the vertical aren't really vertical though... a vertical cut at the top of the onion, angled more acutely (relative to the board) on the first "vertical" cut. That is, first after it's halved. No? The knife is clearly "tilted".
Cutting techniques for optimized efficiency
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JohnnyChance
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True. I don't know what it is called, but here is how I cut an onion:
Halve it north to south and cut off the tip and the root completely. Peel. Stack north to north, or south to south.
Starting with the half on your left (if right handed), slice the long ways, parallel with the "equator" of the onion, at your desired thickness. Between technique and the other half of the onion holding the slices, the onions should stay intact. Each slice is a quick "snik" usually with the tip of the knife. Towards the end it likes to fall apart so I usually push cut the last couple slices.
Pinch the two halves of the onion together and flip them 180 degrees, so the uncut half is now on your left, and you can cut it right to left without it falling apart.
All sliced. Please excuse my poor cuts. They are normally more uniform, I swear!
Now you can either cut both at once, or one at a time. I usually do one at a time. Start cutting the onion north-to-south, an angle helps at first to get more uniform pieces.
When I get to about here...
...I drop the last 1/4 of the onion down onto it's now bigger face.
And finish cutting straight up and down. And that's it!
Halve it north to south and cut off the tip and the root completely. Peel. Stack north to north, or south to south.
Starting with the half on your left (if right handed), slice the long ways, parallel with the "equator" of the onion, at your desired thickness. Between technique and the other half of the onion holding the slices, the onions should stay intact. Each slice is a quick "snik" usually with the tip of the knife. Towards the end it likes to fall apart so I usually push cut the last couple slices.
Pinch the two halves of the onion together and flip them 180 degrees, so the uncut half is now on your left, and you can cut it right to left without it falling apart.
All sliced. Please excuse my poor cuts. They are normally more uniform, I swear!
Now you can either cut both at once, or one at a time. I usually do one at a time. Start cutting the onion north-to-south, an angle helps at first to get more uniform pieces.
When I get to about here...
...I drop the last 1/4 of the onion down onto it's now bigger face.
And finish cutting straight up and down. And that's it!
stevenStefano
Senior Member
I do it slighty different JohnnyChance. I keep the root on and do the angled cuts like in your 5th picture first. Then I cut the other way like in your second picture. Basically the same method just done slightly different
So vocabulary issue... I think the "angled cuts" is what's being described as "radial" cutting. Is this right? Just wanting to get on the same (semantic) page.
I've been doing it as steveStefano does, as of recently. Works real well without the angled cuts. (BTW, I first posted here having let it slip my mind that I was in the "Back of the House" section... so I'm sorry for interpolating my non-pro self in here, if that's a bother!)
I've been doing it as steveStefano does, as of recently. Works real well without the angled cuts. (BTW, I first posted here having let it slip my mind that I was in the "Back of the House" section... so I'm sorry for interpolating my non-pro self in here, if that's a bother!)
JohnnyChance
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Well then I would say that is completely different. That is nearly the traditional way (root on, horizontal cuts, north-south cuts, then equator cuts). You just skip the horizontal cuts and angle your north-south cuts.
Haha, you are more than welcome in the Back of the House section. I am not sure what everyone else means by radial cuts, but I called mine radial because I was making the "equator" cuts first and not bothering with horizontal cuts or leaving the root on. The main reason I switched to my method was because I hated leaving the root on and having that piece at the end, that I feel is too big to throw away, and too annoying to make cuts from it match cuts from the rest of the onion.
Avishar
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Although I have the MSPaint skills of a 2 year old, I think this is the visualization of what I consider traditional and radial, I still cut across when doing radial sometimes when the onion is huge but it might just be out of habit! Hopefully this clarifies things up a bit. I'm going to give your technique a shot Johnnychance, it seems effective!
Thanks for the graphic! That's what I was thinking. I'm cutting up a bunch of onions today at my parents' place, so I'm going to try Johnnychance's way, too. We're not doing anything that requires perfect uniformity. I'm going to show my dad 4 or 5 different ways I've learned, see what seems like most fun for him (and me).
