Usefulness of a paring knife

Hi,

I have been looking into the uses of a paring knife and keep thinking that you are better off using a petty or a vegi peeler. Is there still a role for this knife in the modern kitchen? What can it do better than the above 2?

I like using a paring knife when I peel oranges. I like to cover all but the last 1/4" or so of the tip and make longitudinal scores in the skin. They're also handy to remove the eyes from potatoes, bad spots from apples. Frankly, I'm on the lookout for just the right paring knife now. I don't use a paring knife that often, but then I don't use any of my sujis that often either but I'm sure glad I have them when I need them.

I'm just a person who really enjoys nice cooking utensils in the kitchen such as carbon steel woks, cast iron skillets,DO's etc...... Recently I've began researching and buying some quality knives. I have the following paring knives - victorinox, henckle 3.5, wusthof classic 3.5, shun premier 4 inch, Mac 4 in santoku and last but not least a Tojiro DP 4 inch paring knife. I primarily use my paring knives for peeling, garlic, ginger, mini bell peppers, jalapeno's, serrano's, habenero's etc..... the best of the group I have by far as an all around paring knife is hands down the Tojiro which I picked up for only $39. It is like butter with these items and it can be used to chop like the 4in Mac santoku except it does it better. I enjoy using my paring knives at home for small jobs and finer dicing, chopping and slicing etc...

My misono fruit knife ($25 @ Korin) is the most used knife in my house. For some reason I just don't like the petty all that much.

In my kitchen, the paring knife is in my top three most used knives. It's indispensible, IMO. I do, however, almost never use a petty.

Interesting. My wife uses only a chef knife. I on the other side just grab whatever in the drawer at the time. Considering the time we take cooking I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to invest in the right tools to make it easier and more enjoyable. But not sure what to get.

Currently thinking
Gyuto
Nakiri
Paring or petty or both

What do you think?

You don't really need a nakiri, your gyuto will do the same job. Unless of course you just really want one. I prefer a paring knife above a petty personally. A bread knife is also good to have.

I reach for a paring knife quite often. Great for deboning work on birds, supreming citrus, dressing birds and small fish, game, etc. With a sheath some of mine would be excellent EDCs. I wouldn't be without at least one.

My peeler and petties are ground very differently. No need for a parer.

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/15749-German-asymmetry-a-peeler-knife?highlight=

You can accomplish just about any task in the kitchen with only 3 knives. Gyuto, parer and bread knife. I have a few additional ones that I think really round it out for me personally.

Gyuto
Parer
Bread knife
Fillet (great for silver skin removal)
Serrated sandwich knife (I make a lot of sandwiches and it's easier than pulling out the bread knife)
Carving knife

I use a parer (but not the KD) to poke little holes in the frozen veggie bags to let the steam out before you microwave 'em.

Paring knife is probably the one I use the least. Most anything I think about doing with a paring knife I feel more comfortable or enjoy doing better with a gyuto or more likely a petty.

One thing that immediately comes to mind where I pretty much need a paring knife though are such as making fresh jalapeno poppers. I don't like to cut them in half so I cap them and remove the seeds and membrane with a paring knife. Most any other blade is too wide and/or clumsy to not destroy the peppers.

They do work well for deboning of chickens as well.

Obviously for any in hand work as well or stuff like coring strawberries and the such, supreming citrus but most of that I still prefer a petty.

Just my two cents.

I use a paring knife a lot. I find it ideal for any kind of in hand work. For me, it is the ideal small knife in the "...you need a big knife and a small knife... " thesis. Interestingly, I use a peeler for thin skinned fruits and vegies, never the paring knife.

I like a paring knife for in hand work. If I get two knives its a 10 inch chef and a parer. If I get three knives its two 10 inch chefs and a parer. I like the idea of petty knives but never end up using them.

