Great video. Even though I've worked for a cutlery company for 8 years, I just recently started using this method and I'd never go back! It's also very important to have a sharp knife using this method.

Nice job! Funny, though: of the thousands of onions i've cut, I never once thought to leave the root end on before I started, and always had a 'butt' of perfectly good onion left over at the end after I was done.

I feel like a homer (d'oh!) for not knowing already, but it's better to find out late than to live on in ignorance.

I too never left the root end on, I always chopped it off in the beginning. I will try it this way and see how it goes. Love this idea! Please keep doing more videos, especially on knife skills.

This is how I dice onions, with one difference. I don't make the horizontal cuts in toward the root after making the downward cuts. The onion already comes naturally separated into layers, so I make the vertical slices, and then just start the dicing. It naturally falls apart. Then I run the knife through the pile of dice just for good measure (sometimes!). I'm lazy, and the horizontal cuts seem extra fussy.

I usually make the horizontal cuts before the vertical cuts because they're a little trickier and you don't want to worry about holding together the vertically sliced pieces while doing it.

THANK YOU SO MUCH i did this tonight while making that velvety broc-holy pasta dish and it worked so well

Niiiice!

Exactly what gremlin said: no need for the horizontal cuts. I can see myself easily putting the knife right through the tips of my fingers that way. Just the two types of vertical cuts are needed. Perfect dice every time. You can vary the size of the dice easily but making more vertical cuts as desired.

glad to read about the horizontal cuts. i've always thought that since onions are layered, they don't need as much chopping...but tried it this way (with the horizontal cuts) this weekend, and that ended with a very badly sliced finger! (i'm clumsy.) but i'll try with just the vertical slices from here on out, and i'm sure my digits will appreciate that.

I just cut up an onion exactly as demonstrated and the first thing I thought when I'd finished was: "Oooh... that really is perfectly diced onion."

I'm sure there was even a look of astonishment on my face.

Thanks Sara Kate!

:-)

I agree with @joyosity. It's easier to make the horizontal cuts first since those are the most awkward and the onion is still "together" at that point.

Also, Alton Brown recommended forgoing the horizontal and vertical cuts and instead making angled cuts like a clock with the tip of your knife pointed toward the root.
Then dice toward the root, perpendicular to your angled cuts. That reduces the number of total cuts you make and gives you essentially the same result. Better (and safer) than making the horizontal cuts toward your hand!

Sorry, I can't find a video of this!

I use this same method, but leave the onion whole and cut both ends off. Then it sits nicely on the cutting board. I cut horizontally and vertically, then turn the onion on its side and slice-n-dice.

This looks a little easier though, cutting it in half first. I think I'll try it next time.

Lately I've just been using my mini-chopper though.

I use that method occasionally, but I prefer a method that goes like this:

remove both root and stem ends
split onion vertically along axis
holding the onion together with thumb and middle finger slice along what she calls the "life lines".
While maintaining that thumb and middle finger pressure turn the onion 90 degrees and slice the other direction.

You'll have a lovely dice.

I have always done it like joyosity, for the same reasons.

One reason I have been told that you are supposed to keep the root-end intact until you are done is that it results in a massive release of the chemicals which cause your eyes to run...

My pet peeve though, is dull knives, and I think this is where this series should properly start. I have been in so many high-end kitchens full of the latest and most expensive equipment only to encounter dangerously dull knives (and inadequate pots and pans, but that is another past).

Some brands of knives I have noticed hold an edge much better than others (my Wusthof knives, which I use much more often, stay significantly sharper significantly longer than my Henckel knives for example). And people don't know when a knife needs to be resharpened versus when it just needs to be swiped a few times on a sharpening steel (I know I don't...). I think it would be really useful to have posts about this topic.

A truly sharp knife would cut the horizontal slices of that onion without disturbing the vertical slices, fresh onion or not...

I will repeat the comment i made on the video of how to chop garlic: This videographer MUST (repeat: MUST) use a tripod. Hand-held moves much too much, it's really unprofessional, which is too bad because the site otherwise looks very professional!

This is a great video. I've chopped onions this way as long as I can remember and I'll never forget the first time I showed my husband how to do it. He offered to help in the kitchen and I told him he could chop the onions but first, "Let me know you how..." After I finished he was like, "Wow. I would NEVER have done it like that." Best way to chop an onion by far.

In cooking school, to "settle" the debate, we all chopped onions using four basic techniques:

1. Root off, vertical, dice (wickenden style)
2. Root on, horizontal, vertical, dice (joyosity style)
3. Root on, vertical, dice (gremlin style)
4. Root on, radial, dice (mragin style)

1. Good dice, slowest.
2. Perfect dice, medium.
3. Good dice, fasted.
4. Great dice, medium.

1. After trying the other methods, nobody liked method one anymore. Too much can go wrong, not as safe, fast or efficient.

2. This method gives you a perfect dice, but was a tad redundant and slow. If you worked in a French Restaurant or was in a food competition, absolutely, but otherwise, overkill.

3. Talk about fast, good working dice, but sometimes you get some bigger chunks. Perfect for powering though multiple onions, but not a "show" quality dice.

4. A nice technique that results in a close to perfect dice, but requires precise cuts. Ended up being much more time consuming that expected.

The best compromise was using a combination of method 2 & 3, but doing only one single horizontal slice before switching to vertical. Ends up giving you a Great Dice (just shy of perfect), and that one horizontal slice makes this the second fasted technique. But there's nothing wrong with using method 2, 3 or 4, as all three perfectly acceptable dicing techniques.

My only quibble with Sara's technique is she didn't use the flat surface of the top of the onion after she chopped off the top to stabilize the onion when cutting it in half. Otherwise, good stuff, great comments.