A home cook’s best companion is a sharp chef knife if, of course, you know how to handle it! Mastering cutting techniques not only aids in a more efficient workflow, but also helps to elevate a dish or guarantee consistent presentation.
The worst you can get from careless handling are rough cuts, uneven slices, and accidents in the kitchen. From slicing onions at home for dinner, to sharpening your skills in culinary school, reinforcing the basics of a chef’s knife is important.
Each home cook or aspiring chef should master at least one knife cutting technique, and this blog aims to do just that. Plus, we’ll provide five tips on how to avoid disasters in the kitchen. You can thank us later when you feel confident standing behind the cutting board. Let’s carve it!
Basics of Cutting with a Chef Knife
Remember that with modern technology comes the ease of having access to different trimming guides. Before delving into the more intricate aspects, allow me to preface this with a helpful golden rule: dull knives are riskier than sharp ones. Always keep your knife sharp, trusted to deliver clean and easy cuts. Now, get ready to master different cutting techniques.
1. The Rock Chop
The rocking technique involves moving a knife in both directions to chop herbs and garlic or smaller portions of shallots. The tip of the knife is anchored while it is rocking back and forth.
This method yields smooth, precise cuts that ensures uniformity throughout the meal.
Pro Tip: To prevent crushing basil, stack leaves, tightly roll them into a cylinder, and chop along the roll.
2. The Slice
Cutting soft ingredients such as tomatoes, cooked fish, or meat is best done with the slicing technique. Begin by facing the tip of the knife blade toward the food and gently pulling backward while gliding the sharp edge through the ingredient.
Avoid using force! A gentle slicing motion will allow you to maintain the integrity of the food and avoid squashing or tearing it.
3. The Dice
Dicing is the go-to technique when you need equal cubes for soups, salsas, or stews. It starts with the “slice” technique- the food is cut into strips, then rotated 90 degrees and sliced again to form cubes.
Dicing is preferred for carrots, celery and bell peppers.
Pro Tip: Remember to fully strip all of your meats, and this will allow you to achieve precise dicing while carving out the cubes.
4. The Julienne
Do you wish to have bone sited nutritious bands of vegetables for stir frying, or to serve for garnishing purposes? Learn how to do the julienne cut. It is a bit more demanding as it’s done by slicing the vegetables into thin pieces that resemble a matchstick, with an approximate height of around one eighth of an inch.
To achieve this, first carve the vegetables into a rectangular shape to aid in their carving into stable shapes. After that, they should be carved into planks, and from there, they will be hewn into matchsticks.
5. The Chiffonade
Although the word chiffonade sounds fancy, it refers to a simple technique used in cutting leafy greens and herbs. First, stack the leaves, roll them up tightly into cigar-like shapes (similar to rock chop), and then slice them thinly to make ribbons.
Chiffonade is also wonderful for garnishing pasta or soup with herbs.
6. The Batonnet
To batonnet cuts, these refer to achieving thicker and lengthier pieces of about one forth of an inch inside and around 2-3 inches long. Used as the bite-size pieces of crudité, batonnet cuts are the root of a traditional french fry.
To achieve this cut, begin with slicing your preferred vegetable into rectangular blocks, then cut those blocks into even sticks.
7. The Brunoise
If you have mastered the batonnet, the next step you can take is creating brunoise. This technique produces brunoise, which gives pieces measuring up to 1/8 of an inch on all sides in the form of square shapes used to achieve the golden ratio in the set square.
This is ideal for intricate carving during French cuisine, decorating, or attaining fine details in salads and soups.
Example: Create a beautiful brunoise by cutting a carrot into logs, slicing those logs into mini planks, and cubing the resulting planks.
Avoiding Kitchen Disasters: 5 Safety Life Hacks
To be useful, knife skills need to be performed while observing safety. These basic steps will help to ensure that you do not injure yourself while handling knives.
1. Use Claw Grip
When using a non-dominant hand to hold food, bend your fingers into a claw grip while holding the food. Your fingertips must remain in a closed position and it is your knuckle that moves the knife. Helps avoid self-inflicted cuts and guarantees good grip.
2. Firm Cutting Board
A flimsy cutting board may easily lead to an accident. In order for the cutting board to not move around when in use, place a wet paper towel mat under it. This aids in stabilizing the board.
3. Attention From Different Directions
In order to multitask in the kitchen, the use of cutlery and distraction can lead towards unfortunate accidents. Ensure that eyes can remain focused on the knife while working with a steady rhythm.
4. Keep Knives Sharp
Again, dull knives are hazardous. It is much easier to hurt oneself with a dull knife because it requires more force and is more likely to slip from one’s grip.
Invest in a honing steel so you can maintain the sharpness of your knife and remember to have it professionally sharpened on a set schedule.
5. Store Knives Properly
It is better to store knives in a magnetic strip or sheath and knife block instead of throwing them into a drawer with other utensils. This will reduce the chance of injury from the blade and sharpen the edge as well.
Practice Makes Perfect
As with any activity, becoming good at the various techniques with a knife requires a lot of practice. Master one technique first, such as the rock chop or the slice. As you gain confidence, you will find you are faster at performing the tasks in the kitchen.
If you are an advanced cooking student or a cooking enthusiast keen on bettering your knife skills, you can enroll in an online or in-person knife skills class which will give you invaluable, hands-on feedback.
Why Knife Skills Matter
With knives and cooking, the order of distinct cuts improves the overall quality of the dish. Proper cutting techniques also create maneuvers where the least waste is produced improving the cutting technique’s efficiency further. Proper cuts allows the dish to be balanced and enhance its value adding even more impact.
Using the right cuts combined with the commitment slash directions of featured techniques allows the practitioner to come up with finely made foods prepared in the comfort of their kitchen.
Enhance Your Cooking Skills Further.
Finishing sharpening the cutting knives, steps and directions features cuts helpful in making slices to aid movement in space aimed to make an individual. In case someone is making an amazing lunch for the family or a dinner party to throw, smooth skills combined with careful attention to cuts planned ensure the food makes an amazing display. Image for Tag or Social Media
