Cooking School Day 1: Important Knives

This is a Chefs knife they range between 6 and 14 inches but the standard length is eight. This is the work horse of a knife kit and if you only own one good knife this should be it.

This is the santoku aka the chefs knifes Japanese cousin. They have funny little grooves to keep food from sticking to the blade and the tip points down making them good for chopping things. They also tend to be shorter than a western chefs knife. Some people prefer it. I am not one of those people.

The bread knife has a serrated (bumpy) blade for slicing bread and cakes without smushing them to death.

The pairing knife is good for small jobs trimming, peeling and making fruit into elaborate shapes. (strawberry roses? yup. apple swans? this one again. Don't have a banana slicer? pairing knife. For the home cook you only really need these three.

The turning knife (also known as a birds beak knife) is important to have for cooking school but honestly it's a lot like a pairing knife and probably useless in the real world. It's specifically designed for making potatoes and carrots into funny 7 sided little footballs (chateau cut or tournee)

Carving knife and fork. Fork holds the meat on the table, knife slices it. I prefer a chefs knife for carving too. (apparently I'm wrong)

This is a boning knife the first of the butchers knives. The funny shape with the curve near the heel makes them perfect for taking bones out of chicken, beef, pork etc

this is a fillet knife. It's like a boning knife but longer, thinner and more flexible. It's for turning a fish from a scaly, bony, ball of yuck into fish fillets. Lightly fried fish fillets.

The cleaver is used exclusively by murderers and against zombies... ok that's a lie but it is designed for cutting through bone and sinew. You really only need this if you intend to take apart whole animals.

Butchers knife. I like it because it reminds me of the swords in Aladdin. Apparently it's for segmenting large pieces of meat. I have not used it yet.

That's all for today. I will continue posting something I learned in cooking school every day till April 28 (exam day) If I'm wrong about something please correct me. :D If anyone wants more info on a specific topic message me. Typing it helps me study.