Mission 2: How to Cut Vegetables

I feel like an idiot right now. Last year I was trying to make julienne carrots and I was trying everything I could think of. . .graters, peelers, and even almost bought a mandolin to get those stupid carrots cut julienne style. Now I find out that it isn't hard at all. It follows a basic formula of tronconner, parer, tranches, julienne, brunoise (or for a thicker cut after tranches go to jardinière then macedoine).

What the hell am I talking about?
When I first read all those crazy French names for cuts I almost gave up but then I paid attention and now it makes sense.
1-Tronconner-to cut a washed an peeled veggie into 1 1/2 to 2 3/4 inch parts
2-Parer-taking the cut veggies and making them square from round (paring them down to be square)
3-Tranche- The pared item is then cut into slices. For jardinière (with macedoine following) the slices are thin (3/16 of an inch). For julienne the slices are very thin (1/32 to 1/16 of an inch)
4-Julienne (or jardiniere) you cut sticks from the tranches
5-Brunoise (or macedoine) cut the sticks into cubes

Not so bad then, eh?


In English you cut the veggie into parts about 2 1/2 inches long,


square it off,


cut slices off the parts


then make sticks from the slices


and cubes from the sticks.



If I had just known that last year I could have saved myself from a ton of aggravation. Do you know how much easier it is to cut julienne strips this way than it is to try to use a grater to get julienne strips? I don't recommend that you try to find out.

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