Many kitchen shears’ uses are too familiar with people but have you ever wonder if that all the thing you know about the use of kitchen shears? This article will find out the various uses of kitchen shears inside and outside the kitchen. We also discuss the right way to clean kitchen shears/ scissors to be hygienically washed, and the sharpness remains durable. Now, let’s dive in!
Don’t have kitchen shears? Wondering if your kitchen shears are top-quality on the market or don’t know what to buy? Check out this article about the best kitchen shears reviewed by Heston – St.J.G Kitchen Blog!
What Are Kitchen Shears Used For?
Not many of you will ask about the kitchen shears’ uses & functions because it’s obvious that everybody knows the answer. But in this section, we will talk about what kitchen shears should be used for to point out some main ideas we want to deliver in this article:
- Kitchen Shears Used to Cut Food: We can use shears with both raw & cooked food. Shears can cut/ crack almost everything from herbs to crab shells.
- Kitchen Shears Used to Deal with Non-Food Stuff: It could be straightforward to handle the string or screw-driver or many other tools.
Moreover, we do give step-by-step instructions on how to wash the kitchen shears the right way. Now, let’s begin the next section, where we discover different ways for you to cut food with kitchen shears.
Using Kitchen Shears To Cut Food
Here, we divide shears’ functions to cut cooked food (Pizza, pasta, …); raw food (roots & stems of fruits & vegetables); Spices; Herbs & Hard Nuts/ Shells.
Cut Up Raw/ Untouched Food
This is really the primary use for kitchen shears. Kitchen shears are totally efficient to cut slippery food as it strengthens your handle on the food and keeps your focus on the cut itself. Shears come in useful when trying to remove meat from a lobster tail as well, and when cut precisely, you can then peel back the entire back membrane piece.
Besides lobster, there is a lot of seafood that you can use kitchen shears with. For example, fish, you can use scissors or kitchen shears to remove its head with the big fins (small fins can be removed properly by a knife). This method keeps the fish off the cutting board so that you can save the cutting board for something else.
You can use kitchen shears or scissors on poultry. Mostly, poultry like chickens/ birds have joints between wings, thighs, etc… Those joints are small and easy to clip using scissors rather than a knife. One of the best uses of kitchen shears on poultry is when you are spatchcocking a chicken. One of the trickiest cuts to make with a chicken is to separate the backbone. Kitchen shears are perfect for this, but make sure that they are sharp.
Slice Spices & Herbs – Cut Fruit & Vegetables
A sharp knife usually slices spices & Herbs, but there is a high chance that it’s slippery, and you may hurt yourself. I usually use scissors in this circumstance. Someone might say that you can’t slice it thin if you use scissors or kitchen shears. Well, I know most people can do it, that’s a fact 🙂 It would be best if you had a little practice, and I think it’s easier to cut thin slices with scissors than a knife.
Some spices & herbs that are better to slice with scissors are garlic, ginger, basil or oregano, … Moreover, you can use kitchen shears to clip roots and stems off fruits and vegetables. The sharper blade of kitchen shears can also be used to scrape off those dark spots and other blemishes. To avoid skin sensation issues, you should wear gloves or any improvised protection for your hand skin.
Nut & Shell Cracker
The unique thing about kitchen shears is the plier-like teeth happening to be in the handle shanks. Those teeth turn the shears into a nut & shell cracker, and to be honest. It’s advantageous. We can use it to crack the tough crab shells into some little walnuts. It’s a multitool. Sometimes, we can use it to open a beer bottle, which we will discuss later.
Read more: Best Kitchen Shears Reviews For This Year Selection.
Trim Cooked Food
If you want to cut bacon or any big meat pieces, using shears is better than any cutlery. Kitchen shears can handle a big piece of meat, which cuts look perfect and better controlled.
Not a fan of the hard pizza crust? There is nothing to worry about anymore because we have the kitchen shears! Not only pizza crust, but kitchen shears can also easily slice the pizza into small pieces for kids, or in this case, there are fewer pizza pieces than the number of people on the table. The same thing will happen with pie crust 🙂
As you pull the pasta in length that you don’t want, use kitchen shears to keep the pasta in your desired size. Pasta is just 1 example. You can do the same thing with noodles or any food with an unsuitable length.
With canned food, you can use shears to cut the food inside the can, split the food inside into smaller pieces that you want as it might be a mess when you take it out. Canned tomato, canned pineapple, canned pepper, … anything is all fine with shears.
Using Kitchen Shears For Non-Food Stuff
Apart from being the tool to cut food, there are kitchen shears used for dealing with Non-food stuff like strings, bottle lids & more. You are about to read it, just now:
Easily Handle String or Twine
Twines or thicker strings are sometimes used to wrap food as gifts or truss turkey, chicken before getting it inside an oven. Using kitchen shears to untie those strings/ twine is really easy, even easier than a knife. You can also use a pair of normal scissors for this task.
