General Tips
If you decide to surprise your guests with fruit slices, prepare carefully.
- Buy some fruit. They should be fresh, smooth, without dents or black spots. Take into account the characteristics of the fruit: it is better to take hard oranges, but kiwi should be easily pressed with your fingers.
- Wash the fruit thoroughly. Don't forget that sometimes they are impregnated with paraffin for a glossy shine. Wash fruit immediately before slicing under cold running water with soap and a brush. A hot shower won't harm citrus fruits. After washing, wipe the fruit dry with a paper towel.
- Use sharp knives. It is more convenient to cut some fruits with a thin long blade, others with a cutter, and others with a saw blade. Prepare several tools of different calibers. AliExpress has special fruit knives. For example, a spoon-knife, which is convenient for making notches on fruits and balls of pulp. The main thing is that the tool is sharp. Otherwise nothing will work.
- Prepare a large flat dish, skewers and napkins to make it easy to eat the chopped fruit. Toothpicks may be needed for some fruit arrangements.
- Slice fruit just before serving. Try to remove all the seeds from watermelon and melon; be sure to remove the kernels from peaches and apricots. To prevent the slices from turning black ahead of time, sprinkle them with lemon juice. The finished composition can also be sprinkled with powdered sugar, coconut or grated chocolate.
When everything is ready, you can start creating.
Carving
A trend called carving has been created in the world, which has gained great popularity recently. True masters of carving make real masterpieces from fruits, but it is very difficult to create such an artistic cut in your kitchen at home; in order to acquire serious skills you need special tools.
If you are eager to learn how to carve, you need to purchase special knives, which are available in supermarkets in the kitchenware departments.
The following video shows how to beautifully cut fruit.
How to cut apples beautifully
From a simple apple you can create a real work of art. For example, an elegant flower.
Take a red or green apple. Cut it into two parts, leaving about 1 cm from the middle. Cut the smaller half into slices 1–2 mm thick and secure them with a toothpick, as shown in the video. Cut a ball or cube from the second half of the apple - this will serve as a stand. Insert a toothpick with strung apple slices into it and spread them in a circle like a fan. The resulting flower can be crowned with a berry.
Using the same principle, you can make a flower from a whole apple.
Swans made from apples look even more elegant. Making them is easier than it seems. Two identical table knives will serve as assistants. Cut the apple into two parts, remove the seeds. First, place one half of the apple between the knives and cut a smaller slice from it, as shown in the video. Repeat with each subsequent slice until a very small piece remains.
Then do the same with the second half of the apple. This is how you get wings.
The head is cut from another apple.
Citrus fruits: how to process orange, grapefruit, lime and lemon
Let's see how easy it is to process citrus fruits and what you can do with them
Orange is a wonderful fruit from which you can make a lot of amazing masterpieces. With the help of citruses, many compositions are created that can imitate various forms. Citrus allows you to work not only with the fruit itself, but also with its peel. You can create many options and combinations, it all depends only on the imagination, talent and imagination of the hostess.
How to beautifully cut oranges and tangerines
Working with an orange is a little more difficult: it produces a lot of juice. And yet you can make a beautiful lotus from the fruit.
To do this, cut the orange in half. Using a sharp thin blade, make longitudinal cuts along the lines of the orange segments on one of the halves. Cut each sector so that you get a pointed petal. Separate the pulp from the peel on the petals. Bend it back and straighten the flower.
A similar flower can be made with strawberries.
An orange can also be turned into a luxurious aster. Cut the zest so that you get petals. Straighten them and make curly cuts. It is important that the orange core does not separate from the peel.
The same can be done with tangerines.
How to peel an orange in different ways
Before you figure out how to properly cut an orange, you should pay attention to how to clean this citrus fruit. Depending on how you plan to use it, the method for getting rid of the peel will vary. If the manipulations are carried out incorrectly, this procedure can become extremely unpleasant, because juice begins to be released abundantly. As a result, the work surface, skin, and clothes get dirty.
