Vegetable cut are important to consider when preparing vegetables for cooking because uniform vegetable cuts will ensure that all pieces of a vegetable will cook at the same rate. If vegetables is cut into uneven pieces, some of the vegetables may cook to a soft and mushy texture while other pieces may remain hard to the bite. By using uniform cuts of vegetables, the vegetables will cook even to doneness with the flavor of the vegetable releasing in a predictable manner.
Basic slicing cut include coins, half-moons, and wedges. Coins are used for vegetables that is boiled, soups, and stir-fries. Half-moons are good for sautéing vegetables because they will brown even.
Vegetable Cuts and Knife Skills
Wedges are used for roasting vegetables because the wedges hold the layer of the vegetable together during roasting. An oblique roll cut is used for root vegetable and creates chunks of vegetables that will cook tenderly when prepared in braising liquids. Strips and sticks includes julienne, batonnet, and chiffonade.
Julienne cuts are good for raw vegetables for salads as well as for stir-fries. Batonnets are sticks that are used for french fries or crudité. Chiffonade is used for herbs and creates a garnish that will not wilt.
Dicing vegetables will create cube of vegetables. Dice cuts include brunoise, small dice, medium dice, and large dice. Brunoise cuts are used in sauce and are very small in size.
Small dice are slightly larger than brunoise but are used in salsas. Medium and large dice are big cubes that are used in stew and roasted vegetables. All vegetables that use dicing methods should of have the size of the dice matched with the cook time for which the vegetable will be prepared to ensure that no vegetable is raw or too mushy to eat.
Specialty vegetable cuts are used for decorative dish and include tourné, Hasselback, and spiralized cuts. Tourné cuts will create a vegetable that has a seven-sided shape and is used for formal dishes and garnish. Hasselback cuts involve slicing the vegetable (typically potato) into very thin layers.
These vegetables will crisp when roasted in an oven. Spiralized cuts will transform vegetable into long ribbons similar than pasta. These are used for low-carbohydrate meal.
Knife skills are necessary for good vegetable cuts and include sharpening, gripping, and stabilizing the vegetable. Ensure that the knife is sharpened before beginning to ensure that the knife make even slice of vegetables rather than tearing them. Use a claw grip for the non-knife hand for better control.
Place a damp towel on the cutting board to stabilize the cutting surface. For round vegetable, flatten them prior to preparing vegetable cuts so they do not roll while in preparation. Different tool will be used for preparing vegetable cuts.
Chef’s knife will be used for most dicing and julienne vegetable cuts. Paring knives will only be used for small vegetable cuts for task like tourné. Nakiri knives are used for push cuts like chiffonade.
Mandolines are used to create very thin vegetable slice of less than a millimeter in thickness. Finally, an Y-peeler will be used to make vegetable ribbons while a melon baller will make sphere that can be used in soups.