Fruit slices are an important attribute on any holiday table. A plate of fruit is served with wine, champagne, cognac, tea and coffee. Beautiful cutting requires following simple rules. It is important that the fruits are fresh and ripe.

Cutting is always done immediately before the holiday itself. It is not recommended to do it in advance, because the fruit may lose its color, aroma and become weathered.

Slicing fruit for the table: the best ways

Currently, artistic cutting of fruits, called carving, is very popular. Carving masters are able to create real masterpieces from fruits. This technique is not easy to master at home. To make artistic cuts, special skills and tools are required. If you still decide to take up carving.

You will need a special set of fruit knives. These knives are sold in hardware stores and kitchenware departments. The simplest homemade fruit carving is a bouquet of flowers. No special skills are needed here. Chop fruits and herbs. Place them on skewers. Using your imagination, make bouquets from skewers and place them in a beautiful vase.

• Striped fruits. To serve fruit beautifully, you don’t have to engage in artistic cutting. There are much simpler options. Chop the fruits into circles of equal thickness (1 - 1.5 cm). Swap them. For example, if you cut oranges, pears and apples, you should get an orange with an apple or an apple with a pear. You can also mix fruits of the same type, but of different colors. Arrange the cooked fruits beautifully on a plate and serve.

• Fruit painting. You can make a mosaic or a picture from multi-colored fruit pieces. It is not necessary to have the talent of an artist for this. Choose a simple plot or go for a bright abstraction. Rest assured, guests will appreciate such creativity. Shaped cutting of fruit. For this you will need special graters and shredders. You can buy them in the store. There are devices that will allow you to cut out flowers, petals, bunnies and other unusual figures without much effort.

Slicing fruit for the table: photo

Arrangement of cutting for the table

Compound:

1. Mandarin - 2 pcs.
2. Kiwi - 3 pcs.
3. Pamela - 1 pc.
4. Orange - 1 pc.
5. Apple - 2 pcs.
6. Canned pineapple rings - 1 jar.
7. Pomegranate - 1 pc.

Preparation:

• Wash the fruits thoroughly and remove the skins. Divide the citrus fruits into slices, cut the kiwi into thin rings. Peel the apples from seeds and cut into slices. Place the prepared fruits in random order on a beautiful dish. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds on top. The main thing is that everything looks colorful, elegant and festive!

• It is not necessary to peel all the fruits. It will add contrast to the cutting and preserve the freshness of the fruit longer. The peel can be used to decorate a dish. For example, it’s easy to make an original basket or an elegant pink bud from the orange zest of an orange.

To beautifully and accurately cut fruits, you need to follow some rules and tricks.

• Be sure to wash all fruit before slicing. For transportation and storage, they are coated with a chemical composition that allows food to remain fresh longer. He is very dangerous!

• Use only sharp knives for slicing. This way the fruit slices will be even and thin. Fruits are cut before serving. Even in the refrigerator they can lose their original appearance and dry out.
• To keep the slices fresh longer, coat them with a thin layer of transparent jelly.
• To make the dish appetizing and attractive, garnish it with berries and pomegranate seeds.

• Don't be afraid of bright experiments and unusual combinations!
• Sliced ​​apples and bananas darken faster than other fruits, so prepare them at the very last moment. Don't forget to sprinkle the slices with lemon juice, this will help the fruit stay white longer.

Compatibility of fruits with other products

1. Sweet fruits, dates, persimmons, figs, bananas and dried fruits, break down more slowly than sour ones. They are not recommended to be eaten after lunch, otherwise bloating and abdominal discomfort will not be avoided. Sweet fruits go well with sour ones, with each other, with herbs, cream,
2. Semi-acid fruits: blueberries, raspberries, apples, plums, pears, mangoes, strawberries, apricots, peaches, grapes and watermelon. They go well with sweet and sour fruits, fermented milk products, protein foods (cottage cheese, meat, cheese, nuts, etc.), herbs and cream.
3. Semi-acidic fruits are incompatible with legumes, mushrooms, eggs, fish and peas. Sour fruits: tangerines, pineapples, pomegranates, lemons, pamela, oranges, gooseberries, cranberries, sour apples, plums, pears, grapes and apricots. They go well with each other, with fermented milk products, sour cream, cream, cheese, herbs, nuts and fatty cottage cheese. Sour fruits are not recommended to be combined with animal proteins, peas, legumes and starch-containing products.

