What's BEST WAY to DICE AN ONION?

Do you know how many recipes require diced onion? Regardless though, countless recipes require the use of diced onion, but what's the best way to do it?

Today, we are going to explore the 3 main ways to dice an onion in the home kitchen, the traditional 3-way dice, the radial, and what I like to call the lazy dice. Each one has its own benefits such as speed or even cutting, but at the end of the video, I will let you know my verdict on which one is the best.

First up is the traditional way. This is the most common one that is taught by chef's around the world and it's the method shown in the Professional Chef by the Culinary Institute of America.
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MISC. DETAILS
Music: Provided by Epidemic Sound
Filmed on: Sony a6400 w/ Sigma 16mm F1.4
Voice recorded on Rode Video Micro
Edited in: Premiere Pro #Onyo

[makobean]

Noticeably absent is the "Chop sloppily, then keep chopping the messy pile you've made on your cutting board, until you have a million random shapes that are finally about the right size" technique. This method has never failed me.

[darthplagueis]

I usually just go for the lazy dice for two main reasons:
1: It's the fastest and I just want to minimize the amount of time I spend cutting onions. I didn't enter the kitchen just so a bloody vegetable could break the geneva convention by attacking me with chemical weapons.
2: I'm really not comfortable with the horizontal cuts in the traditional dice. It seems like an really easy way to also dice your left hand which would probably ruin the taste. It also just tends to fall apart for me, resulting in a worse and less even chop than just the lazy method. I guess this might have something to do with how sharp the knives in my kitchen are, but I mean, they cut things alright. But they aren't quite scalpel levels of sharp where it basically meets no resistance. Besides, the onion is already doing a fine job at being chopped horizontally just by having those layers.

[Pravinoz]

In the video you referenced, Marco actually uses the "lazy" dice, his reasoning being that when you cut an onion as finely as he does, there is no discernible difference between 2 cuts or 3 cuts. The dice he is looking for is so small that it easily melts in a hot pan, and adding an additional slice at that point simply wastes time.

Following that advice, I use the lazy dice for my onions, and go for thin slices. The uneven chunks that occur in your version don't happen, you save a lot of time, and you don't have to make an awkward sideways cut.

[floxbr]

As a side note for the radial version: Kenji said (somewhere in his POV-series; can't remeber the exact video though...) that you should not actually cut to the center of the onion half but to an imagined point below the cutting surface for maximized evenness.

[DJaquithFL]

Whichever method you use, the layer next to the "paper" layer should also be discarded for most recipes. The taste is quite a bit different.

[nemodetroit]

Growing up in a restaurant family, the method taught to me by the Chinese chefs reverses your radial cut and makes it easier and faster: prep the onion into halves as you showed. Then cut it into slices that are essentially the same as the *final* slice of your traditional and radial methods. This leaves you with a stack of slices. Push that stack of slices over like a set of collapsed dominoes so they are mostly flat on the board, but still laying on top of each other. Now make the radial cuts downward into the cutting board. The knife angle changes to different clock positions, but in this case the clock is laying flat on the cutting board. Every cut is made with the knife travelling vertically and straight into the cutting board. This method avoids those non-vertical cuts in the traditional and radial methods, which can be awkward for some.

[cashme]

I got in the habit of using a radial cut and for most things it's perfect.

[Heiryuu]

I use the lazy because I don’t really give a shit. I’m not cooking to impress people, I’m cooking to feed myself good food and slightly more uniform diced onion pieces won’t matter when I’m done making fried rice.
If I really need finely diced onions I’ll just do smaller cross cuts.

[jchatfield]

I’ve always wondered why methods always suggest doing the vertical cuts before the horizontal. For me it makes sense to the horizontal cuts first while the onion has a stronger structure so there is less chance of slippage.

[TeTurtleCub]

The most important part about dicing an onion is realizing the onion isn't an onion. Its... An onyo.

[MeepMeep]

You forgot another cut, called the Crying Onion Cut. It's where you use a butter knife

[BadDadio]

Watching this video reminded me of recent reading on how trees are processed at the sawmill. The Plain sawn, rift sawn, & quarter sawn methods are almost identical to the dicing methods presented in this video.

[EASTSIDERIDER]

I started the radial dice in the 70’s when I did my own cooking. As much time as I spent in the kitchen watching my mother and grandmother, I don’t recall their methods. The radial made more sense when I observed the natural structure of the onion.
Isn’t it strange the habits we learn, and how we adhere to traditions.

[DJ.LakeSea]

After watching many vids on dicing onions, I found this. Perfect breakdown on the pro's and con's of all methods. My hat comes off to you Sir Ethan!

[nikolatesla]

I worked as a prep cook in a traditional french restaurant. When you are required to do it a specific way (traditional) and you chop at least a hundred onions every day, that's the way you do it. I haven't worked in a restaurant for 30 years, but I still chop onions that way. But you're right, for most dishes the lazy way is good enough.

[Col_Crunch]

When it comes to the traditional, I always do the cuts parallel to the surface first. That way the onion stays together a bit better, and I have greater control over the size of the dice.

[mikeyob]

Don't know exactly how I stumbled across you, but I'm sure glad I did! Great videos!

[JustinMangrich]

I started doing the radial dice for a reason not mentioned in the video. By using the natural ridges of the onion as my guide while cutting radially, I divide fewer onion cells. This means that I get less onion spray up in the air and fewer tears in my eyes. If you don't have a good tolerance for cutting onions, use the radial cut.
Side note, you can still do the traditional three-step method using the radial cut.

[etherdog]

Ethan, I am like you--98% lazy but when I want a more controlled or quick cook, the trad cut provides a better result.

[XiuHang]

You have to try doing the traditional dice the way I learned from my Chinese family. We cut the onions into quarters before dicing so all the slices can be vertical. It's easier than the traditional with horizontal cuts and I find I dice onions faster that way.