do you dice , in quantity ?

rotuts · June 16

Over here :

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/166691-breville-paradice-9/#comment-2427056

there is an interesting discussion on Breville FP's that dice

1 or 3 sizes of dice.

I can't recall dicing in quantity for some time.

if I needed quantity dice , I might pulse w the regular bade

as the result would cook out to a different result :

pulsing whole mushrooms , several pounds , to cook etc

do you dice repeatedly for some sort of Rx these days ?

I think Im missing something , or maybe not ?

P.S.: I could see dicing , pretty small dice

for Hash ,

maybe dicing carrots to match the size of peas for peas and carrots

home made from fresh peas and carrots ?

( I buy P & C 's frozen , haven't had a fresh pea for ages }

Edited June 16 by rotuts (log)

gfweb · June 17

I dice a lot. Two or 3 potatoes at a time. I can have it done faster than I coukd set up that new instrument

C. sapidus · June 17

Manual dicing here, too. Dicing is not much of a burden cooking for two most of the time.

Tropicalsenior · June 17

I do quite a bit of dicing for Soups, Olivier salad, and things of that sort. I never thought of dicing mushrooms and how would that Contraption work on tomatoes and avocados? For me, doing it by hand is just fine, thank you.

I should add that I honed my knife skills in professional kitchens where I did do a lot of mass dicing.

Edited June 17 by Tropicalsenior (log)

blue_dolphin · June 17

It’s rare that I dice mass quantities of anything and when I do, it’s the peeling I find more annoying than the dicing. Like big winter squash, tons of potatoes or tomatoes.

liuzhou · June 17

I dice often: onions, carrots, meats, potatoes and more. I mainly use a revolutionary, cunning new device - a cleaver. Sometimes, a chef's knife. Both are quicker than any machine I would have to get out of storage, set up, use, clean and re-store.

Shel_B · June 17

7 hours ago, rotuts said:

do you dice repeatedly for some sort of Rx these days ?

When sweetie made her annual goulash, she needed a HUGE amount of diced onions. I was in charge of the dicing, and it was a time consuming affair. After the first time, sweetie's daughter gave me this device: The Vidalia Chop Wizard:

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

There's now a larger sized version as well:

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

Of course, it's useful for more than just onions. It's been a big time saver over the years for those few times a year that I need to do a lot of dicing.

liuzhou · June 17

9 hours ago, Shel_B said:

Of course, it's useful for more than just onions.

Is it? I can think of several things it wouldn't dice. How would that dice a potato? It works with onions because, as The Incredible String Band pointed out, onions have a layered structure, meaning they don't need cutting in three directions like potatoes etc. Potatoes need peeling, slicing, cutting into batons then making the cubes. That machine can't do at least one of these.

Also, you need to cut the onion with a knife first anyway! I can do all the steps wiith a knife. Also again, with a knife, I have as many dice sizes as I need, not just two.

And there is enough junk in my kitchen already, thanks. Pass.

Edited June 17 by liuzhou (log)

gfweb · June 17

I usually find Kenji to be a tedious pedant, but this is pretty good.

https://www.nytimes.com/article/how-to-cut-onion.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Shel_B · June 17

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Is it? I can think of several things it wouldn't dice. How would that dice a potato?

It may not do a potato, I've never tried it, but it does do more than onions, and I have tried other things.

It's not for everyone and for every situation. We all must decide for ourselves. I keep my unit stashed in an out of the way spot and it comes out once a year or so when I want to take advantage of its ability to dice onions. YMMV, and it clearly does.

Tropicalsenior · June 17

3 minutes ago, Shel_B said:

it comes out once a year or so

I refuse to give valuable cupboard space to one trick ponies. All my tools and appliances have to earn their place in my kitchen.

liuzhou · June 17

13 minutes ago, Shel_B said:

I have tried other things.

For example?

**ElsieD** · June 17

6 hours ago, Shel_B said:

When sweetie made her annual goulash, she needed a HUGE amount of diced onions. I was in charge of the dicing, and it was a time consuming affair. After the first time, sweetie's daughter gave me this device: The Vidalia Chop Wizard:

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

There's now a larger sized version as well:

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

Of course, it's useful for more than just onions. It's been a big time saver over the years for those few times a year that I need to do a lot of dicing.

Are things like potatoes and squash easy to cube with it?

lindag · June 17

No, they're not. That type of cutter takes a hefty amount of pressure.

Shel_B · June 17

31 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Are things like potatoes and squash easy to cube with it?

@ElsieD,I found that butternut squash was easy for me although it didn't dice as nicely as onions. Haven't tried potatoes. However, in the next few days - maybe a week or so - I'll need to dice up some orange sweet potatoes. I'll dig out the chopper and see how it does and get back to you.

In the meanwhile, this video may be useful:

Even though I've tried it with a few items, as @liuzhou suggests, its strong suit for me seems to be onions and the like, although I've had great results with peppers. I've not used it much, and the things I've tried it with, other than onions, were more out of curiosity than to use the items in my regular cooking.

Edited June 17 by Shel_B (log)

**MaryIsobel** · June 17

1 hour ago, Shel_B said:

It may not do a potato, I've never tried it, but it does do more than onions, and I have tried other things.

It's not for everyone and for every situation. We all must decide for ourselves. I keep my unit stashed in an out of the way spot and it comes out once a year or so when I want to take advantage of its ability to dice onions. YMMV, and it clearly does.

