use an old fashioned metal food cutter ... I use it for everything, including ground beef when I am cooking that ...

You are probably right, thanks for sharing!

I don't know how it could do it with the regular blade. Maybe if you did small batches with same sized pieces, but at that point it would be easier to just use a knife. I have a very expensive Breville FP that dices, so long as the veg in question isn't too hard. It does a good job. It's worth it for big jobs, but a lot to clean if it's not saving you a lot of time.

When I was doing food prep for taste testing and photography my Cuisinart FP was a work-horse. I have every blade that was sold for it. My daughter says you now have the option of buying the blades individually and the description tells what they each do.

"A picture is worth a thousand words", but I'll do my best to explain the technique. What you do is: put in the widest blade (which, of course you have now purchased... with it's detachable stem,) then you slice your veggie/fruit into long whatever-sized strips, and then pack the strips into the food shoot length up and down, and then, with the FP on, push the mass threw the blade fairly quickly. Packing the food tightly in the shoot is really important. That said, if you only have a small amount to slice and can't fill the shoot, then put it on the left side of the shoot to better acess the blade.

Hope this helps. Kate

It's good to know I'm not alone in this quest. Thanks for the ideas, for today I will probably just do it by hand. Thanks!

For that size chopping, there's no real substitute for a great knife, in function or cleanup. Unless you're doing a whole bushel of onions, just use a knife. I once took a knife skills class that really opened my eyes. I'm still not great, but I have a great appreciation of good knives and how to use them.

I know just what you're referring to CA Kate. I went to the Cuisinart site not that long ago, but don't recall seeing individual discs offered. I have only the 2 basic discs that came with mine.

And yes, unless there are massive quantities to prepare, a good chef's knife is simpler, faster and easier to clean up.

also a strong proponent of a cusinart. Use the slicing blade not the metal chopping blade. Put your veggies to be diced, say a potato, into the feed tube....the large oval tube not the round continuous feed tube, and pushing with the "pusher" quickly slice the potato. It will land in a uniform pile in the work bowl. Puck up the pile and place into the feed tube on edge and again quickly run through. If you use the 1/4 inch slicing disc, you will get 1/4 inch dice.

I find myself cutting things often by holding them in one hand and a paring knife in the other. If you watch some of these old world cooks you will see that many do that. Cut it open or into smaller pieces with the larger knife on the cutting board, but finish with the paring knife. This is true for softer things like onions and squash.

Sure, it gives a "rustic" feel to many things, but I have found it to be less fussy and less messy for some things.

I am becoming fond of "rustic", "irregular", and "chunky". Life is too short for perfectly chopped onions. Its all good!

One thing that I will fuss with are carrots. I love to cut carrots into long ribbons and then cook them in a hot skillet until they get a bit carmalized and reduced. They are wonderful, but very hard to not slice the flesh of the hand to get those ribbons reeled off using the hand held peeler.

I take the peeler and go down the carrot from the thick end to the thin end. It is laborious and can lead to physical injury, but I try to do a couple of pounds of carrot at one time and put them in jars in the fridge. I use them to dress just about any sandwich or salad, even peanut butter or cheese sandwiches. You can dress them with some nut butter oil and balasamic, chunk in a some apples, nuts, beets and have a wonderful salad. I try to keep jars of them on hand in the winter months.

I just don't know of any device that will cut ribbons from carrots like this.

Since I am so fond of them, I will make the effort to do so. But I am going to get one of those anti cut gloves so that I can hold the carrot by the thick end while cutting. I have tried stabbing it with a fork to hold it down , but the carrot usually breaks.

You can also use a julienne peeler to make long shreds instead of ribbons. I will sauté them up with a very little bit of butter. Carrots are also good in desserts, such as with apples.

I buy two of those bags at Costco when we go and eat carrots almost everyday.

I was never interested in carrots and considered them to be only a necessary orange thing to put into stews. Now, I have discovered the joy of sweet and crunchy tubers and have found ways to use them that I never imagined.

I can't imaging "chopping" anything with a paring knife unless I'm stuck on a desert island with nothing else. That's what chef's knives are used for. I use paring knives for very few things.

Have you watched some of these "grannies" cook on some of these videos? Many of these old world kinds of "grannies" will chunk up with a big knife held in the hand.

I remember watching my husbands Italian grandmother do this. There is some kind of commune that you can have with the food as you lovingly cut each chunk and drop it into the pot.

Maybe I am looking for more zen with my food. Sometimes bright shiny tools and efficiency just takes a back seat behind zen. Sometimes is is more the process of getting there than it is about the getting there as quickly as possible.....sometimes.

Just last evening I had an apple to chunk into a carrot salad. I have a cutting board and a large chefs knife right there in front of me but chose to cut it in my hand with a paring knife. It was so calming. Who doesn't need some calm?

yeah, I use the board and the chefs knife, but just sometimes.....................it is easier

Do you have any granny cooking sites to recommend? I can understand the calming that can occur in the kitchen if we aren't always in a hurry to complete a task.