This thread is for sharing tips, tricks, and advice for cooking. If you have any questions, ask them! If you know anything people often do wrong, such as how people hold knives (a minor pet peeve of mine, nobody holds it right!) share them here! If you don't know anything about cooking, feel free to ask questions here.
I don't have any tips but I'm now very curious about the proper way to hold a knife. How DO you hold it right?
@Elaienar There are a few different ways to do it, but the way I was taught to hold a standard chef's knife (also called french knives in some places i think?) is with your thumb on one side of the handle and your four fingers wrapped around the other side. Your pointer finger's knuckle should be resting on the part I always forget the name of but it's the side of the knife right before the blade meets the handle. If you have a knife with metal dot-thingies in the handle then resting the side of your knuckle against the first of those is fine! (feel very free to google, I'm bad at explaining with words) Big knives are scary at first but with practice they will be your friends. Tomatoes are cruel beasts, choose your sharpest knife or a serrated one for them. I always cut in half and then following cuts are from the fleshy side instead of the skin side, I find it less frustrating. And last but not least, THE CLAW. Google this too, I'm having an off day and felt my explanation was lacking so I erased it. Above all be safe, and if its too uncomfortable for your hand try a different way!
I google searched myself to check my info, and actually, holding the knife with your thumb and knuckle on the blade itself is ok! I had thought so, but wasn't sure.
... if i got this right and i think i have I'm sad to inform you that that's actually super joint pain unfriendly way to hold a knife! It forces a lot of twisting in the wrist which is not very good. So yeah I don't actually care if I hold my knives "wrong" i hold them in a way that gives me less pain :)
this strikes me as odd. not contesting anyone, just observing. professional chefs, sous-chefs, etc have to do lots of cutting. it seems strange that the professional way of holding a knife would be unhealthy. i wonder what the history of that is...
probably because knives in general are just kind of terrible, ergonomically speaking? There is actual ergonomic knives they look... goofy! see that way your wrist and elbow are alligned while you hold it and your wrist joint is not twisted or bent awkwardly!
or at least that's how the bread knife works (wow ivy you're smart again) from what the lady at the hospital said they supposedly work exactly like normal knives?
but there are so many things that sawing-cutting would work really poorly for man i just wanna try one of these things. i must be missing something here.
I have some pictures to show the claw, and how to hold a knife, i'll upload them in a few minutes. [Edit:] The Claw! The claw is the way you're supposed to hold onto things your cutting because it helps you avoid cutting yourself. The correct method is to hold the flat side of the knife (when using a chefs knife) against your knuckles, and then cut down from there. Holding the knife against your knuckles like that allows you to easily choose how thick each cut will be. I'd post a video using it, but I would need someone to hold my ipod up and take the video for me, maybe saturday when i'm hanging out with a friend. I noticed when i was holding my knife that my wrist stays flat, at least until i'm cutting, at which point it tilts straight back. Wouldn't you still be making that movement with the knife you posted? It won't let me post the pictures of how i'm holding the knife "The uploaded file is too large." Bah! Bah I say! Maybe its because I edited them into the post, i'll try another post about the knife.
How to hold a knife! (had to retake the pictures to get them to load.) Holding your knife like this should give greater control when cutting, and it also keeps your wrist flat, the only bending that should occur is when you are actively chopping food. I was taught that this is safer, because you can't slip and slide the knife across the board etc, since you have a hold of the blade. you should be holding it by the heel of the blade (the back bit, if anyone wants the know the anatomy of a knife blade I can post that in a bit?)
I know the claw is the way you're supposed to hold food stuff, but I really can't manage it. When I hold food like that it goes slipping and sliding around the cutting board.
I'd figured the knife thing wasn't too friendly for everyone, but I didn't know an alternate way of doing it, or I'd have tried to mention it. Glad other folks knew though! And yeah, the claw is. Indeed a thing. I try to remember to use it when I can.
i think the back tilt of the blade is because you are probably supposed to use your whole arm while cutting? i bet there's youtube tutorials or some shit lemme quickly check
okay idk i can't find any from what I see a lot of the way the "right" way to hold a knife keeps the wrist straight seems to rely on standing up for cuttign veggies or whatever. nnnnnnope
