Truest words ever. I get sad if I spend less than an hour and a half or two hours cutting per day. I ask friends if they need prep work done just to help out.
My substitute for The Questionnaire
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Truest words ever. I get sad if I spend less than an hour and a half or two hours cutting per day. I ask friends if they need prep work done just to help out.
I julienne and dice scraps meant for the compost pile. They'll breakdown faster that way.........
DavidPF
Likes Boring Knives
Sort of true, sort of not true. You can't learn by just doing the same as always. Especially when "the same as always" isn't much of anything. Getting useful ideas from people who know stuff that you don't know is a pretty good invention. I hope you also come here hoping to get useful ideas from people like that. If you don't, then I guess I understand the bitterness.
DavidPF
Likes Boring Knives
I don't. Because I don't know how.
Cut skinny strips of product. Don't cut fingers. To progress go for uniformity in size. Julienne can end as strips or be the first step in dice. Push cut taking care to keep blade vertical. No accordion cuts.
Julienne is a specific cut for the French die hards (1/16 x 1/16 x 2 inch). In common use it's any small strips of veg. Dice is not a specific cut but in common use it's small cube cuts of julienne. Hence the expression slice and dice.
Useless trivia: On the handle of a classic French knife there are 3 rivets. The distance between any two of them is the correct length for a batonnete. (another specific cut) The size of the rivet is the same as the correct diameter of the batonnete. (1/4") Cut into cubes it's a small dice.
Bitterness comes from leaving too much pith when peeling a citrus fruit.
Julienne is a specific cut for the French die hards (1/16 x 1/16 x 2 inch). In common use it's any small strips of veg. Dice is not a specific cut but in common use it's small cube cuts of julienne. Hence the expression slice and dice.
Useless trivia: On the handle of a classic French knife there are 3 rivets. The distance between any two of them is the correct length for a batonnete. (another specific cut) The size of the rivet is the same as the correct diameter of the batonnete. (1/4") Cut into cubes it's a small dice.
Bitterness comes from leaving too much pith when peeling a citrus fruit.
DavidPF
Likes Boring Knives
Sorry to have pithed you off. Thanks for the julienne help.
DavidPF
Likes Boring Knives
Looking around the house, trying not to go shopping, and wondering how I should use my new knowledge, I see a can of baked beans. Fèves en julienne it shall be. See you guys in about 6 hours, I guess. 
Hahaha yeah I have been guilty of this. I'll also just think to myself: what is the most prep I can do with the ingredients I have? A new knife? Well, I had this day before yesterday: beautiful new k-tip required prep, but I wasn't going to be using it, soooooooo I cut up every vegetable in the house and put them in containers, filling the fridge to bursting. Voilà, two meals prepped in advance: diced tomatoes, onions, chillis and bell peppers; brunoise ginger, garlic, shallots; sliced AND julienned carrots, cucumbers, zucchini; florets of broccoli and cauliflour, and of course : Leek Massacre.
Looking around the house, trying not to go shopping, and wondering how I should use my new knowledge, I see a can of baked beans. Fèves en julienne it shall be. See you guys in about 6 hours, I guess.
Have fun! Julienne carrots, zucchini and squash are great practice. Sliced carrots and potatoes are as well. Just learn how to keep your guide hand in the famous "claw", and keep the side of the blade against your guide finger. If you do both of those things, you can cut as fast as you like, in whatever kind of cut you like, and you'll never cut yourself. Practice tap, push and pull cutting on various materials, you'll get better and you'll discover what you like and what works for you on what materials. There are a ton of videos on the Tube: watch a few, try some stuff, and always remember that nobody is right in your kitchen except you. Wanna push cut potatoes? Go for it. Wanna pull cut basil? It's your world, we're just living in it.
