A paring knife, garnishing knife, or sometimes also called a utility knife, is a versatile tool found in everyone's kitchen. It is a multi-purpose knife, which means it is best for garnishing, peeling, mincing, slicing, chopping, and coring a variety of foods. Just like artists make paintings with different brushes, chefs make delicious dishes with sharp and clever knives.
It is a mini-chef knife with 8-13 cm length and a pointed blade. They feature a straight edge or serrated handle for handling a variety of everyday tasks. A paring knife comes in the following styles:
1. Bird’s beak
2. Spear point
3. Sheep’s foot
The styles of paring knives are named according to the tip of the blade.
Among the wide variety of knives, a paring knife is an important part of a chef’s knife set. Read on to know what you will learn through this article:
1. Uses of the paring knife
2. How to choose a paring knife
3. Price of a paring knife
What Are The Uses of Paring Knives?
Due to its small size, it is an ideal option for doing a variety of tasks. Read on to know some versatile uses of paring knives:
1. It is used for chopping, slicing, and mincing cloves, garlic, shallots, and a variety of herbs.
2. Best for peeling off a potato, apple, or tomato in one long and curly strip.
3. Last but not least, a paring knife is the best option for supreming. Supreming is also known as segmenting. It is the process of removing the pith and peel of citrus fruits.
4. It is used for hulling of fruits like strawberries and trimming the meat fat and ribs from pepper. Furthermore, a paring knife is the best option for cleaning shrimps.
5. Lastly, it is best for scoring.
How to Choose a Paring Knife?
Before buying a paring knife, you should consider several important factors. Interested to know about them? Continue reading!!!
1. Get to know which material is used in manufacturing a paring knife, whether it is made of carbon steel or stainless steel. Carbon steel can suffer from rust or oxidation. On the other hand, stainless steel can last long.
2. Know your needs. Choose a paring knife of appropriate blade length. A paring knife with a 4-inch blade length is the best option for peeling, trimming, slicing, and other detail work.
3. Maintain the sharpness of the knife. A whetstone can help you maintain the sharpness of a paring knife.
What is the Price Range of a Paring Knife?
The price of a paring knife ranges from a few dollars to a hundred dollars. You can get the best paring knife for under $50. If you want a professional chef paring knife, it will definitely cost you above $50. Furthermore, the country where they are made also plays an important role in estimating their price.
The most expensive with top-notch quality parking knives come from Germany and Japan. Both German and Japanese paring knives are made up of high-quality stainless steel. However, you can also find inexpensive paring knives with nice quality from Victorinox, Switzerland.