The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

serve different purposes. Here are the main features of most knives: The Cutting Edge is the sharpened, ...

through the handle. It provides balance as well as sturdiness. A knife with a full tang (that is, metal ...

The Handle Grip: With the handle grip, your hand is completely behind the heel of the knife, with all ...

The Blade Grip: The blade grip is the preferred grip for more experienced cooks. Your thumb and fo ...

relentlessly macho), I made the switch and saw an immediate and dramatic improvement in ...

For mincing, a different approach is required. Place the tip of your knife on the cutting board and hold ...

Which Knife Style Is Superior? The difference between Japanese- and Western- style knives used to be ...

knives, I found that I much preferred the precision they offered, and that their inability to p ...

The key difference in how the two types of knives are used is that with a Western-style knife, rocking, plan ...

key: forget every review you’ve ever read. Once you get past a certain quality level, no si ...

Cons: There’s no bolster or heel, so using the blade grip for a long time on this one m ...

Swedish steel, which is extremely sharpenable and will hold an edge for a long, long time. Although ...

Pros: A very sharp blade, comfortable handle, and easy maneuverability. Cons: The blade is tough to sharpen, a ...

precise, and less chance for user error are all pluses in my book. The same reasoning applies even more ...

don’t feel the need to make sure my bread knife fits my hand like a glove. And since serr ...

foot—an extra bit of metal jutting out of the heel—which you can use to scrape meat and ...

things. A Y-Shaped Vegetable Peeler A regular vegetable peeler has a blade aligned with the han ...

has been pushed off to the side. That’s where a honing steel comes in. When used properly, a steel wi ...

(polyethylene) and wood are the only ones you should consider. A glass cutting board is like ...

the dough to spend? A plastic one is not ideal, but it will do just fine. The OXO Good Grips 15-by-21-inch ...