How to Small Dice
Cubing isn’t just for math geeks anymore. Just ask your local sous-chef, who probably cubes more items in a single night than all the 10th graders in America.
Up next in Food Preparation Tips, Tricks, & Techniques (79 videos)
Start cooking like a top chef with the step by step food prep instructions in this Howcast video series.
You Will Need
- A chef’s knife
- A cutting board
- And a vegetable to cut
Steps
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Step 1
Wash & peel
Wash and peel the vegetable, if necessary.
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Step 2
Grasp knife
Grasp the knife in your dominant hand, holding the handle close to the blade with three fingers: your middle, ring, and pinkie. Curl your forefinger around one side of the blade while holding your thumb on the opposite side.
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Step 3
Hold vegetable
With your non-knife-wielding hand, hold the vegetable firmly on the cutting board close to the area you will cut.
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Curl your fingers so that the tips are firmly planted on the vegetable and the knuckles point outward—in the food world, this is called the 'claw grip.'
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Step 4
Cut off ends
Cut off the ends of the vegetable.
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Step 5
Cut off sides
Cut off the sides of the vegetable. It should now resemble a block with 4 long flat surfaces—this will make it easier to cut uniform pieces.
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Step 6
Slice lengthwise
For a small dice cut, you are aiming to make dice, or cubes, that are ¼ inch on every side. Begin by slicing the vegetable lengthwise into uniform slabs ¼ inch wide.
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Keep the point of the knife on the board and use a steady rocking motion to slice—not saw—the vegetable with the full length of the blade.
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Step 7
Stack & cut
Stack the slabs on top of each other and again cut them lengthwise into 1/4' wide sticks. You now have a 'wood pile' of ¼ inch-thick sticks.
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Step 8
Make crosscuts
Line up the pile of sticks, and make ¼ inch crosscuts along their length, creating ¼ inch cubes.
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A pair of ivory dice discovered at the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes dates to 1,500 B.C.
