What’s the Best Knife for Cutting Meat?

How you cook a steak will dictate about 90% of how it tastes. The final 10%, which is often overlooked, comes from how, when, and with what you slice it. When all aspects are done with the same degree of care, you can fully experience the work you put into cooking the perfect steak.

There are a few types of kitchen knives  that work well when cutting steak or any other type of meat, but the most important thing is using a sharp knife. While a sharp knife slices cleanly through, a dull one will result in the juices ending up all over your cutting board instead of in the steak where they belong. This will leave you with a rubbery, tasteless steak rather than a juicy, flavorful one, no matter how perfectly you’ve cooked it.

Here, we break down some of our favorite knives for cutting meat. Discover the best blades for the job, along with the proper way to slice up a steak while ensuring knife safety.

What Knives are Best for Cutting Meat?

We offer a wide variety of Knives, from our in-line classics like those featured in our Knife Set to limited-edition, specialty blades like the Boning Knife. While any sharp knife can be used to cut meat, some shapes are better than others. Here are our top three picks for the next time you’re slicing a steak or carving a roast.

Carving Knife

As the name implies, Carving Knives are used for roasts, like turkey, chicken, prime rib, or other large cut of meat. Our Carving Knife features a narrow blade which allows you to work around bones with ease. Its length also provides clean, uniform cuts of any thickness, from thin deli slices to pieces of thicker steaks.

Chef Knife

Heralded as an almost all-purpose cooking Knife by professional and home cooks alike, the Chef Knife is also a good choice for cutting meat. Unlike the Carving Knife, it has a longer and considerably wider blade. At 8 inches, our standard Chef Knife can be used to cut anything from chicken, to steak, to pork chops, either cooked or raw.

Bread Knife

Similar to a Carving Knife, our Bread Knife has a long, somewhat narrow blade. What sets it apart however is its serrated blade. Specially designed with 24 evenly spaced points (or “teeth”), this Knife is designed for slicing through bread while keeping its crust and interior intact. This also makes it ideal for cutting through crispy chicken skin without it crumbling all over the place.

Considerations

While all of these Knives are good choices, our Carving Knife is specifically designed for the purpose of cutting meat, and therefore gives you unmatched control and precision. Especially if you’re slicing through a larger roast like a holiday turkey, it can be harder to produce the same even cuts with a Chef Knife. While we like the specialized design of our Carving Knife and the power of our Chef Knife, the length and sharp points of our Bread Knife also provide a great fallback option.

How to Slice Meat

Regardless of what Knife you choose to use, before you slice your meat, it is essential to let it rest. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. If you cut your meat right away, you’ll lose all those juices to your cutting board, and be left with dried out meat. In order to avoid that, let your steak rest for 5–10 minutes before cutting it. If it’s a whole bird, let it sit for 30–45 minutes. Additionally, make sure you’re slicing your meat against the grain. This ensures that your bites are tender instead of being unpleasantly chewy.

Ready to Shop?

When it comes to the perfect Knife, we have a wide selection for you to choose from. All of our Knives are made in Theirs, France—the knifemaking capital of the world. To ensure your Knife feels balanced in your hand, all of our Knives are full tang. This means that they’re crafted from one piece of stainless steel that runs from the blade through the handle.

Most of our Knives are also fully forged, meaning that the steel is hammered rather than flattened into a sheet and punched out like a cookie cutter. Full tang fully forged Knives are sturdy, with no danger of snapping at the handle, and because ours are treated with nitrogen, they stay sharp longer, too.