The Ultimate Guide to Knives: When and Why We Use Each Type

If you’ve bought or received a silverware set, you have table knives. Housed in the silverware drawer with matching forks and spoons, these basic knives are used with a traditional place setting. With mild cutting power, and some serration, they are run-of-the-mill instruments used for getting food to mouth after it’s been placed on the table.

These oddly shaped blades aren’t used for cutting. More of a hard spatula than a knife, these non-essential, but nice-to-have tools are great for butters, jams, cream cheese, and anything else of similar consistency/softness. They perform better than table knives for such things because they often have shorter blades—perfect for spreading butter without destroying your bread.

I love steak. As a result, I know the regular-old table knife described above isn’t going to cut it (pun alert!). When you need something a bit more powerful to handle your table side meat-cutting needs, you use a steak knife. Often serrated but not always, steak knives ensure an easier cut so as not to frustrate you while meat eating. They’re perfect for steaks, chops, and chicken breasts.

Around the holidays, turkeys, hams, and roasts are ultra popular. In order to properly serve meal-sized portions to your guests, you’ll need to slice up the meat. To do this well requires an implement up to the challenge of slicing even, thin, long pieces. Your best bet is to use a slicing or carving knife with a carving fork. Their long, non-serrated blades are perfect for churning out perfect slices of turkey or pork roast.

There aren’t many carbs better than fresh-baked bread, and there aren’t many more unappetizing carbs as a smooshed piece. With a hard outer-crust and warm, soft inside, you’ll need a knife that can handle its versatile cutting needs. Bread knives appear similar in size and shape to carving knives, but they differ in their serrated edges. This serration allows you to easily cut through crust without smooshing the loaf, thus preserving the airy quality and volume of a perfect slice.

This knife is typically pretty large—around an eight-inch blade. If you see a knife in your set that looks like it could be used in a slasher film, that’s likely your chef’s knife. These blades probably get a ton of use. They’re great for chopping and mincing. They can even slice wonderfully if you don’t have a carving knife handy—particularly for something like a pork or beef tenderloin.

As the name suggests, these are pure utility. This versatile knife can slice and chop quite well. Admittedly, this is the one that gets the most use in my house. It’s not as large as the chef’s knife, and might not have the same balance and rock for chopping or dicing that a chef’s knife has, but it’s great for slicing up a small roast, cutting up a cucumber, or halving that monster sub you just made.

If you ever need to do some prep work involving the removal of meat from a bone (think deboning a ribeye steak prior to cooking it for fajitas), I highly recommend using a boning knife. These shorter, thinner, curved blades help you get the appropriate control, angles, and cuts a larger blade won’t.

Another tool for detail work is the paring knife. Shaped like a utility knife, but with a shorter blade, these are great for peeling a zucchini or slicing smaller items like berries, cherries, and grapes.

These massive, heavy, semi-scary looking things are surprisingly versatile. If you’re dealing with large, bone-in cuts of meat you need to cut down before cooking, the meat cleaver will be your best friend. These are great for vertically halving ribs, or cutting up a bone-in prime rib, for instance. Your other knives aren’t made for cutting through large bones, and using them could be unsafe and damaging to the blades. Additionally, because of their weight and varied non-cutting edges, meat cleavers work as great makeshift meat tenderizers too.

I hate slicing tomatoes. Their skin is so tough. The same can be said for peaches and plums. Using any of the knives above could mash the fruit on the way to an unappetizing slice. Luckily, there are knives up to the task. These oddly shaped blades are given away by their twin-horned-looking tips. But this shape, along with their serrated edges make cutting through the tough skin and soft fruit a breeze.

I always wondered what the deal was with the kitchen shears. I just used them to cut open packaging, and things like that. However, if you work with dough, especially thinner dough, for pizzas and pies, kitchen shears come in handy! Additionally, cutting up basil, or something like it, is a snap with these.