How to hold slippery food while cutting?

Question

After the umpteenth small cut, I decided it was time to focus on my knife skills and to start properly holding whatever I'm cutting, so I've been trying to hold my food with that claw-like hold all knife skill tutorials advertise.

I was actually having fun and doing great with some potato, carrot, and cucumber... until I tried to cut canned peaches into cubes. They're much more slippery and somehow things managed to start slipping and sliding while I was cutting, a finger landed under the blade and now I have a bigger cut on my finger than I've ever had before I started trying to do things properly!

Is there a different/special way slippery foods should be held to avoid cutting fingers?

Answer 1

If you're struggling to cut peaches, your knife isn't sharp enough.
Something that soft should barely need holding at all.

If you're really good at cutting your fingers, use a fork. You don't even have to put the fork though the produce, just hold it at the nearside & use it as a knife guide. That's what I do with raw meat anyway, for three reasons; one, accuracy for thin slices; two, because I don't like holding raw meat & three, less chance for cross-contamination.

I am also a fan of what I'd call the 'straddle' grip, which sounds similar to what GdD explains in another answer. This way your knife goes inside your grip, in an arch formed by your hand.
I did an answer on dicing tomatoes where I explained it, with photos - How to dice tomatoes?

Also see more pictures on Claw grip to cut a convex body (Half onions , half tomatoes etc) which shows how to keep your finger out of the way of the blade, by only offering up your knuckle, higher than the blade edge ever reaches.

Answer 2

When I'm cutting slippery food I take a different approach to cutting, as the fingers curled method is unreliable as you have found. What I would do with peaches is get my 3 inch utility knife (basically a long paring knife), hold the peach in place between my thumb on one side and two fingers on the other, then cut sideways between them. This lets me use my fingertips to control the food while keeping the knife away from them. It's a bit slower, but with some things you have to sacrifice speed for safety.

Another method I've used when cutting slippery food is to hold it in place with a fork. Position the fork where you want the last cut to be, then make the last cut along the tines as that will mask the tine-marks somewhat.

Answer 3

One solution might be to use non-slip gloves like these: They have non-slip gloves and are used primarily for washing dishes. You can buy them online on Amazon or at Walmart. Just search for 'dishwashing cleaning sponge gloves'. Good luck!

Answer 4

When dealing with slippery food while cutting, I personally use the claw grip technique, place a damp towel under the cutting board for added grip, and sometimes repurpose a rubber jar opener as a non-slip mat.

For small items like tomatoes, I stick a fork in them to use as a handle. Patting food dry with a paper towel, wearing grippy gloves, chilling the ingredients.