What Is the Definition of Kitchen Shears?

Kitchen shears function like any regular scissors. In reality, they're multi-purpose kitchen tools designed to perform an assortment of cooking-related chores -- from slitting open a bag of frozen peas to slicing up fish bones. You can choose between basic models designed to complement your kitchen cutlery, and heavy-duty models tough enough to slice tin cans or remove tight lids from bottles and jars.

Kitchen shears have oversized handles coated with texturized rubber or plastic to give cooks a slip-free grip and maximum control of the cutting action. The scissor blades are often notched for easier cutting of poultry joints and bones. The interior orb of the handles may display teeth that can firmly grip screw-type lids for removal, and a protruding slot screwdriver head to pry the tops off jars and bottles. The blades on kitchen shears are typically wider than conventional scissors, and made from stainless steel or aluminum. Many blades are detachable to facilitate cleaning and sharpening.

Kitchen shears should easily chop through small to medium sized chicken bones and gliding smoothly through joints, and neatly cut through both sides of the backbone or collar of fresh whole fish for easy removal. Quality kitchen shears can easily remove the thorny tops off fresh artichokes. You can use your shears to snip fresh herbs directly into a saute pan or salad bowl -- which is far easier than chopping them with a knife, eliminating the need for a cutting board. A good pair of shears functions like any regular scissors, coming in handy for opening bags of chips, clipping coupons or cutting proof-of-purchase tags from cardboard food packages.

You can quickly cut thin-crust pizza into slices , snip quesadillas and tortillas into strips or wedges, and split pitas using kitchen shears. They perfectly slice through partially frozen bacon for frying or cooked bacon into tiny pieces for salads and garnishes. Use your shears to cut prepackaged refrigerator biscuits, or trim the raw pastry dough edges from pie crusts. Rather than chopping whole canned tomatoes on a cutting board and squirting juice on the counters and walls, place the kitchen shear blades into the can and cut the tomatoes with no mess.

Easily remove the netting from roasts with kitchen shears instead of dulling your kitchen knives with the task. Use kitchen shears to crack crab and lobster claws and shells. Trim the ends of fresh flowers with your kitchen shears before arranging them in a vase of water.

Thoroughly wash kitchen shears by hand after each use to prevent bacterial build-up. As with any good kitchen cutlery, dishwasher temperatures dull the blades and may compromise the integrity of the plastic or rubber handle grips. If the shears have non-serrated detachable blades, sharpen them with the same tool you use on your knives or use a special sharpener for maintaining serrated edges. Store shears separately from other utensils to keep the blades sharp and free of nicks.