Cut vegetables into medium pieces. General shredding principles

It often happens that you need to quickly fry several different ingredients at once, putting them into the pan one by one. In such cases, you need to prepare everything in advance. It is especially important to cut the vegetables correctly, then they will be fried evenly, and your dish will be beautiful. The cuts used in the recipes in this book are listed below.

Crescent slicing

It is a staple cut for carrots, daikon, lotus root and all kinds of sweet potatoes. Cut the vegetable in half lengthwise, then, starting at the top, across into thick, even semicircles. Cut carrots 3-5 mm thick, dai-kon - depending on the dish you are preparing. You can first cut the vegetable into circles, and then cut the circles into halves.

Cutting into strips

This form is convenient to use for carrots and daikon. Cut a piece of vegetable 4-5 cm long, then cut it lengthwise into 1 cm thick plates, and now cut the plates even thinner.

The thickness of the resulting plates should be 2-3 mm. For daikon, the plates may be thicker. This form is well suited for frying.

Finely chopped oblong vegetables

Cut onions and other oblong vegetables starting from the root. The knife must be held vertically. Choose the thickness of the cut depending on the dish: if you are going to use the onion as a seasoning, then cut thinly, for stewing - thicker.

Sliced ​​ginkgo leaves

This cut is obtained by cutting the resulting crescents in half. Cut the vegetable in half lengthwise, then in half again lengthwise, and then cut into equal thickness plates.

Get the shape of ginkgo leaves. Thinly sliced ​​pieces are suitable for salads. The thick slices are great for soups or stews.

Cutting into sticks

Carrots and daikon are most often cut into cubes. Cut a piece of vegetable 4-5 cm long, then cut it lengthwise into 1 cm thick plates and then cut it, keeping 1 cm thick. You get 1 cm thick quadrangular sticks. Boil and decorate a steak dish with them, they can also be used for salting and simply raw.

Sliced ​​straws

This is a small cut. Cut a piece of vegetable 4-5 cm long, then cut it thinly along and, after gathering several plates together, cut very finely.

You can cut across - vegetables cut in this way are softer.

small shredder

This is a finely chopped vegetable. Cut the onion in half lengthwise, then, holding the onion at the base, cut lengthwise and across.

Scallop cut

Allows you to cut onions, tomatoes and other round vegetables into equal parts. Cut the vegetable in half lengthwise, and then cut each half into 4-6 more pieces. It turns out the shape of a scallop. When you cut an onion, so that it does not fall apart, you should leave the core.

Oblique cutting

For such a cut, you need to hold kitchen knife obliquely with respect to the kitchen board and cut the vegetable into pieces of the same thickness. It is well suited for burdock root, asparagus and other vegetables with big amount fibers. You need to choose the right angle and thickness of the cut, then the resulting product will be beautiful. The thickness of the cut depends on the dish and the degree of hardness of the vegetable.

Sliced ​​cabbage

This cut is suitable for those cases when you need to save natural taste product. Take 2-3 cabbage leaves, stack them one on top of the other, then cut the cabbage lengthwise and crosswise into pieces about 3 cm wide. The size of the resulting pieces may not match. Some types of leaves, such as Chinese rape leaves, can be cut into larger pieces.

Cutting into cubes of irregular shape

Carrots, burdock root, and other oblong-shaped vegetables can be cut obliquely. Thick vegetables must first be cut lengthwise into four pieces. A feature of this cutting is that the vegetable is periodically rotated during the cutting process, that is, they are cut not in order, but somewhat chaotically. The area of ​​the resulting pieces is quite large, such cutting is well suited, for example, for stewing.

Cutting stalked vegetables

Suitable for Chinese cabbage, celery and other vegetables with long fibers. You need to tilt the kitchen knife and cut thinly, cutting through the fibers of the vegetable. The resulting small slices will be soft in taste. If you want the vegetable to be tougher, you need to cut larger.

cutting into thin slices

To cut an onion in this way, you need to cut the onion in half, then, putting the cut surface of the onion on the board, cut it into thin slices. Cut the mushroom caps thin plates. The thickness of the slices should be the same. This cut is well suited for stews or fried foods and also for soup.