Peeling an orange can be a difficult and very frustrating experience, especially if you value your manicure or have cuts on your fingers. Peeling the skin off a fruit using your fingernails is neither easy nor pleasant.

How to peel an orange quickly, easily and without harm to your nails?

I present 4 ways to quickly peel an orange without damaging your manicure.

Method number 1. Knife+spoon

Featured in the video.

The orange peel is cut in a circle, as if you wanted to cut its slices crosswise. But the knife does not reach them, but only cuts the skin.

Using a spoon, carefully separate the peel from the orange pulp and remove it. And only slices remain in the hands.

The method is good, but only for ripe oranges, from which the peel peels off very well. By the way, juicy fruits can splash juice when you work with a spoon. So be careful!

Method number 2. Elementary

All you need is a knife and an orange. You need to make two circular cuts on the skin so that they pass through the stem and bottom of the fruit. And then remove four slices of peel. Use a knife to pick them up, as you can ruin your nails if the orange peel sticks too tightly to it.

The downside of this method is that you will have to additionally remove the white remains of the peel from the fruit.

Method No. 3. For salads

Peel the oranges. But not the way we usually peel them, cutting the skin and peeling them with our fingers. It is better to peel oranges like an apple.
Everything is simple here - the peel of the orange is cut off with a knife, along with the upper films, the white part of the peel, grabbing a little juicy pulp with the knife. This method is most often used when you want to get wedges for salad.

The disadvantages of this method are that there is a lot of juice, all your hands and the entire cutting board will be in it. You also need to take into account that a large amount of pulp will remain in the orange and on the peel. You simply cannot cut everything down so that production is waste-free. But you can squeeze juice out of the middle of the orange.

Method number 4. Harmonic
A very quick way to get orange slices.

It's very simple: you need to cut off the top and bottom, then carefully cut the skin lengthwise on one side and carefully unfold it.

Try not to cut off too much when you remove the top and bottom, as if you cut into the flesh, the juice will start to leak out and make it harder to separate the tangerine or orange.

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

Beautifully cut and decorated fruits are a whole art called “carving”. To turn a simple apple into a swan or a rose, you will need skill and special tools. If you have neither one nor the other, it doesn’t matter! There are lighter and no less effective options suitable for non-professionals.

Apple

Large-sized fruits of paradise without damage to the peel are better suited for slicing:

1. Cut the apple in half and remove the core. Thinly chop one half into circles. Set aside the top piece with the peel, and cut the remaining pieces in the middle, not reaching the end by a few millimeters.
2. Move the halves of the pieces apart: the lower the tier, the wider the distance between the halves should be. Cover the top of the resulting pyramid with the cut off top and peel.
3. Cut the reserved half of the apple into two equal parts. Cut out the profile of a swan’s neck from a rectangular piece, and a tail from a rounded piece. All that remains is to connect everything using small skewers or toothpicks.

Another simple option is crab:

1. Divide the apple into two parts, remove seeds.
2. Cut the top off one of the halves and cut the rest into thin slices.
3. Lay them out like a fan on both sides, and cover the top of the fruit with a cut cap with eyes made of dried cloves.
4. The crab is almost ready to go to the table, you just need to take care of the claws. To do this, cut a round slice from the second part, divide it in half and cut a zigzag shape on each.

Please note that the apple quickly darkens when cut, but there is a way out: just grease the cut with lemon juice diluted with water.

Pear

Fruits of different varieties come in oblong and round shapes. Pears of the first type can easily turn into hedgehogs! Peel the oblong part of the fruit, and decorate the half with the peel with toothpick needles with grapes. Make the nose in the same way, and use cloves for the eyes.

