Horizontal swipes on onions are overrated

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I have cut many onions over the years. I generally prefer not to make horizontal cuts unless dealing with very small (like shallot or smaller) onions. And then I still don't really use the tip. For bigger onions, or for doing a finer dice, I believe you have more control doing these cuts vertically. You can do more cuts and cut them to a more precise depth. I have some videos here to demonstrate. My opinion is that horizontal swipes are not a function of the thickness of the tip, but of technique. However, even someone with good technique might prefer other techniques in many situations.
I would be interested in you all's opinions and thoughts.

Thick knife.
First and last half onion. Tip swipe
2nd one. Horizontal slice
3rd one. Vertical slice



Watanabe tip swipe



Watanabe vertical method



Petty knife tip swipe



Meat cleaver tip swipe

 
I never do horizontal swipe and I cut from the root end (the onion doesnt slip apart easily when it's top is the "end"
 
I find tne horizontal cuts great for testing the geometry of the tip of the knife. In praxis they are not really necessary I find.
 
I find tne horizontal cuts great for testing the geometry of the tip of the knife. In praxis they are not really necessary I find.
 
I never did the horizontal swipes until I saw people doing them in videos on here. Tried it a few times and just found it made the onion more likely to fall apart and more difficult to get consistently fine pieces so I stopped.
 
I never did the horizontal swipes until I saw people doing them in videos on here. Tried it a few times and just found it made the onion more likely to fall apart and more difficult to get consistently fine pieces so I stopped.
I never did them either until finding knife forums. After trying it for awhile I also found it made the job more difficult and necessary and stopped.
 
Glad to see you removing the germ from the onion before cutting..

As far as I can tell all the horizontal cuts do is prevent having big honking pieces from the two sides in the dice...radial cuts would take care of those as well...

Take care
 
These are the threads I need to convince myself not to do stupid and pointless things.

Now if I could just find a post somewhere explaining how the pull out method is a great technique for preventing pregnancy [emoji41]

And here I've always heard the real danger of pregnancy was kissing while wearing bathing suits
 
What techniques in sharpening, knife maintenance (I love my ceramic hone, even with Japanese knives), or knife skills do you do that you frequently hear or see other people do differently?
How much does internet chatter about distal taper and thin tips influence newbie knife buying decisions or knife future speculating?
This kind of thing may seem like a waste of time to some but to me it's fascinating. It's one of the coolest things about being a chef and/or knife nut. Finding out different ways of doing things from people you meet from around the world. Figuring out what new ingredient or technique or knife material will be the hot new thing.
 
I've used radial cuts for decades. In fact, I didn't even know about the horizontal plus vertical technique until fairly recently. To me, that technique is awkward, mainly because the onion doesn't hold together quite as well after having made cuts in both directions.

For run-of-the-mill diced onion where exactly even dice don't matter, it's just a bunch of vertical cuts and then the cross cuts. By spacing the vertical cuts close together with a thin knife, and by cross-slicing in very thin slices, it's still possible to get really fine dice. If there is a bit from the sides that is a bit larger, I either discard it or just chop across it two or three more times.
 
The horizontal stuff just looks cool on video, sort of like slowly building up to some sort of explosive climax.

It's the kind of stuff Gordon Ramsay does and then calls it "no fuss". I'm more into the Jamie Oliver camp, which really is no fuss.
 
Ramsay just gets on my nerves. I always cringe at his "I'm the most important person in the world" attitude, not to mention his arrogance. Oliver seems a bit more normal.
 
How much does internet chatter about distal taper and thin tips influence newbie knife buying ...

Masamoto KS kills it with cabbage because the stiff heel and tapered mid-section...
 
Thanks for doing those videos, @stringer. I've done something similar to your vertical method, but way slower and only because I was scared if the horizontal cuts.

It's interesting timing, because I was just watching some old Rick Theory videos including some onion work.

Some notes:

1) he does horizontal cuts, but not generally the swipe.

2) he does far fewer horizontal cuts than vertical cuts.

3) he does those horizontal cuts after the vertical cuts

It seems that only the horizontal cuts closest to the center/flat are important, geometrically speaking.

Couple of Rick's videos:





 
Thanks for doing those videos, @stringer. I've done something similar to your vertical method, but way slower and only because I was scared if the horizontal cuts.

It's interesting timing, because I was just watching some old Rick Theory videos including some onion work.

Some notes:

1) he does horizontal cuts, but not generally the swipe.

2) he does far fewer horizontal cuts than vertical cuts.

3) he does those horizontal cuts after the vertical cuts

It seems that only the horizontal cuts closest to the center/flat are important, geometrically speaking.

Couple of Rick's videos:







Rick's style reminds me of the French chefs from my culinary school back in the day. He's quick, but the technique is very old fashioned.
 
I did find a carrot video I had already taped. My strategy looks pretty similar to Rick's. It's kind of hilarious because it's with a self made knife that is a tiny bit enormous. Which brings mean me to my next unpopular opinion. A little wedging is fine if you're just shooting for medium dice.

 
I learned the horizontal + vertical method so many years ago, it's just automatically what I go for. Maybe I should rethink it. I did have to rethink it a bit when I started using a nakiri, because the tip has too much surface area for that "swipe" in the horizontal cuts. It's more of a horizontal draw, but with a sharp nakiri it still works fine.

And I'd rather have a nakiri for that last stage, where the chopped bits can climb up the side of the knife. A tall knife is better for that, and a nakiri is a good shape for transferring product to a bowl.

And finally, here's MPW's take on it:

:
 
It’s interesting to see the videos here. I notice you guys take off the root before slicing. I was always told to keep the root on so that the onion would hold itself together while dicing. Maybe I need to change my dicing technique :)
 
My method for fine dice, presenation quality, featuring a very nice Dalman Gyuto.
Most dishes don't need this level of precision though.

Is that a newer Dalman? I remember seeing a recent IG post of a new batch of 240's looking a lot like that...


More on-topic though, I also do less horizontal swipes (if any) compared to stringer's vids. I'll do 2-3. I had never really considered the vertical technique, though I'll have to try it now. Had a :eek: moment seeing that just now for the first time.
 
It’s interesting to see the videos here. I notice you guys take off the root before slicing. I was always told to keep the root on so that the onion would hold itself together while dicing. Maybe I need to change my dicing technique :)
Yeah I also keep the root on. What's the logic behind taking it off, root-removers?
 
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