One bite cut

This cut is suitable, for example, for large vegetables, meat, grilled chicken. Each piece measures approximately 2 x 3 cm.

Foods cut in this way cook well and are easy to eat.

One of the first skills a chef learns is cutting meat and vegetables quickly. If you're having trouble cutting food safely and quickly, make sure you're using the proper tools (such as a good cutting board and kitchen knife). Learn how to hold a knife properly and use the right cutting technique while working in the kitchen. With a little practice, you will become more confident and skillful in cutting food.

Steps

Choose a knife and cutting surface

Choose the right cutting board. You can choose from wood, bamboo or plastic. Plastic is lighter and easier to store, but quite difficult to clean. Avoid plastic cutting boards that leave cuts and knife marks. Wooden cutting boards have natural antiseptic properties that help keep them clean. You can also use bamboo cutting boards, but they are harder than wood, so your knives will dull faster.

• Avoid cutting on metal, glass, and stone cutting boards. They dull their knives.
• Consider purchasing two cutting boards. Use one for slicing fruit or vegetables and the other for meat.

1. Attach the cutting board. If you decide to use a plastic cutting board, or if your work surface is fairly smooth, don't let the board budge. The knife may slip and injure you. To keep your cutting board stationary, lay a damp towel (or rag) on ​​your work surface. Lay the cutting board directly on the rag. Now the board should not slide.

   • Also, under the cutting board, you can put non-slip mats, wet paper towels or a special adhesive mass.

2. Use the correct knife for the job. Most knife sets include different types knives you will need in the kitchen. For cutting, a 20–25 cm kitchen knife is most often used. It has a slight bend that allows you to drive the knife back and forth with fast cutting. You need to feel balanced and light weight knife when holding it in your hand.

   • Do not cut food with small knives (such as fruit knives), as such a knife may get stuck in the food or injure yourself.
   • Do not use a kitchen knife for small jobs such as peeling food or slicing bread.

3. Keep your knife sharp. Professional chefs sharpen the blades of their knives every day because they use them a lot. Get in the habit of sharpening your knife blade with a whetstone, as dull knives are more likely to slip as you work. This increases the risk of cutting yourself. If you are uncomfortable sharpening knives yourself, you can take them to a cutting tool sharpening shop.

   Hold the knife correctly

   Hold a kitchen knife in your dominant hand. Use it to wrap around the knife handle with your index finger and thumb on the blade. These fingers should be in front of the bolster (where the widest part of the blade meets the handle). Try not to put your index finger across the top of the blade. A firm grip on the blade will provide better control of the knife during cutting.

   • Of course, you can cut with your entire hand wrapped around the handle, but this will limit your range of motion.
   • The index finger and thumb should look like they are gripping the sides of the blade.

4. Form a "claw" with your non-dominant hand. With your free hand from the knife, you need to firmly hold the food that you cut. To avoid cutting yourself, bend your fingertips towards the palm so that the hand takes the form of a "claw". Squeeze the food with your clawed hand to prevent food from moving or slipping.

   • This may seem unnatural or uncomfortable at first, but it the best way prevent unpleasant incidents in the kitchen.

5. Protect the thumb of your non-dominant hand. It is very important to press the thumb of the non-dominant hand to reduce the risk of cutting yourself. The knuckles of the thumb and the knuckles of the fingertips should be closer to the knife blade than the fingertips themselves. Thus, when cutting quickly, the knife will simply hit the knuckles and not touch the fingertips.

   • Practice curling your thumb. If you notice that your thumb is starting to stick out, stop and tuck it in again. Practice cutting slowly until it becomes a habit.

   Use different cutting techniques

   Practice cross-cutting technique. If you are just learning how to cut, then cross cutting is a great and safe technique. Place the food you want to cut on a cutting board and grab a kitchen knife with your dominant hand. Open your non-dominant hand and place your palm so that your fingers cover the blade. Do not bend your fingers, but with your other hand drive the blade at the same level, cutting food. Continue cutting to your desired size.

