Kitchen knives are a national fixation. More than any other kitchen tool, knives seem to have a talismanic power. If you get the right one it’ll transform your cooking, the thinking goes. Recommendations for good knives abound, and Subreddits about their care and sharpening flourish. 

A good sharp knife is a vital cooking tool, there’s no doubt. But all this fanfare over knives obscures one of the true workhorses, a quiet kitchen hero: kitchen shears.

Kitchen shears don’t get as much respect as knives, that’s for certain. Growing up, the shears in our kitchen were often missing, turning up next to a package that they helped open, or a stack of letters they helped shred. (In fairness, my family did not treat the kitchen knives with a lot more respect, but no one was opening mail with the chef’s knife.) But even in kitchens that treat their other tools with more care, shears are often relegated to the back of the cutlery drawer, or half-heartedly slighted on the magnetic knife strip. It’s an injustice, and one I’m here to right.

When I’m cooking, I reach for my kitchen shears as least as often as my chef’s knife or my paring knife. They’re incredibly versatile, and often a lot less messy. When I don’t feel like dragging out a cutting board, I use shears to trim herbs over a dish, or to cut cherry tomatoes in half. If I have a chicken breast that I need to cut into chunks, you better believe I’m going right for the kitchen shears over the knife. And if I have a can of whole tomatoes I need to break up? Rather than putting them into a bowl and squishing them, a messy if sometimes sensorially delightful task, I crack open the can and use kitchen shears to cut them up directly in the can. 

Got some bacon to crisp up for a carbonara? Kitchen shears are your best friend. Have a pizza that wasn’t sliced properly? Reach for those shears, pal. 

I’ve also found that for people who are skittish around knives for whatever reason, kitchen shears can be an easier entry point than attempting to speed-dice an onion with a chef’s knife. Crucially they close, making them safer to carry around than an exposed blade. That also makes them handy for cooking with smaller kids, like my very eager nephew, who can handle a small pair of shears with supervision where I wouldn’t give him a sharp knife. (I like these Joyce Chen kitchen scissors for this purpose, because they have big, easy-grip handles and a relatively small blade, but obviously do not take parenting advice from me.) Depending on the design, they can pull apart which makes them both possible to sharpen and easy to clean, ensuring that gum doesn’t get caught in them forever.

I love kitchen shears so much that I have a small collection of them. I love these gold shears from Material, which are hefty and glamorous looking. They’re called “The Best Shears,” and honestly they might be: silicone-lined for grip, stainless steel, and pleasing to hold. I also own a pair of OXO kitchen shears which I usually reserve for cutting up meat, like cutting the backbone out of turkeys or butchering chickens. 

My friend who’s a plastic surgeon resident hipped me to trauma shears, which she uses in her profession for cutting clothes off patients in the trauma bay, but also found useful in the kitchen. I have since adopted them in my kitchen, too. They’re very inexpensive; a set of two pairs of MOVOCA medical scissors on Amazon costs $6.99. They have an angled edge that makes them easy to get under flat surfaces — like pizza — and a tip that prevents you from cutting yourself, which is another bonus if that’s a worry. The handle of the scissors is a carabiner, which means you can clip them to your apron as you work if that’s your vibe. They’re incredibly strong, too. Allegedly you can cut through a penny with them, though to be honest I haven’t tried. And they’re made to be easily sanitized, meaning that you can put them through the dishwasher without care. 

But you don’t need to take any of my specific recommendations to appreciate the strength and versatility of kitchen shears. I am attached to mine as any chef is to their chef’s knife. I get emotional about them. Your relationship with your kitchen tools may vary, but I urge you to take a hard look at your knife block or drawer or whatever setup you have. Reconsider your kitchen shears. You’ll be glad you did.