The food and drink forum blog thread.

[Chovie D]

This is  the method we were taught last night.
i didnt like making the horizontal cuts because it felt really dangerous, and found it difficult to get them paraellel.
i found the onion much harder to peel than if you cut off both ends as shaft describes.

probably just takes lots of practice, but Ill have to get past the fear of  cutting towwards my flesh thing.

[Lumpy]

Yeah I prefer to cut down, too. Then flip it over and cut down again. Try to keep everything bundled together (if you care about how the pieces look) which isn't that hard. Easier than making a horizontal cut into something that can break up into pieces.

[RAGER]

I first cut off the top, set it on cut side slice downwards for 2 halves, peel leaving the root end to hold the onion together, make parallel slices downwards 1/4 inch apart, rotate onion and slice downwards for dices.

I do shallots the way they taught chovie.

[Ryno]

Those global knives are nice.  I have a 10 year old set of Henckels pro "S" series knives that used to be hot shit.  German blades.  Now they're old hat but they still work great in my kitchen. 

I use that horizontal slice method when I'm dicing onions but usually I just cut super thin rings and sauté the shit out of em.  Sautéed is my favorite way unless I'm making a mirepoix.

I've lost the tips on a few of my fingers from dicing and slicing.  The skin aleays grows back, but now they're numb.

[MadJohnShaft]

That horizontal cut is wrong, awkward and uneccessary - just put it on it's end and make the same cuts but going down towards cutting board.

Who put on this 'class'? the Nazi party???

[black]

More like the American Board of Hand Surgeons.

[Chovie D]

More like the American Board of Hand Surgeons.

  my thoughs exactly, but that hideously dangerous horizontal cut is commonly used technique it seems.
This ahole does it in reverse but the horizontal cuts towards your fingertips are still there.

[MadJohnShaft]

This is what works so much better I describe above, once you are good at it it is very fast:

Cut off top and bottom (in fact if you leave the little root side intact it's a nice thing), peel, cut parallel cuts both directions almost but not all the way to the cutting board.

After this step you cut off one row off a side - just enough to let the onion sit on the flat surface you just made on that side....




Then it turns into dices....

[Chovie D]

yeah see, this is just insane looking to me, and its the most commonly taugh technique.

that fucking "Thing from the adams family" grip they use too, seems ludicrously unstable to me.



but sensei trained at the culinary institute and owned a restaruant in manhattan for 20 years...who to believe them or me?

I will probably just stick with my own totally goofy method.

[khoomeizhi]

i do that move when i've been slicing a tomato in thin slices for sandwiches and there isn't enough left to keep it standing up, but it really isn't as sketchy as that onion pic. usually with a sharp widely serrated knife. 'cause it works great.

but it's a goofy thing to do with an onion. so is the whole pre-dicing thing. just dice it. what's the issue?

[MadJohnShaft]

Try it and you will know or are you yellow?

[MichaelZodiac]

I always do my onions/shallots like that if I want them finely cut. I cut the bottom off as well because I have contacts my eyes don't start crying. It took some time getting used to but it's quite easy actually. I have more problems with my fingers standing like that.
My folks have a couple of those Global knives. They're really good but blunt easily (maybe because they wash them with soap?). I like my Ikea knife just fine. It's got good balance and came razor sharp.

[NCR600]

The trick, and it's not really a trick, is to use a super sharp knife. If you have to put force through the blade to get it through to the end of the onion, you'll go right through the onion where it gets thinner, and into your delicate bits. The only time I've cut myself in the kitchen in my increasingly short term memory was doing that horizontal cut with a blunt knife.

[RAGER]

11.  Counter intuitively, the sharpest knife is the safest knife.

[Chovie D]

yes, sharp knife. teach said teh sharpeners that come with with the henckles sets are worthless and you can never get em sharp. so I need at a minimum a new sharpenening rod.

[RAGER]

That rod is just a hone not a sharpener.  A couple swipes with that before you slice.  A sharpener actually takes off metal.  Think of that hone as just a deburring tool of sorts.

This is the one I use.  Works great.

[NCR600]

I was about to post a slightly nark-y post about your electric sharpening gizmo there, but I've just stumbled upon a thread about knife sharpening on the homebrew forum I'm a member of and it seems I'm in the minority for using a stone and leather strop on my knives.
Interestingly, the only trained chef in the thread was the only person who used a stone instead of an electric gizmo.
I would have thought you of all people would have done it by hand!

[MadJohnShaft]

The farmers market has a sharpening guy, they text you when it's ready. Otherwise use the rod each time.

[RAGER]

I was about to post a slightly nark-y post about your electric sharpening gizmo there, but I've just stumbled upon a thread about knife sharpening on the homebrew forum I'm a member of and it seems I'm in the minority for using a stone and leather strop on my knives.
Interestingly, the only trained chef in the thread was the only person who used a stone instead of an electric gizmo.
I would have thought you of all people would have done it by hand!

I'm a busy guy.

[Chovie D]

The teacher (and my apologies for refering back to her constantly, but she IS an expert and thats what started this whole discussion) said the electric sharpeners were fine for european knives, but that they would absolutely destroy the japanese blades.

teach said never ever let someone else sharpen your kives.  .

I'm not too sure what to do about my german knives. how to sharpen em???. they are very dull right now  

i will probably get something like this. I dont want another countertop appliance.

[RAGER]

I've heard good things about those^^

[Chovie D]

the teacher had a similar one, and of course the stones and what not too.

its in my amazon cart, just tryin to fnd some more shit to buy before  I check oot...

[MadJohnShaft]

Buy some whippets.

I made a lovely tri-tip - my new remote meat thermometer is the bomb.  I made some aji mojo pepper cilantro sauce in my new wooden pestle, plus Arepas and a tamale and salad.  Those Arepas are horrible alone but amazing with something on them - jelly or aji.

I like that tri-tip - it's like a roast/steak hybrid.

[Chovie D]

 remote thermometer.?


like those? Ive burnt thru a few of those...

[MadJohnShaft]

This one - works great


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007UFOUB8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=amazingribs--20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B007UFOUB8