Diced vs Chopped
Diced and chopped are words commonly heard and talked about while discussing culinary art. In fact, chopping and dicing are techniques to cut onions, tomatoes, and similar other items into smaller pieces as per the requirements of recipes. There is another technique called mincing that makes a person all the more confused and he cannot remember how to proceed when a recipe calls for dicing the onions and another one calls for chopping tomatoes. Let us make the situation clear once and for all.
Diced
Dicing is a technique that allows the food items to be cut into small pieces, to expose their inner area and to release their flavors. In fact, dicing is a way to cut vegetables into small cubes to allow them to be eaten easily once steamed, fried, or baked. For example, if it is tomato that has to be diced, you just need to cut the tomato into quarters holding it on the cutting board and cutting it twice with the knife across its diameter. If it is a cucumber that you have to dice, peel the skin off and then cut it into half across the length and then cut the two pieces into halves again. Dice is also a word used to describe the pieces or blocks thus cut. Dicing makes even sized pieces that allow for easier cooking.
Chopped
Chopping is one of the important cutting techniques used frequently to prepare vegetables in right sizes before cooking in many recipes. Chopping makes smaller pieces of vegetables. These pieces are used mostly in soups or in salads in such a way that they blend with other ingredients and yet retain their flavors to be identified by our taste buds. Chopped pieces are of a small size, but we do not want these pieces to disappear as is the case with chutneys and garnishes.
What is the difference between Diced and Chopped?
• Both dicing and chopping are cutting techniques that expose inner surface of vegetables, but whereas dicing makes bigger cubes, chopping produces small pieces of vegetables.
• Dicing creates cubes whereas the pieces produced after copping have irregular sizes.
• Chopping requires forceful cutting through knife whereas dicing does not require that much force.
• Soups and salads require smaller pieces. This means the pieces have to be created by chopping. On the other hand, dicing is used to prepare vegetable for normal recipes.
• Whether dicing or chopping, the basic purpose is to release flavors of vegetables and to cut them into pieces so as to make it easier to cook them and also to make them easier to eat.