11 Knife Cuts Everyone Should Know - Brewing Happiness

11 Knife Cuts Everyone Should Know | Brewing Happiness 15.01.
2024, 11:12
11 Knife Cuts Everyone Should

Know
June 18, 2020
If you've ever been confused by what a dice vs. a fine dice is, we've got
you covered. Here are 11 Knife Cuts Everyone Should Know - plus a how
to video!
From the recipes across our site and across the internet, you’ll see all
kinds of requests for chopping, dicing, mincing, slicing, and more. That’s
why we decided there are 11 Knife Cuts Everyone Should Know and we’re
here to teach them. We’re going to demo the 11 Knife Cuts Everyone
Should Know and talk through the specifics of each cut so you know
exactly what you’re doing when you’re navigating the wide and wild world
of recipes!
We’ve explored a couple of these techniques recently, from oblique or

jewel cuts in our Avocado Basics: How to Cut, Peel, and Prep an Avocado
and requests for either sliced or diced cuts in our guide to How to Quickly
Caramelize Onions. For the next time you caramelize some onions (or
need onions for anything…which we think is pretty often), we also
developed a guide on How to Slice and Dice an Onion in the best and
safest way.
Now let’s go over some general cutting guidelines before we get down to
the nitty gritty of the 11 Knife Cuts Everyone Should Know.
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11 Knife Cuts Everyone Should Know | Brewing Happiness 15.01.2024, 11:12
Cutting Guidelines
1. Keep that knife sharp! We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: a
sharp knife is a safe knife. Make sure your knife is sharp, whether that
means keeping a sharpener in your kitchen or finding a service that’ll
do it for you. Check your local farmer’s market! Some have stands
that offer knife sharpening services.
2. Cut your ends. You’ll see us do this in the demos below—cut the ends
off first and either discard them or save them for stock.
3. Flip your fruit (or veggie!). Cut the ends off first like we mentioned
and then flip whatever you’re cutting onto the new flat surface you’ve
just created. Flipping onto the broader side gives you more stability
as you go and keeps your produce from rolling around on the cutting
board.
4. Use the whole blade. It might look like the knife is just moving straight
up and down when you watch a chef chop, but it’ll help you out a lot
to use the whole length of the knife. That means your cutting motion
isn’t just up and down but also forward and back to get those slices
made efficiently and all the way through.
5. Keep your precious fingers safe! Keep fingertips back and away from
the blade. You can accomplish this by keeping the knuckles of your
non-cutting hand over your fingertips. As you use this hand to
stabilize what you’re cutting, your knuckles serve as a guide for the
knife—the blade rests against your knuckles with your fingertips
safely out of the way. It might feel funny and it takes a lot of practice
before it feels natural, but it’s absolutely a cutting stance worth
developing.
Now let’s get into some specifics!
Diced
dice
You’ve probably heard both “diced” and “finely diced” in different recipes,
but which is which? A diced cut is basically a square that is bite-sized. If
you wanna get real technical about it, it’ll probably measure about 1/4 of
an inch on each side. Cut 1/4 inch spaced lines in one direction, then turn
what you’re cutting and cut 1/4 inch spaced lines perpendicular to the
initial cuts in order to make your squares.
Common things you’ll see diced are carrots, celery, and onions (we’ve got
extra pro tips for you on How to Slice and Dice an Onion) as well as
tomatoes. Plus, dicing is one of your cut options if you’re learning How to
Quickly Caramelize Onions .
Finely Diced
%ne dice
A fine dice is just a smaller version of a dice! It’ll be about half the size of a
regular dice, coming in at 1/8th of an inch squared. Follow the same
process as a dice with less space between your cuts.
Fine dicing is often used for the same types of foods as a dice is—it just
makes them a little less toothsome. With a fine dice, you can get a lot of
something onto a spoon, making room for lots of flavors and smaller
pieces in one bite rather than a few larger, more chomp-friendly pieces.
Because fine dicing is smaller than regular dicing, it’ll also cook a little bit
quicker.
Chopped
chop
Let’s get into some chop talk. Whereas a dice is square, chopped cuts
don’t require much by way of specific shape. In addition to “chopped”,
you’ll also come across the phrases roughly chopped and finely chopped
in some of your recipes so it’s good to know what means what.
A chop is a smaller version of the rough chop below. You don’t need to
worry too much about a specific shape when chopping—the goal is to
make pieces that are close to a bite-size that would fit on a fork or spoon.
Roughly Chopped
rough chop
Rough chops are typically used for things that aren’t going to end up on
your final plate, like something you’re putting in a stock or under a tray
that you’re roasting a chicken on. There’s no need to think too much about
it—the goal is simply to break up the large piece of whatever you’re
cutting into a bunch of less large pieces. Easy peasy.
Finely Chopped
%ne chop
A fine chop is an even smaller version of these other chops. You’ll use this
almost exclusively for herbs and greens. These are real small and still
rustic/not super refined in shape. Fine chopping makes for great garnish
and is perfect for incorporating the flavor of herbs evenly throughout a
dish.
Sliced
slice
A slice is just what you think it is: a slice of something! Cut into your
produce with parallel lines. You’re probably pretty accustomed to this cut,
but keep in mind the difference between sliced and thinly sliced below—a
regular slice is thicker.
If you’re slicing an onion specifically, you can check out How to Slice and
Dice an Onion.
Thinly Sliced
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thin slice
Thinly sliced is just how it sounds: a thinner version of a slice. These cuts
are made at about 1/8th of an inch apart and have a delicate look to them.
Keep in mind thin slices will cook faster than regular slices.
Julienned or Matchsticks
julienne
A julienne cut is a more technical and refined version of a slice. When

