The Decline of Chopping
November 18, 2014
Girl Chopping Onions, Gerrit Dou
ONE OF the relatively recent innovations in supermarkets is pre-chopped and pre-peeled and pre-washed vegetables. Our supermarkets don’t have the room for produce from local farmers, but they do have the room for hundreds of packaged “fresh” vegetables and fruits that are all ready to cook or eat without any prep work. They even have pre-sliced onions and brussels sprouts. I realize these chopped vegetables are a great convenience for certain segments of the population, such as old people who live by themselves, but is it possible that so many people don’t have the time to wash their own carrots? This phenomenon, it seems, is related not just to materialism and the economic pressures on families that are inevitable in a materialistic society, which leaves no one with the time to chop, but to the general aversion to manual labor. I once met a woman who said she does not chop any vegetables at all. That would be fine if she were wealthy and had servants to do it or could take her family to a decent restaurant every night or lived in a major city where she could order great take-out prepared by immigrants who do all the chopping. But she actually was a middle class mother in the suburbs. How can you raise a family and not chop onions? That’s like being a violinist and refusing to touch a bow.
A people that cannot chop is rootless. It’s like a country without farmers, deprived of connection to the earth. As it is, most of the fruits and vegetables in the stores resemble plastic play food in doll houses. Vegetables come from dirt, not from factories!! Do people realize that? In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve probably enjoyed breaking open and sectioning the abundant fruits of the earth. It was play to them to revel in the splendiferous colors and shapes. Every onion is a masterpiece. In our fallen world, chopping is not always play. It truly is tedious, but it’s a tedium that becomes us and improves us.
Pre-handled vegetables are not as healthy. The outer layer of the carrot protects it from drying out and leaching nutrients. I have seen this process close up. When lettuce is broken up and put in a plastic bag, it also, I am convinced, loses nutritional value. I am not a scientist and can’t prove any of this, but it’s just so obvious from the plastic taste of these processed vegetables, which are so lacking in the personality of real food. Nutrition is connected to the spiritual needs of man, so much so that all the dietitians in the world can’t put their fingers on the key to health. It is to be found in the intimate and sacred relationship between the human and the material.
There is perhaps another reason for the decline of chopping. At the cutting board, one is sometimes alone with one’s own thoughts. Some people in our vain, heavily mediated and distracted world, perhaps through no fault of their own, have no thoughts at all. They only have sensations and emotions. Thus they discover at the cutting board that there’s no there there. For these people, much to be pitied, chopping would be therapeutic. Doctors should perhaps send some of the depressed home with prescriptions to chop so many onions and cabbages a day.
— Comments —
Edward Farrell writes:
You say: “a people that cannot chop is rootless and doomed. It’s like a country without farmers. As it is, most of the fruits and vegetables in the stores resembles plastic play food in doll houses.”
I’m with you in spirit here but this should really read “a people who WILL not chop…” Who cannot chop? Furthermore, who does not find chopping fun if the knife is sharp? So here’s an alternate theory: it’s not so much about vegetables as knives. Most people would rather eat rubbery roots scalped at the factory than learn to sharpen a knife. And as more and more succumb to this, who is left to teach this pathetically neglected skill?
Laura writes:
I agree, but I don’t know which came first: the dull knives or the processed food.
Stewart Woodruff writes:
Reading this entry on the decline of chopping, and in particular Mr. Farrell’s comment, I’m struck that the unwillingness to prepare food, including chopping vegetables and sharpening knives, is another stage of degeneracy that began with the decline of hunting and animal husbandry. So many people don’t want to know from where their food comes, they won’t butcher and process their meat, and now have even lost the skill to sharpen their knives so they can prepare and chop their vegetables.
I suppose the end stage will be when their “smart homes” dispense nutritious food pellets as a reward for good behavior.
Laura writes:
I’m glad you said that because sometimes when I go into the supermarket, I feel that I should be more “with it” and accept all this when truthfully I am revolted at this baby food for grown-ups.
But that’s basically what the food industry is about (that’s not to say that people who work in the food industry are bad or guilty.) It’s about fostering child-like dependency and mechanizing food.
Hurricane Betsy writes:
Edward Farrell noted that ” Most people would rather eat rubbery roots scalped at the factory than learn to sharpen a knife.”
Well, I am in that category (can’t sharpen a knife), not to mention cannot afford to buy knives that are even worth sharpening in the first place. I found a solution years ago: buy and use a serrated-edge knife. They work almost as well as an expensive knife and of course they don’t have to be sharpened. I found this kind of knife here.
