TIP OF THE DAY: Kitchen Shears | The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures - The Nibble Webzine Of Food AdventuresTIP OF THE DAY: Kitchen Shears | The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures
Watching a professional chef wield a knife is impressive: in a whoosh, everything is chopped, neatly and evenly. Whole chickens are cut apart effortlessly and chives are cut into impossibly small pieces.
If you’re not a knife wizard, consider a pair of kitchen shears. They make our tasks go quickly and don’t remind us that our knife skills could be better.
Use them for:
Snipping herbs (we use shears daily for basil, chives and parsley), scallion leaves and leafy vegetables
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Separating pizza slices (much better than a serrated wheel)
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Cutting poultry, fish, crustaceans and other foods
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In addition to cutting food, you can use the shears to trim flowers, parchment paper and twine; open boxes; and other cutting tasks.
A serrated section in the center for removing bottle caps and cracking nuts (we’ve also used this to strip herbs such as rosemary and oregano from their woody stems).
Handles that are equal for lefties as well as righties.
Two metal prongs at the ends of the handles lift jar lids.
A hinge that makes it easy to take the scissors apart for cleaning.
The metals are also dishwasher-safe (although hand washing keeps the edges sharper).
If you don’t want to buy something new, any clean, sharp scissors with a 3″ to 4″ blade can be repurposed as kitchen shears.