When it comes to bones and thick meat, a meat cleaver does an excellent job at their cutting needs. Specially built to cut through bones, joints, and cartilage, a meat cleaver integrates a special blade design.
It features a wide, rectangular-shaped blade with a sharp, but, thick edge to easily hack through the tough bones, joints, and even thicker fruits and vegetables.
However, every meat cleaver design comprises a hole on the blade. For experienced knife users, the hole adds to the functionality of the cleaver. This piece explores why a meat cleaver comes with a hole and how it adds to its functionality in the kitchen.
Here’s Why Do Meat Cleavers Have a Hole
The primary purpose of a hole in a meat cleaver is to make cutting through bone easy. The hole allows you to hold the upper part of the cleaver using your fingers. This, in turn, fortifies your grip on the handle of the cleaver, allowing you to pull the blade freely.
In addition to aiding in the cleaver’s handling and balancing, the hole makes it easy for fluids in your meat to easily drain. The convenient fluid draining prevents it from collecting at the blade, enhancing cutting performance and simplifying the cleaning process.
What Is a Meat Cleaver?
A meat cleaver is a large heavy-duty knife designed to cut through thick meats, tough bones, joints, and cartilage. Thanks to its robust blade, a meat cleaver can also hack through thick vegetables and fruits.
It features a wide, rectangular-shaped blade that measures between 6 and 16 inches. Instead of a flat design, a meat cleaver’s blade is rather indented to facilitate easier chopping.
Additionally, this indented, slight curve to the blade prevents juices from splattering when cutting through meat.
What Is a Meat Cleaver Mostly Used For?
A meat cleaver is designed for cutting thick meats, tough joints, cartilage, and bones. Its thick and wide blade also makes a meat cleaver tough enough for large vegetables and fruits, such as cabbages and grapefruits.
Some cooks even use a meat cleaver on pork and poultry, such as chicken and turkey, hacking through their soft bones much easier.
Why Is the Blade of a Meat Cleaver So Deep?
The purpose of a deeper meat cleaver blade is to facilitate its functions. The deeper blade means that you can make single-stroke cuts through thick meats, bones, vegetables, or fruits. The somewhat curved and deep meat cleaver blade lets you chop in a seamless “up and down” rocking motion.
This, in turn, simplifies the chopping tasks, while maintaining the structural integrity and appearance of your food. After all, using a shallower blade design would mean that you have to make multiple chopping strokes to cut through the food items.
Additionally, the deep blade design gives the cleaver a stronger cutting profile. This allows you to easily hack through meats and bones without breaking, chipping, or shattering the blade.
Why Do Some Knife Blades Have Holes?
Many knives blades are designed with holes to reduce friction. This means that during cutting, the food is less likely to stick to the blade.
Common knives designed with holes include meat cleavers and cheese knives. However, some knives are designed with holes that don’t serve any purpose other than decor.
What’s the Advantage of Using Knives With Holes Along the Blade?
Knives with holes come with multiple advantages, depending on their design and functionality. These include;
- Improving the knife’s control and balance
- Promoting easy food release and reducing blade friction
- Easier to clean since they allow water to flow out of the hole
- Allowing the blade to dry faster, reducing the likelihood of rust and corrosion build-up
What Kind of Knife Is the Best for Slicing or Cutting Meat?
A chef’s knife is the best knife for slicing and cutting meat. What makes a chef’s knife a great option is its versatility, allowing you to use it for slicing and cutting meats. You can also use a chef’s knife to chop vegetables, mince herbs, and cut fruits.
However, you can also opt for a butcher’s knife is ideal for cutting and slicing meat thanks to its design. It features a long and curved blade, making it easy to butcher and break down large pieces of meat. In fact, a butcher’s knife is a popular go-to option amongst butchers, hunters, and professional chefs.
What Is the Difference Between a Meat Cleaver and a Chinese Chef’s Knife?
