About Batonnet, Alumette or Julienne

Batonnet, alumette and julienne are the French terms for what we generally call matchstick cuts in America. Batonnet is French for “little stick” which, as it happens, is basically what a batonnet looks like. Alumette or as it is also known, julienne, which is one of the first cuts I was taught in a kitchen, is half the width of the “little sticks”. And the last thing taught in this video is fine julienne which is half the width of julienne or alumette.

Cutting Batonnet, Alumette and Julienne

  1. Cutting Batonnet The video above will show you how to cut a batonnet to the exact dimensions of ¼ inch x ¼ inch x 1 ½ – 2 inches. I’ve also seen batonnet referred to as julienne, but I think that is probably wrong. If they were to be a julienne they would be a “large julienne”.
  2. Cutting Alumette The Alumette is half the size of the batonnet at ⅛ inch x ⅛ inch x 1 ½ – 2 inches. Which means that within every batonnet, there are four alumette. Alumette are also known by the name julienne.
  3. Cutting Fine Julienne The last thing covered in the video above is the “fine julienne,” which is 1/16 inch x 1/16 inch x 1 ½ – 2 inches. So, as with the alumette in relation to the batonnet, there are four fine julienne in each alumette.

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