regular slicing, you can kinda get away with whatever length and
thickness as long as they’re in straight cuts. A julienne requires a little
more uniformity and you might see the term used for things you wouldn’t
normally cut into slices. For example, a recipe may require that you slice
an onion and that you julienne a carrot (because you’d more typically see
a carrot diced or chopped). We also like to call julienne cuts matchsticks
because, well, that’s what they look like.
A julienne cut is technically an 1/8th inch by 1/8th inch square that’s cut to
2 inches in length.
Cubed
cube
Cubed means…cubed! You’ll cut your item into cube shapes. A recipe
usually specifies the size of the cube (from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch to 1 inch
cubes for example), so follow that guidance when it comes to determining
how large or small to cut.
Cubing is often used for root vegetables like potatoes, turnips, squash, or
carrots as cubing lends itself well to uniform roasting of these harder
types of produce.
Oblique or Jewel Cut
oblique
Next let’s look at oblique cuts or jewel cuts. We talked about these a bit in
our Avocado Basics: How to Cut, Peel, and Prep an Avocado if you wanna
take a look at how to do an avocado specifically! You’ll see us cycle
through a few different veggies in the demo here.
This is one of our favorite ways to cut things because the shapes are
versatile and you can move through it pretty quick once you get the hang
of it. With oblique/jewel cuts, you don’t need to worry about a uniform
shape. You’ll simply cut and rotate, cut and rotate until you’ve finished,
leaving you with quirky, bite-sized pieces. Oblique or jewel cuts work best
with longer produce like cucumbers or avocados that are quartered
length-wise.
Minced
mince
Lastly, we have mincing: the smallest of the small. Mincing is really the
final frontier of cutting before you enter straight-up puree status or
mashing. You’ll see this a lot for garlic and ginger—or anything with a
flavor that you want incorporated uniformly through every bite of your
dish. Make these cuts as tiny as you can in both directions and you’re
good to go.
That’s it for the 11 Knife Cuts Everyone Should Know! Be sure to get your
practice in by checking out How to Quickly Caramelize Onions and take
another look at the jewel/oblique cut in Avocado Basics: How to Cut, Peel,
and Prep an Avocado. Next up on the chopping block? A quick and easy
guide on How to Slice and Dice an Onion.
If you’ve got questions about these cuts or any others you’ve

encountered, let us know in the comments below and we’d be happy to
help you make healthy happen!

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11 Knife Cuts Everyone Should Know | Brewing Happiness 15.01.

11 Knife Cuts Everyone Should

We’ve explored a couple of these techniques recently, from oblique or

Now let’s get into some specifics!

A julienne cut is a more technical and refined version of a slice. When

Oblique or Jewel Cut

If you’ve got questions about these cuts or any others you’ve

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