This J. Kenji López-Alt Method Will Change The Way You Slice Potatoes

If you've ever been in charge of food prep at home, then chances are you know some fruits and vegetables (like potatoes) have a propensity to stick to the knife blade as you chop and slice. Apart from the frustration of it, this annoyance also slows you down, causing you to spend so much more time pausing to peel the pieces off of the knife's blade. 

A few people on Reddit discussed why this happens, offering ways to prevent certain produce from sticking to your knife. The original poster suggested that the extra moisture in some produce creates a vacuum effect that causes the slices of potato or other kinds of produce to stick. Another user commented to explain that knives with dimples in the side of the blade are meant to prevent this from happening. Luckily for us, it turns out there's way to prevent potatoes from sticking to your blade that doesn't involve buying a new, often pricey knife.

Alter your go-to cutting motion

Of course the always brilliant J. Kenji López-Alt came to the rescue with a major game-changing tip. The best part of all is that López-Alt's potato slicing method doesn't require a special knife of any sort, so you can use whatever you already have on hand. In a video shared on YouTube, López-Alt explains that one of his friends had posed the question of how to avoid this common potato problem. That's when he shared his incredibly easy method for cutting potatoes without sticking.

Most people have learned to cut, slice, and chop through vegetables by pressing down from above. Instead, López-Alt uses the knife's tip to pull through the potato front to back, preventing the spud from sticking to his blade. Your knife will need to be sharp enough to easily slice through potatoes or any other produce you're cutting, but it should really save you time once you master the alternative movement.