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Comment by ackbar03 | Hacker News Reader

You want even cuts you throw it into a blender

Besides a dice that's as even as possible, the other requirement this solution attempts to satisfy is using the minimum number of cuts. A blender doesn't satisfy that, as it's making hundreds of cuts.

Then, when you present your solution to the client, you find out there was a third, unspoken requirement: that it should involve as little cleanup as possible, which the blender also doesn't satisfy. The user researcher was on vacation, and you didn't find out about this before beginning design. Damn!

The blender solution turns out to be overoptimized on a single requirement at the expense of the others.

They're optimizing for time as knife cuts = time. A food processor will do it faster if you're more than one onion or so, assuming you can get the size you want.

Ahh, so in addition to having trouble getting consistently-sized pieces the size of a dice or chop, the other reason knives are preferred is that a food processor damages the onion, releasing more water compared to a knife. The result doesn't caramelize as well. This is why higher-end restaurants cut onions by hand, even when operating at scale.

You don't have to turn it into mush with a food processor, not all veggies are caramelized. High end restaurants usually optimize for speed but not over quality. Not sure why were talking that when this technique is for home chefs.

> The result doesn't caramelize as well.

Anecdotally I've prepared caramelized onions both ways, chopped with a knife and using a food processor and I've never noticed a difference. Onions have to release most of their water before they can begin caramelizing anyway so if anything, wouldn't that speed up the process?

That’s the engineering solution.

You could also hire two interns to do it layer by layer, call it the consultant‘s solution.

Then it seems you need consultants to get a guide Michelin star

That sounds like a cost plus defense contract if there ever was one

If you want an extremely fine and even brunoise that's exactly what you do.

The consultant solution would be to buy precut onions, so cutting perfect slices becomes someone else's problem.

A blender will make the bottom layer into paste before the top is touched. If you want to toss the paste into a skillet and caramelize it, that'll make a good sauce.

Food processor might be better, but still won't be even.

Source: I cook onions a lot, and am lazy. This article is great!

Always bust out the food processor when making soffritto or similar very small dice. Can do onions quickly and even with the method but carrots and others take quite some time.

That’s really not true, unless you are really mincing it or making a paste .

I don't think this gets you the texture you're looking, or even cuts. My eyes are tearing up right now thinking about scooping this out of the blender.

two words: Slap Chop.

Blender's not really well suited for dicing dry foods, they typically need some sort of liquid to bring the solids down to the blades.

Food processor might be more what you're thinking about but it's more so for dice or mince. You won't ever really get an even chop out of a processor.

Spice blenders tend to have blades closer to the bottom and are fine for dry things. Still not good for dicing though, especially as onions aren't really dry but full of liquid.

Ah yes, I wonder why the chefs haven’t thought of this.

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