Do you cheat when you chop onions?

[Hassouni]

So that's not radically different from the radial method or the Marco Pierre White method, but it seemed like those were gigantic pieces and not so consistent! But I don't think that's a fault of the method, per se.

[rotuts]

thanks for the tip on michael smith.  Im a fan and only have his older shows.

 

[Robenco15]

Videos like that are impressive on first glance because of the speed. It's when you pause them and take a look at the aftermath you can see the skills of the person. It doesn't take much to machete a vegetable into a million chunks of completely different sizes and shapes. There's nothing wrong with this if you're doing something that requires little precision, like putting the onions into a stock or sauce... but it makes for a lousy technique demo. 

 

If you want to show a skill, show it slowly. Then show it fast if you want to impress, but be honest and zoom in on the result (which is what prep is actually about).

 

You didn't honestly think that was supposed to be a demonstration of tecnique, did you? Of course it isn't. I posted to show that it really isn't that hard to add the horizontal cut if you have a sharp knife and it isn't dangerous at all if you know where to put your left hand. It also doesn't add any additional time. I was reading earlier posts about people not doing the horizontal cuts because they feared cutting themselves.

[paulraphael]

You didn't honestly think that was supposed to be a demonstration of tecnique, did you? 

Sorry, if that was something shot for this discussion I didn't realize. It looked like one of the many technique videos from the web, and I thought it was just being linked. 

[Robenco15]

Sorry, if that was something shot for this discussion I didn't realize. It looked like one of the many technique videos from the web, and I thought it was just being linked. 

 

All good. I was just using it to demonstrate the ease and safety of the horizontal cut with a sharp knife. The technique was definitely sloppy and inconsistent.

[Raamo]

4 pages about chopping onions... shows we're serious here

 

I guess I've done the horizontal cutting when I want a real fine dice, but I skip it when I'm not interested in small dice.

[paulraphael]

The way to guarantee safety with horizontal cuts is hold the onion with your hand flat on the top. That way if you're overzealous and the knife goes all the way through, you won't be in its path. It's also good technique-wise to use a long, drawing slice, which will allow you to use very little pressure. If you have to push hard even when drawing the blade, it's too dull to use safely.