Paring Knives

[Matt_T]

OK, collected wisdon says you can get by with two knives: a large cook's knife of some type, and a paring knife. The various types of cook's knives - French, German, Santuko, Gyuto, Chinese cleaver - have been pretty well covered here. But what about the paring knives? What's up with all the styles?

Why would someone want a sheepsfoot paring knife? It looks like it's meant for chopping on the board....by someone without knuckles. The birds beak I think I understand, but what about these newish parers that look like tiny santukos?

I've probably bought a dozen parers of various shapes and sizes at the discount store in recent years, for my home kitchen and for work, and have decided my personal favorite for what I tend to use a paring knife for is a spear or clip point about 3.25" long. But I'm wondering about these other shapes....there must be some techniques I've never heard of that they're intended for.

Anybody care to run down the uses for the various types of parers, or point to an article somewhere that discusses them?

MT

Edited July 24, 2007 by Matt_T (log)

[Matt_T]

And by the way I have seen the quick rundowns manufacturers provide on the applications for the different types....for example this page from Wusthof. I'm wondering more about personal experiences, reasons why I should shop for more paring knives to try new tricks with.

MT

[Darren72]

Cooks Illustrated recently tested a variety of pairing knives. Their full report is only available to subscribers to the website, www.cooksillustrated.com.

Here is a free summary of their report, via MSNBC

Pairing knife

Why you need it: When you need more dexterity and precision than a chef's knife can provide  — such as when you're peeling and coring apples, coring tomatoes, deveining shrimp, or removing patches of fat from a roast.

What to look for: The blade should be flexible for easy maneuvering in tight spots (such as tomato cores) or for handling curves (when peeling apples).

Best buy: Forschner Victorinox Fibrox 3.25-Inch Paring Knife ($4.95 at cutleryandmore.com)

Our testers loved the great flexibility of this knife, which slid under silver skin on a roast easily and turned the curve of an apple nicely. Knife is very lightweight and blade is super-thin and razor-sharp.

I have a slightly larger version of this knife that also has a wood handle. I love it. I think it was $10.

[srhcb]

I have several paring knives, but about the only thing I ever use one for is cutting a cold stick of butter in half to fit into my butter dish.

SB (Pares not, lest he be pared )

[russ parsons]

hmm, i use a paring knife and a chef's knife almost equally. i use the paring knife for a lot of vegetable work and, of course, mincing garlic and shallots. the one i've got is about 6 inches long, carbon steel, an old French knife that seems to fit my hand better than any other knife i own.

[weinoo]

hmm, i use a paring knife and a chef's knife almost equally. i use the paring knife for a lot of vegetable work and, of course, mincing garlic and shallots. the one i've got is about 6 inches long, carbon steel, an old French knife that seems to fit my hand better than any other knife i own.

←

Wow, at that length is it still called a paring knife, Russ?

And is a paring knife called a "petty" knife in Japan?

[russ parsons]

it is by me. what else would you call it? and actually, i just measured it and it's 7 1/4 inches long--although 4 1/4 inches of that is handle. it's very thin, about 3/8 at the widest.

[Palladion]

it is by me. what else would you call it? and actually, i just measured it and it's 7 1/4 inches long--although 4 1/4 inches of that is handle. it's very thin, about 3/8 at the widest.

Oh, ok. So the blade is only three inches long. When I read your original post, I also thought that you were talking about a knife with a blade 6 inches long.

I think Japanese petty knives tend to be a little longer than Western paring knives, say, 4.5 to 5.5 inches or so.

[Octaveman]

A few Japanese makers do have small "paring" knives but most stick to "petty's" that start at about 110mm and go to 150mm. Shun, Hattori, Misono, Al Mar, Kasumi, MAC, Dojo make small parers starting around 70mm (2.75").

[paulraphael]

Unlike chef's knives, I'm happy to use just about any pairing knife as long as it's sharp. When I finally had to put a new edge on mine (a 3-1/2" Schaff) I tapered it to 15 degrees ... very sharp. This would be too fragile for a lot of purposes, but I only use the pairing knife for light duty things like coring and trimming. So it holds up fine.

I find this makes a big difference ... allows me to do things like cut out stems of strawberries with almost no pressure, just by turning the berry into the blade. This kind of task feels a lot safer when you don't ever have to push hard.