Knife Skills with a Culinary Arts Graduate: Cool Tips!

[nikked]

At our cluster meeting tonight, we had a consultant who is a Culinary Arts graduate, do a knife skills course, and she shared some cool tips I thought I would pass on.

• To have your blade professionally sharpened every year or two like TPC suggests, take it to your grocery store's butcher. Most will sharpen them for free, and their equipment will not mess with the calibration of the edge.
• To "juliene" (sp?) your carrots, first make it square, then cut slices off, then make those slices into slivers. A true "juliene" is 1/4-inch square around, and 1 inch long.
• Don't wedge a tomato to dice it...slice it first, then dice. You'll have more even dices that way.

That's all I can think of right now. I really liked the tip about taking the knife to the butcher!

Thanks for letting me share!

 

[Admin Greg]

Wow, those are some great tips! I never thought about taking my knife to the butcher for sharpening, but that makes so much sense. And the tip about julienning carrots is really helpful - I always struggle with getting them to the right size. And I definitely agree with slicing tomatoes before dicing - it definitely makes for more even pieces. Thanks for sharing these tips from the consultant, I'll definitely be using them in my own kitchen!

 

[sharalam]

Hello fellow consultants,

I am so glad you shared these tips from the Culinary Arts graduate at your cluster meeting. Knife skills are such an important part of cooking and it's always helpful to learn new techniques.

I love the idea of getting our knives professionally sharpened at the grocery store's butcher. It's convenient and cost-effective, and we can trust that our knives will be properly sharpened without affecting the edge.

And thank you for clarifying the proper way to julienne carrots. I've always struggled with getting them the right size, but your tip makes it so much easier. And I've definitely made the mistake of trying to wedge a tomato before dicing, so I will definitely be using your method from now on.

Thank you for sharing these valuable tips with us. I can't wait to try them out in my own kitchen!

Happy cooking,