The Perfect Dice

Dicing, or cutting ingredients into uniform cubes, is a foundational prep skill in the kitchen.  Changing the size of your dice can change the texture, cook time and even flavor of a dish by exposing more or less of an ingredient’s surface area to heat.

Dice means to cut foods into small ¼” squares up to ¾” squares using a sharp kitchen knife. These pieces should be as even as possible, usually for appearance’s sake.  In some cuisines, especially Southeast Asian cuisine, exact sizes of the food pieces are important for even cooking.

There is a different meaning to the cooking terms chop, cube, dice, and mince. The easiest way to remember these terms is by size:

• Chop refers to cutting foods into pieces that are not necessarily even, but all about ½” in diameter.
• Cube means to cut food into pieces that are even, like a square. The size is usually about the same as the chopped pieces sizes; about 1/3” to ½”. 
• Dice means to cut food into even, small squares about ¼” in diameter.
• And mince means to cut foods into even, very small pieces about 1/8” in diameter. 

When you first start cooking, it may be helpful to have a ruler on hand to make sure you understand the sizing when preparing food.

These definitions are important because they are used in recipes so food cooks at a certain time at a certain temperature. For instance, if you chop potatoes but mince onions for a stir-fry, the potatoes will not be done cooking by the time the onions have cooked to a pulp.

Good knife skills are so essential in meal preparation and cooking:

• Use a sharp knife to ensure a clean and consistent cut.
• Halve or quarter your vegetables and lay them flat to create a sturdy surface.
• Cut vegetables lengthwise and crosswise into equal-sized cubes.

The French phrase “miss en place” (pronunciation mees on ploss) means having a place for everything and having everything organized before you begin cooking.   Make sure you read all cooking instructions, including descriptions of sizes, carefully before you start to cook.