At a good cook everything is important, including the size and shape of the cut products. It depends on how easy it is to mix. different ingredients and soaked in flavor each other how quickly they soften when cooked or stewed, whether they “drain” prematurely in a salad, and a number of other little things that can both emphasize and spoil the taste of a dish. At professional cutting there are other advantages: it saves time and makes our food beautiful.

Sweet couple: knife and board

We discussed the principles of choosing a knife in another article. In short: for traditional cutting of vegetables and fruits, a large or medium-sized kitchen knife with a wide, even blade without bends and a sharp end, well honed, is suitable. The cutting board should be wood or plastic, never glass. Working on a hard surface will ruin any knife, even the highest quality and most expensive.

General shredding principles

Not everyone knows that shredding and cutting are not the same thing. Even a beginner who only recently took a knife in his hand will be able to somehow shred food and lower them into a boiling broth. But shredding needs to be learned: to master the technique of the process and, gradually increasing the speed, to achieve real mastery.

• Rule 1 Take the knife in your working hand as follows: the thumb is located on the side along the handle, and the index finger is on it, so that its first or second phalanges are on the top of the blade. This position gives full control over the movements of the instrument.
• Rule 2 Do not lift the tip of the blade off the cutting board. While raising and lowering the handle evenly, make a movement along the cut product. When moving the knife, try to achieve the same pitch: it can be 5 mm (potato slices for soup), and the thickness of the sheet of paper (as when cutting carpaccio) - it all depends on the product and subsequent processing.
• Rule 3 Don't stress! Keep your hand relaxed, otherwise it will get tired very quickly. At the training stage, control the correct position of the hand and fingers, gradually they will become familiar. Start by cutting at a slow pace, and when you master the technique, pick up speed.

Each vegetable has its own way of slicing

In fact, there are not so many simple ways to cut, much less than products. Here are the main ones.

Straw. Used for slicing potatoes, carrots, beets and other raw vegetables before cooking or frying. Cut the potato into plates about 2-3 mm thick, put them on top of each other and chop them across with the same knife shift step - about 3 mm. Large root vegetables, cabbage and peppers are cut into strips about 5 cm long. For carrots, this can be 1.5 - 3 cm, depending on its size.

Blocks. In terms of shape and cutting technique, this is the same straw, but thicker. The length of the bars is up to 4 cm, the thickness is from 7 to 10 mm. Used for cooking first courses (cooking) and stewing.

Cubes. Cubes are obtained by cross-cutting straws or sticks. Large and medium are suitable for subsequent heat treatment. Cut into small cubes boiled vegetables for salads.

Circles and slices. These methods are good for cutting small, rounded root crops. If necessary, they are additionally “turned” (this can be done even when cleaning, using a special vegetable knife), giving them a cylindrical shape. The circles are cut quite thinly (within 2 mm) and used for frying, the slices can be thicker, especially if they are intended for soup.

Rings, half rings, cubes. Well, of course, we are talking about the bow. It is not so easy to chop this capricious product.
The onion layers tend to slip out of the hands, the eyes water, so that the fingers continually fall under the knife.

The most common cutting method onion- half rings. With proper shredding, this is done completely safely. Cut the onion in half with a sharp knife. Holding the half with the bent fingers of the second hand, make the first cut. Change the position of the palm. Grab half of the bulb from above, so that the thumb holds it on one side and the rest on the other. The knife moves inside this “arch” and sequentially cuts half-rings up to 2 mm thick.

To get cubes, cut 3 mm half rings, and then chop them across.

Very rarely, real onion rings are used - mainly for barbecue. Exists simple trick, which greatly simplifies such work - to deprive the bow of its spherical shape. To do this, cut a thin plate on the side. Put the onion on the resulting “bottom” and do whatever you want with it, that is, cut into layers of 1-2 mm, which you then disassemble into rings.

slicing tomatoes

The most popular cutting methods fruit vegetables- circles and slices for salads, cubes and straws for soups. However, tomatoes, with their juicy pulp and dense skin, require special treatment. Even with the most sharpened blade, with a conventional shredder, you run the risk of crushing the fruit and squeezing all the juice out of them, so take a special serrated knife. This tool is also recommended for slicing some fruits: lemons, oranges, peaches.

