Knives 101: When and How to Dice, Slice, and Chiffonade

The chef's knife is one essential tool every cook needs. It can be used for almost any basic cut and is crucial for cutting and chopping for everyday dishes. But when you want the flavor of garlic, onion, shallots, or another pungent vegetable, but don't want large pieces throughout the dish, the mince is the right cut. To get a nice, small, uniform mince, simply slice your vegetable in half so that you now have two pieces, each with a flat side. Place the flat side down on the cutting board. With the tip of the knife, make several slices lengthwise, from root to tip, as close together as possible. Turn garlic slices 90 degrees. Place fingertips, curled (to protect your fingertips), on top to hold slices in place, then cut slices into the item horizontally, creating thin sticks. Finally, with your fingers still curled, moving them as you cut from the right to the left of the item, slice from the top down. You should be left with tiny, perfect squares, but can continue to run the knife over the pieces until you get as small a mince as you like.

Recipe: Citrus Vinaigrette

Dicing is much like mincing, with a larger end product. To dice a vegetable, such as a bell pepper, begin by cutting off the ends. Stand the pepper up on its now-flat bottom and slice through its center from top to bottom, creating two halves. Remove the core and seeds, and carefully slice off any white parts. Push each pepper half against the cutting board with curled fingertips, keeping it as flat as possible, and cut the pepper first in 1/4-inch slices (for a small dice). Keeping the slices together, turn them 90 degrees and again, make cuts that are 1/4 inch apart along the slices, creating cubes. For a larger dice, make 1/2-inch cuts instead.

Recipe: Corn Relish with Roasted Peppers

Once you've mastered the dice, whether you know it or not, you've also mastered the julienne. Using your chef's knife, cut off the ends of the item you wish to julienne, and if necessary, as with peppers, remove any core, seeds, or inedible parts. Press the largest, flattest side against the cutting board (or create a flat side, if working with a round or lumpy food, like a carrot or potato, by cutting it in half lengthwise first). Cut lengthwise in 1/4-inch slices, creating long, rectangular, matchstick-like pieces.

Recipe: Green Bean Slaw

A pairing knife, which is only about 2 to 3 inches long, is one of the most versatile and useful tools in a kitchen. It can give you more control than a large chef's knife when working with small foods, and is often used to prepare and clean vegetables, fruits, garnishes, and cold dishes. Use it to slice smaller items, like a shallot or clove of garlic, to neatly chiffonade delicate herbs, like basil or mint, to devein shrimp, or to hull (remove the core from) fruits like strawberries or tomatoes.

Recipe: Creole Shrimp

A tourné knife gets it names because it is used to cut vegetables into a traditional French shape called a tourné (it literally means "turned," but essentially looks like a small football). This is a small knife, similar in length to a pairing knife, and curved in a half-moon shape. Because of its curved blade, it also comes in handy for peeling vegetables, like potatoes.

Recipe: Two-Potato Gratin

Roasting, stewing, or braising meat on the bone is a great way to pack tons of savory flavor into any of your favorite dishes. And divvying up a large cut of meat or a whole chicken doesn't have to be an intimidating task. To cut a chicken into eight pieces (2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 breast halves, and 2 wings), you'll want to use a boning knife — a thin, rigid knife with a slightly curved blade that is usually 5 to 7 inches long — you'll use mainly the tip of this knife as you work to separate the meat from the bone, using short, quick strokes. Another tip: keep a chef's knife on hand during this process. The heel, or back, of the knife is heavier than a boning knife, and useful for cutting through the joints and tough bits of bone.

Recipe: Citrus Pomegranate Chicken Over Whole Wheat Couscous

Buying fish whole can save you money — and leaves you with all the wonderful odds and ends, like bones, to make flavorful extras like stocks and soups. To fillet a whole fish, you'll want a flexible boning knife, which is sometimes referred to as a fillet knife or a fish knife. Because it's so bendable, a flexible boning knife allows you to stay closer to the bones and skin of the fish than an average knife, making sure you get as meaty a fillet as possible. You'll want to use mainly the tip of this knife, making quick sweeping motions from the backbone out toward the sides or belly of the fish, depending on whether you have a flat fish (like flounder) or a round fish (like haddock).

Recipe: Fish Fillets with Pineapple-Jalapeño Salsa

If you've ever tried slicing bread with a plain old chef's knife, you know very well it's not the right tool for the job — unless you want squished, torn pieces of your favorite loaf. To neatly slice any kind of bread, use a serrated bread knife, and make long, slow sawing motions as you move downward through the loaf to your cutting board. In addition to perfectly cutting through crustry breads, this knife works well to cut layer cakes or other delicate baked goods.

Recipe: Avocado Crostini Two Ways

Much like a smaller version of the bread knife — also commonly referred to as a steak knife — the small serrated knife is the perfect piece of equipment for cutting foods that are firm, tough, or crusty on the outside, but soft, juicy, or chewy on the inside. Its small teeth quickly and neatly puncture the item's outer layer and get the cut started without crushing its more delicate insides. A seared steak, of course, is a food you'll want to use this knife on, but it can also be helpful when slicing tomatoes, citrus fruits, and similarly textured vegetables and fruits, or when cutting and serving smaller baked goods or pastries.

Recipe: Flash-Pickled Green Tomatoes