Know your Vegetable Cuts
Brunoise: is a culinary knife cut in which the food item is first julienned and then turned a quarter turn and diced, producing cubes of about 3 milometres or less on each side. In France, a “brunoise” cut is a smaller 1 to 2 mm. Some typical vegetables for a brunoise are carrots, celery, leeks, and turnips.
Macedoine: A vegetable macédoine consists of a variety of diced vegetables and is usually served cold as a salad. In France, they also serve it hot as a vegetable garnish or side dish, although it’s less frequent. Macédoine is also a culinary term for cutting fruits or vegetables into small cubes of 5 x 5 x 5mm.
Jardière: Jardiniere. Similar in shape to julienne, a jardiniere cut is slightly bigger, however, they are roughly 5mm x 5mm x 5cm (although, they can be slightly longer).
Baton: Sometimes used for thick-cut French fries, batons are a stick cut about 8mm in thickness. This is the largest stick cut and the intermediate step for the medium dice. Recipes for chunky stews often call for carrots, potatoes and meat to be medium diced, which is what you get after you chop the batons into cubes. The large dice (2cm cube) is uncommonly used in cooking, but you might large dice a watermelon for serving.
Batonnet: Some common foods cut in this style are French fries and crudités or vegetable sticks for dipping. To cut your vegetables into batonnets, square them off then cut lengthwise into 6mm-thin rectangular slices before cutting them into 6mm sticks. If a recipe for something like minestrone calls for a small dice, first cut the vegetables into batonnets, then chop them down further into 6mm cubes.
Paysanne: This is possibly the most commonly used vegetable cuts. The word “paysanne” translates to “country-style,” indicating a rougher, more informal cut like those usually used for throwing together family meals. Cutting a vegetable paysanne-style is to slice it thinly, but according to its natural shape, without squaring it off. For example, a carrot may be cut en paysanne into thin circles that have differing diameters.
Julienne: The julienne is also known as the matchstick cut. As its name suggests, what you’re going for is a thin, stick-shape cut. To make a julienne cut, square off your vegetable then cut lengthwise into 3mm-thin rectangular slices. Then cut these slices into matchsticks. This cut is most commonly used for stir-fries as ingredients cut this way cook evenly and quickly.
Chiffonade: Unlike all the cuts mentioned above, which are used for larger, hard vegetables, the chiffonade is a cut that’s applied to herbs and leafy vegetables. To chiffonade, stack all the leaves together and roll them tightly, holding them down with one hand and slicing the leaves perpendicular to the roll. A finer chiffonade achieves thin ribbons of herbs for garnishing, while a larger chiffonade can be used on leafy greens for a sauté.
Dice: Cutting food into uniform cubes is a three-step process. First cut food into even slices. Stack 2 or 3 slices on the cutting board, then cut them lengthwise into thick sticks. Holding the sticks together with your claw hand, cut the sticks crosswise into dice. When working with large quantities of food, make room on the cutting board by transferring the dice to a bowl.
Mince: Aromatic herbs, ginger, and garlic need to be minced into fine bits that will add additional flavor and smell to those dishes. Place the knife next to the item to be chopped and set your free hand flat on the tip of the knife. Hold the tip down as you move the knife heel up and down in a chopping motion, rocking back and forth over the food until it is finely minced.
Dicing Onions: Because of their layers, dicing onions involves a specific way technique unique to any other vegetable, if you follow these steps, you have the dice you are needing
1. Start by halving the onion through the stem. (Don’t remove the stem: It will hold the layers together for easier cutting.)
2. Place the cut side down on the cutting board and make even lengthwise cuts, still avoiding the stem.
3. Set your hand flat on top and cut two or three horizontal slices through the middle.
4. Slice the onion crosswise to release the dice.
5. Finer the dice the more slices you can add.
Wedges: For nice potato or onion wedges, start by halving them lengthwise. Lay the halves cut side down and halve them again. Then cut through the center of each quarter to make wedges. If your wedges still seem large, halve them again. (Trim the stems of onions, cabbage, and lettuce heads, but leave them together while cutting to hold the wedges together.)