Mine is a lifesaver (wrist saver) at salsa canning time. Peppers and onions, pounds and pounds of them get done quite quickly. I also use it at Christmas to chop celery and onions for the massive amount of stuffing that I make. It's used again a few times in the summer when I'm doing a big batch of pasta salad with a ton of veggies. Gets pulled out in the fall for big batches of soup and chili. I find it easier to use on the kitchen table, rather than at counter height. That way, I can put more of my body weight into it and done this way, it easily dices potatoes and squash and the harder veg. I bought a little silicone grid thing that fits over the grid on the lid and makes cleaning a breeze.

Shel_B · June 17

16 minutes ago, MaryIsobel said:

Mine is a lifesaver (wrist saver) at salsa canning time. Peppers and onions, pounds and pounds of them get done quite quickly. I also use it at Christmas to chop celery and onions for the massive amount of stuffing that I make. It's used again a few times in the summer when I'm doing a big batch of pasta salad with a ton of veggies. Gets pulled out in the fall for big batches of soup and chili. I find it easier to use on the kitchen table, rather than at counter height. That way, I can put more of my body weight into it and done this way, it easily dices potatoes and squash and the harder veg. I bought a little silicone grid thing that fits over the grid on the lid and makes cleaning a breeze.

Now that you mention it, I've used it on a table as well, primarily because counter space was at a premium in the kitchens I used, especially when making large batches of goulash and chili. It sure makes quick work of 10lbs of onions.

Edited June 17 by Shel_B (log)

Kim Shook · June 17

7 hours ago, Shel_B said:

When sweetie made her annual goulash, she needed a HUGE amount of diced onions. I was in charge of the dicing, and it was a time consuming affair. After the first time, sweetie's daughter gave me this device: The Vidalia Chop Wizard:

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

There's now a larger sized version as well:

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

Of course, it's useful for more than just onions. It's been a big time saver over the years for those few times a year that I need to do a lot of dicing.

That's the one I have and I love it. If I just need a little bit of something diced, I use a knife, but at holiday time when I need large amounts of onions and celery for stuffing, it's great. I have used it for potatoes and carrots - they have to be sliced first, of course, but it does save on all of the little cross cuts needed for dicing.

What folks need to keep in mind is that not everyone has full use of their hands. You are blessed if you do. I'd love to be able to be the kind of wiz with a knife that I used to be, but age and arthritis has forced some adjustments. And this tool is one of them. I'm really glad it exists.

**ElsieD** · June 17

23 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

What folks need to keep in mind is that not everyone has full use of their hands. You are blessed if you do. I'd love to be able to be the kind of wiz with a knife that I used to be, but age and arthritis has forced some adjustments. And this tool is one of them. I'm really glad it exists.

Well said, Kim.

Shel_B · June 17

28 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

That's the one I have and I love it. If I just need a little bit of something diced, I use a knife, but at holiday time when I need large amounts of onions and celery for stuffing, it's great. I have used it for potatoes and carrots - they have to be sliced first, of course, but it does save on all of the little cross cuts needed for dicing.

What folks need to keep in mind is that not everyone has full use of their hands. You are blessed if you do. I'd love to be able to be the kind of wiz with a knife that I used to be, but age and arthritis has forced some adjustments. And this tool is one of them. I'm really glad it exists.

👍

Edited June 17 by Shel_B (log)

Cyberider · June 17

I mainly dice potatoes. I had considered one of the machines that would dice but thought I'd first do it in the food processor in a 3-step process. Slice, slice in the other direction, and then stack the "french fries" vertically for the final dicing cut. It worked but the third step was tedious and time consuming. After doing this for awhile, I've gone back to dicing by hand. My knife skills aren't great but adequate for my purposes. And, considering clean-up time, faster than the 3-step food processor method. Still, these dicing machines look interesting but not necessary for me at this stage in life. I could have been "enabled" a few years ago but no more! 🙂

**Smithy** · June 19

On 6/17/2024 at 8:55 AM, ElsieD said:

Are things like potatoes and squash easy to cube with it?

On 6/17/2024 at 9:04 AM, lindag said:

No, they're not. That type of cutter takes a hefty amount of pressure.

On 6/17/2024 at 9:18 AM, Shel_B said:

@ElsieD,I found that butternut squash was easy for me although it didn't dice as nicely as onions. Haven't tried potatoes. However, in the next few days - maybe a week or so - I'll need to dice up some orange sweet potatoes. I'll dig out the chopper and see how it does and get back to you.

In the meanwhile, this video may be useful:

Even though I've tried it with a few items, as @liuzhou suggests, its strong suit for me seems to be onions and the like, although I've had great results with peppers. I've not used it much, and the things I've tried it with, other than onions, were more out of curiosity than to use the items in my regular cooking.

Irish Potatoes are quite easy to cut with the alligator-style chopper (I too have a Vidalia chop wizard, but of course there are knock-offs). You do have to slice them crosswise first, to the thickness you want, but the choper requires little pressure. i haven't tried squash but as noted above some varieties at least would lend themselves to this machine. I also can't comment on sweet potatoes with this gadget.

weinoo · June 19

On 6/17/2024 at 9:26 AM, gfweb said:

I usually find Kenji to be a tedious pedant, but this is pretty good.

Usually? (Or all the time?)

Cyberider · June 19

On 6/16/2024 at 10:24 PM, liuzhou said:

I dice often: onions, carrots, meats, potatoes and more. I mainly use a revolutionary, cunning new device - a cleaver. Sometimes, a chef's knife. Both are quicker than any machine I would have to get out of storage, set up, use, clean and re-store.

I use a Santoku knife when I dice. With my lack of knife skills, the flat bottom of the blade helps me keep things fairly straight and consistent. It took about ten minutes to dice 8 medium sized potatoes yesterday. I'll have to try a cleaver the next time and see how that goes.

btbyrd · June 28

My CCK vegetable cleaver is my go-to dicer.

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