Shears as Screw-driver
That’s right. You didn’t hear it wrong! The shears’ top metal part is not often too pointy and not too wide. You can stick that part into any screw’s drive that has an equal or wider driveline. You can either tighten or loosen the screw using the kitchen shears as a quick replacement when there are no tools around.
Shears as Bottle Openers
Another great use among kitchen shears uses to be a bottle opener. It is so unique that some shears have the shape of the bottle openers right near the handle. If there isn’t any, the plier-like teeth can do this job for you. The plier-like teeth can hold the lids tight, and you can use them to twist or open any bottle.
Twist off Plastic Bottle Lids
I think you may find the plastic bottle lids sometimes really annoying. The plastic holding back the lid is tenacious due to some of the production’s errors mostly. However, when you need a little more momentum and use your full power more efficiently, you can grab kitchen shears to hold the lid tight and start twisting. It can also prevent your hands from being hurt.
The Right Way to Wash Kitchen Shears
To keep your shears/ scissors well-preserved, both hygienically protected & with longer durability, you should clean them the right way. Below are easy-to-follow steps to clean your shears:
Knowing Your Shears/ Scissors Type & The Necessity Of Washing Them
There are two types of shears/ scissors: the style you can separate the two blades and those that you cannot. With shears that you can separate, they are much easier and safer to clean. First, please check the joint between the two blades. If that’s a screw, then don’t try to split the two blades! Washing 2 edges are as comfortable as washing the whole shears together.
Why do you have to wash shears? Any time you use anything on raw or even cooked food, there is a chance for bacteria to accumulate on the surface. Bacteria can cause digestive problems, which lead to bigger issues for your health. Therefore, keeping the shears and other utensils clean is necessary.
Eliminate Hard Substances Attached on The Blades’ Surfaces
The first place to start when cleaning your shears is to remove any large pieces that you see. If they are stuck onto the blade, you may have to soak them, but you can typically wipe the large chunks away.
If something is stuck onto the blade(s), you can run the shears through the dishwasher or wash them by hand. If you are working with something sticky, like barbecue sauce, there’s a chance that you may have to soak the blades to soften up the food/sauce left on the blade. If you have to soak them, we suggest that you wash them by hand after the soaking. This increases the chance that you will remove anything stuck to the blades.
Wash With Dishwashing Detergent & Water
Now, the hard substances are rubbed away. Next, you can take out some dishwashing detergent with water (it’s best to use hot water). Mix the detergent with hot water until you can see bubbles. Ensure that the soap reaches the joint where the 2 blades meet as the bacteria grow there.
After washing kitchen shears and other utensils, you need to wash them with clean water about twice. To maximize the chance of getting all of them clean, you can wash the first time with hot/ warm water and the second time with cold/ normal clean water. Then, when you hear the sound “kit kit” when rubbing the utensils’ surface with your hand skin, they are all clean.
Dry Your Shears/ Scissors with A Dry Cloth or Leave Them To Air-Dry
There are 3 ways to dry the cookware after cleaning:
- First, using a dry cloth: Use it to dry each utensil/ cookware manually. Remember to try your best to reach the joint where the 2 blades of the shears/ scissors meet and leave the least water as you can. Additional step: Place a small piece of napkin or paper to let all the moisture dry!
- Leaving shears/ scissors to air-dry: Of course, space should be bright, not damp, at room temperature. This will cost you more time to wait, usually 1-2 hours before storing the utensils/ cookware.
- Using a dishwasher: Most kitchen shears are dishwasher safe, so you can just put them with other utensils.
It would be best always to make sure that shears (and knives) are dry before putting them away. This will prevent any potential rust from penetrating the metal, but it will also prevent water from getting in a drawer. Standing water could cause mold, and that’s something you don’t want in your kitchen.
Store Your Shears/ Scissors Away From Metal
I know there is a lot of family kitchen where they have a kitchen drawer or a hanging basket to place all the utensils & cookware together. Unfortunately, after all the steps we take to prevent water from rusting your shears, the rusty components from other metal utensils can ruin that effort. For kitchen shears/ scissors, a knife block is the best option.
Remember, as always, to keep anything you store in a knife block to be clean and dry. I bet you don’t want to see those little green/ gray molds growing in the deepest part of your knife block 🙂
Final Words
Hopefully, this article has done its part to clarify the term “kitchen shears uses” and show St.J.G Kitchen Blog’s readers how to store shears/ scissors the right way. If there are any suggestions or questions, please contact me via my email on the contact page or comment on this post. I’d love to hear from you and hope to hear that soon!
References:
