A different grip and a different job
A chef's knife is a board tool. The food sits still and the blade moves down through it, guided by the other hand.
A paring knife is a hand tool. The food is held in one hand and the blade works towards the thumb, in small controlled movements. That is why it is short — a long blade in the hand is unwieldy and dangerous — and why it needs a comfortable handle more than a heavy one.
Almost every job that genuinely needs a paring knife is one where the food is not on a board.
What it is actually for
- Peeling awkward things — ginger, shallots, garlic, a knobbly celeriac, a mango — where a peeler cannot follow the shape.
- Hulling strawberries and coring tomatoes.
- Segmenting citrus, cutting between the membranes.
- Deveining prawns and trimming fat and silverskin from meat.
- Scoring — pastry, dough, the fat cap on a joint, a cross in the base of a tomato before blanching.
- Trimming and detail work — removing eyes from a potato, tidying a fillet, splitting a vanilla pod.
- Testing doneness by piercing a vegetable or a joint.
- Not chopping. It has no length, no weight and no rocking action.
The shapes
- Straight paring knife
- The standard. Around 8 to 10cm, straight edge, pointed tip. Does nearly everything.
- Bird's beak or turning knife
- Curved blade for peeling round things and for shaping vegetables. Specialist and lovely to use.
- Sheepsfoot paring knife
- Flat edge, blunt-ish tip. Better on a board, worse in the hand.
- Serrated paring knife
- For tomatoes and citrus. Cheap, effective and does not need sharpening.
- Length
- Anything much over 10cm stops being controllable in the hand.
Using it safely in the hand
- Hold the food in your non-dominant hand with your thumb positioned as a stop, not in the path of the blade.
- Grip the knife with your thumb on the spine or the side of the blade for control.
- Work the blade towards your thumb in short strokes, with the thumb braced against the food rather than exposed.
- Keep the cutting action small. Long sweeping cuts in the hand are how people get hurt.
- For peeling round fruit, turn the fruit against the blade rather than moving the blade round the fruit.
- Put it down between jobs rather than holding it while doing something else.
- Keep it sharp. A blunt paring knife slips off skin, and it slips towards your hand.
Common questions
Do I need a paring knife if I have a chef's knife?
For anything done in the hand rather than on a board, yes. They are not substitutes.
How long should it be?
Eight to ten centimetres. Longer than that stops being controllable in the hand.
Is a peeler better for peeling?
For long even surfaces, yes. For awkward shapes and small jobs, a paring knife follows the contour better.
What is a turning knife?
A small curved blade for peeling round things and shaping vegetables. A specialist pleasure rather than a necessity.
Should it be expensive?
No. It is a knife most people replace or lose, and a modest one performs well if kept sharp.
Try this next
- Chef's knife the board knife
- Peeler the alternative for long surfaces
- Chopping what this knife is not for
- Grapefruit segmenting, where it earns its place