How to Choose the Right Slicing Knife
Whether you’re a professional chef or an aspiring one, a good-quality slicing knife is necessary to ease your time in the kitchen. Good cutting is the first step to mouth-watering food presentation. Be it thanksgiving or a casual get-together to ease up your job in the kitchen and flaunt your cutting skills through a slicing knife that suits your needs.
The article will take you through the necessary information needed to grab the best slicing knife in the market. Here you’ll get the answers to the frequently asked question related to knives.
Contents
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What is a Slicing Knife?
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Do I Need a Slicing Knife?
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Which is the Best Slicing Knife for Cutting Vegetables?
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What are the Main Uses of a Slicing Knife in the Kitchen?
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What is the Best Handle for a Slicing Knife?
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What to Look for in a Slicing Knife?
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How to Use a Slicing Knife?
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What are 3 Knife Safety Tips?
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Slicing Knife Uses
What is a Slicing Knife?
Before we take you through the important information about slicing knives, here’s a quick explanation of what a slicing knife is.
When it comes to the kitchen, good cannot solely impress your guests. First, the food needs to look beautiful to gain attention towards your kitchen skills. Right tools are the backbone of a good presentation. Whether you want to attain perfect meat slices or equal slices of an apple to decorate your salad, nothing can work better than a slicing knife.
A slicing knife is specially designed for convenient cutting. The basic characteristic of a slicing knife is its long blade. The blade is a lot similar to a chef knife because it can cut a variety of foods.
However, its primary function is to ease the process of cutting thick meat, chicken, turkey, or lamb. It can help you get perfect salad cuts for a better presentation as well as ultra-thin pieces of fruit. Their blades are flexible than ordinary knives.
The blade is 8-14 inches long to satisfy the demand of cutting through thick and robust meat pieces. It either has a round or pointed tip. Several slicing knives are available in the market with variations in their size, flexibility, cutting edge design, and pointed or round tip. Additionally, the blade can include a Granton edge.
For those who don’t know, Granton edges are tiny dimples or divots on the blade that allow better air circulation between the blade and the food being cut.
It prevents the food from sticking on the blade, a feature required for bread, cake, and pastry cutting. It also allows cleaner cuts on meat by preventing it from tearing during the process.
To understand a slicing knife better, let’s compare it with carving knives and filleting knives.
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Slicing vs. Fileting Knives
Slicing knives are flexible, but no knife can overpower the flexibility of filleting knives. These knives are ideal for cutting fish, meat fillets, or extracting the meat from the bones. Slicing knives have a long blade, but filleting knives have even longer blade ranging between 18 to 25cm.
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Slicing vs. Carving Knife
If you’re unable to understand the difference between a slicing knife and a carving knife, worry not. Following are features that differential both knives from one another.
As mentioned earlier, a slicing knife has a long, pointed blade ranging between 15 to 20cm a carving knife has a blade around 20cm.
Compared to a slicing knife, the blade of a carving knife is thicker to carve and clean the meat better. We can say the design of a carving knife facilitates cleaning, while a slicing knife is specially designed to cut ultra-thin and accurate food slices.
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Design and Features of a Slicing Knife
As mentioned earlier, the length of a slicing knife is between 8-14 inches. However, a slicing knife is similar to a carving knife with a long, thin, and different-looking blade when it comes to performance. To be specific about the shape a slicing knife might appear to you, like a ham slicer with a broader tip as compared to a ham slicer.
Most commonly, it has a round or pointed tip that helps the slicing. Because it is designed for slicing, the blade is flexible and can cut the food without friction.
The best part of a slicing knife is its durability and lightweight, a must-have for professional chefs.
Do I Need a Slicing Knife?
A slicing knife is a convenient kitchen tool for every aspiring chef to practice professional food slices. It helps make the overall dish look more attractive when served.
A slicing knife is a good investment for all professional chefs, aspiring chefs, or home-based family cooks. A professional and a beginner can use it to speed up the process without getting hurt.
Which is the Best Slicing Knife for Cutting Vegetables?
The santoku knife can be considered the best slicing knife for cutting vegetables. It includes a blade with a round tip, including a Granton edge that allows air circulation between the food and the knife for better performance.
What are the Main Uses of a Slicing Knife in the Kitchen?
A slicing knife, as the name suggests, is ideal for slicing. It can be used to cut thin slices of meat, chicken, turkey, and fruits and vegetables.
What is the Best Handle for a Slicing Knife?
