# Cubing mushrooms?



## GeneH (Jun 7, 2013)

I'm stepping back from "everything I know," (which was never the best way anyhow) and working on the basics, one food or technique at a time. Tonight it is cubing and slicing mushrooms. I would think good technique is the minimum amount handling the food and minimum number of cuts to get the job done.

I wanted 1/4 in nice looking cubes, instead of randomly chopped pieces. The problem is keeping the mushroom together as I slice it horizontally, then the two cross-cuts to finish the cubes. The 'shroom cut parts of the 'shroom kept sticking to my knife. Seems the less-deep blade of my little 6 inch fillet worked better than the wide chef's blade.


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## Zwiefel (Jun 7, 2013)

looking good! I just did this tonight with a pint of shitake...well, I went for more of a julienne.


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## ThEoRy (Jun 7, 2013)

Why not use the petty?


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## K-Fed (Jun 7, 2013)

I always use my 240mm sujihiki for this... works great. a petty would work great too unless you're dealing with some big portos then you'd have to make a couple extra cuts to pare them down to a manageable size for the petty.


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## GeneH (Jun 7, 2013)

ThEoRy said:


> Why not use the petty?



I tried all 3 knives. Has to be my technique, but I don't know what I am doing wrong.


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## marc4pt0 (Jun 8, 2013)

Extra most mushroom?


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## panda (Jun 9, 2013)

cut everything vertically using a pull motion, rotate 90deg for second cut.


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## EdipisReks (Jun 9, 2013)

panda said:


> cut everything vertically using a pull motion, rotate 90deg for second cut.



That's what I do, too.


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## GeneH (Jun 9, 2013)

Well, harumph. Re-thought the moisture, something to keep in mind. I also read the posts, then went online looking at videos.
(ya, probably should have done that first but still wouldn't have convinced me I'm doing something wrong) 

In the half-dozen videos I found, every one had the same problem, the mushrooms needing some coaxing and putting back together and just fiddling around. And none of them did the very small cubes.

:biggrin:


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## Zwiefel (Jun 9, 2013)

panda said:


> cut everything vertically using a pull motion, rotate 90deg for second cut.





EdipisReks said:


> That's what I do, too.



Why pull vs push?


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## EdipisReks (Jun 9, 2013)

It just seems to work better for me.


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## Zwiefel (Jun 9, 2013)

EdipisReks said:


> It just seems to work better for me.



hard to argue with that 

I use both, depending on what I'm doing (chopping vs slicing)...for mushrooms like this, usually forward or nearly straight down.


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## ms4awd (Jun 9, 2013)

> Why pull vs push?



pull cutting will result in smaller surface area contact as your pulling through the knife. Also due to distal taper it gets thinner and lighter the more towards the tip so less chances of crushing the shroom with the weight of the blade so less weeping/bleeding and sticking. try starting further up the blade closer to the tip this way as you finish the cut there hardly any steel touching the mushroom unlike push cutting where the heel ussually doesnt get all the way through


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## kpeddie2010 (Jun 9, 2013)

Crushing the mushrooms? That's why our blades are razor sharp so they don't crush or bruise the flesh of the items we are cutting......


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## GeneH (Jun 9, 2013)

ms4awd said:


> pull cutting will result in smaller surface area contact as your pulling through the knife. Also due to distal taper it gets thinner and lighter the more towards the tip so less chances of crushing the shroom with the weight of the blade so less weeping/bleeding and sticking. try starting further up the blade closer to the tip this way as you finish the cut there hardly any steel touching the mushroom unlike push cutting where the heel ussually doesnt get all the way through



Come to think of it, that is pretty much what I ended up doing - pulling, heel up/tip down a little. And as sharp as my knives are, some of the bottom cubes tended to roll and crush a little if I wasn't careful. I'm thinking the edges may need just a little tweaking before I start. Who would have thought mushrooms could pose a deli ma. I imagined rapid whip-through-the-job slicing, but nooooo. Takes a bit of skill and...ummm... sensitivity.


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## EdipisReks (Jun 9, 2013)

kpeddie2010 said:


> Crushing the mushrooms? That's why our blades are razor sharp so they don't crush or bruise the flesh of the items we are cutting......



As ms4awd suggests, when he mentions the distal taper, cruising is much more to do with geometry than it is to sharpening.


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## chinacats (Jun 9, 2013)

Ever since seeing Salty's video a while back about pulling through soft items and pushing through harder items I realized that, oh yeah Salty knows what the **** he's talking about:nunchucks:


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## GeneH (Jun 9, 2013)

chinacats said:


> Ever since seeing Salty's video a while back about pulling through soft items and pushing through harder items I realized that, oh yeah Salty knows what the **** he's talking about:nunchucks:




Link? I want to see that video. Can I search "Salty" on youtube?


And correction to my previous post, "Who would have thought mushrooms could pose a *deli ma*." That would be *dilemma*.


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## chinacats (Jun 10, 2013)

GeneH said:


> Link? I want to see that video. Can I search "Salty" on youtube?
> 
> 
> And correction to my previous post, "Who would have thought mushrooms could pose a *deli ma*." That would be *dilemma*.



Here Here is the video. His channel is Saltydog55252 and you can find plenty to watch there.


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## ms4awd (Jun 10, 2013)

> Crushing the mushrooms? That's why our blades are razor sharp so they don't crush or bruise the flesh of the items we are cutting......



yes even with lasers for knives and really sharp edges, the overall weight or even partial weight of the knife greatly outweighs any mushroom or soft non dense item being cut so in the case of mushrooms which when fresh have a lot of moisture content it can get squished a bit ive experienced this with either buttons or brown mushrooms which are pretty dense for mushroom all the way to fresh shiitake or portabello which are less dense. Morrels may be the exception to all of this but i have never seen anyone cube morrels. I used to have to brunoise King oyster mushrooms everyday for special item on the menu those can get annoying without the proper technique. they can stick, squish and easily move as they are cut resulting in uneven brunoise. Its like cutting a sponge. just wanted to share my experiences in doing this as part of daily prep at a place i used to work

-Mark


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## GeneH (Jun 10, 2013)

chinacats said:


> His channel is Saltydog55252 and you can find plenty to watch there.



Thank you for that. Good instructional videos.


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