The Pairing Knife

[Raymond1000]

I thought about putting this in Food and Drink. But it certainly counts as traditional, so let’s try it here. One of the first knife using rules is, “Cut away from yourself, not towards.” We all believe it. We all cut ourselves anyway.

But…My mother never used the cutting board and French knife we see experts use in cooking shows. Not for vegetables. Oh, she’d use a board to disarticulate a chicken. To slice vegetables she sat at the kitchen table. She’d hold, say, a potato in her left hand. Her right held a paring knife. First she’d dig out any eyes. Then she’d peel it. Her fingers curled loosely around the knife, edge toward her. Holding the knife flat, to remove a thin slice, she extended her thumb. Then she’d pull the knife towards her thumb, removing skin as she went. The left hand positioned the work. The right hand did the precision work. Again and again, move the thumb, peel some skin, working her way around the tuber. Sometimes she would end up with a single long piece of potato or apple skin dropping into a garbage bowl. Throughout the operation she constantly cut towards that thumb, not away.

Once the potato was naked she might slice it into sticks of the desired size. Not on a board, though. Spud in left hand, she sliced it into sticks. This time she moved the knife towards her left palm. Towards her hand, but never into it. The sticks could be cubed if she was making potato soup. For scalloped potatoes she would slice across the whole potato, again and again. The operation was always the same. Left hand holds the veggie. Right thumb extended to anchor the cut. Fingers pulled the blade through the ‘tater, directly towards her thumb. Just as that sharp edge kissed her thumb the slice or dice fell into its own bowl. I don’t recall her ever cutting herself. She never seemed to think about the danger. She’d just prep whatever vegetable she was working on, then go to the next step.

All the other housewives I knew cut food the same way. At family or neighborhood get togethers you’d see women in the kitchen, sitting around the table, talking and cutting vegetables. Knife edge to thumb. Mom learned to cook from her mother. My Grandmother brought her kitchen skills from the Old Country. We may fairly assume this was a housewifely technique of local peasant farmers, for Grandmother was a goose girl in her youth.

I learned the same technique at my mother’s knee. I haven’t done it for years. I just tried it so I could accurately describe the process. It still works. The sharp paring knife’s edge kisses my thumb without a single nick. I’m forced to conclude that my fingers know what my thumb is doing.

Does anybody else remember this? Did anybody else learn this method food preparation?

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

My mother does it this way, drawing the blade toward her thumb, when slicing fruits & vegetables. So do I, mostly when quartering apples. I was tempted to sharpen up her paring knife a while back; it's quite dull, by my own selfish standard. But I didn't, because I knew I'd kick myself if she got cut on my freshly-sharpened blade. Her paring knife is just dull enough to avoid serious injury, and the thinness of the blade is what accomplishes most of the slicing magic anyway. I've managed to cut myself a time or two, most recently using my own obsessively-sharpened Opinel No. 08, in the same manner. Left a nice cut directly across the joint on the inward side of my thumb. I still do it, though, as I feel I must properly train my hands in the 'art' of the technique. I'm getting better at it.

 

[Txknifefan]

I remember both of my grandmothers cutting vegetables and fruit like you describe. I still see my mom use a knife the same way today when she cooks. I rarely remember ever seeing a cutting board in the kitchen as a child but I know they all had them.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I use a paring knife like that--the key is to have your thumb just slightly off to the side of where the blade travels, and/or take your thumb off the fruit/vegetable at the end of the cut. It can be done completely safely with a very sharp knife--it just has to be done right.

 

[Frostyfingers]

I use a paring knife like that--the key is to have your thumb just slightly off to the side of where the blade travels, and/or take your thumb off the fruit/vegetable at the end of the cut. It can be done completely safely with a very sharp knife--it just has to be done right.

This. If your hand slips and you cut through the medium on accident, your palm will stop the knife before you cut anything you didn't want to cut.

 

[quattromori]

When I read this post, I started thinking about myself; it took me some time to realize that I cut in both ways.
When I'm in the kitchen, and I'm cooking, I use a cutting board for anything.
When I'm sitting at the table having lunch, I cut like David's mother
The funny thing is, I cut the same thing in both ways...if I'm cutting a tomato while preparing salad in my kitchen, I use the cutting board; if I want to cut a tomato while I'm eating, I will cut it with a paring knife while holding it with my hand.
Don't ask me why. I have no idea. I just do it that way. And, as weird as it might sound, I would bet I only cut myself in the kitchen

 

[econnofoot]

My great grandmothe,grandmoth and mother all did it, well my mom still does, and now so do I. It's funny as the ability to 'turn' vegetables and fruits, essentially got me in the door as a pantry chef when I decided I was sick of the industry I was in, and wanted to cook again. It isn't really that hard to do and someone prior pretty much hit the nail on the head as to how to do it. Course it also had me 'tourne' cases of root vegetables too, as no one can do it anymore that goes to culinary school...it's a good skill though and develops confidence. I'm a strong believer in using a carbon steel paring knife in these applications though.

 

[Raymond1000]

Thinking back, my mother first peeled a potato, and then removed the eyes.

Which were easy to spot on a newly peeled spud.

 

[Ryanol]

There a still tons of times that I do this, it's pretty much the only way I use a pairing knife. A couple examples would be slicing strawberries or bananas over a bowl of cereal or carrots over a pot of roiling stock when making soup. The key is to have straight force allowing the pad of the thumb to absorb the blade. It's shearing forces that will get you into trouble.

 

[Raymond1000]

There a still tons of times that I do this, it's pretty much the only way I use a pairing knife. A couple examples would be slicing strawberries or bananas over a bowl of cereal or carrots over a pot of roiling stock when making soup. The key is to have straight force allowing the pad of the thumb to absorb the blade. It's shearing forces that will get you into trouble.

I agree with you, Ryanol.

I had a karate teacher who used to do a trick. He’d lay an apple on the chest or throat of one of his students. Then split the fruit with a katana.

He insisted it was safer than it looked. The katana was designed for a draw cut. A straight chop was an inefficient way to use the blade. So a straight chop, with no draw, made the trick (relatively) less dangerous.

That's much of what keeps us and all those housewives safe.