Scissors in the Kitchen
When you think of kitchen gadgets, you probably don’t think about scissors. But they are a helpful tool! Most of us probably use scissors to open packaged foods, onion bags, mixes, etc. But you can also use scissors to easily snip herbs, chives, and green onions into small pieces. You can quickly trim greens, grapes, and other fresh foods with leaves or stems. They’re also very handy to cut pizza! Traditional pizza cutters are sharp and can cut your expensive pans. With scissors, you can cut the pieces quickly and with little effort (no hacking the pizza to bits). This also works for other pizza-like breads – quesadillas, tortillas, pitas, etc. If you want to spend a bit more for better quality, buy kitchen shears or poultry shears – these are strong enough to cut through tough cartilage and thin chicken bones (great for deboning whole breast meat). Standard scissors are usually strong enough for everything else, even removing fish bones and fins.
A few tips: Buy a strong, sharp pair of scissors and dedicate them to the kitchen use. Cutting fabric, cardboard or paper can dull scissors and you want to keep them sharp. Clean them as soon as you use them, especially if you’re cutting pizza or other foods with gooey ingredients. Make sure they’re very dry to keep them from rusting. Remember, although scissors are safer than knifes, they’re still not meant for children to use unsupervised, and of course you should never run while holding scissors, or treat them carelessly (you’ll put your eye out!). Get a good sharpener and learn how to use it. Dull tools, whether knives or scissors, are dangerous.
Filed under: What's Cooking?