They have both large and paring knives.
Laura writes:
You’re better off using a good steak knife or a paring knife, rather than a serrated knife.
Paul writes:
I swear I chop, really, even onions. No problema.
Although true, I hope you take this as witty.
Mike writes:
I agree with the idea that people should be more self-reliant than they are, but I wonder about where the line should be drawn. Taken to the extreme, this line of argument implies that we should be growing, raising, preserving, and preparing all of the food we eat. Given that this extreme also presents challenges, there needs to be some notion of the ‘correct’ amount of food preparation to delegate to people outside a family. I think that amount can vary depending on circumstances.
Laura writes:
Every family should not only grow and raise its own food, it should make its own water from scratch. : – )
Seriously, the thing about chopping is that it does not take that much time and the more one does it, the easier it is. Nutritionally, it is probably much better. Again, I understand it is a necessary convenience for some and I understand that families are pushed against the wall by the impossible standards of two-income couples, but, judging from the quantity of pre-chopped food sold, at least where I live, many use it who could afford the time to cut their own produce.
Mike continues:
For the record, I rather enjoy chopping, particularly when the knives are in good shape. There’s nothing quite like getting a nice fine dice or mince out of some vegetables. We have some serrated knives (that we’re comfortable throwing in the dishwasher) for lighter chopping, and then a nicer set of conventional knives when there’s the time and need for something more.
Related to this, I’ve found that having children has helped my knife skills considerably.
Inga writes:
I love chopping vegetables and noted years ago that there was something therapeutic about doing so. Sharp knives scare me.
Like Hurricane Betsy, I use a serrated knife which has served me well for over 10 years now. I am a vegetarian, so I have no need for a sharp knife.
Last week I was in a supermarket (not my regular store) and remember being surprised at a huge floor freezer, perhaps 4×10 ft. full of all kinds of chopped, frozen veggies and fruits. Aside from the astute observations in your article and readers’ comments, all this prepared produce costs more as well.
Laura writes:
Yes, I didn’t mention the extra cost. I assumed that was obvious. It is more expensive to buy chopped vegetables.
The other issue is the potential for bacteria. I know that packaging techniques have advanced, but one wonders how they prevent damp cabbage in a sealed plastic bag from growing bacteria without adding chemicals. With a whole head of cabbage, there is less chance, it seems, of coming across harmful bacteria, especially if you remove the outer leaves.
As for knives, vegetarians have almost just as much use for a good knife, especially when it comes to chopping onions, which is much faster with a heavy, sharp knife, and cutting things like squash and watermelon. A decent chef’s should last a lifetime or at least a couple of decades. Here’s a 6″ chef’s knife for $49.95. Here’s an 8″ chef’s knife for $99.95. The important thing is a heavy handle which provides leverage. You do need to keep these knives sharpened. My hardware store sharpens knives for $4 each. I have never had much success in sharpening them myself.
Mark B. writes:
A good chef’s knife is fine (not cheap) but the problem I and many have with our knives is that they stainless steel so they won’t rust, but they don’t hold an edge as long or as easily as a carbon steel knife does. I have a lot of deices and stones for sharpening, but I use a Kyocera ceramic knife almost exclusively now. You can get one from Amazon at a good price. It is scary sharp and the edge can last for years with care. I sent mine back to the factory for resharpening as needed.
A carbon steel knife, though is easy to sharpen, holds its edge quite well with regular honing on a steel, but you got to keep it very dry. Can’t let it lie around in water or be moist at all.
Laura writes:
You’re right about stainless steel vs. carbon knives, which rust.
I have never tried one of the ceramic blades.
Mark E. writes:
I found this article linked from American Digest, and agreed totally, both with the article and the comments. So, I’d like to suggest something.
I’ve had a small garden out back, that has grown into a medium garden in the past couple of years. It really doesn’t take much space, although to get a good harvest does take a fair amount of time. No reason one must be a “farmer” to grow some produce. I find it very rewarding.
Also, I never have been able to sharpen a knife. The joke around here was that I could take the edge off any knife and make it dull as a popsicle stick with just about any of the knife sharpening devices out there—steel, Lansky Sharpener, whet stone—you name it. Until I ran across the 3-Stage Chef’s Choice, electric sharpener. Oh my goodness. I now have a whole kitchen full of really sharp knives. As I’m sure you know, it is soooooo much easier to work with a sharp knife.
