Lesson
Knife skills serve as the foundation to every good cook’s repertoire. Before you learn how to create delicious food, you should have an understanding of basic knife cuts. Read below for the five basic knife skills you should master.
1. Chopping:
Everyone is already familiar with your basic chopping technique. It is crucial to remember that when chopping ingredients to be cooked together you must chop them as evenly as possible. This will help ensure that your vegetables will cook evenly, although it is also important to consider which ingredients are cooed together.
2. Chiffonade: Chiffonade is typically used when preparing leafy greens such as spinach or kale, though it can also be used to prepare smaller herbs such as mint or basil. To chiffonade you will need to stack your greens on top of each other into a neat pile, roll them together, and thinly slice crosswise.
3. Mincing: Mincing is a finer slice, most often used for garlic or fresh herbs. To mince herbs cut them in one direction in a series of quick cuts. Realign the herbs on your cutting board and repeat from a different direction. Do this until you have achieved a mince of finely sliced herbs.
4. Julienne: Julienne is a rectangular cut often used for vegetables such as bell peppers or carrots. To begin this cut you will first need to square-off the vegetable so it is easier to work with. Then, stack a few of the squares on top of each other and cut the pieces into thin sticks.
5. Brunoise: To brunoise, which results in a dice of neat cubes, begin by cutting your ingredients into a julienne. Then cut crosswise to create uniform cubes.
To try out your knife cuts, try preparing a simple salad with ingredients of your choosing. Chose three of the cuts above to utilize in your salad with three different ingredients. For example, you could julienne some carrots or chiffonade mint. Happy cutting!