How To Cut An Onion | Cooking With Jade

How To Cut An Onion

3 MINS READ
How To Cut An Onion

Hi everyone! Chef Jade here. Today I’m going to teach you one of the most basic cooking skills there is, How to cut an Onion. This is not just a tutorial for those who are new to cooking but is great for anyone that has been cooking for years, but is not sure if they are cutting an Onion the proper way. We’ll don’t worry, I’m here to help. Now sit back and check out these quick basic 10 steps. (NOTE: If you’re more of a visual learner, see below for our walkthrough video.)

First, you want to start by choosing a fresh onion. It should be shiny, dry and firm to the touch. Those are less likely to give you teary eyes.

Now on to Step 1!

Open the windows to bring in some fresh air,  this will push the Onion fumes away and save us from crying our eyes out.

Step 2

Gather your kitchen tools. We only need two tools to properly cut an Onion. A cutting board and a knife! To make sure our Cutting Board won’t fly away during our preparations, let’s set a wet paper towel under it. Now, our Knife, ooh lala! The knife has to be sharp and in a good shape! That’s essential because I could easily hurt myself or even others, like Zelda, by using a dull knife.

Step 3

Properly holding your knife. You should hold it with your thumb and index finger in front of the bolster directly on the blade. I know, at first, it may be uncomfortable, but with some time it’ll be easier.

Step 4

As you can see, there are two ends: the stem and the roots, you should take the stem off and clean a little bit the roots by cutting the roots wires away, maintaining the core intact. That’s important! It’ll keep our onion together while we chop it.

Step 5

Peel the onion skin and keep the side cut down. Let’s make some vertical cuts from the core to the end, and again, and again… how closely you cut is how small you want your results, this time we are looking for a medium dice. Another important note: you should angle your knife facing the center of the onion: that’ll deliver a perfect same-size result.

Step 6

Now it’s time for our horizontal cut, and again, how closely you cut is how small you wanna your results.

Step 7

Finally, cut crosswise cuts. In this step, you must pay special attention on how to hold your knife, to make for your safety: your knuckles must press against the knife and the knife will slowly slide against it. This way you’ll protect your hand and also bring some stability to your knife movement.. The movement isn’t about strength, if you Knife is in a great sheap and sharp, forget about strength, it’s all about keeping going with the rocking motion, going back and forth just like a wave.

Step 8

Ta-dham! That’s our medium dice results.

Step 9

Pat yourself on your back. You’ve just learned a new cooking skill.

Step 10

Take a picture and post on social media with the Hashtag, #Jadescookingtips

For the other half of our onion, let’s make some julienne, the french beautiful name for our half moon* cut! For this technique, we will cut the roots away, and slide our knife with an angle centered, and again, how closely you cut is how small you wanna your results. That’s how you make some great juliennes

Let’s grab another fresh onion: shining, dry, firm to the touch! Let’s try some onion ring cuts. Cut the stem off, pill the skin and let’s do a small cut right at the bottom for some stability. Knuckles pressing against the knife and let’s cut and again, how closely you cut is how small you wanna your results.

WRAP UP

From these three types of cuts, we can prepare delicious sautéed vegetables with the medium one, caramelized onions for a quiche with our juliennes, and delicious fried onion rings with round cuts!

Keep in mind that all you need to create quality cuts is a sharp knife and a fresh onion! And please, don’t worry about cutting it to perfection or in a very fast way, because with practice, you’ll learn those things in time, just like a stew slowly cooking: time is the best ingredient.

Thanks for checking out my How to cut an Onion tutorial. I hope you learned something new and enjoyed yourself.  Make sure you check back every week for a new lesson. Bon Appetit.

BONUS TIP

How to avoid tears:

  • Wear glasses! They’ll act as a blockade between your eyes and the onion’s fumes.
  • Once you cut the onion in half, keep the cut sides down and away from your eyes.
  • If you can open your window, do it, some air will be good! It will spread the onion fumes away.. (hope not to your eyes rs)
  • Try not to breathe from your nose

If you liked this tutorial, then check out my other Cooking Lessons, especially the ‘How To Saute Vegetables’ one.


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