Basic 'knife skills' for normals (not chefs)

[mattmccaslin]

Adam: be safe with knives.
Also Adam: waves kitchen knife around like he's in a wizard duel.

[cebo]

J Kenji Lopez Alt every once in a while mentions how he and a friend mathematically modeled onion chopping. The gist of it is to do the same "orbital" method you used in this video, but instead of aiming the knife towards the center of the circle, you aim for a point that is slightly below the surface of the table (specifically the golden ratio relative to the radius of the onion or ~1.6x). At least according to Kenji, this gets you the most mathematically evenly sized pieces of onion.

[cargogh]

The only thing I remembered from my brief work at a restaurant 20+ years ago was the "claw grip". It made sense then and I've always used it. Glad I did. Now I'm losing my vision and practice cutting with my eyes closed sometimes for the future. Very useful technique.

[maxwang]

I always cut peppers skin side up, if the knife has difficulty cutting/biting into the skin it just means I need to sharpen it and it also means that if I had done it the other way I would probably have ended up with a bunch of half-cut strips of pepper still connected by a tiny membrane of skin in the back, not ideal.

[Kiwjtastic]

I just realized that I learned the claw grip in high school, had a subject called "Hauswirtschaft" housekeeping, it was 4h per week and we learned all kinds of skills there, like cooking, baking, cleaning, washing clothes etc. and we would prepare our meals once per week ourselves. It's a mandatory thing here in Switzerland (and I suppose in other places too).

[BruceRichardsonMusic]

You know, a year ago, I would have thought: Adam is right. Who needs to use actual knife technique at home? But then I remembered: I'm a musician. I know how to learn complicated physical things. So, instead of going slower with less technique, I did what I do every time I have to practice something hard. I WENT SLOWER USING PROPER TECHNIQUE.

Now, fast forward a year. I love you and your channel, but DUDE!! If you went as slow with proper technique for a year as you've gone the last year using scary technique, you would be FLYING by now. You were much faster than me one year ago. I am much faster AND safer than you now.

So, this is my friendly push-back. You actually freely acknowledge that you have to slow down or you'll surely hurt yourself. Just one year with starting slow on claw grip, etc., I am totally facile with it.

And you don't have to believe me. Because unlike public-domain information on chef techniques, there is a TON OF RESEARCH on how to imprint musical skills. And it all boils down to this: You never have to practice fast. You should not ever practice fast. Because it doesn't make you better. Only practicing slow makes you better. Imprinting trumpet, piano, bass...or knife skills depends on you going slow enough that you imprint PERFECT TECHNIQUE. If you try to play fast before you imprint the physical memory, you don't imprint anything except imperfection. And likewise, by approaching knife technique exactly the way I'd practice any instrumental technique--I didn't waste any time perfecting it. Nor did I practice going fast. I purposely did it slow, and never sped up.

Until one day, mindlessly, I threw an onion on the cutting board, and without even catching myself, I blazed through it like Jacques Pepin. I stood there, stunned, wondering if that had just actually happened. But it did. I had perfected great knife technique just like I perfected playing Donna Lee. I held my tempo down, even when I wanted to speed up, and repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated--never speeding up. And then, one day, without thinking about it, wham. I flew.

Want a challenge from a viewer? Well here it is. You're not going to be one bit slower than you are right now using claw grip, so try it for a year. And then, be amazed that one year later you can blaze through an onion while barely looking down and you will know exactly how big the dice is, because it doesn't depend on your eyes. You've cemented technique, and tricked your brain into acing it.

WIth love, my brother. You are right about so many things, but I think you've deluded yourself on this. Technique always matters.

[mattsnyder]

The number 1 safety tip I ever got with a knife was “more slide, less press.”

If it’s not going through, more slide, less press. Sharp or not, when you’re finding yourself putting more weight on the knife to push it through the food, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

[nefariousyawn]

I still practice the claw grip as a means to avoid cutting my fingers, even though I left kitchen work years ago. It doesn't feel that unnatural after some practice. My commitment to it was cemented by actually cutting the tip of my index finger off after getting slightly distracted by something or other.

[Jeremyisthings]

Came here to say I appreciate Adam saying “this knife is more expensive than others of same quality”. Makes me want to buy it more since I know he’s not trying to be a snake oil salesman; just telling us the realities of a branded, low volume product. It’s more about supporting him than getting the “absolute cheapest value”

[mattr]

Adam is the only YouTuber that proudly teaches you to be lazy and wrong about everything. Such aspirational content.

