A Sharp Knife Is Safer Than a Dull One, and How to Hold It
Here's the thing about knives. Most people are more scared of the sharp ones than the dull ones, and it's backwards. A dull knife is the dangerous one. It slips. You end up pushing harder than you should, the blade skates off the onion instead of going into it, and now it's headed for your thumb with real momentum behind it. A sharp knife goes where you point it. That's the whole safety argument, and I mean it plainly. If you take one thing home from this class, take that one.
I'm not going to pretend I'm a chef, because I'm not, and if you called me one I'd correct you on the spot. But I've cut a lot of onions and garlic and chicken thighs in twelve years of weeknight dinners, and I've never cut myself badly, and it's not because I'm careful in some special way. It's because I keep my knife sharp and I hold my hand right. That's genuinely most of it.
You don't need a fancy knife
One decent chef's knife does the job. Six to eight inches, whatever feels like it belongs in your hand when you pick it up at the store. You don't need a block of eight knives you'll use three of. This is the same opinion I gave you about the pan I bought used, honestly. The recipe doesn't know what your knife cost either.
If yours has been in the drawer for a few years and you've never sharpened it, it's dull. I promise. Even if you don't remember it ever being sharp. A cheap sharpening stone or one of those pull-through sharpeners from the hardware store will get you most of the way there for not much money. Or, for what it's worth, alot of grocery stores will sharpen your knives for a couple bucks if you drop them off. There's no shame in that. I did it for years before I bothered learning the stone myself.
The grip that actually matters
Forget how you've been holding it. Here's what I want you to try.
- Take the knife and instead of wrapping your whole hand around just the handle, move your grip forward so your thumb and first finger are actually pinching the blade itself, right where it meets the handle. Like you're choking up on a bat a little.
- That pinch is what gives you control. Most of the power in a good cut comes from that grip, not from your grip on the handle further back.
- Your other hand, the one holding the food, curls into a claw. Fingertips tucked back, knuckles forward. The flat of your knuckles rides against the side of the blade as you cut. Your fingertips never lead.
- Don't lift the knife way up between cuts. Keep the tip of the blade on the cutting board and rock it, more or less. It's faster and it's safer, because you're not swinging a blade through open air over and over.
That's genuinely it. It feels strange for about a week and then it's just how you hold a knife.
Taste as you go, and how that connects here
I'll be honest, this feels like a strange place to bring up tasting, but stick with me. Joyce is the one who taught me to taste as I go instead of trusting the recipe blind, and I resisted it for months because I figured a recipe was a recipe, it had already been figured out by somebody smarter than me. She kept telling me the same thing every time I cooked something bland: "did you taste it?" And the answer was almost always no.
The reason I bring it up in a knife lesson is this. A lot of tasting-as-you-go depends on you being able to cut a little piece off something and just try it, mid-cook, without drama. A sliver of onion to see if it's sweet yet. A shred of basil to see if it's bruised or bright. If you're scared of your knife, you don't do that. You just follow the recipe and hope. Getting comfortable with a sharp knife in your hand is part of what lets you cook the way Joyce taught me to, which is to say, paying attention instead of just following orders.
A couple of real cautions
Wet hands and wet handles are how knives actually slip out of grip, more than dullness even. Dry your hands before you pick one up. And when you're washing up after, don't just toss a knife in a sink full of soapy water where you can't see it and somebody reaches in blind. Wash it separate, dry it, put it away. That's not me being dramatic, that's just the one habit that prevents the one dumb accident.
Also, don't try to catch a falling knife. I know that sounds obvious written down. People do it anyway, it's instinct. Step back and let it hit the floor.
Before next time
Find your knife, whatever you've got, and just practice the pinch grip and the claw hand on something forgiving, an onion or a carrot, for five minutes before our next class. You're not making anything. Just get your hands used to it.