When there are no cutlery available, this method is suitable. Although you can’t always call it simple - sometimes the orange peel is quite dense and difficult to peel.
To achieve the result, you just need to pry off part of the skin in the area where the fruit was attached to the branch, tear off the seal, and then peel it off. Be sure to remove the cotton-like white film, which has a bitter taste.
Advice : do not throw away the crusts, they will help in caring for the microwave - fill them with water and place the bowl in the microwave oven chamber for a couple of minutes. Don't rush to get it. After 10 minutes, wipe the walls with a damp cloth.
Thin knife and spoon
- Cut a clean and dried orange across the circumference with a knife. Try not to damage the flesh.
- Insert a spoon into the cut as deeply as possible and turn, separating the peel in this way. Remove the "cap".
- Manipulate the other side of the fruit in the same way. Remove any remaining light fibers by hand.
A rather interesting way to quickly peel an orange is to cut the peel in a zigzag or spiral pattern. This method may well be of interest to children if they observe the process. In addition, curly skins can be used to make beautiful interior decorations if they are dried properly so that they retain their shape.
- Starting from the base, carefully run the blade of a thin knife, scrolling throughout the fruit like a spiral.
- Pick up the tip and gently, without sudden movements, remove the bright skin.
Cleaning with a knife
If you are going to prepare a salad with the addition of citrus, then cutting the fruit while maintaining its appearance is not necessary, which makes the task much easier. But in this case, be prepared for significant loss of pulp.
- Cut both sides of the base so that the orange can be placed securely on the cutting board.
- Using a sharp knife, cut off the peel along with the upper films covering the pulp.
Advice : if there are small wounds or scratches on your hands, take care to wear latex gloves. Citrus juice contains a decent amount of acids, which can cause irritation and pain when peeling the fruit.
How to cut strawberries beautifully
In skillful hands, strawberries grow into beautiful roses. They are perfect for both fruit plates and cake decoration.
Strawberry rose can be made in two ways. In the first case, large berries are needed. Place the strawberries on a fork and make shallow cuts into them. Move in a spiral, protruding each petal.
In the second case, smaller strawberries are taken, and the rose is more voluminous. Separate the stem of the fruit, cut off a small piece on the side to make it easier to cut. Roll thinly sliced strawberries into a spiral.
For a children's holiday table, you can make butterflies from strawberries.
How to choose oranges
This is the most important point, in fact, if you want to get a really good result on the holiday table. After all, in stores no one will tell you the truth about what oranges will taste like, how dense the pulp is and how much chemicals they contain.
7 secrets for choosing oranges:
- Seasonality. We sell high-quality citrus fruits from December to March, and everything before and after can be “stuffed” with chemicals (to accelerate ripeness, improve appearance, extend life, etc.).
- Normal colors are bright orange or yellow-orange.
- The peel of a ripe orange has a pleasant bumpiness with very small pimples, but is more smooth than “wavy”. A very lumpy peel or unnaturally yellow color is the first indicator of the presence of chemicals.
- Try to buy fruit in relatively warm places, and not outside in the cold. In the cold, they lose their aroma and therefore it will be difficult to determine how pleasant and fresh the smell, and therefore the fruit itself, will be.
- Be sure to hold each fruit in your hands. First, it should be quite heavy for its size. Secondly, there cannot be any damage or dents on it. Thirdly, the orange should be quite dense and not shrink from light pressure (a soft one will quickly deteriorate and you definitely won’t be able to cut out the beauty from it). At the same time, it cannot be hard, since you definitely will not get pleasure from eating it (it will be tasteless).
- Oranges can be found both thick-skinned and thin-skinned, but the risk of being subjected to chemical treatment with a thick “skin” is lower. In addition, it is much easier to peel an orange from a thick peel.