Japanese cutting

Japanese food pays great attention to the grinding of products. True, the main methods of cutting are the same: large cubes (Sainomegiri), and small ones (Mijingiri), straws (Sengiri). There are also techniques that are unusual for us.

Sasagaki - planing. Hold a carrot or burdock root in your non-working hand, slicing them like a pencil. This method is applicable to other roots, for example, horseradish, parsley, parsnips.

Katsura-muki - circular cutting. Used for daikon, carrots and other similarly shaped root crops. Take the knife in your working hand, clasping the upper part of the blade with your palm, with the blade along the side of the vegetable. Turn the daikon in a twisting motion, cutting thinly from the top. This is similar to how you would unwind a roll of paper, separating each next layer with a knife.

The circular cutting technique well demonstrates the need

In the past, food for people was a tool for survival, and therefore, eaters did not particularly bother about the aesthetic value of dishes. Today, for the most part, cooking has become an art where every nuance is important, and therefore we especially need to know how to cut vegetables correctly. The role of fruits in the recipe variety is incredibly extensive, they are present in almost every menu, and are also actively used for decoration.

The most frequent guests in our kitchen are solid types vegetables; potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, cucumbers and others like them. The ways of cutting these fruits are truly darkness-darkness. The special significance and choice of the shredder depends, of course, on the type of dish that we intend to prepare, whether it is a first, second, salad or appetizer, as well as on the role this vegetable in one or another culinary masterpiece: garnish, frying, assorted, carving and so on.

To deal with everything in order, we will consider the slicing options from the simplest and explain to which type of menu this or that option can be applied.

slicing

by the most simple method slicing is a lobule. IN this case the vegetable must be cut lengthwise in half or into quarters and then simply chopped across the slices. We can choose the width of the slices that we need.

Thin slices are ideal for soups, and if we intend to cook stews, or some other dish that needs to be stewed for a long time, then it is more advisable to make the slices thicker so that they do not corny boil. For salads, it is better to take something in between.

diced

A cube is the second option for chopping vegetables. To create beautiful, even cubic pieces, we must cut the fruit into 3-4 layers of equal thickness, and then divide them lengthwise into 2-3 parts, and only after that we proceed to cross cutting.

In this case, we can adjust the edges of the slices by the number and thickness of the layers. This type of chopping vegetables is the most popular, and it is used for almost all types of dishes.

Slicing into cubes

Thus, it is possible to obtain not only cubes, but also bars, if only 1-3 cuts are made during transverse cutting. Slices of this type are used for soups, stews, Uzbek pilaf(carrot), garnish.

The most common method of salad chopping vegetables - straws, has an identical cubic slicing technique: layers - strips, these are essentially the same bars, only much more elegant and thinner.

Before the shredding procedure itself, we must, first of all, decide on the required length of the slices. For example, in the case of carrots or cucumbers, we can cut the layers at an angle, thereby making the “straw” base more optimal for lettuce pieces. And from the choice of the angle, the length of the straw in the future will change: the larger the angle, the longer the pieces, respectively.

onion slicing

One of the most harmful root crops that can bring even a seasoned fighter to tears is onions. However, so tearful by-effect does not detract from its value in our kitchen. W

Often it is not possible to properly cut these vegetables both beautifully and evenly: the layers threaten to spread in all directions, a carefully held stack of multi-layered layers strives to crumble, and the knife is simply unable to cope with the "shrew". However, in the case of onions there are rules for cutting.

When cutting onions into small cubes, there is one trick. To prevent thin layers from falling apart, half of the head should be cut into layers not completely, something like a fan.

The whole side (the tail of the onion head) will serve as a kind of fixative. After that, we easily chop the plates across, turning the onion into small cubes that will not be intrusive in salads, snacks, children's soups, dumplings and many other dishes.

Slicing onion-turnips with a large and medium cube is an integral part of a vegetable or meat stew, first and second courses. Here you can cut the head with wide plates to the end, and then cut everything along, adjusting the required width of the slices.

