Enjoy cooking with the right knives

A good, basic set of knives is a must, even for the smallest kitchen or the most infrequent cook. Good knives will make food preparation faster and easier and the best will last for many years. Follow this guide to find out which will best suit your needs.

Paring knife

A small knife for the preparation of small vegetables or fruit. The blade is 7-10cm long and is firm with a sharply pointed end for picking out pips and eyes.

Utility knife

A general purpose knife with a serrated edge and blade about 13cm long. It is used to cut and trim meat and larger vegetables and can be used to prepare sandwiches.

Bread knife

Bread knives have rigid serrated or scalloped edges, or a combination of the two. This type of blade allows the knife to cut through a hard crust on a loaf without tearing or squashing the softer centre – this also makes it the best knife for slicing tomatoes!

Carving knife

A carving knife has a 20-26cm flexible blade with a sharply pointed tip to help free meat from the bone. The blade can be pain or serrated.

Boning knife

Designed for removing bones from raw meat and poultry, this knife has a narrow, rigid blade which curves upwards, making it easy to work the blade around the bones.

Cleaver

A cleaver has a strong, thick heavy blade with a slightly curved edge and is used to chop meat and sever and prepare joints but should not be used to chop through large bones. Use a saw instead.

Carving fork

Carving forks are designed to stop meat from moving about on the dish while being carved and come with a guard to protect your hand in case the knife slips. They can be sold separately or as part or a set consisting of a carving knife, fork and sharpening steel.

Cook's knife

Cook's knives are good all-purpose knives which help you tackle larger scale chopping jobs. They come in several sizes.