If you’re new to cooking, it can be overwhelming to understand all the different terms in a recipe. When it calls for this to be diced, this other thing to be minced, and that to be chopped, cubed—let’s just say it’s a little confusing. This guide will help you with all your chopping terminology so you can focus on actually preparing the food!
Cubed
If a recipe calls for something to be cubed, you can chop this exactly how it sounds–into cubes. The cubes should be about half an inch, but sometimes a little larger, depending on the recipe.
Diced
When you need to dice something, think of what you did for cubes, but smaller. This should always be done with a sharp knife to avoid injury.
Minced
‘Minced’ is a term you’ll likely see next to the word ‘garlic’, which basically means cut it into the smallest pieces possible. You can start by dicing and then keep chopping until the pieces are super small.
Chopped
Sometimes you don’t need to show off any cutting skills for a recipe, you just need to simply “chop”. This just means the pieces need to be roughly cut into smaller pieces than the original, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be small.