A textured plastic handle is the best option for slicing knives because it offers a slip-free grip and better performance.
What to Look for in a Slicing Knife?
Due to the wide variety of slicing knives available in the market, people often get confused about which one will suit their needs better. If you’re one of those, here is a list of factors to consider before purchasing a slicing knife to invest in the right tool.
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Steel
The first and foremost thing to consider in a slicing knife is its steel. Look for the one with high carbon stainless steel as it offers efficient performance with durability. A stainless-steel knife will make brisket or meat cutting easier than ever.
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Price
Price is the one thing you cannot forget whenever purchasing anything because nobody likes purchasing overpriced stuff. Due to the wide variety of slicing knives available in the market with variations in their size, design, texture, blade length, etc., hence the price varies from knife to knife.
In general, the price of the best quality, most durable slicing knife with outstanding features should not exceed $100. If you’re interested in keeping it economical, you can easily find plenty of options.
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Design
The design includes both the interior and exterior of a knife. In-depth knowledge of the design might concern a professional chef, but if you’re a beginner or mediocre, don’t completely ignore its importance.
Look for a razor-sharp edge to obtain perfect thin slices when it comes to design. Apart from that, always remember that the right length of the blade is comfortable for you. It’s totally up to you if you are comfortable with a longer blade or an average length blade of a slicing knife.
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Handle Comfort
Whenever purchasing a knife, prioritize your comfort and grip after its cutting abilities. If the handle is not right, you won’t be able to enjoy your time kitchen. Rather it will hurt your hand while cutting or damage the food in the worst case.
Hence always look for a non-slip, well-balanced handle. A fibrox handle is a good choice when looking for ultimate comfort. It is a plastic handle made from TPE. You may also purchase a slicing knife with an ABS polymer handle if you want comfort with durability.
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Blade Length
Last but not least, blade length is a considerable feature if you don’t want to regret your decision. Always buy a comfortable knife that fulfills your needs and is efficient in cutting. There is no universal or ideal size; rather, it depends on your needs.
Tip: When you can’t decide which length will suit you, go for the middle option: having a knife with a blade that is neither too long nor too small.
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Forged or Stamped Blades?
Blade type heavily influences the cutting process; hence you need to carefully think about which will suit you most according to your needs. Both blades have unique features to fulfill different needs.
For instance, a stamped blade is lightweight and highly flexible but less durable than a forged blade. On the other hand, a forged blade is thick, less flexible for obvious reasons, and heavy. Thanks to these features, it is more durable. A forged blade comes with a bolster, while a stamped blade doesn’t.
How to Use a Slicing Knife?
A slicing knife is as easy to use and hold as any other knife. There are mainly two methods of holding and using a slicing knife. One is used to shave off the skin, while the second technique is applicable for slicing.
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For Shaving
Grab the knife in your hand and wrap your fingers around it in a way that your thumb rests at the top of the knife while resting the fingers at the bottom side of the knife.
Place it on the meat or food item you want to shave and slowly start removing the layer by moving the knife back and forth.
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For Slicing
To obtain perfect slices, hold the meat in one hand and place the knife over it. Your fingers should be wrapped around the knife while the thumb is at the top. Start slicing the meat in a back-and-forth motion.
What are 3 Knife Safety Tips?
When working in the kitchen, your safety should be your priority. Here are the three essential knife safety tips to follow every time you experiment with a new slicing technique.
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Make Sure Your Ingredient is Stable
The most common mistake beginners make with knives is that they don’t secure the ingredient and start cutting. This ends up cutting their fingers; hence always be careful with that.
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Don’t Leave Your Knives Anywhere
Whenever you’re done with cooking and slicing, immediately wash, clean, and put away the knives. Never leave it in a sink with soap on because people might not see and get themselves hurt.
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Don’t be in a Hurry
This tip is especially for beginners. It looks fascinating how professionals cut and shop at ultra-speed but don’t attempt it unless you’re an expert. Always take time when cutting and slicing.
Slicing Knife Uses
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Slicing Smoked Meat
A slicing knife has a long, sharp, and pointed blade ideal for cutting smoked meat. The large narrow blade allows cutting thin slices of rigid smoked meat easily.
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Salmon Slicer
Obtaining perfect thin salmon slices is not a problem anymore. The long blade of a slicing knife can do the job in no time.
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Ham Slicer
A slicing knife can work as a ham slicer due to its ability to cut ultra-thin slices. The zero-friction feature will make sure the ham slices look perfect.
