Up until recently, I was using a cleaver all wrong. Not for chopping, but when attempting to cut through something hard and dense.

As though splitting firewood, I would hold the cleaver with both hands out in front of me and, with legs slightly spread for stability, whale down on my intended target, such as the middle of a large butternut squash.

My feeble attempts were seldom effective (about as effective as my wood splitting efforts), and what was worse is that the cleaver would usually get stuck in the squash. At those moments I would solicit the aid of the man of the house who could finish the job, sometimes with half a squash flying off the counter.

There had to be a better way, a less perilous way, but I had no idea what it could be. The way, it turns out, lies in (more…)