great knife skills are essential to
becoming a better cook it's really the
basis of everything that you're gonna do
in the kitchen this is truly a skill
you'll use every day with just about
everything you cook
okay so first things first before you
even start chopping you want to make
sure that your cutting board is secure a
wobbly cutting board can result in your
knife slipping and injuries happening so
an easy fix is to place a damp paper
towel underneath your cutting board you
can also get a non-slip mat to put under
the cutting board or you can get a
cutting board with grips the next
important thing is to make sure you're
gripping your knife properly if you put
your finger on top of the knife if you
hold too far back on the handle if you
have a dainty grip those are all
incorrect ways you want to put your
finger and your thumb at the very back
of the knife and wrap your fingers
around it that way you have a firm grip
and when you chop you're going to be in
control of what you're doing it might
feel uncomfortable at first but with
time it'll become second nature to you
so one common mistake when you're
chopping is to have all your fingers
laid flat as you can see my fingers are
in danger of getting cut off you
actually want to form a claw so that
your fingers go in and the knife will
hit up against your knuckles as you're
chopping so with this claw your
fingertips are going to be protected the
whole time and it's actually going to
give you support as you're chopping
another common mistake is the slicing
motion if you just chop really
aggressively down like this you're not
going to get a nice even cut you really
want to do a rocking motion when you cut
going back and forth with the knife
think about it like a wave so now that
you know how to hold a knife properly
we're going to demonstrate a few common
cuts that you see in recipes we're going
to start out with a dice so for an onion
which is probably the most common thing
you're going to dice you want to cut it
in half first right through the root end
so the next step is to peel the outer
layers making sure that the root end is
still intact so with dicing you want to
make sure that the flat side is down so
it'll give you the most stability making
sure we have that claw grip make a few
incisions horizontally into the onion
then you're going to turn the onion
towards you with the root side furthest
away and again with that claw make a few
cuts
vertically turn the onion again and use
your knuckles as a guide and you're
going to start chopping along and just
do that same nice chopping wave motion
down and then look you've got an even
dice this is an example of a large dice
here we've got a medium dice and over
here we've got a small dice so in most
recipes when you just see something that
says dice it should be a medium size the
next cut we're going to show you is
mincing the most common of these is
minced garlic you want to remove the
root end and again remember we're always
using that little claw the next step is
to place the garlic under the blade and
then smash down then you're gonna peel
the garlic the papery skin should fall
right off and then again use that claw
use that same wave motion and you're
just going to repeat this a ton of times
you can use your fingers on the other
side of the blade to help stabilize you
and then gently scrape it off with
mincing the finer the mints the more
flavorful your dish is going to be and
it should really be tiny anything bigger
than this would be a fine chop similar
to dicing mincing is a really common cut
you can use it in so many preparations
so dicing and mincing are the most
common cuts you'll see in recipes but
we're going to show you a few other cuts
in case you want to get fancy next up is
chiffonade which is most commonly used
with herbs we're going to show you with
some basil so first you're going to
stack basil leaves in a pile then you're
going to roll them up from the top all
the way down in a really tight cigar
shape so it looks like that and then
again not to sound redundant but you're
going to use that same motion and just
do really really thin slices a common
mistake when you're doing the chiffonade
cut is to not use enough force you want
to make sure to fully slice down and if
you do it correctly it should look like
these beautiful ribbons chiffonade is a
really pretty cut but it's really a
vanity cut you'd typically use it to
garnish dishes the next cut we're going
to show you is julian which is most
commonly used with carrots but you can
do it with all sorts of things so to
juliana carrot you want to cut it into
about two inch segments we're gonna just
start with one for now to start you want
to create a flat base once you've cut
that flat part off put the flat part
down on the cutting board so you have
more stability then i want to make 1 8
inch equal slices down next stack the
carrots up like building blocks you can
also divide the carrot stacks up into
two parts so it's a little easier to
manage and then again you're going to
want to make
equal 1 8 of an inch slices down and
then you should get these beautiful
equally sized matchsticks julienning is
not a super common cut you'd primarily
see it in raw preparation like slaw or
something like a quick pickle it's
really great because you wouldn't want a
huge bite of pickled carrot but with a
julienne or a matchstick it's just the
right amount of tang next up we're going
to show you the oblique cut also called
a roll cut which you will see why
momentarily first you want to trim the
end off diagonally so right now the
diagonal is facing towards you so you
just want to rotate it so that the
diagonal is going away from you and
you're going to make a diagonal cut
so you're kind of creating this triangle
shape then you roll the carrot again and
cut and then you're just you're gonna
keep you're gonna keep rolling one of
the great things about this cut is that
this carrot isn't even all the way
through but with this cut all the pieces
are going to be about even size and
they're going to cook evenly it's a lot
of even
you can use it to roast steam saute it's
incredibly versatile it's also a fun
shape it's not used that often anymore
but it's really pretty and people should
use it more
now that you know the proper way to hold
and use your knife you'll be better
equipped in the kitchen and practice
makes perfect start off slowly make sure
you're using the proper form and the
more you do this the easier it'll get
the faster you'll be and you'll be a pro
in no time also on a basic level you're
not going to chop your fingers off which
i think we can all agree is a great
thing
but if you want to
[Music]
why can i speak if you want to get fancy
we're going to okay but if you want to
why what is wrong with me what what if
you want to get fancy yeah
yeah okay once we get fancy
hey so i like kinda get fancy