Cuts

[garball]

Standing over a small expanse of high density polyethylene, looking down upon the rejected bits of mirepoix that were doomed for the rubbermaid, I pondered how most chefs would grade if the calipers were turned on them. I don't think my cuts were the best, but I can compare and see they were better. Do the standard measurements for knife cuts guide our blades? Or is brunoise just a really small piece?

[Bubba Shlub]

I believe a fine dice is 1/4".

Brunoise is a 1/8" dice.

Brunoisette is a 1/16" dice

I'm sure somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.

[cheztom]

You're right on, Bubba.

But I don't think I'd measure up these days in a formal competition setting. But I will say, though, that my cuts are the best in my kitchen. Something about making those bright, clean little cubes of goodness that makes a plate shine. Don't know how many times BOH staff has stopped dead to watch me painstakingly chip-chip-chipping away at a bell pepper with those almost symmetric cubes coming off the knife....And I always teach as I cut. Most just shake their heads and wonder why. But we know. Don't we?

[garball]

Tom, I agree. That's what got me thinking tonight; someone stopping and commenting on the beautiful cuts. Then I began to think about learning bad behaviors by someone repeatedly just turning out a product so many times without caring/thinking about the little 1/8" cube as much as concentrating on just "small." I've also had people ask me who I'm racing when chopping and I've always responded that the faster I try the faster my base speed gets.

[cheztom]

the faster I try the faster my base speed gets.

Exactly. Although I've lost some hand speed of late. But the cuts still look good - just takes longer is all.

People don't understand when I do this for stews, soups and braises. They think it doesn't matter. But it does. My 4 bean vegan cassoulette would be a pedestrian dish if it weren't for the roll-cuts and the precise dice on the veggies. And the smoked paprika roasted tofu, of course.

I know I look at how things are cut up in a soup when I eat out. If the veggies are a nice even dice/brunoise/batonet then I know some care has been taken with the dish and I'm likely to be in for a real treat.

[Bubba Shlub]

You're right on, Bubba.

That's good. My chef quizzed me on this topic a few weeks ago. I was right then, but I thought I had forgotten it. LOL.

the faster I try the faster my base speed gets.

I'm trying to work on my speed. I'm still fairly new to the precise sizes of dicing so I still focus more on accuracy. I have been trying to go just a little bit faster though. If I feel like my accuracy is suffering, then I slow down a bit. I had to dice mire poix for lentil soup recently. I tried to go a little bit faster, and when I was done Chef told me my cuts looked good. I'm glad she cares enough to complimet us when something is good or tell us if she wants it done better.

[sunny_mcd]

If the veggies are a nice even dice/brunoise/batonet then I know some care has been taken with the dish and I'm likely to be in for a real treat.

Well said!

[bohica]

There are many places out there where no one cares how the final product looks. I rarely eat soup out, but when I do, it looks like the vegetables have been put through a buffalo chopper (food service equipment similar to a food processor).

No care or accuracy at all.

The there are those that use a Mandoline in the kitchen and are happy with the results it gives.

[bear]

Ah the "Mandolin" all those evenly spaced litle cuts when making "pomme paille" and getting it wrong, a very useful bit of kit dont knock it.

[sunny_mcd]

dont knock it.

Literally! Never cut myself with a knife (yet), but I've got a couple lopsided digits from unfortunate mandolin encounters...

[cookrick]

My problem is I sometimes get distracted while slicing and dicing, especially when someone says, "Wow, you're fast!" Quick is good when it is done with care. Just like racing a car, quick is OK, but smooth is better and faster. I watched an episode of Top Chef today before work and watched in horror as Casey did the Rachel Ray method of putting a fine dice on an onion. Sure it is easy to criticize when not that kind of microscope, but seriously does anyone out there truly do the,make cuts in the onion then slice the cuts to make a fine dice? That's the way my Mom taught me when I was 7 and just starting to use a knife in a kitchen. If I'm out of line please tell me, but I know not a single cook/chef who uses that method, oh wait, the ubiquitous Rachel Ray and maybe Sandra Lee.

r
Excelsior!

[Bubba Shlub]

does anyone out there truly do the,make cuts in the onion then slice the cuts to make a fine dice?

Are you talking about this method?

how to dice an onion

This is how anybody working in a professional kitchen should do it. It's the quickest, most accurate way to dice an onion.

Just hold the onion in place with your finger tips or your palm from directly on top, not with your fingers in the back like the lady in this video did. I was waiting for that knife to pass right through the onion and into some fingers.

[justwingit]

Yes Yes, even shallots get cut up that way in every kitchen I've ever worked in........cookrick


Tom

[old man]

It really depends on how tight you want your dice - I mean size of the individual piece of diced onion. We have a prep cook that does it this way, but he has a lot of extra chopping he does to get it the right size - depending on what he is prepping. I cut off both ends cut in half end to end, peel, then slice across grain thinly with thin knife, keeping slices together as I go. When done, onion is flattened out like a fallen stack of dominoes I guess and sliced across the grain again changing the orientation of the knife to get exact sized pieces of onion for that half. Turns out this is MUCH faster and more exacting to size than any other way I have tried - and I can beat our school trained prep every time. But his carrots are nice My wife also does a seriously nice job chopping whatever she works on - I think her heart being into the dish she is preparing has something to do with that - and the customers agree!