[LimitedWard]

Adam you completely overlooked one very important knife tip: secure your cutting board! It takes zero effort, and it makes everything safer while also reducing aggravation. If your cutting board doesn't have any rubber feet, you can buy some adhesive ones for super cheap. I personally like using non-slip drawer liner. I buy them in rolls and then cut out rectangles to match the area of my boards.

Edit: I should also note a heavier cutting board also makes a huge difference. Even in this video, I noticed your cutting board sliding around despite the rubber strips on the sides. That's because your board is so thin that there's not enough weight to hold it in place.

[ObiClarke]

Once you’ve cut with a sharp knife, anything less sharp will never feel the same…

[uspockdad]

The one knife tip that seemed counter intuitive to me when I started as a cook in high school; sharper knives are safer knives.

The sharper your knife is, the easier it cuts stuff. As you mentioned, once the knife bites in, it’s much safer. And, if you do happen to cut yourself, it is a much cleaner cut that heals much more quickly.
So that is always the biggest tip I pass along to newer cooks.

[AureusIgnis]

Hey Adam! Quick pepper tip: if you're intending on doing an entire pepper, you can top and tail the pepper so you're left with a cylinder. The seeds are easy to remove by hand if the stem is still largely intact. From there, you can place a single vertical cut to split the pepper into a wide sort of pepper-leather, where you can easily move your knife across the surface to take out any of the white ridges. Also gives enough space to not have any rocking problems!

[elskieuwu]

The most adam ragusea thing i have ever seen is stirring soup with a knife so he doesnt have to get another utensil dirty. I love it

[leostreet]

I understand completely the things you point out about knife skills and the claw method, but I actually use the claw method not for speed (I also do a "walking chop"), but because, as you said, it helps to stabilise the knife, the food and it makes virtually impossible to cut yourself, especially if you go slow. If you are a person who are super uncomfortable with a knife and get anxious using it, the claw method can help you overcome that! Just don't focus on speed, the home cook doesn't need it.

[playerSD]

Even as a home cook, I think the claw grip is super easy to learn and the most safe - once you understand it. Took me years to learn that fingers should not be parallel to the blade, but be in a curled state like a triangle. With mit right hand and side of the blade I push mildly against my last knuckle of my middle and surrounding fingers. That way my fingertips on the left hand are always out of the way and more importantly the knife cannot slip off of round stuff or wabble, because I am literally guiding the side of the blade with some left hand knuckles all the time. Also - my knuckle never leaves the side of the blade, knuckle and knife are a unit while I cut. This is what made the claw grip way less awkward to me. I converted to this after a horrendous cut to my left thumb with a new and insanely sharp Japanese knife while trying a horizontal cut to an onion (which I've never done again - I don't care for uneven onion pieces).

Is still go slow, that's the most important part. Over time however it started to feel more and more natural and easy, at this point I am regularly stopping myself from becoming too speedy. Not doing the same mistake again - saving 20 seconds max a night is not worth another awful cut.

[KidPrarchord]

I found the claw-grip worth-while to learn for the sole reason of me being extremely impatient.

Edit: Thought I should clear this up a bit. I don't disagree with Adam's assesment; I just wish to express that it doesn't apply to *all* home cooks.

[fiona]

I love you refusal to engage with home professionalism! Far to many youtube cooks make preparing food seem unnecessarily difficult and complex. I very much enjoy your attitude of- it might be 'wrong' but it works for me so who cares!

[danielbader]

I think the clawgrip is worthwhile to learn for several reasons:

• Not all time is equal. It's true you generally have time to spare in a home kitchen, but sometimes ingredients that you haven't prepared needs to be added quickly.
• Safer. While I agree that not using it can be pretty safe too, using the claw is never less safe (except possibly if you forget the thumb).
• It isn't that difficult! Yes, it takes a long time to master but it doesn't take long at all before you get over the initial discomfort and it becomes very usefull. When I made the switch it took two days before I couldn't go back and I generally learn those things very slowly. One of the best investments of time I've ever done in the kitchen.
• As a bonus, it also helps with helping you hold the blade perfectly perpendicular to the cutting surface. And also, it's pretty fun.