[video=youtube_share;MubYH_3gZrA]http://youtu.be/MubYH_3gZrA[/video]

Pairing knife is great for in-hand work (dicing potatoes) or peeling. To be useful for these tasks the blade should not be too wide (20mm max for me) and the handle should not get in the way and be on the thin side.

We have one junk pairing knife with some 100mm blade - it is the most used knife for my wife. I dislike it as it neither take nor keep decent edge, but who am I to argue with preferences of my wife I am having hard time whether I should get my wife a decent pairing knife of similar design (Carter makes some that look very practical even if not so cool looking)

At the same time knife of such design is a pain to use on cutting board as you have zero knuckle space.

Small petty - on the other hand (in particular with wa handle) is for me a knife for fine work. I have Yoshikane SKD 80mm one and love it to use where a short sharp blade with very sharp tip is to be used. In spite of the small blade, the handle is 'full size' and allows to hole the knife securely. Using it for in-hand cutting is however not comfortable at all - because of the wa handle the blade heel is too far away and the width of the blade and size of the handle makes you 'open' your hand too much.

So - in our kitchen both pairing and a small petty knives have their place.

Erilyn75 said:

You can accomplish just about any task in the kitchen with only 3 knives. Gyuto, parer and bread knife. I have a few additional ones that I think really round it out for me personally.

Gyuto
Parer
Bread knife
Fillet (great for silver skin removal)
Serrated sandwich knife (I make a lot of sandwiches and it's easier than pulling out the bread knife)
Carving knife

Click to expand...

I have the same line-up and added a couple others. Santoku, Chef and will soon add a Nakiri. I'm rather an obsessive compulsive person lol. And collecting knives is fun. I have a cheap Nakiri now that I got from the Wokshop in San Francisco but I would like to get a real good quality one. I enjoy experimenting with different knives and comparing them doing the same tasks.

Erilyn75 said:

You can accomplish just about any task in the kitchen with only 3 knives. Gyuto, parer and bread knife. I have a few additional ones that I think really round it out for me personally.

Click to expand...

For me, I might knock it down even to two: Gyuto and parer. My gyuto does a very nice job on crusty artisan type bread, so I don't see a whole lot of need for a bread knife. The petty is kind of too big while being too small. The parer, however, gets picked up a whole lot for little tasks. Here's my trio:

I just sold my parer so now I have to be half a hypocrite and pick one up haha.

I should have jumped on that Ealy that No Chop was selling, I pondered it for almost an hour and someone snagged it.

In a pro kitchen, I think a parer is vital. It doesn't need to be flash or anything, but there isn't a substitute for one when you're required to do certain in hand jobs, like topping chantenay carrots, or turning potatoes. I'd rather have a parer to a petty, but then I'd rather have a real turning knife to a parer.

I guess it just comes down to personal preference, and I don't think I'd ever have a really nice parer, but I wouldn't want to not have one in my case, even if its just a victorinox.

I have a nice armstrong forge paring knife that I love. It takes a better edge than some of my japanese blades. But I rarely ever use a paring knife. I ended up just leaving it at home because I use my petty all the time anyway. The only time I ever use a parer, I find that a nice hook billed parer works best, but even that I rarely ever use. I have been hoping that Ealy would do another run of the hook billed parers that he made a while back, or that one would go up for sale, but no luck yet. The time that I use one is usually just for turning potatoes or something along those lines.

Dave Kinogie said:

I just sold my parer so now I have to be half a hypocrite and pick one up haha.

I should have jumped on that Ealy that No Chop was selling, I pondered it for almost an hour and someone snagged it.

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I saw that and was too late! I also wanted that little tiny nakiri someone was selling. Gotta move fast around here.


Reece, those are some nice parers. I really like that wheeler one, very nice

Erilyn75 said:

I saw that and was too late! I also wanted that little tiny nakiri someone was selling. Gotta move fast around here.


Reece, those are some nice parers. I really like that wheeler one, very nice

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I think it was Sudcy that was selling that Carter mini-nakiri. I thought about that one too, but I'm spending too much lately.