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Updated 12/14/2012 05:00 AM

Recipe: Onion Cutting Techniques

By: Dan Eaton

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SERVES:

INGREDIENTS:
onions as needed

PROCEDURE:

To thinly slice onion:

Use a sharp knife to cut the top and bottom off of the onion.
Carefully cut through the outer skin, from top to root end and peel it.
Then cut it in half from top to root end and, working with the flat side against the cutting board, cut it into 1/8th inch thick slices from top to root end.

To thinly chop onion:

Peel onion and cut in half from top to root end. Working with flat side against cutting board, cut each half in half again along the circumference of each half before slicing those halves from top to root end into somewhat thin slices.

To rough chop onion:

Rough chopping an onion is similar to the thinly chopped technique above except that the final crosscuts are a lot larger.

To dice onion:

Just cut the top of the onion off for this and then cut the onion in half from top through the root end and then peel each half.

Next, with the flat side against the cutting board and starting near the cutting board and working towards the top, use a sharp knife to cut the onion horizontally at 1/4-inch intervals (from the cut end towards the root end) without the knife going through the root end of the onion. Use your non knife hand and fingers to gently press onion down and hold in place....but keep those fingers out of the way at the same time.

Next, turn the onion so that the root end is facing away from you and cut the onion from top to bottom into 1/4-inch thick slices, again without going through root end.

Finally, turn the onion back to the original side facing position and cut it from top to bottom into 1/4-inch dice.

HINTS:

If the dicing technique seems a little too complicated, you can cut both ends off of onion and peel.....then slice in half from top to root end.
Working with flat side against cutting board, cut the onion crosswise into 1/4-inch section from top to bottom.
Working with one section at a time (or two stacked sliced sections) dice those crosswise.