I finally switched from a standard boning knife to a curved breaking knife for lamb shoulders

The difference in clean separation after just a month is huge, especially around the scapula. The curve lets me follow the bone structure way closer with less sawing. Anyone else made a simple tool swap that improved a specific cut?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_cole1mo ago

Oh man, that totally makes sense. I was reading this butcher's blog a while back where he swore by a curved blade for anything with a bone that isn't straight. He said a straight knife forces you to make a bunch of small angled cuts to get around curves, which tears things up. Your point about less sawing is exactly what he described. It seems so obvious once you hear it, but I never would have thought to switch knives for just one cut.

fox.david1mo ago

Yeah exactly, it's one of those things you don't realize until someone points it out. Honestly felt the same way when I first heard it.

tarar271mo ago

I've got three different chef knives in my drawer just for this reason. The curved one does make a huge difference on things like rib roasts or whole chickens where you're working around curves. My grandmother actually taught me that trick years ago when we were breaking down a turkey. She had this old beat up knife with a weird curve to it and I thought it was just worn down from years of use. Nope, she bought it that way on purpose for poultry.