The main difference between a meat cleaver and a Chinese chef’s knife is their blade design and functions. At first hand, the two knives may appear to be similar. However, they are quite distinctive from one another.
A meat cleaver is designed with a wide rectangular and deep blade and is primarily used for hacking bones and thick meats. On the other hand, a Chinese chef’s knife features a thick, inverted triangle-shaped blade with a sharp edge on one side and a flat one on the other.
A Chinese knife features a thinner and lighter blade compared to a meat cleaver. In fact, its blade is nearly half the weight and twice as long as a meat cleaver.
Unlike a meat cleaver, a Chinese chef’s knife features a more versatile function, allowing you to use it for chopping meat, vegetables, herbs, and fruits.
One can say that a meat cleaver is more of a bone knife, thanks to its thick, heavy, and dull blade. A Chinese knife is more of a flesh knife, designed for chopping and slicing.
Wrapping Up
A hole on a meat cleaver is a very integral part of its design. After all, it’s not only placed on the cleaver’s blade for aesthetics and decor. A hole placed on the much wider and deeper meat cleaver’s blade facilitates better control and balance when using one.
Additionally, a hole in the meat cleaver makes your food prep process much neater, reducing the possibility of juice splatters.
Moreover, a hole in your meat cleaver makes cleaning easy and convenient. Learning how to take full advantage of the meat cleaver’s hole will help you harness its functionality and use it to its maximum abilities.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the function of the hole in a cleaver?
As someone who has spent a good deal of time in the kitchen, let me provide a bit of insight on this. That hole carved into a cleaver’s hefty blade is an ingenious design element that makes the process of cutting through bone or any tough material incredibly easy. In essence, it provides you with the ability to grasp the upper part of the blade with your fingers, while your other hand firmly grips the handle. By doing this, you can exert an upward pull that dislodges the blade if it gets stuck. Plus, this technique saves an incredible amount of time, energy, and reduces the overall frustration of having a stuck blade, which can be a real pain if you’ve ever experienced it. So, the key point here is that the hole in a cleaver is all about maximizing efficiency and making the process of cutting through tough items much easier.
Why is there a hole on top of a meat cleaver?
Now, as someone who has been cooking and handling kitchen tools for as long as I can remember, the hole at the top of a meat cleaver is one of those features that amazed me when I first saw it. Practically, it’s a brilliant solution to storing this substantial kitchen tool, since its substantial weight means it’s not suitable for usual storage places such as drawers. The hole allows the cleaver to be hung up neatly, keeping it safe and conveniently within reach, without endangering the user or damaging other compartments. The hole also prevents the hefty cleaver from being indiscriminately placed together with other kitchen knives. So, in essence, the hole on top of a meat cleaver makes it easy to store.
What purpose does the hole in a knife serve?
As an experienced cook, I’ve come to appreciate the thoughtful design of kitchen tools. The holes you often see in some knife blades serve practical purposes. Importantly, these holes contribute to making the knife lighter. This can make a big difference, especially if you’re doing a lot of slicing and dicing! Less weight means less fatigue on your hands and wrists. Additionally, these holes can help reduce friction when cutting through certain types of food, thereby preventing food from sticking to the blade. This feature makes each cut smoother. Even small tasks, such as hanging your knife or opening the blade single-handedly, are simplified by these holes. Therefore, holes in a knife blade help keep the weight low, reduce friction and can simplify one-handed operation.
What is the purpose of the teeth on a meat cleaver?
Reflecting on years of culinary experiences, using a cleaver knife has always been fascinating. The straight blade edge – which is often sharp at the periphery – can seamlessly glide through meat. However, there are specialty cleaver knives that have a different edge, featuring serrated teeth. These small, jagged edges have a design similar to a saw and that’s exactly their purpose. They make it possible to saw through tough meats or bone. This kind of utility is simply unparalleled when you’re dealing with tougher cuts. So, the teeth on a meat cleaver are designed to make sawing through meat or bone easier.
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