The Superheroics of Your Kitchen Scissors

When cutting pizza, a regular knife can catch and drag the melted cheese, and a pizza wheel (if you happen to even own one) often dents the pan when you bear down to cut through the crust. But an unlikely candidate saves the day: A pair of kitchen shears cuts through pizza easily. Just hold the edge with a folded paper towel to pick up the crust for an easier cutting angle.

Chopping juicy canned tomatoes in the kitchen can be a messy job, but who says that it’s the inevitable? Spare yourself the cutting board disorder: Just open up your canned tomatoes and cut them up right in the can with a pair of kitchen scissors. Your spotless apron thanks you.

A little bit of quick scissor work makes preparing peel-and-eat shrimp as easy as shrimp pie. Simply use small scissors to slit the back side of each shrimp’s shell. You can quickly and easily peel away the shell after the shrimp are cooked. Slitting the back of the shell also makes it easy to devein the shrimp. Use the tip of the scissors to lift up the vein, and then grab it with your fingers and discard.

Slicing or chopping scallions with a knife often crushes their natural tube shape and spoils their appearance. Starting at the green end, use scissors to cut neat, intact pieces of scallion. This trick works for chives, as well.