A handful of fresh basil, mint or other herbs can instantly give a dish much more flavour and colour. But how you cut the herbs makes a difference. If you chop hard through them with a knife, the leaves are quickly bruised and lose their lovely structure.
With ciseler you cut herbs very finely and in a controlled way. With soft, larger leaves such as basil and mint, the chiffonade technique is often used: the leaves are stacked, rolled up and then cut into thin strips.
It may sound like a complicated kitchen term, but the technique is surprisingly simple. The most important thing is really just one thing: let your knife do the cutting and use as little force as possible.
What is ciseler?
Ciseler is a French kitchen term for finely cutting ingredients. With herbs it means cutting them finely and neatly, without needlessly bruising them.
The precise method depends on the herb.
With large, soft leaves such as basil, mint or sage, you can stack the leaves, roll them up and cut them into thin strips. We call that chiffonade. With smaller herbs such as chives, you simply cut very fine rings. Parsley and coriander are usually finely cut or chopped.
So ciseler is not one fixed movement for every herb.
Why is that important?
Fresh herbs contain many aromatic compounds and have a delicate structure. A blunt knife or hard chopping damages the leaves sooner than necessary. Basil in particular can quickly go dark at the cut edges as a result.
With a sharp knife and a calm cutting movement, you make a clean cut. The result not only looks nicer, but also distributes the herb more evenly through your dish.
Ciseler or chiffonade?
These terms are regularly used interchangeably. That is not so strange.
Ciseler describes finely cutting herbs. Chiffonade is a specific way of cutting mainly leafy herbs and vegetables into fine strips: stack, roll up and then cut across into thin ribbons. (Dictionnaire de l’Académie Française)
You can remember it like this:
| Technique | What do you do? | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Ciseler | Cut herbs very finely | Chives, herbs |
| Chiffonade | Roll up leaves and cut into thin ribbons | Basil, mint, sage |
| Chopping | Cut herbs into small pieces | Parsley, coriander |
| Slicing | Cut into straight, small slices or rings | Chives, spring onion |
For basil, chiffonade is therefore a lovely and practical form of ciseler.
How to ciseler basil
Basil is an ideal herb to practise this technique with.
Step 1 – Choose nice leaves
Use fresh, firm basil leaves without brown or damaged patches.
Wash them if necessary and then dry them well. Wet leaves stick together more easily and are harder to cut neatly. (OneToCook)
Step 2 – Stack the leaves
Stack a number of basil leaves neatly on top of each other. Start with the largest leaf at the bottom and put the smaller leaves above it.
You don’t need to make a huge stack. A handful of leaves is enough.
Step 3 – Roll them up
Roll the stack up firmly from the long side, as if you were making a small cigar-shaped roll.
The neater and firmer the roll, the easier it is to cut even strips from it.
Step 4 – Cut thin strips
Take your sharp chef’s knife and cut across the roll.
Make long, thin strips of about 1 to 3 millimetres. Use a calm, smooth cutting movement and don’t press the knife down hard.
The knife has to do the work.
Step 5 – Separate the strips
Put the knife away and carefully loosen the strips with your fingers.
You now have lovely green ribbons that you can scatter over, for example, pasta, pizza, soup or a salad.
Why a sharp knife is so important
A sharp knife may sound like a detail, but with fresh herbs you notice it immediately.
A blunt knife cuts less easily through a soft basil leaf. As a result you automatically press harder. The leaf is squashed before it is actually cut.
A sharp knife does exactly the opposite:
cut → don’t press → don’t crush.
That is actually the most important rule of ciseler.
The right movement
Try not to bring the knife straight down like a chopper.
Use a controlled cutting movement instead, in which the knife glides through the herb. Keep the hand holding the herb safe, with the fingertips curled inwards.
You also don’t need to work quickly.
A common mistake is that people think a professional cutting technique is mainly about speed. In reality, speed only comes after you have mastered the movement.
Neat first. Fast later.
Which herbs can you ciseler?
Not every herb calls for the same technique.
Basil
Perfect for chiffonade. Especially good over pasta, pizza, tomato and mozzarella.
Mint
Can be cut in the same way. The fine strips are lovely in salads, couscous, desserts and yoghurt sauces.
Sage
You can cut larger leaves into thin strips. Sage is often fried along with the dish, so slightly wider strips can be fine too.
Chives
You don’t roll chives up first. Simply cut the stems into small, even rings.
Parsley
Parsley is usually finely chopped. Gather the leaves together and cut them finely with a sharp knife. Don’t keep chopping back and forth endlessly.
Coriander
You can finely cut coriander too. The leaves are delicate, so a sharp knife and little pressure are important.
When don’t you use chiffonade?
Chiffonade works especially well with large, soft leaves. Basil and mint are therefore excellent examples.
With small or stiffer herbs, a different cutting technique works better.
| Herb | Handy technique |
|---|---|
| Basil | Chiffonade |
| Mint | Chiffonade |
| Sage | Fine cutting or chiffonade |
| Chives | Fine rings |
| Parsley | Fine cutting/chopping |
| Coriander | Fine cutting/chopping |
| Thyme | Strip the leaves from the sprigs |
| Rosemary | Fine cutting or chopping |
With thyme and rosemary, rolling up makes little sense. The leaves are small and the stems are firm.
Common mistakes
You use a blunt knife
You have to press harder and harder and the herbs get bruised sooner.
Solution: keep your knife sharp.
You cut wet herbs
The leaves stick together and become harder to control.
Solution: dry the herbs well before you cut them.
You make the roll too loose
With chiffonade the leaves then fall apart and you get different lengths and widths.
Solution: roll the leaves up compactly.
You press too hard
Soft herbs don’t need force.
Solution: let the sharpness of the knife do the work.
You keep on chopping
Going through the same herbs with the knife again and again seems efficient, but you damage more and more of the leaf.
Solution: cut as much as possible in one controlled movement and stop when the desired size has been reached.
You cut the herbs far too early
Basil in particular can quickly discolour after cutting.
Solution: cut delicate herbs such as basil as shortly as possible before use.
Ciseler is not the same as finely chopping
The difference seems small, but you notice it when cooking.
With finely chopping you make a herb smaller and smaller through repeated cutting movements.
With ciseler you try instead to cut in a controlled and fine way, with as little damage as possible.
That difference matters especially with herbs that you add to a dish last. You then want fresh colour, recognisable aroma and a nice distribution.
A good exercise
Want to master the technique? Take a few large basil leaves.
Stack them, roll them up firmly and cut them into thin strips.
Then look at the result.
Are the strips about the same width? Then you are doing well.
Are some pieces flattened, bruised or very wide? Then it probably isn’t down to speed, but to the sharpness of your knife or the amount of pressure you use.
Then try the same exercise again, but this time more slowly.
You will notice that a calm movement often gives a much nicer result.
A small difference that can be big on your plate
You can of course simply tear a few basil leaves. For some dishes that is perfectly fine.
But when you want to finish a dish neatly, the cutting technique makes a difference. Thin, even strips spread easily over the surface and give every bite a little herb.
That is exactly what good cutting techniques are about: not just nice knife work, but control over what ultimately happens on your plate.
Remember this
For good ciseler you above all don’t need to use force.
Sharp knife.
Dry herbs.
Calm movement.
As little pressure as possible.
And with large, soft leaves such as basil:
stack → roll up → cut thin.
That is chiffonade.