Essential Knife Skills 101
Knife Knowledge
As knife professionals for over two hundred years, we at WÜSTHOF have the gift of connecting with thousands of passionate home cooks. Over the past decades, we’ve noticed a common insecurity shared by new and seasoned cooks alike: the fear of lacking adequate knife skills. There is a misconception that certain cutting techniques are fussy, hard to learn, or not worth the extra effort. (We disagree!) Some cooks are intimidated by premium blades, or worried about handling them correctly. (Understandable!) Thankfully, this is where Knife Skills 101 steps in. With a few simple cutting techniques in your back pocket, we know you are more than capable of enhancing your favorite dishes.
The 8 Basic Knife Skills To Master
An Intro to Slicing, Dicing, and Everything in Between
Did you know that choosing whether to chop, slice, dice, or mince garlic coaxes different textures and flavors from the clove? The more you break up the cell structures in the allium, the more you release the enzymes that contribute to taste and smell. Similarly, the finer you cut a carrot, the sweeter it will be. Beyond visuals, each type of knife cut really does influence the taste, texture, and overall experience of a finished recipe.
Here, we’ll explain eight simple and essential cutting methods. First, we’ll start with more basic and multipurpose techniques: Chop, Slice, Dice, and Mince. From there, we’ll build to more intricate knifework with Julienne, Brunoise, Batonnet, and Chiffonade. No need to tackle all eight at once — we suggest choosing your own adventure and deciding which cuts fit your time and tastebuds best. By the way, if you haven’t yet read “The Best Way to Hold a Knife,” please do! It goes hand in hand with the information below.
Chop
Chopping is a generalized method for cutting food into smaller pieces. These cuts might be rough or fine, and they don’t necessarily have to be uniform in size. Chopping an onion can be as simple as cutting the onion in half, cutting each half into quarters, and cutting those quarters crosswise into smaller chunks.
A rough chop, for example, is perfect for when you’re cutting vegetables for a blended soup. You’ll want to break down the vegetables into, say, one-inch pieces, but both visually and flavor-wise there is no need to be precise. Chopping is nice for a tray of roasted vegetables, too — just make sure to keep the pieces relatively similar in size so they roast at the same time. Finely chopping a red onion for a pasta salad, meanwhile, is great for when you’re looking for a rustic look and taste with a softer bite (as opposed to chomping on a big piece of raw onion).
Slice
Slicing is another generalized term that means cutting into thin, even pieces. For instance, you might cut an onion in half and slice each half into thin, half-moon-shaped pieces to melt into stir-fries or scatter over pizza before baking. Maybe you’ll thinly slice a peeled clove of garlic crosswise and fry it in hot, neutral oil to make garlic chips (and, win-win, garlic oil). Cut an apple in half, slice each half into thin wafers, and drizzle everything with almond butter and honey for an afternoon snack. You get the idea!
Dice
Chopping is a generalized method for cutting food into smaller pieces. These cuts might be rough or fine, and they don’t necessarily have to be uniform in size. Chopping an onion can be as simple as cutting the onion in half, cutting each half into quarters, and cutting those quarters crosswise into smaller chunks.
A rough chop, for example, is perfect for when you’re cutting vegetables for a blended soup. You’ll want to break down the vegetables into, say, one-inch pieces, but both visually and flavor-wise there is no need to be precise. Chopping is nice for a tray of roasted vegetables, too — just make sure to keep the pieces relatively similar in size so they roast at the same time. Finely chopping a red onion for a pasta salad, meanwhile, is great for when you’re looking for a rustic look and taste with a softer bite (as opposed to chomping on a big piece of raw onion).
Mince
Mincing means cutting ingredients into very, very small pieces. Mincing extracts maximum flavor from ingredients, since your blade is breaking down more and more of the cell structures that play a part in taste and aroma. Since the texture is so fine, mincing also helps ingredients melt and dissolve into various dishes. It’s a good method to use if your goal is to experience high flavor impact with little textural or visual cues. Mincing shallot, for example, evenly rounds out the flavor of a good mustard vinaigrette (without rogue chunks of raw shallot). Mincing garlic is the best way to melt a few cloves into oil or butter as the base of a sauce or stew, especially if you prefer a smooth texture throughout. It’s also an excellent way to add a punch of flavor to marinades.
Julienne
Julienning an ingredient means cutting it into thin, long, even strips that resemble skinny matchsticks. To julienne a turnip, for example, you’ll start by squaring off the edges of the turnip, cutting it into thin, even planks, and then cutting those planks lengthwise into thin, even matchsticks.
Julienned ingredients look beautiful and add texture to a finished dish. They have just enough crunch without being overwhelmingly tough or clunky, and soak up other flavors, such as vinaigrettes, exceptionally well. Worth noting, too, is that julienned vegetables cook faster than chopped, sliced, or diced vegetables, making them wonderful for stir-fried noodle dishes or marinated salads like coleslaw (the vegetables “cook” in the acidic dressing as the slaw rests).
Brunoise
To brunoise an ingredient, you must start with a julienne cut. From there, you simply gather the julienned slices into a manageable, evenly edged pile and cut crosswise across the matchsticks to get tiny, perfect, one-eighth-inch cubes. This is the most miniscule of dice cuts, and it’s integral to fine dining training since the method so technically precise. The brunoise cut is commonly used for garnishes, vinaigrettes, salsas, and other fresh sauces, since it’s visually attractive and — due to its size and shape — pleasant to eat raw. Yet brunoise is also a great method for hot dishes, since the ingredients cook quicker and add plenty of flavor.
Batonnet
Let’s go back to our julienne cut for a moment — if you slice your ingredients into thicker, sturdier matchsticks, you’ll have beautiful batonnets. “Batonnet” means to cut ingredients into precise rectangles about ½-inch wide and three inches long. You might add batonnet-cut vegetables to stir fries, roast them in a hot oven, toss them into salads, or arrange them on a plate alongside garlic aioli for dipping. You could also break them down further by slicing them crosswise into ½-inch cubes. (Remember dicing?) It might sound a bit fancy, but if you have ever cut carrot and cucumber sticks for a hummus snacking plate…you already know how to batonnet!
Chiffonade
The chiffonade method is used for finely slicing leaves and herbs. To chiffonade, say, collard green leaves, you’ll stack the leaves on top of each other, roll them into a tight cigar, and very thinly slice them crosswise into a pile of fluffy, fine strips. From there, you can use your thinly sliced collards in stir fries, soups, and massaged salads. Chiffonading herbs is a great way to finish a dish with a zip of color and flavor. After you stack, roll, and thinly slice your basil leaves, for instance, sprinkle them liberally over a pan of crispy roasted chicken thighs or crunchy, thickly sliced tomato-and-burrata toasts.
Most importantly, greater knife skills mean safer knife handling. The more experience you have with proper chopping, slicing, dicing, and everything in between, the more comfort, deftness, and precision you’ll experience in your food preparation. Cooking becomes simpler, more relaxing, and more pleasurable when you feel secure with your blade. What’s not to love about that?
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