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Kitchen Scissors and Cooking


snowangel

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I've been a bit more conscious lately about just how often I use these shears in place of the knife. Never mind what kind I have (and never mind that I have two pair in the drawer, and another one on the counter for the family to misplace), but over the years, I've discovered that they do a mighty fine job on a chicken, finely "slicing" green onions, and are invaluable when it comes to hot peppers. For the hot peppers, just hold then by the stem, and make some cuts from tip to end, use the tip of the scissors to scrape out most of the seeds and ribs, and then do some find cross cuts to get a nice dice. Heresy say you? Well, I only have one pair of scissors to clean, and the cutting board is still clean, and I haven't used a pair of plastic gloves, and my hands only need a quick rinse, and I can still take my contact lenses out and re-wear them.

To which cooking tasks have your shears replaced the knife and cutting board?

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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They are definately a great kitchen tool. I second the chicken and the green onions. I cut up pizza and quesadillas with them. When I grill small pieces of meat I use it to cut up servings for kids rather than handing them knives. With my favorite tongs in my left hand and the shears in my right I can get a ton done without dirtying up the board or my hands. Just the other day I picked up the tomatoes out of the can with the tongs and used the shears to snip them into the pan- no tomato juice squirting all over the counter!

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I prefer scissors for cutting chives and my heavy duty ones are very valuable when getting all the meat out of lobsters.

-Mark-

---------------------------------------------------------

"If you don't want to use butter, add cream."

Julia Child

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My Chicago Cutlery kitchen shears are excellent and get daily workouts with all the ch- words: chives, chicken, chiles...

Check -- and I'll add trimming artichoke leaves. Of course, it depends on how a specific ingredient will be used; it's tough to do a decent brunoise with scissors. On the other hand, even my best knife doesn't have a built-in bottle opener or blade screwdriver.

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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I use mine for herbs, green onions and for chopping whole tomatoes while they are still in the can.

Also, when I am at home and eating king crab, snow crab or lobster, I have my scissors on the table so I can easily get every delicious bite of meat. It is easy to eat even snow crab legs if you have scissors. Wish I could carry them to restaurants :raz:

Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent. Epicetus

Amanda Newton

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scissors are pretty much indispensible in the korean kitchen. I use them for the following:

to cut huge sheets of nori of kim into neat little squares

cut huge pieces of baechu or chonggak kimchi into squares or manageble pieces

cut noodles or you can use your chopsticks

cut meat, most notably samgyupsal on the grill

and pretty much anything else.

actually growing up, my family always and still does keep kitchen scissors on the table at pretty much all korean meals. My mother and I cut kimchi at the table with scissors and cut kalbi into pieces or even anything in a panchan that is too bit to eat

BEARS, BEETS, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
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I don't use mine all that often for cutting vegetables, but I do use them for chicken. I also use scissors to cut through the skin on bacon slices to keep them from curling up when frying.

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I agree, the only sensible way to cut up kimchi is using (red-handled, of course) kitchen scissors. That way you save all the yummy juice, instead of getting it all over your cutting board. I also use them for cutting quesadillas, and occasionally for the really soft baguettes we get here in Hanoi.

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Unzipping chicken for al matone, halving a roast duck, parting out a rabbit ... all kinds of things that involve hitting bone and would otherwise be rough on a knife edge. A very useful tool.

If you have a coupon for it, you don't want it.

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To trim pie dough after placing it in the pan.

I hear you RMR! And ditto to what the others have said.

I know I mentioned this before but I never had kitchen scissors before until I came to Korea. I used them all the time and when my parents came over to visit, my mother was impressed how I used it all the time in the kitchen. When my mother went home, she took back two kitchen scissors with her. :smile:

Doddie aka Domestic Goddess

"Nobody loves pork more than a Filipino"

eGFoodblog: Adobo and Fried Chicken in Korea

The dark side... my own blog: A Box of Jalapenos

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