Working with the Cleaver

If the wok is an all-purpose cooker, then the cleaver comes close to being the all-purpose cutting instrument of the Chinese kitchen. Nobody who cooks Chinese food should be without the broad, rectangular-bladed, wood-handled cleaver. It is rather formidable looking and many beginners think dire things about it, such as that it may cut off their fingers when they begin slicing vegetables. Understandable, I suppose, but not true.

The cleaver, when held correctly, so that its weight and balance will be utilized well, can do virtually anything a handful of lesser knives can. It slices, shreds, threads, dices, cubes, chops, minces, and hacks, all with great ease. It mashes, it is a scoop, it can be a dough scraper.