Now that you know how to read a recipe and get yourself setup in the kitchen before cooking, it’s time to learn how to make sure every cut you make is getting you closer to the best finished product possible. Lesson three in Secrets of a Student Chef will teach you the tricks we learn in culinary school to make knife work a less daunting task.
I was one of the first patrons in line the day Julie and Julia hit the theaters last summer, anxious to see the cherished story I had grown to love so much on the page come to life on the big screen. As did most, I absolutely adored the movie and the romantic story of Julia Child’s rise to become the gourmand and culinary goddess we know and love today. At the time, I was trapped behind a desk, wondering where my life was going much like the author Julie Powell and could not imagine how a love of food and cooking could change it.
Fast forward a year later and I find myself up to my elbows in chickens, pastry, and butter as I train to become a chef. Having a different perspective on both life and food, I revisited the movie the other evening and encountered a totally different experience. The scene that I love most is when Julia Child begins her culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu and is tasked with chopping an endless number of onions fast and efficiently. At first she is slower than her fellow classmates, but not one to be discouraged, she attacks a mountain of alliums in her home kitchen until she gets it just right.
While this scene makes me smile, it also reminds me of the first day of culinary school when we start on the most basic foundation of cooking, knife skills. Known as taillage in french, the practice of cutting food into uniform shapes and sizes is the signature of a trained chef. It’s also tedious, frustrating, and absolutely necessary.
Before culinary school I can honestly say that I never gave much thought to the way I cut my vegetables, I was more focused on the most popular two choices: chopped and finely chopped. But now that I understand the method behind the madness I wish I had paid more attention all along. While aesthetically having uniformly shaped vegetables is nice, it’s not just about looks. If your food is cut into a variety of shapes and sizes it won’t cook evenly, and you will end up with some pieces over cooked or burnt, while others will be underdone and raw.
Think about onions for example, if you are sautéing them in a pan and some are smaller than others, you will notice the small ones start to burn up fast and impart a burnt flavor into your dish. The same goes for chicken; let’s say you’re cubing chicken to skewer for the grill, if some are big and some are small, what do you think the outcome will be after you cook them? Without putting the proper care into cutting them evenly, some will be tough and chewy or even worse, raw.
This is not to say that every home cook should be glued to their cutting boards with rulers or chop at the speed of light like chef’s you see on TV, but following a few simple steps the next time you pull out your knife can make a world of difference in the outcome of your kitchen endeavors.
Pick the right tool for the job. You wouldn’t want to cut an onion with a pairing knife or peel an apple with 10” chef’s knife, yet often times we use the wrong knife for the job. Before you being slicing, consider the size of the object you’re cutting and the size of the knife needed. Using the wrong tool will only make the task more difficult and possibly cause injury. If you don’t have an arsenal of cutlery at your fingertips, having a chef’s knife and a pairing knife will allow you to conquer almost any kitchen task. And whatever you do, please don’t try and chop with a steak knife.
Quick Tip: Selecting a knife can be a daunting task, click here to learn more about picking the perfect knife from Salon.com contributor Edward Behr.
Strike while the knife is sharp. Having the right tool is the first step, but if that tool is not sharpened you might as well stick with the steak knife. A sharp knife is critical to achieving uniform size cuts and makes the motion of cutting smooth and effortless. We’ve all heard the expression that you can’t cut yourself with a sharp knife, which isn’t necessarily true, but a dull knife does increase your chances of sustaining an appendage loss in the middle of dicing carrots as you’re pushing down twice as hard. The best way to keep your knives sharp is to store them with a protective covering to prevent damage in the drawer, clean them thoroughly with warm water after each use, hone with a steel in between uses, and sharpen them at least twice a week, or more based on use.
Quick Tip: Professional knife sharpening can be costly and time consuming, an effective, inexpensive at-home tool is this 2-stage knife sharpener by Wusthoff.
Start with a flat surface. Round produce like carrots and potatoes are much easier to cut uniformly when they aren’t rolling around on your cutting board. The first cut you should make when working with produce is to take a thin slice off one side so it sits flat and level on your cutting board.
And finally, consider how the food will be cooked. Before you decide on what size to cut your produce or protein you should first consider how it will be cooked. If it’s going to be cooked for a short time, smaller pieces will work best so they are cooked through in enough time. If you are making a stew or a braise you’ll want to cut bigger pieces of vegetables so they can hold up during the long cooking time and don’t turn to mush. You should also determine if the vegetables will be served with your dish or are just aromatics and will be strained out. If the later, you don’t need to spend as much time making the cuts perfect, but if you plan on serving them they should look neat and even.
How you slice and dice in your own kitchen is up to you, no one will know if you use a Slap Chop or a Cuisinart to do the dirty work for you, but having a base level of knife skills will make you a better cook and add an extra dash of heart and soul into your food.
Check out this helpful slideshow that shows you how to dice, or ciseler, an onion in 4 simple steps. Be sure to select the “show info” button in the top right corner to read the step by step instructions. Photos courtesy my fantastic photog classmate Lou Castaneda.
by Sharon Tyler Herbst, are also helpful to have for uses such as this.
Tara O'Keeffe