From Blade to Plate: Ten Ways Cooks Cut, Mill and Shape Food

A supreme is the best cut taken from poultry, game or fish, most often a boneless, skin-on chicken breast, and the same word reaches citrus fruit, where supreming frees whole segments from skin, pith and membrane.

Dicing cuts food into small blocks so that pieces are uniform, cook evenly and spread flavor and texture through a dish, and it underlies dishes such as Russian salad.

Brunoise is the smallest of the standard dice cuts: the food is julienned, turned a quarter turn and diced into cubes of about 3 millimeters or less, and 1 to 2 millimeters in France.

Mincing is documented in English as far back as 1381, and the meat grinder invented in the 1850s made it far faster, though Elizabeth David argued that a hand-pushed mezzaluna keeps more of the meat's juices.

Concasse comes from the French for to crush or grind, and tomato concasse means peeling the tomato and removing its seeds before chopping, as for bruschetta with olive oil and basil.

Scoring cuts shallow slits in bread dough just before baking so steam escapes through a controlled opening and the crust develops evenly, with a decorative pattern as a bonus.

Ricing forces cooked food through a ricer or food mill into pieces about the size of rice grains, smoother than mashing but coarser than a puree, and is most often done with potatoes.

A purée takes cooked vegetables, fruits or legumes to a smooth paste or liquid by blending, mashing or straining, and the word comes from Old French for purified or refined, with apple sauce and hummus as familiar examples.

Quenelle shaping molds soft food into a smooth oval with two spoons, a method borrowed from the classic French quenelle and now used on ice cream, sorbet, butter and mashed potato.

Garnishing decorates a finished dish or drink with an added item that improves appearance or adds contrasting flavor, which is what separates it from a condiment, and a garnished dish may be called garni.