Hangry Cooking Terms Dictionary How to Chop and what does it mean to chop when cooking?

How to Chop and what does it mean to chop when cooking?

If a recipe instructs you to “Chop” or suggest "Chopping" as part of the steps it is referring to fine cutting of ingredients with a knife.

There are a lot of terms when it comes to cooking that can cause unsureness or confusion. This term, however, isn’t one of them. The term “chop” simply means to cut an ingredient into smaller pieces.

When reading a recipe, you may come across different variations of this term, such as “finely-“ or “roughly chopped“. This is merely referring to the size of the ingredients that you are cutting up. When a recipe calls for an ingredient to be chopped up finely, for example, the general rule of thumb is to aim for pieces that are more or less 1/8 inches (0.7 cm) big. And when an ingredient can be chopped up more “roughly”, the size of the pieces doesn’t need to be so consistent.

Check out this easy Roasted Vegetables with Balsamic Vinegar and fresh Rosemary recipe for the perfect opportunity to practice your rough chopping technique.

TOP TIP FOR CHOPPING

Always make sure that your knives are sharp enough before starting. This will help with safety and for more efficient cooking.

Watch How To Cut Like a Chef

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Video thanks to Chef Mike Ward on Youtube: How To Cut Like a Chef

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