the best way to store sharp kitchen knives is to use a knife block or a knife roll. These are available from many sources and have the advantage of making the knives easy to access as well as keeping them sharp and minimising the possibility of accidents. If you do not have proper storage for your knives, they should be laid flat in a drawer that is uncluttered so that they can be seen easily. The worst thing you can do is put them in a drawer with loads of other utensils so that people have to rummage around for them.
We all need knives and they can be used perfectly safely as long as they are treated with respect and the basic safety rules are followed.