Understanding food cutting terms allows you to understand food recipes hence understanding preparation method of ingredients used in the recipes. This is another key factor in understanding food recipes especially in preparation of ingredients.
Let’s look at some food cutting terms usually found on food recipes:-
Chop
Cut food into extremely tiny pieces using knife and chopping board or food processor.
Crush
Flatten food usually by using heavy item such as stone mortar and pestle (batu lesung) or just knife.
Cube
Cut food into square-like pieces measuring about an inch (eg. beef is cubed for rendang dish).
Dice
Cut food into small square-like pieces (smaller than cubed, more or less the size of corn kernels).
Halve
Cut food into half.
Julienne
Cut food into thin, matchstick-like strips.
Mince
Similar to “chop” but finer. Cut food using knife and chopping board or using food processor as well. When buying meat items from supermarket, you can request them minced. They have meat mincer to do it and save you the hassle.
Slice
Cut food into thin, flat pieces.
Wedge
Cut food (usually round food eg. tomato, potato, apple, orange) into wedge-like pieces usually by halving the food from top to bottom, then halving the halved pieces the same way.
With nowadays’ technology, food can be cut into various shapes using cutting machines and cutting equipment (other than knife) such as slicer, food processor/ blender, meat mincer, core remover etc. These are created to replace hassle tasks but I still think manual cutting with knives and cutting boards is still more suitable to cater a family’s dining needs than machines. All you need are sharp knives, cutting board and skillful hands! Furthermore, artistic cuttings (such as carving for garnish) still very much require manual touch.
How to brush up your skill with knife? In any skill, practice makes perfect. Watch and observe how others do it and learn from the experts. Practice gradually and the skill will soon develop! A tip for you – use sawing motion when cutting food gives clean cut without damaging the shape of the food too much.
Note that while it seems safer to use blunt knife to practice, injuries are often caused by blunt knife. So use sharp knife instead. You can get clean cut of any food – just be more careful. Happy “cutting”!