Kitchen Knife Types and What Each Is For
A chef's knife does most cutting, a paring knife small work and a bread knife saws crusts; boning, fillet, carving and cleaver blades suit meat and fish.
By Amanda RoseContributing writer.
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The short answer
Most home cooking needs only a few knives:
- Chef's knife: the all rounder for chopping, dicing and mincing. Great British Chefs calls it arguably the most important knife of all.
- Paring knife: a small blade for peeling, trimming and other close work.
- Bread knife: a long serrated blade that saws through crusty bread, and also slices cakes.
Every other knife does one job better than these three. Great British Chefs also makes the point that one good all purpose knife beats a drawer of dull, poor ones.
Kitchen knife types chart
Blade lengths below are the typical sizes Tasting Table gives in its guide to knife types. Uses are drawn from both guides.
| Knife | Typical blade | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Paring | About 3 in | Peeling, trimming, removing seeds and blemishes |
| Utility | Under 6 in | Fruit and soft vegetables; serrated versions for bread |
| Nakiri | About 6 in | Straight up and down chopping of vegetables, herbs and garlic |
| Santoku | 6 to 7 in | All purpose prep of vegetables, fruit and meat |
| Chef's | 8 to 10 in | Mincing, dicing and chopping almost anything |
| Bread | Up to about 10 in | Sawing through soft and crusty bread, cakes |
| Fillet | About 6 in for small fish, 8 in or more for large fish | Following the backbone to fillet fish |
| Carving | Up to 14 in | Even slices of roasts, poultry and joints |
| Boning | Varies | Separating meat from bones |
| Cleaver | Varies | Heavy chopping through meat |
Chef's knife vs santoku
Both are all purpose knives. The chef's knife is longer, at 8 to 10 inches; the santoku, a Japanese design, is shorter at 6 to 7 inches. Tasting Table notes it works well on wet produce, and Great British Chefs says its rounded end lets it be used a little like a cleaver. Choose by the size of your hand and the food you cut most.
Knives for meat and fish
- Boning knife: a thin blade that works around bones; Great British Chefs describes it as stiff enough to cut through connective tissue.
- Fillet knife: thinner and flexible, so it can bend along the backbone of a fish. Tasting Table suggests about 6 inches for fish like trout and perch and at least 8 inches for big fish like tuna and halibut.
- Carving knife: a very long blade, sometimes serrated, for slicing cooked joints.
- Cleaver: for chopping through meat. A Chinese chef's knife looks like a cleaver but, as Great British Chefs warns, is not made to cut through bone.
Specialty knives
- Tomato knife: made for slicing tomatoes and lifting the slices; Tasting Table also lists citrus and garnishes.
- Nakiri: a Japanese vegetable knife for straight up and down chopping.
Starting a collection
A knife set is convenient, but check what is inside. A set built around a chef's knife, a paring knife and a bread knife covers most cooking; extra steak knives and specialty blades are optional. Buy single knives later for the jobs you do often, such as a fillet knife if you cook whole fish. Keep blades sharp: a dull knife does none of these jobs well. Knives and knife sets sit in the home and kitchen department.