Corduroy Orange

I will have much more knife skills instructional material up quite soon. I’ve got reams of photos and I’m writing the descriptive text that will give you some insight into how to wield your knife with utmost efficiency. In the meantime, however, here’s a short video to whet your appetite.

In it, I’m cutting battonet-cut potatoes (think french fries) down to become small-diced potatoes. Notice how I have the stack of battonets neatly arranged as if they were still part of a whole potato. Keeping your vegetables stacked neatly is one of the keys of cutting them efficiently because it allows you to maintain better control over them.

If you’d like personalized instruction to help you achieve the same results in your own kitchen, I still have a couple of spaces open for my first knife skills training this Sunday, September 10, at 2:30 PM. The cost is $10 to cover materials and equipment. We’ll eat a meal cooked with everything we cut. If you register, please let me know if you’ll need to borrow a knife (recommended if you don’t have a high carbon, stainless steel knife of your own).

Hello, Pittsburgh!

I hope everyone has read about how to hold your knife properly. I plan on having a post on using the knife properly up in the next week. Once everyone has read that, we should be ready for some hands-on practice. The first Pittsburgh Knife Skills class will be held at my house (contact me if you don’t know where it is, but I’m not going to post my address on the internet) on Sunday, September 10, 2006 at 2:30 PM. The cost will be $10 per person and will include a demonstration of proper technique, one-on-one tutorial, and a meal created from the vegetables we cut. Recipes that we cook will be posted on the blog.

Please register early, because space is limited. When registering, let me know if you will need to borrow a knife for the class. If you do not have a high-carbon, stainless steel chef’s knife, I recommend that you borrow one. I look forward to seeing you there!

The tool that you are using is dangerous. it is designed to cut through flesh. Preferably animal flesh, but given the opportunity, it will cut your flesh just as smoothly. As you embark on your quest to use your knife properly, you will inevitably feel the sting of the blade. At first, you may even cut yourself more often than you are accustomed to being injured. Do not despair. With practice, you will overcome your difficulties and display both speed and grace in the kitchen as you prepare your meals.

The first step on the road to cutlery competence is developing the proper grip. Doing so is a two-handed affair. Somewhat surprisingly to a new student, you do not want your hand to be entirely on the handle. Rather, grip the top of the blade with your thumb and forefinger. Doing so helps you to exercise better control over the knife so that it goes where you want it to when you want it to go there. Be careful not to wrap your fingers all the way around the blade: if you grip the cutting edge, it will cut you.

Wrap your other three fingers around the handle. You are now halfway to having the proper knife grip.

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I don’t live in Pittsburgh, but I could use some knife-skills instruction. I cut myself pitting an avocado the other day. I’d like to avoid more incidents of that kind in the future; bloody avocado doesn’t taste very good.

I want to have my first actual knife skills instructional post up within the next two days, so take a look back soon and there should be something to help you. As far as pitting an avocado goes, it can be a tricky thing to do. The culinary school instructional book tells you to hold the half with the pit in your hand and take a whack at the pit with your knife. Sounds like a great way to slash your wrist to me.

I hope your cut wasn’t anywhere near that serious. To avoid lacerations, I put the half with the pit on the cutting board and (with neither hand anywhere near it) take a whack at the pit with my knife. What’s supposed to happen is that the knife sticks into the pit and you can just twist it out, but if the knife happens to glance off the avocado pit, the worst thing you can do is gouge your cutting board, not commit inadvertant suicide.

Have a culinary question? Email me! I will respond in a future post.

Hi Jesse,

Thanks for the link to your new blog. Will you have a knife skills class? I’d pay you to show me what I should be doing with my knives. (I would also bring my own knives.) I bet you could solicit a handful of people.

Janice

Dear Janice:

That’s not a bad idea. If other people are also interested, I’d be glad to. Anyone participating could expect inexpensive, hands-on training; personalized assistance with their knife skills; and a class that would culminate in the preparation and eating of a tasty meal. So what say you, Pittsburgh? Anyone interested, please post a comment!