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Whenever I chop veggies like onions or carrots they sometimes just fly off the chopping board into the open space of the kitchen. Carrots do that especially often – I cannot chop them (dicing is also problematic) without the occasional pieces flying off the board.

What am I missing here? I try to imitate Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay chopping videos bit by bit.

David Richerby
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Bar Akiva
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8 Answers8

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Use a sharp knife, dull knives don't slice, they split the same way an axe splits logs and that will generate that sideways force that throws carrot bits.

Also learn to practice your slicing and chopping technique. You shouldn't be dropping the blade straight down like a axe or guillotine. You should be moving the blade in a orbital movement, so that you are slicing in a forward direction while the blade is on its way down to and through the carrot. By slicing properly much less of your veg will have that energy buildup because they won't "snap" apart but will be sliced apart neatly.

Search YouTube for Basic Knife Skills and watch several videos, then practice, and start slowly. You will get faster with time and time only, don't rush it or you'll get sloppy and may hurt yourself.

Escoce
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    Actually, there are several ways to chop depending on the country and the knife type (chef, santoku, chinese cleaver, usuba...). – TZDZ Mar 10 '16 at 16:17
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    @TZDZ - while that's true, the general chopping motion Escoce mentions (i.e., not straight down to "push cut" alone, but rather a combination of downward with forward or backward motion creating a circle or "orbit") is common to most knives around the world -- including all you mention -- particularly if you want to prevent flying bits. The exact angle and knife grip vary, but the motion is rather similar. – Athanasius Mar 10 '16 at 16:52
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    @Athanasius I disagree. If I understand well the motion in question, it works really well with chef knife, but not with an usuba or a chinese cleaver. – TZDZ Mar 11 '16 at 13:58
  • @Athanasius : you need a curved front, like a chef's knife to go with a circular motion. It's possible, but more difficult with a santoku as they don't have as significant of a curve. With cleavers you make a more diagonal motion when slicing -- it's not the straight down for chopping, but it's not the circular motion you'd use with a chef's knife. – Joe Mar 11 '16 at 14:41
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    This all may be true, but I am talking basic knife skills here for the average home kitchen. The general home cook doesn't have cleavers or any other exotic knives except perhaps the santoku which seems popular in standard knife sets these days. All the knives you get in a 20 or less knife block that costs say $250 or less is going to have all curved blades except maybe the serrated bread knife. The average kitchen doesn't have a $1700 block of Shun knives. Shoot I don't even have anything close. Mine are a collection of random cheap knives I inherited and just take good care of them. – Escoce Mar 11 '16 at 15:28
  • @Escoce I have at least one (and maybe a 2nd hidden in the back of the drawer) completely strait bladed cleaver that came from knife sets that were much less than $250. One I paid less than $5/blade for; the second set was a gift but I'd be shocked it it was more than $100 for 6 or 7 blades. Both sets also had at least one serrated utility knife. I think the really cheap one had several. I'm not sure though, in the way of really cheap knives, after 6-8 years of service slashing plastic packages open most of them ended up broken and in the trash. – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Mar 11 '16 at 19:18
  • There's always someone – Escoce Mar 11 '16 at 21:10
  • @Joe - I'm not talking about the "rocking" motion one uses with a chef's knife. I'm talking about the motion you make with a knife that does NOT rest the front of the blade on the cutting board, as with a cleaver or usuba. When you slice with one of those, you push forward or backward as you go down, then on the upstroke you go the opposite direction, overall creating a sort of "orbital" motion if you do it with smooth strokes. This is definitely true for slicing, and also often desirable for chopping, unless the material is very thin or you don't care about irregular results. – Athanasius Mar 12 '16 at 02:19
  • I do not believe there is anything more special about solving this than a sharp knife and basic knife skills. I agree with the comment above that I think easily 3/4 of the reason professional chefs have such better luck at this is due to the razor sharp knives they use. Something that is easy for us to do as well. – geoffmpm Mar 22 '16 at 22:25
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Both Escoce's and Elendil's answers are great: the key is a sharp knife, and the vast majority of people (in my experience) do not have very sharp knives in their kitchens. When people come over to my kitchen and try to cut something they are often shocked at how easy it is. If your knives slide off of food (like onion skins or tomato skins) rather than cut cleanly into them, they aren't sharp enough to make slicing easy.

The one thing I would add is to start with a long knife, and learn the "rocking" chop motion first with it. That is, keep the end toward the tip of the knife on the cutting board, and only lift the back end of the knife high enough to clear the carrot. With a smaller knife, you need to do what Escoce mentions and make an "orbital" motion rather than straight down. I think that's harder to do properly for beginners, so start with a big knife and rock it until you get the hang of it.

I tend to use a 10-inch chef's knife to chop carrots; minimum of 8-inch. Lots of people see such big knives and think they are too scary to use. But they really make chopping incredibly easy, especially if they are kept sharp. With a big sharp knife, you should barely feel like you need force at all to slice quickly through a carrot.

Athanasius
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Use a bigger, sharper knife. If you're having to apply so much pressure to cut a vegetable that it's flying off into the ether, your knife isn't sharp enough. Furthermore, a blunt knife is a dangerous knife, because it is more likely to slip off the surface of the thing you're cutting and end up in your hand.

ElendilTheTall
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If you are not bothered about the shape of the vegetables, you can cut the (for example) carrot along its length, then place the flat side against the chopping board. You can then slice, dice or whatever with much less effort, and the carrot pieces won't roll off the board.

JavaLatte
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    It's a good idea to make a flat side of whatever you're cutting, so you don't have to deal with it trying to roll around as you're cutting. This is more important when you're starting out ... skill might help you avoid needing to do this, but you don't save any time if you end up slicing your hand open because the item moved on you. – Joe Mar 11 '16 at 14:35
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I agree with the other answers (particularly using a sharp knife). When I'm cutting something that tends to fly away like carrots, I'll keep the tip of the knife touching the cutting board.

It gives you a reference touch point so that you don't quickly cut through the object and hit the cutting board if you apply pressure. It also makes you cut it at an angle similar to scissors or one of those paper trimmers/cutters that you see in offices.

Nathron
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I agree with many of the suggestions above. However, if your carrots are still rolling off the cutting board, consider putting one or more rolled towels around the edge of the cutting board to prevent the "rollers" from escaping their inevitable fate.

Ernie Eusebio
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It's crucial to consider the chopping surface here. If you are using a glass or ceramic board you will have problems with slippage.

Use a wooden or plastic board, and (as others have said) a sharp knife of a suitable type.

ginger
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Beyond the comments about knives, which is right on, I use cafeteria trays with sides in place of a standard cutting board for the majority of my chopping and cutting. I've never had the dreaded roll off problem and I can carry the trays from place to place without fear of the same vegetable fly off.

Mocha Falls
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