Any housewife knows that cutting cabbage into slices or cubes is not difficult. But in order to grind it in the form of thin straws, it takes a lot of effort and time. An excellent assistant in this matter is a special knife for shredding cabbage.
Cutting tools
Modern stores today offer a huge selection of various devices that allow you to quickly and easily cut any vegetables, including cabbage.
The simplest of them is a shredder in the form of an ordinary grater. It is a neat little plastic or wooden board with built-in blades. Their number may vary. Moving vegetables over them, you can get a long and thin straw. Such shredders are very popular, equipped with a plastic container for collecting chopped products. There are models that are equipped with additional nozzles. Good reviews has a knife-shredder for cabbage "Hostess." It is safe, convenient, significantly speeds up the work associated with cutting. No less popular are Dexam and Peterhof brands.
The multifunctional food processor greatly facilitates the process of shredding cabbage . But if there is no possibility of acquiring such an aggregate, it is quite possible to dispense with other devices. For example, many housewives use rotating bread slicers or peeling potatoes for this purpose. The straw obtained in this way is very tender and soft.
Special hatchets designed for shredding cabbage, unfortunately, are not suitable for everyone. Their use requires some skill. Cabbage can be cut with an ordinary kitchen knife, the main thing is that it meets some requirements. Non-compliance with them may adversely affect the taste of the cooked dish.
What should be a knife for shredding cabbage
It is not necessary that this tool cost fabulous money. Even the old, time-tested kitchen knife is quite suitable for this role . The main thing is that he be sharp, well sharpened. The blade should be of the correct geometric shape, wide enough and it is necessary to have a ledge under the handle.
The sharp tip of the knife is another indispensable condition for such a tool. Products intended for cutting bread or having any original blade shape are not suitable for shredding cabbage.
How to use a knife
To avoid unpleasant moments in the kitchen associated with cuts and injuries, you can, if you use the knife correctly in the process of cutting vegetables. The knife for shredding must be held with the whole palm and so that the index finger is on top of the handle, the big one is on the side, along the handle, and the rest are located below.
During operation, the tip of the knife moves only back and forth, without tearing off the board. Each housewife chooses the direction of the knife movement more convenient for herself. It should be borne in mind that if the knife moves away from itself, then simultaneously with the forward movement it goes down. If you cut yourself, the knife is directed downward when it moves toward itself, rising in the opposite direction.
The board on which the cabbage is shredded, and the surface of the table should not have any irregularities.
Process features
Before proceeding with shredding cabbage, it is necessary to cut the head of cabbage into two parts. If it is large, then it can be four. Then, each of the parts is cut into slices across the veins available on the sheet, so that the cabbage shavings during further cutting are 6-8 cm long.
Prepared parts are cut into strips using a knife for shredding cabbage (how to use it is described above). At the same time, the chip width should not exceed 3 mm. Cutting too narrow strips (less than 1 mm wide) makes the cabbage flabby, leading to a loss of taste.
It is best to use special devices for shredding. It is much safer and easier, will require less time. If you need to prepare cabbage in large volumes, a food processor will be much more productive than a knife for shredding cabbage.
Quick Shredder
When preparing a dish that requires a lot of finely chopped ingredients, you have to spend a lot of time on this. Having mastered certain methods of shredding, this process can be significantly accelerated.
First, you need to master the correct capture of the product. This should be done not with the fingertips, but with the whole brush. In this case, the hand should be slightly inclined forward, so that the upper edge of the knife comes into contact with it. At first it will seem that this is not a very convenient position for a quick shredder, but, having trained quite a bit, you can verify its effectiveness.
Still, cutting is completely safe and fast when a special knife for shredding cabbage is used. A photo of him can be found in this article. In the absence of a food processor, such a knife helps very quickly chop cabbage in large volumes, eliminating cuts and any other injuries.