How To Cut Sashimi - And What's The Right Knife For The Job?

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If you think homemade sashimi is out of reach, you need to give yourself a little more credit. While master level sushi chefs bring years of experience to the table, you can still make quite good sushi and sashimi yourself without being a master. One of the appeals of sashimi is its freshness and simplicity, so once you've located some good sushi or sashimi-grade fish near you, all you really need to know is how to cut it. But, of course, that's not nothing, either. So, we decided to reach out to an expert, Dr. Jae Choi, the chef-founder of Yakitori Jinbei, a casual, Asian-inspired restaurant specializing in Korean cuisine with a Japanese twist, to ask how we can properly cut sashimi.

Cutting sashimi well involves preserving the flesh of the fish for the purposes of both texture and taste, and Dr. Choi says, "the best method for cutting sashimi is one with a single smooth motion." This can be harder than it sounds, and he advises that, "you want to use firm pressure, however, not too hard to crush the flesh. To keep the integrity of the fish intact, you don't want to use multiple motions during the slicing process." You want to make sure that you do this across the grain of the fish, too, to prevent it from getting chewy. But Dr. Choi also knows that a big part of slicing properly is working with the right knife.

It might not surprise you to find out that the ideal tool for sashimi is made specifically for the task of cutting fish. Dr. Choi says, "the best knife to use to cut sashimi is a yanagiba, known as yanagi for short. It is a long, single-sided blade, which helps in cutting through the fish with minimal disruption to the fish." But you don't have to shell out for a specialty Japanese yanagiba knife if you don't want to. In that case, Dr. Choi advises, "if you don't have access to a yanagi, then you can use any [thin] sharp knife. You don't want to use a knife with a thick blade, like a chef's knife, for example."

However, if you want to invest in a yanagiba, you don't need to break the bank on a super high-quality Japanese knife brand. Some, like the Keemake 9.5-inch yanagiba, can be found for around $50, and Dr. Choi also notes that you don't really need any other knife unless you plan on actually gutting a whole fish. He says, "the type of knives you use are standard for all fish when you are cutting sashimi or sushi. The types of knives you can use are different when breaking down the fish." While we don't want to discourage anyone from breaking down a whole fish, for your home sashimi needs, it's probably good enough to start with the basics.