Basic Knife Skills
Chopped Mushroom Stems and Onions
Basic knife skills are one of the most important things to learn when you first start learning to cook. Not only are knife skills necessary for properly preparing ingredients for recipes, but they also make cooking much safer since there’s less chance that you’ll cut yourself.
When I first started cooking, since I was mostly self taught, I thought that all the prep time I was spending cutting, chopping and dicing, was just a normal part of the recipe (that and the ocassional hand cramp from not holding the knife properly). Some recipes, like Spicy Stuffed Mushrooms, required so much time to prepare that as much as I enjoyed them, it was a lot of effort. Little did I know that if I actually knew how to properly chop, I would be able to cut the prep time by more than half. Today, now that I know better, I have no problem cutting, slicing and dicing my way through any ingredient list.
But, as I’ve already mentioned, I did not learn any basic knife skills until many years after I started cooking, and that was actually by accident (lucky me). I happen to be watching a Jacques Pepin cooking show, and he devoted the majority of this particular show to basic knife techniques. Although I could not find that original footage, I did come across Chef Tomm who demonstrates and explains the most basic knife techniques. I hope you enjoy it.