How to Dice an Onion

In this "ible" I will attempt to show you how I dice an onion, although a small onion is used the steps are the same for a large onion, you just make more horizontal slices

Step 1: Peel and Halve

Hopefully you know or can figure out how to peel and halve an onion, thats the starting point

Step 2: First Real Cut

The first cut is horizontal into the body of the onion, if your dicing a larger onion you can make 2-3 or even 4 horizontal slices. Cut back to the root but don't cut the root

Step 3: Splitting Cuts

Next you make longitudinal cuts into the globe of the onion, the number really depends on the size of the onion

Step 4: Dice

slice across the longitdinal cuts to make your finished dice

Step 5: In Response to Comments

In response to comments about the horizontal cut being unnecessary, I went and tried it out, after all, it's possible I've been doing it wrong all these years..... I found that although the inner layers did fall apart nicely without the cut, the outter layers would need more knife work to be closer in size. Although I used a rather small onion the results were obvious

Comments

[Building Books]

 Good instructable but I must disagree on your step about doing a horizontal cut. I say this because the layers of an onion negate the need for the horizontal cut as they are only about 4mm thick and easily fall apart anyway.. Best leave it out and save yourself a some time.

[l8nite]

perhaps I need to buy metric onions then = )
 Without the horizontal cut the outter pieces will be longer and will need to be cut individually to match the smaller pieces. The inner pieces will as you say, pretty much naturally be cubed.

  Thank you for commenting

[Mike__]

 I have always used the horizontal cut. It makes the cubes even in size. I believe it is the proper technique for dicing and I have used it in every kitchen I have worked in. 

[Tool Using Animal]

Hey I came here to say that! ;-)  I also skip the horizontal cut, it's superfluous.

[rimar2000]

This instructable has made me mourn...

[Kiteman]

(Tears up own half-written Instructable)

Well done!

(I find the horizontal cuts are necessary, despite Skip's and TuA's comments.)

[l8nite]

lol @ Kiteman says:

(Tears up own half-written Instructable)

 I didn't start out to do an onion dicing "ible" but as I was orginizing the egg salad "ible" I realized I had 2 mini "ibles"  so I figured why not....

  Thank you for the comment  (and the laugh)