I often need to mince garlic to add to any number of dishes. If I don't want to use a garlic press or microplane, how do I mince it with a knife? What type of knife should I use and how should I cut it? I'm most interested in the techniques associated with efficiency and safety.
How to properly mince garlic
cuttinggarlicknife-safetyknife-skills
Related Solutions
All of the following play an important role in cutting technique/speed:
- Practice! Probably the single most important.
- A very sharp, clean knife. Always hone your knife before use, and have it sharpened regularly (6-18 months depending on use)
- A fast and stable cutting surface. A solid end-grain cutting board is ideal.
- The food should be stable. As Nick says, make a flat side to your food if it doesn't have one.
- Proper off-hand placement. Your off-hand should be curled with your finger tips resting on the food. Your first knuckles should be against the side of the knife blade. Your fingertips should be tucked out of the way due to the curling. Your thumb pushes the food under the knife as you slice.
- Proper knife-hand placement. This can vary based on your biomechanics, hand size, knife, etc. However, the gist is:
- Don't hamfist it
- Relax your hand and arm
- Gripping high up on the bolster of the blade can help with control and speed. I pinch the blade itself between my thumb and forefinger.
- Unless you're actually chopping (e.g. using the rocker technique to chop herbs quickly) you should actually be slicing your food. A slight forward movement of the knife blade as it passes downward through the food decreases resistance and speeds the cut. It also is gentler on your food.
To be completely safe you could use a finger guard. For example, Jamie Oliver Finger Guard. I've never used one of these, but it seems like it would significantly decrease the chances of a mishap. It also seems there are a few other brands out there to try.
I think what you want to do is this, cribbed from this book, which has an excellent step by step guide with pictures:
Remove the wings. Stand the chicken on its neck, legs point to the ceiling and breasts pointing away from you. slide the cleaver between the body and wing, cutting through the joint close to the body. You should slide the knife between the joint cutting only the tendons, not the bone.
Remove the legs. lie the chicken on its back one leg near you, one leg away from you. slide the knife between the joint near the body, again cutting only tendon not bone and remove the leg.
Separate the thigh from the drumstick, again go for the joint. If you want the legs to be in smaller pieces then you can cut each thigh and drumstick in two with a firm action. You have 2 choices for technique
Start with the cleaver tip furthest from you on the board, place the thigh under the blade and push down firmly and quickly. you should cut through the bone.
Chop through the bone by lifting the cleaver in the air and bringing down hard and fast. This has better chance of a cleaner cut through the bone, but you need to be a better aim.
Split the carcass in half. Stand in the same position as 1. and with the blade parallel to to your body cut down through the carcass so you have the back and the breast in separate pieces
Remove the breast from the bone by sliding the knife (might want to use a smaller knife here) between the meat and the bone.
Remove the backbone out of the back, kitchen scissors are easiest. you can skip this if the back doesn't have much meat.
Cut the back pieces into nice size pieces across the length.
Slice the breast pieces crosswise into nice size pieces
Reassemble the chicken on the plate with the breast meat on top of the back pieces
this picture doesn't really do it justice, but until I can find a better one...
this video shows it being done with a bit more force and not for presentation, but might be more what you are after
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Best Answer
You can try to treat it as a really, really small dice if you have a sharp enough knife.
But it's easier to use a chefs knife to cut it in one direction, and then try to start cutting it into sticks .... but when it starts getting difficult, just rock your knife back and forth, slowly moving it through the pile.
After a while, turn your knife (or the board) 90 degrees, and rock it some more. As the pile starts spreading out, use your knife to pull it back into a tighter pile ... and keep rocking and turning until it's down to the size you want it.
...
If you're going to be using it right away, you can also give it a quick crush before mincing -- but this damages cell walls differently than cutting, and can cause some chemical reactions that change the flavor (the intensity fades quicker).