Nothing is better than spending your days at a barbecue with your friends and family. It has it all—good company and food! However, preparation is the key to a successful BBQ, especially when you’re the host or assigned to cook. The main thing that you need to have at the ready are kitchen knives so you can cut the perfect slices of meat, vegetables, fish, and more...
While getting the complete set of BBQ knives is a great choice - you’ll always be prepared for any dishes you want to make - there are some that are necessary for preparing, carving and dicing your meat. Four carnivore allrounders are the heavy chopper, boning knife, carver, and a paring knife. You need to use interchangeably, if not all the time, when you’re creating all those heavenly meals. Continue reading here at Big Red Knives to find out more why these four are the must-haves in your BBQ butchery kit.
1. A heavy chopper
Cooking is sometimes tricky, especially when there’s no shortcut to dicing all the ingredients you have in a shorter time. You can make it easier for you if you have a heavy chopper, it can be your perfect partner and shortcut to getting the work done! Generally these types of knives are multi-purpose since you can use it for simple cutting up to heavy-duty chopping of ingredients with harder exteriors like pumpkins and the like.
In short, they’re all purpose knives that will be the main knife you’ll use when preparing all the food in your barbecue, and if you had to pick one knife for all jobs, in might be this one. Anything from meat, salad, up to fish, a heavy chopper multi-purpose knife can help.
Great White Shark: Your partner in the kitchen
The perfect heavy chopper knife needs to be something you can carry easily, doesn’t take a lot of force to use, and can handle most—if not all—ingredients. For example, Big Red Knives’ the Great White Shark is the ideal knife for the job since its blade length is only 18 centimetres and weighs 320 grams, making it easy to use, with a nice heft where needed.
This knife was curated in the image of the great predator which is apparent in how the weight and the blade’s thickness at 3.7 millimetres resemble the animal when its jaws close in on a prey. No need to worry about using a lot of force since given how the knife is made, transferring the smallest pressure on the knife will cut through any and all ingredients you want.
Moreover, this is the Australian version of the Japanese Deba knife which is primarily meant for slicing and deboning fish. However, the Great White Shark knife is made with a double-bevel blade which makes it more capable of cutting all types of ingredients!
Move from salad preparation to fish in a snap, making clean up easy, especially when working in a smaller space (like those piddly side panels on BBQ's).
2. A carver
When it comes to cooking, sometimes you need more finesse in preparing ingredients. Blunt cuts of meat, fish, and the like are not the most appealing, neater slices of them are more desirable. In short, what you need for this type of work is a carving knife. It’s also known as a slicing knife since ingredients take on thinner slices due to the narrow width of the blade.
Considering carving knives are often long with sharp points, they make the ideal tool to use whenever you need thin cuts. You also don’t have to worry about uneven slices since these knives have a more balanced weight, making it easier to use!
Brolga knife: Seamless carving every time
Carving knives can look different from each other since some are made with serrated edges and others don’t, but they all remain longer than other knives. However, while getting a carving knife with a jagged edge is good, for more seamless cuts on your barbecue, a great option to use is the Brolga knife. It’s a high-quality knife specifically made for slicing, curated in the image of the renowned Australian crane which is apparent in the upwards slope of the blade.
Most carving knives have a straight edge but this arch of the Brolga knife allows you to make more precise cuts and flexibility when manoeuvring the knife in between slices. The knife has a total length of 40 centimetres with a blade length of 27 centimetres, it’s easy to use on any ingredient! Additionally, it only weighs 260 grams so you don’t need to worry about your hands getting tired quickly from all the cooking because using the Brolga knife is always a graceful affair.
Another element to the Carver is in preparation. The curvature of the blade helps to make clean cuts when portioning larger cuts of meat. Whether you have a full rack of lamb or whole sirloin, the Brolga is a perfect length for making neat cuts.
3. A paring knife
It’s not always easy getting things done if you’re working with smaller and more delicate ingredients. If you need more precise cuts, not just any knife will do. This is where paring knives come in since they’re built specifically for this job, made apparent by their small size. Generally, these knives have slim blades to ensure precision.
Despite their small size though, paring knives can be used for more than fine cuts on ingredients since they can slice through food with harder shells fairly easily.
Kookaburra: Effortlessly handles the finer details
Paring knives all have a similar function, but not all are built with the same size since some have longer blades than others. The most ideal paring knife to use though when preparing BBQ meals is the Kookaburra knife by Big Red Knives since it only has a blade length of 9.6 centimetres, perfect for all that delicate work. The Kookaburra knife was made in the image of this Australian terrestrial kingfisher, which shows in how the blade looks exactly like it's beak.
Considering the knife has a total length of 222 mm with a handle length of 13 centimetres, using this tool for all the finer details of preparing your ingredients will be easy. The sharp tip at the end of the blade also helps in cutting through what you need without using a lot of force. Additionally, the knife handle is arched downwards, allowing you to have a better grip when you’re trimming, peeling, or slicing through fruits, meat and more.
You will find this clever little blade works great if you don't have space for a chopping board, being super useful in the hands. Easily quarter tomatoes for a salad, or cut links of sausages, this BBQ workhorse is a must for the smaller tasks.
4. A Boning Knife
Nothing beats a large smokey brisket straight from the BBQ, perfectly juicy and tender. When you are looking to upscale your protein, a boning knife will come in handy. there are two main reasons why boning knives are a must have; 1) for removing fat, and 2) removing tough inter-connective tissue and sinew.
Rendered fat causes smoke when it lands on burning coals, causing an acrid taste on meats. Removing excess fat from larger primal cuts is important to avoid fat fires and black smoke. Along with removing fat, it is important to remove any tough sinew and silver skin that won't render and soften during cooking. In order to best remove these unwanted parts of the protein, you need a nimble and razor sharp knife to help you.
The Tassie Devil: A carnivorous allrounder
A boning knife should excel in three main areas; fine-tipped, rigid spine and comfortable handle. You want to work safely and be in control when handling larger cuts of meat. Our Tassie Devil knife is purpose-designed to take on these tasks with skill and efficiency.
It's fine-tip and recurved spine helps you to get into joints and around bones, while also easily slipping under fat and sinew for effortless removal. The thick spine keeps the knife from bowing under pressure, so you know the blade won't slip even in hard to see spaces around joints. Lastly the classic three pin handle with ergonomic grip keeps the knife firmly in the handle even when greasy, and there is a small notch at the heel of the blade to prevent your hand slipping nto the cutting edge.
