FYI…This dicing post contains affiliate links for products we like. This means that if you click on a product link on this page, and then purchase the product, The Culinary Exchange will make a small amount of money from your purchase. However, we ONLY link to products that Chef Matthew Robinson personally recommends.
There are a few basic skills that every beginner chef should have, and one of those skills is dicing. Dicing is the process of cutting food into small cubes that around 1/4″ to 1/8″ in length. And once you get good at it, you’ll become a fast dicing cook in the kitchen. If you’ve ever watched chefs prep food by dicing it, then you know it can look like wizardry. But really, it’s just lots and lots of practice.
Learning how to properly dice vegetables and fruits can help improve your overall cooking, as having uniform cuts of ingredients will help them cook evenly and make it easier to better time your cooking. Pretty surprisingly, how large or small you dice something can also affect the flavor and taste of it. For instance, dicing garlic into large chunks will make the flavor stronger, while mincing it (into small bits) helps even it out and distribute the flavor more evenly in your dish.
How to Begin Dicing
All you need to be begin to dice is a chef’s knife and a cutting board. For this example, let’s use a potato. Start by cutting off the tips of the potato. Hold the potato still and cut lengthwise to make long, flat (you’ll want the slices to be around 1/4″ thick). Lay the flat slices down and use your chef’s knife to cut vertical thin slices down the flat side of the potato. These should also be around 1/4″ wide.
Now, you’re left with long thin strands of potatoes. Grab a bunch of these and line them up so that the strands are horizontal. Use the chef’s knife to make final 1/4″ inch cuts to turn your thin strands into cubes. Now you’re done! You’ve got perfect cubed ingredients from your expert skills in dicing!
Do you have any tips for dicing? Share them with us in the comments!