Sliced ​​straws

Straw onion is a friend and comrade vegetable salad, where the other ingredients are ground in a similar way. In general, everything is easy here, we cut the half of the onion into thin slices along the fibers and voila, a beautiful and even straw is ready to jump into the salad bowl.

Ring cutting

Also, onions can be chopped into rings, across the fibers and choosing required thickness rings: for barbecue it is better to prepare plump specimens, for frying or salad it is better to limit yourself to thin ones.

In the same way, we can cut the halves and quarters of onion heads, getting half and quarter rings.

The secret of successful cooking is not only strict adherence to technology, carefully selected ingredients and precisely calculated proportions.

How and how correctly we will cut vegetables for culinary masterpiece, can play a decisive role in the success of the entire cooking process and the final dish. Therefore, it is extremely important to have the skills of cutting and chopping fruits and to know which chopping option is the most beneficial for a particular recipe.

We learned exactly what knives are and what they are intended for. And now, before you start mercilessly chopping onions (remember Julia Child from the movie "Julie and Julia"?), We will learn how to properly hold the tools. Do not worry, we will also reach the bulbs very soon, you will still be crying.

Well, we take all the chef's knives together and look at the pictures! This is just an option from a series when it is easier to show than to describe. If suddenly you don’t understand something, I’ll give a video at the bottom of the post.

1. Correct knife grip ("Chef's grip")

Squeeze the blade as in the picture with your thumb and bent index finger. Thumb lies on the side, along the handle of the knife, and the index one, as it were, wraps around the handle from above

Grasp the handle of the knife with the remaining three fingers.

Do not grip the blade and handle too hard, otherwise you will not be able to use the knife for a long time. Hold it not relaxed, but firmly enough - confidently.

This grip is correct for most knives (see vegetable knife grip option below).

2. Incorrect knife grip

The most common mistakes to avoid:

Do not put your thumb or index finger on the butt of the knife!!!

Don't hold the knife like a sword!!!

3. Option to capture a vegetable knife (Paring knife)

For some types of cutting, we need to use a short-bladed fruit and vegetable knife, which should be held as follows:

4. How to hold your fingers correctly

So, one hand is occupied with a knife, now let's deal with the second hand, which holds our products.

Fingertips should always be bent inward.

The second phalanges of the index and middle fingers are almost perpendicular. The blade of the knife is pressed against the folds of the fingers and slides along them when cutting.

The thumb should be laid back, otherwise you will get carried away and cut off your nail for one or two. He, as it were, grabs a vegetable or fruit and pushes it towards the knife.

In no case do we stick out the little finger!

5. What part of the knife should be cut?

When cutting food, we can use different parts of the knife blade. From left to right:

1. Part of the blade at the point. This is the sharpest and narrowest part of the knife. Used for delicate slicing or cutting into small pieces.

2. The central part is used in most cases.

3. The heel is used for laborious cutting when more force needs to be applied.

6. Basic cutting methods

1. Cutting. The easiest way is when the blade moves from top to bottom. This is exactly the way Julia Child uses when cutting onions, which I will now show you in a video from her show "The French Chef". I cut out an excerpt from the "Your Own French Onion Soup" series. As a bonus, I left the part where Julia shows how to edit a knife with the help of a musat. Who does not know English - do not despair, just watch the video carefully, everything is shown very clearly!

2. Slicing, the first way

Hold the knife at an acute angle. The tip of the knife does not come off the board.

Move the knife down and forward a little, cutting through the carrot (or any other vegetable)

We finish the movement when the cutting edge falls on the board.

For the next movement, raise the heel and pull back (toward yourself), while the tip of the knife again rests on the board.

3. Slicing, the second way

Hold the knife at a 45 degree angle. Part of the knife at the point is located on the cucumber. And in this place the side surface of the blade rests against our bent fingers (see paragraph 4). The tip of the knife does NOT rest against the board.

Cut the product in a downward and forward motion.

Here in this video you can clearly see the cutting into slices according to the First and Second methods

Information taken from books:
- Knife Skills Illustrated: A User's Manual by Peter Hertzmann. Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.; illustrated edition edition (7 Sep 2007)
- Essentials of professional cooking/Wayne Gisslen. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
- Video Julia Child show"The French Chef"