Last week, we dedicated our blog post to the traditions behind the Santoku knife. Today, we want to take a more practical approach and list its advantages over a standard knife.
- The Santoku knife is thinner than a regular knife. This means it cuts food more cleanly and crushes it less. So when slicing onions, you’ll likely cry less because the knife won’t squeeze out as much juice.
- The Santoku knife is lighter. This makes working with it much less tiring. You’ll appreciate this, for example, when slicing vegetables into very thin pieces. The Santoku knife tends to chop vegetables rather than slice them, so there’s no need to use the typical rocking motion, making it faster and more efficient to work with.
- A Santoku knife usually has a much smaller blade angle (about 15 degrees compared to 30–40 degrees for a standard knife). This is because one side of the blade is flat and the other side is beveled (like a chisel).
- The Santoku knife has a tall blade that allows for chopping; it doesn’t sink all the way into an onion, for example, and it can also be used as a scoop to easily gather chopped vegetables and transfer them to a pan or pot.
- The fact that the blade’s shape allows for quick slicing doesn’t mean the knife can’t also be used in the traditional way—that is, with a rocking motion.
- The bevels on the sides of the blade prevent food from sticking to it—you’ll especially appreciate this when slicing meat or cheese.
So if you’ve just realized you can’t do without it at home, you can order it here.