- Oranges come in a variety of sizes, but this does not mean that it is better to buy large ones. Large fruits usually contain less vitamins and nutrients, but a lot of water. And small or medium-sized fruits taste much more pleasant and sweeter.
How to cut bananas beautifully
The original presentation of bananas is mainly associated with animals. Therefore, such compositions are often made for children's parties.
So, you can make the cutest dolphin out of a banana.
Funny octopus.
Or ducks.
Another variation of the duck is with plumage made from berries and grapes. Take a banana and attach a duck head made from carrots to the stem. Stick toothpicks with berries and grapes strung on them into a banana. This will be the plumage of a fruit duck.
And if you use a pear instead of a banana, you get a hedgehog.
Fruit on the table: bananas
Bananas can also be made into beautiful slices. Such cute figures will decorate the table and create a festive mood.
Octopus
For example, let's cut bananas into octopus shapes:
Step 1. Select a ripe but overripe banana.
Step 2. Make 7 cuts with a thin knife so that as a result the peel is divided into 8 identical fragments.
Step 3. Peel the banana 2/3. This must be done carefully so that all the legs of the figure are the same.
Step 4. Cut the remaining banana into thin rings.
Step 5. We will make the eyes in the form of a canape from circles of olives and berries. You can use other ingredients - the main condition is that they look quite elegant and contrasting.
You can also decorate the octopus with vegetables - for example, make a jagged crown from a piece of bell pepper (for this, take the very bottom).
You can clearly see the entire manufacturing process here.
Dog
Here’s another interesting option for beautifully slicing fruit using the example of a banana, which may seem more familiar and understandable than an octopus. Why not make a cute dog with such a face?
Judging by the length of the body, it is very similar to a dachshund. To make it you will need a small pattern, which can be printed on plain paper using this template. We cut along the contour on a piece of paper folded in half so that the result is 2 identical halves.
Simply put, you just need to draw a long body in the form of a kind of sausage and 2 fairly thick legs. The further sequence of actions is as follows:
Step 1. Apply the template to a ripe but overripe banana and cut out the legs exactly along the contour on both sides. In this case, you only need to cut through the skin - leave the flesh intact.
Step 2. Insert 2 toothpicks in the center, carefully bend the resulting sections.
Step 3. Take another banana. We also cut out the body along the contour and remove the excess part of the fruit.
Step 4. The result should be something like this.
Step 5. Make a cut for the eyes and insert pieces of olives or black allspice peas.
Step 6. We put the head on the body also using a toothpick. And the result is such a cute dog.
This is how interesting it is to cut fruits for a holiday table. You can see the whole process step by step in this video.
Dolphin
Now let’s make a real fish out of a banana; more precisely, a cheerful, ever-smiling dolphin.
This time we do it like this:
Step 1. Take a banana and make a deep cut at one end (but not completely, but 3/4).
Step 2. Now we will make a longitudinal cut to the end of the banana. It should be shallow and only touch the skin.
Step 3. Remove most of the fruit.
Step 4. Using a very sharp knife, cut the skin into rings - again, not completely.
Step 5. And from the last part we remove half of the skin.
Step 6. Turn over and smooth out the peel.
Step 7. Remove stripes on both sides one at a time.
Step 8. Remove the middle from the petiole - this will be the mouth.
Step 9. Again we form the eyes in exactly the same way as for the dog.
Step 10. Cut the fruit itself into fairly dense rings, lay them out on the surface of the skin in a checkerboard pattern.
So we got these nice dolphins - a great way to beautifully serve fruit on the table.
A video will also help you create this craft.
Goose on wheels
You can also make a kind of goose-shaped car out of a banana. Moreover, it will definitely roll thanks to its durable carrot wheels.
The process of creating this interesting figure can be seen step by step here.
Fruit slices at home
Using the techniques described above and practicing, you can create unique fruit compositions.
And finally, a few more video tutorials on laying out fruit plates for your inspiration.
