How do you slice a banana?

J

Jakabuda

Joined
Nov 2, 2010
Messages
4
No, I'm not kidding or being a smart aleck. I've read posts about how ill advised it is to slice vegetables or something like an apple toward your thumb and I agree with the idea. But, today when I was slicing my banana into my cereal, I noticed that I was doing that exact thing. I hadn't ever thought about it; just have always done it that way. The question then crossed my mind, if there are many who don't slice a banana in this exact same way. If not, how do you do it?
Jack
 
I don't slice bananas. I just peel and eat.

There's a saying. Cut towards your buddy, not your body. Cutting towards your body will make you bloody.
 
in the case of a banana for cereal, switch to a kitchen (table) knife, it'll save yer thumb. Otherwise, use a cutting board (as previously mentioned) and tuck the ends of your fingers under, may keep you from tagging your fingertips.
 
dipbait said:
Just use a butter knife.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::thumbup:

Using two thumbs up, cuz with a butter knife you don't have to worry about losing a thumb :D


Unless of course, some of you extreme knife knutts get your butter knives hair poppin' sharp? :p
 
I find lots of rules are made for those that don't pay attention. Most people I know use dull knives, the wrong knife and unsafe techniques. I was the same, till I worked in the culinary industry. Even then, I had plenty accidents and a learning curve.
I cut towards my thumb, when it's a thin knife. I'll use a cutting board if it's already on the counter, and I have a larger knife.
A butter knife can slice a banana, not much danger there.
 
From the bottom up of course....why do you ask ??

The slice falls off the knife and its much faster than from the top down.
 
You can get one of these at the grocery store. Usually in the cereal isle.

banana-slicer.jpg


;)
 
holding the knife with your fingers, except the thumb of course, you squeeze the knife in hand, but in a way that the thumb stays under and away from the edge
the thumb is used to apply pressure on the material being cut, and you cut only with the squeeze motion, always above the thumb, and the edge never reaches your hand, because the motion always ends in something like a hammer grip.
 
I cut toward my thumb, and I'm not going to stop until I cut myself. I won't say, "I don't think it's unsafe, everyone is wrong," I'm just saying I'm not worried about it and that I probably will some day when I slice my thumb open...

'Til then, what I do is grab the back of the blade with my index finger, and put the bananna on the edge and kind of "pinch", pressing the banana further down the blade with my thumb. I think it's more controlled than cutting with the knife because once I'm almost all the way through I can seriously reduce the pressure until the edge gently glides the rest of the way through until I can just barely feel it poke through the banana. A knife would have to be air bleeding sharp to cut me this way... Or some kid/dog/cat would have to run in the kitchen make me jump and flinch or something.

Most days when I'm thinking I just use a butter knife. However, that's the safest way of endangering myself I've found.
 
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I peel the banana, leaving a strip of peel still attached. Then I slice, using the skin as the cutting boar.
 
One of the people I lived with in Vietnam was a Korean girl who would literally peel one piece of the banana back, then use chopsticks to sort of cut it into slices, then pick up the slices, out of the banana peel, with chopsticks and eat it.

It was pretty bizarre. Very overengineered eating habit.
 
It is okay to cut towards your thumb for this particular technique. Do it the same way you would to peel or pare a piece of fruit. Since the same hand that is doing the cutting is also the hand with the thumb being cut towards, you cant really create enough force to seriously hurt yourself, generally speaking. Use your other hand only to stabilize the fruit and keep it clear of the cutting path.

I have seen guys do things with chainsaws that is much more dangerous:p.
 
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Either of two ways:

Put the whole peeled banana in the cereal and cut off bites with a spoon as I'm eating.
Peel the banana and hold it upright and cut off pieces from the top to drop into the bowl.
 
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