Cutting Techniques
4 min readWhen describing the harmonious blending of colours, aromas, flavours, shapes and textures in the principles of Chinese cooking (see page 13), I also mentioned briefly about the importance of cutting.
The cutting of various ingredients into different sizes, thicknesses and shapes is an important element in Chinese cooking. The Chinese always cut their food into small, neat pieces before cooking, partly because of fuel conservation: small pieces of food can be cooked quickly before the sticks of firewood burn out; and partly because small pieces of food are easier to be served and eaten with chopsticks, since knives and carvers have never been used on Chinese tables. The fact that small pieces of food only require a shortcooking time, thus retaining much of their natural flavours and nutritious value is an added bonus, which must be regarded as an incidental discovery – I know the Chinese are clever, but surely we couldn’t have been that clever as far back as the Xia Dynasty in the 21st century BC!
So the Chinese started cutting their food into small pieces before cooking for practical reasons, but as their cuisine developed into a fine art, naturally the cutting too became more and more sophisticated. We must have found out the close relationship between cooking and cutting, so instead of cutting everything into small bits and pieces indiscriminately, we gradually worked out the following basic rules that govern cutting food:
1. The size and shape of the cut ingredient must, first of all, be suitable for the particular method of cooking. For instance, ingredients for quick stir- frying should be cut into small, thin slices or shreds, never large, thick chunks.
2. Learn and understand the character of the ingredients: their texture and their colour changes – an important factor that determines the appropriate cutting and cooking method. Tender ingredients can be cut thicker than tougher ones that require more cooking time; and most meats change colour when cooked (chicken and pork become paler, while beef and lamb tend to go darker after being cooked).
3. The ingredient must be cut into pieces of uniform shape, size and thickness. This is not only to create aesthetic harmony, but because each piece must be cooked evenly – larger pieces will otherwise be under cooked and smaller ones overcooked.
4. Whenever possible, different ingredients for the same dish should be cut into pieces of the same shape and size – slices are matched with slices, shreds with shreds, cubes with cubes, chunks with chunks and so on. There are certain shapes which are standard in Chinese cooking: slice, strip, shred, chunk, piece, dice, cube, grain and mince. The actual shape is decided by the character of the ingredient and the cooking method required.
SLICE: slices are thin, flat pieces of the ingredient. First, cut the ingredient into sections as required by the dimension of the slices. Then, slice the sections according to the desired thickness.
STRIP, SHRED: strips and shreds are similar – one is thicker, the other is thinner. For strips: first, cut the ingredient into thick slices, then cut them into strips. For shreds: first, cut the ingredient into thin slices, then pile them on top of each other like a pack of playing cards, and cut them into shreds.
CHUNK, PIECE: there are many kinds of chunks and pieces – diamond, hexagonal, rectangular or wedge-shaped. First, cut the ingredient into broad strips or sections, then cut into smaller pieces as required.
DICE, CUBE: diced cubes and small cubes are pieces cut from strips.
GRAIN, MINCE: grains are finely chopped ingredient, cut from shreds. Mince iseven finer, and is cut by much chopping and pounding with the back of the cleaver. In addition to these, there are FLOWER-CUTTING and SCORING for thick pieces of ingredient such as kidney, squid and fish. These cutting methods allow more heat and seasoning penetration. Details will be given with the appropriate recipes.
Chopping up a whole chicken or duck for serving.
(a) Detach the two wings at the joints, then cut each wing into two pieces at its joint, discarding the tips.
(b) Detach the two thighs by cutting through the skin around the joints with asharp knife or the tip of the cleaver.
(c) Lay the limbless bird on its side and separate the breasts from the backbone section by cutting down through the soft bone from the tail to neck.
(d) Carve away the skin and meat from the backbone section, cut into small bite-size pieces and arrange them neatly in the centre of an oval serving platter.
(e) Remove the wishbone as well as the main breastbone by hand. Cut the two breasts in half lengthwise, then chop each breast crosswise into neat small pieces.
(f) Chop the legs and thighs crosswise into small bite-size pieces and arrange them on each side of the breasts. Place the two wings on the upper part.
