Cutting definitions

Have you ever been confused about the differences between chopping, dicing and mincing? Here’s the skinny on what’s what.

Chop: irregular shapes but generally the same size. There are no specific rules about size but pieces larger than an inch (3 cm) are often called “chunks.”

Mince: very finely chopped. To properly mince, first chop the product, then change the position of your knife—hold the handle and the tip of the blade and rock it back and forth over the product to mince.

Dice: perfect cubes of prescribed sizes:

small dice: 1/4”
medium dice: 1/2”
large dice: 3/4”

At the culinary school I attended, the chef measured our diced potatoes with a ruler. We were also tested on julienne (1/8 x 1/8 x 2 1/4”), batonet (1/4 x 1/4 X 3), and the evil tourne—7 sided 2” long potatoes.

Posted by kuri at September 02, 2004 07:49 AM