Knife Skills

We had a class on knife skills last week. We saw the technique and briefly practiced it with the expectation that we will apply it in future classes. I wish we would have spent hours chopping, dicing and receiving critiques, but we didn't, so I practice my kitchen knife skills at home instead.

Knife and Sharpening Steel
(for use after sharpening a knife on a stone; keeps blade straight)

Red, Green and Yellow Bell Peppers chopped in a small dice

Since I felt like practicing my knife skills and sharing some of the tips that I learned, I made a short video for you.

FYI about the video... you will notice I cut slowly because I want to focus on technique rather than speed. In the first video - IGNORE the onion part, I completely messed it up!

Since I did not want to start the video over, but could not let the onion error go unremedied, I recorded a second piece with just the onion slicing to redeem myself.



Julienne: cut food into strips, usually thin strips, sometimes the width of a match.

Julienne of Two Carrots
The four strips came from two different pieces. The length gives it away.

Dice: cut food into cubes of varying sizes (small, medium, large or by specific measurements).

Small Dice of Carrots
I consider these a small dice b/c they measure less than 1/4 inch.

Chop: cut food into smaller pieces without uniformity in size or shape.

Correct Onion Dicing Video...



Other cuts exist in the culinary world. For example, you can cut simple round slices from a carrot, cucumber, or other fruits and vegetables. Some people prefer cutting vegetables in diagonals - commonly seen with carrots and celery.

Oblique, lozenge, paysanne,and tourner are other fancier cuts that exist in the culinary world. However, we haven't attempted these, so I will skip them here too.

Hope you enjoyed hearing about my knife skills experience. Ciao!!