What are some advantages of using a Chinese vegetable cleaver?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “asian vegetable knife“
About Hailey
Written by: Hailey
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What are some advantages of using a Chinese vegetable cleaver?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “asian vegetable knife“
About Hailey
The Chinese cleaver takes training and practice to be used effectively. Of course there are plenty of instructional videos online, but who in their right mind would deliberately search for these? It’s just a knife right? Well, prepare to be surprised.
The main characteristic that gave the Chinese cleaver advantage is the thin but broad spine. Broad give it a lot of surface area to smash garlic and ginger without splattering everywhere. Thin gives it a lightweight handling that also allows smooth gliding through soft material with less drag. Flat blade lets you scrape up the food and toss it in a bowl with one motion. Notice the curved blade of chefs knife will have difficulty doing this.
When slicing, curl your fingers and use your knuckle as a guide to push against the spine of the knife while keeping your finger tips away from the blade. Keep the knife straight while cutting to ensure even cuts. You can push the butt of the knife against your own body as a guide to ensure each stroke is the same motion. The broad and thin spine also works better when you are cutting thick root vegetables like potatoes. When the spine is taller than the thickness of the thing you are cutting, it ensures the slice is at the same angle for the entire stroke. Western chef knife is harder to do this as it require much higher control.
Do the above exercise with both Chinese cleaver and a western style chef knife and you’ll notice a difference. The broad spine is much easier to use as a guide with your knuckles. The thin spin of the chef knife just slips off (careful not to cut your fingers). Moreover, the height of the spine acts similarly to the iron sight of a gun barrel. It gives you better feedback when you are not holding your knife straight.
There is an alternative technique for cutting softer material like tofu. You place your knuckle on the cutting board instead
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For chopping as opposed to cutting vegetables. They need to be sharpened often and personally I prefer Japanese knives for Kitchen work.
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You mean one of these?
I have one and I love using it, although I use my Santoku knife more for cooking.
The knife in the picture (mine is similar) is not really a cleaver – it just looks like one due to the shape of the blade. A proper cleaver is much, much heavier and has a weighty blade which can cleaver through meat and bone.
The chinese veggi “cleaver” is much lighter (and less thick) and is great for cutting pak choi or other vegetables. The steel is quite soft, so sharpening it with a diamond knife sharpener will eat up the blade. When I bought it (at an asian shop) the seller recommended drawing the edge at a flat angle over a terracotta pot to maintain the edge. I don’t know whether that is sound advice, but it appears to work rather well.
The advantages are the balance of the knife on the one hand, which lends itself well to a smooth, fast chopping action. The wide blade lets the upper art rest against your knuckle while the edge chops, which saves you amputating your finger.
Another advantage is the flat side of the blade, which makes it really, really easy to pick up a lot of chopped veggies and slide them into a wok, in a sort of shovel motion.
Lastly, the rounded curve of the cutting edge allows a rocking cutting motion which is perfect for fine chopping of things like garlic or chilis and turning them to paste.
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