Recently, cooking has become an integral part of human life. Cooking can be compared to a real work of art. Not only the appearance, but also the taste of the finished dish depends on the proper observance of technology, perfect slicing of components. Many people ask themselves: how to cut onions into cubes to get uniform pieces of a beautiful shape? To answer it, you need to carefully study the advice and recommendations of professionals.
Onions in cooking
Onion is one of the vegetable crops known since ancient times. The vegetable useful for the body has gained wide popularity due to its unique taste. It is difficult to find a culinary dish that does not include onions. It is fried, stewed, baked and served raw. Onions are used to prepare a wide variety of sauces, side dishes, first and second courses.
The real discovery of haute cuisine was desserts, the main highlight of which was onions. The combination of piquant taste with sweet vanilla notes amaze even sophisticated gourmets. However, not everyone knows that it is the right slicing technology that helps to reveal the full range of onion tastes.
Kitchen assistants
In today's world, more and more of the kitchen work is trusted in machines. Numerous blenders, choppers, combines can cope with a large amount of work without much labor, facilitating the work of cooks. However, only a dish prepared by the caring hands of a culinary specialist will help to enjoy a truly unique taste.
Not everyone likes to cut onions. After all, this process causes tears even among professional chefs. Manual mechanical vegetable cutting can help with this. A kitchen appliance allows you to cut even vegetables into even cubes in minutes. He successfully copes with both raw and boiled foods. Even a newcomer to the kitchen can cut the vegetable into cubes like a real chef, if he has a manual mechanical vegetable slicer.
Cutting methods
Without the experience of kitchen work, it is difficult to achieve an excellent result in the preparation of dishes. Inexperienced housewives have many diverse questions, the most popular of which are:
- How to hold a knife?
- How to cut onions so that tears do not flow?
- What type of slicing vegetables to choose?
- How to prepare vegetables for slicing?
- What pieces should be in shape?
Depending on the dish, several main types of slicing onions are used. If you need to grind vegetables as much as possible, use the Sisle technique. This option is necessary when slicing onions for sauces. The Brunoise method allows you to get a little larger cubes than in the previous slicing. It is used for vegetables intended for stewing, decorating dishes.
Konkasse is a medium-sized cube-cutting technique. Suitable for onions and other vegetables used to make side dishes. “Julienne” is a type of cut, more familiar as a straw. Before cutting onions with any of the presented methods, it must be peeled and washed under cold water.
Technological subtleties
In order to cut the product correctly, to get even pieces of equal size at the output, it is necessary to follow the advice of specialists. Peeling of onions from the skin should begin with its upper part. A hat 2-3 mm high is carefully cut with a sharp knife. The root part is not completely cut off, but only slightly cleaned from dry roots.
Such a recommendation will protect the bulb from falling apart during the cutting process. In addition, it is in this part of the vegetable that the maximum amount of tear causing substance is contained. Next, you need to peel the onion from all the husks to speed up the process, you can make several light longitudinal incisions along the upper layer.
Even cubes
To get the pieces of the correct shape, the peeled onion is cut into two halves, one of which is placed with a slice on a cutting board. Holding the bulb by the rhizome, it is necessary to make several horizontal incisions, leading the blade of the knife parallel to the board at a distance of 3-4 mm from each other.
Making cuts, the knife must be brought to the root system, but not cut it. The next step is to cut a half into longitudinal strips from the rhizome to the edge with a distance of 3-4 mm, also without cutting the base of the bulb to the end. It remains to cut the vegetable into cubes of the same size, for this the knife blade should be directed vertically. Holding the half with the fingers of your free hand, make incisions perpendicular to the previous one, getting onion slices. Thus, it becomes clear how to chop the onion into small cubes.
Onion tears
The process of involuntary lacrimation is natural when slicing onions. There is no universal method to get rid of an unpleasant moment. However, there are several recommendations from experienced chefs that make it possible to slightly ease the situation.
It is important when slicing onions to use a sharp knife. This will significantly speed up the process, prevent the excessive secretion of juice, causing tears. During cutting, you can often wet the knife with cold water to wash off particles of a volatile substance that interacts with oxygen. To cut onions into cubes, while avoiding profuse lacrimation, it is better to place the board under the included hood or near an open window leaf. This will help circulate fresh air.
Tips & Tricks
Many inexperienced housewives are interested in the question: how to chop onions into cubes quickly to get a high-quality result? Unfortunately, only the use of kitchen appliances will help speed up the process. A mechanical or electric machine will do the job in seconds, saving the hostess from unpleasant lacrimation. Significantly increase the speed of cutting and reduce the time for the preparatory process will help a long practice.
When slicing a useful vegetable, you should carefully monitor the position of the knife, avoid rushing. It is important to remember that sloppy knife handling can result in personal injury. To get even pieces, choose a medium-sized onion with tight-fitting petals. Then, during processing, it will disintegrate less, maintaining the correct shape.
It is possible to get rid of the onion odor of the hands and the board if you process them with lemon or lime juice after cutting. To reduce the involuntary secretion of tears, the bulb must be kept in the freezer for 15-20 minutes before slicing, then rinse with cold water. Before you chop the onion into cubes, you should choose the right slicing technology. Large sloppy-shaped pieces can not only spoil the appearance of the dish, but also worsen its taste.
Now you know how to dice the onion.