You may have recently purchased a Damascus steel Chef’s knife or Santoku and have been impressed with its performance and durability. Perhaps you are looking for other Damascus additions to your kitchen utensil set? Or perhaps you are simply interested in learning more about all the available options. Read on as we list all the Damascus kitchen knife types and how they can help you during your next kitchen prep.
Breaking down the Damascus Kitchen Knife Types
The Chef Knife
Considered one of the most versatile knives, the Chef's knife is a must for any amateur cook who intends on performing a wide range of tasks during kitchen prep. Even the professional chef’s amongst us consider the chef knife a must-have.
What should you use the chef knife for:
- Chopping and dicing vegetables
- Slicing fruits
- Deboning meat
- Fileting fish
- And so much more!
The Santoku Knife
While similar to a chef knife in some ways, the Santoku knife is shorter, thinner and lighter. Thanks to a straighter, flatter blade the technique adopted to use a santoku most effectively is an up and down chopping motion. Much like the chef knife it can be used for all-purposes.
What should you use the santoku knife for:
- Chopping and dicing vegetables
- Slicing fruits
- Deboning meat
- Precision tasks like mincing
- And so much more!
The Utility Knife
Like the name suggests, the Utility knife is great as a general-use implement and capable of accomplishing a wide range of tasks. It’s smaller size (approximately 5 inches in length) makes it the perfect tool for chopping and slicing smaller vegetables, chopping smaller cuts of meat, as well as peeling fruits.
What should you use the utility knife for:
- Cutting produce with soft skins (eg. tomatoes and oranges)
- Cutting medium blocks of cheese and helping prepare fruit platters
- Rough cutting herbs and vegetables
- Cutting chicken breasts and slicing smaller fish filets
The Vegetable Cleaver
Highly prominent when displayed on your kitchen knife stand, the vegetable cleaver is, quite simply, a kitchen beast. Easily recognizable thanks to its rectangular shaped blade, the cleaver has many functions and is more than just a vegetable cutter. It can be used to chop-up large stir-fries, and carve through meat (but keep it away from the bones). Last but not least it makes vegetable chopping an absolute breeze.
What should you use the vegetable cleaver for:
- Carving through meat cartilage in products like poultry and game
- Chopping and slicing vegetables
- Slicing up stir-fries and other large combination dishes
The Paring Knife
Small in size but large in presence, the paring knife is ideal for precision tasks and is most people’s preference for performing such tasks over the chef or santoku knife. It is extremely effective at finely slicing smallish produce, removing seed, peeling fruits, and much more. Just make sure to keep it away from larger meats and produce.
What should you use the paring knife for:
- Julienning small vegetables
- Peeling products like tomatoes, fruits, and cooked potatoes
- Deveining shrimps
- Removing pepper seeds
- Loosening cakes from their tins post cook
The Serrated Bread Knife
A lengthy knife with serrated edges, the bread knife is the ideal utensil to carve through breads and other baked goods. They are also very effective when used to cut through large produce like watermelons and squash.
What should you use the serrated bread knife for:
- Carving through crusty and soft breads
- Slicing up cake into cleanly cut, even pieces
- Cutting through difficult to breach produce like watermelon
- Breaking down chocolate into smaller pieces
The Steak Knife
While they can be used in the kitchen prep stage, the steak knife comes alive when used after the meal has been served. There is a reason restaurants serve these knives alongside a steak! Sharp and solid in design, the steak knife can cut through cooked meat in an effortless fashion and help make the eating experience all the more enjoyable.
What should you use the steak knife for:
- Carving through a cooked meat while eating
- Carving through other hard to cut meats like pork chops and poultry
The Boning Knife
As the name suggests, the boning knife is the perfect utensil to eradicate bones from raw meats. It is largely thanks to the narrow, flexible blade and pointed tip that helps penetrate through connective tissues and joints. In addition, it can also be used to remove the skin from fish.
What should you use the boning knife for:
- Deboning thick cuts of beef, pork and other game
- Removing skin from fish in a tidy manner
- Cutting through tougher pieces of meat
The Carving Knife
You don’t need to wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas to make use of your carving knife. Anytime that you’ve cooked a larger cut of meat such as roast turkey, beef or pork, your carving knife will be very useful. The reason lies in the narrow blade and pointed tip that offers less resistance to a chef knife and other utensils. The result is generally thin, uniform cuts that look fantastic when plated up.
What should you use the carving knife for:
- Cutting thinner slices of roast turkey or chicken
- Carving denser meats in the post cooking stage
- Sparingly used for slicing certain fruits in the absence of a paring knife
The Kitchen Shears
Often overlooked, take apart kitchen shears are also worthy of a place on the list of kitchen knife types even though they technically aren’t. They are essential for performing kitchen tasks that save on time and effort and the come apart feature makes cleaning a simple task to perform!
What should you use the kitchen shears for:
- Snipping and chopping fresh herbs
- Trimming dough into shapes and smaller sizes
- Spatchcocking poultry
- Cutting normally messy items like bacon
- Cracking nuts
- Opening bottles when the bottle opener goes missing