A rounded fruit can become a peacock if you add some sliced ​​fruit that you have on hand:

1. Cut the pear in half and place (skin side up) in the center of the plate. The body of the bird is already ready.
2. Boiled carrots are an excellent material for a peacock’s beak and legs, and dried cloves are an excellent material for the eyes. Although carrots are completely replaceable, for example, with a peach or an apple.
3. The tail is the dignity and pride of the bird. It is replete with different colors and patterns. Therefore, use any fruit (strawberries, grapes, plums, peach) to replicate this beauty. Try to cut fruits (especially those with seeds) into small equal slices.

Choose firmer pears. Too soft ones will not hold their shape well, and you won’t be able to make beautiful cuts out of them.

Citrus

Oranges, grapefruits, lemons, cut into thin slices, unlike other sweet fruits, can be bent without fear of breaking them. These fruits will make a gorgeous rose!

1. Without peeling the citrus, thinly cut into half rings and place in rows on a plate.
2. Prepare a transparent plastic bottle (you can also use a colored one, but then it will stand out). It's good if it has narrowing in the middle part. If not, then take two containers of different diameters. Cut out two rings a couple of centimeters high, one of which will be slightly larger in circumference. Place the small mold inside the larger one in the center of the cut.
3. Insert the remaining slices cut side down into the pan, starting with the smaller circle. The overlapping pieces look beautiful.

That's all: a magnificent fragrant rose will become a worthy decoration for your holiday table.

Watermelon and melon

A large and juicy watermelon is inconvenient to eat in large pieces, especially at a holiday: the juice can easily stain your outfit. Surely you have baking molds that can be used not only for their intended purpose.

Pieces of watermelon (about 1-2 cm), cut into circles, free from seeds. Use the mold as a curly knife, simply plunging it into the pulp.

It is convenient to take such beautiful pieces with a spoon (if their size allows) or a skewer.

Rainbow mix

If you don’t have enough time to process fruits, but want something special, don’t despair and prepare as many products as possible for slicing.

First, open a photo of a rainbow to remember the sequence of colors:

• red (strawberry, watermelon, apple, raspberry);
• orange (orange, apricot, persimmon, tangerine);
• yellow (lemon, pineapple, banana, apple);
• green (kiwi, apple, lime, grapes);
• blue (alas, nature did not create any fruits or berries of this color);
• blue (plum, blueberry, blueberry);
• purple (grapes, plums, figs).

Cut the fruits into slices - not too small so that they are easy to take, and arrange them in the correct color sequence. If you want, give the rainbow a semicircular shape or stretch food foil across the entire table on which to place a fruit rainbow.

If you decide to surprise your guests with fruit slices, prepare carefully.

1. 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.
2. Carefully fruit. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

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 be 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 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.

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 cut kiwi beautifully

The most beautiful flowers can be made from kiwi. To do this, you need to cut off the rounded ends of the fruit, and then make diagonal cuts about 2 cm long across the entire surface of the kiwi.

You should end up with pointed petals spreading out like a rosette. The pulp can then be separated from the peel and spread, as is the case with an orange.

If you don't have time, you can serve kiwi without even making a flower. The following video shows how to cut a kiwi in half.

How to cut strawberries beautifully

In skillful hands, strawberries grow into beautiful roses. They are perfect for both fruit plates and...

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 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 - with plumage made of 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.

How to beautifully cut watermelon and pineapple

For fruit slices, it is better to remove seeds (or remove them as much as possible).

One of the simplest and most convenient serving options is demonstrated in the following video.

A small watermelon must be cut into four parts. Trim the flesh from each and cut it into thin slices. You can serve directly in the watermelon rinds, moving the pieces in a checkerboard pattern.

The same can be done with pineapple.

A beautifully set table immediately lifts your mood. And fruits play an important role in it. But in general, serving them is not very convenient and not at all economical.

Therefore, fruit slices always occupy a worthy place on the holiday table. You can see the design with a photo of a beautiful fruit layout in this article on our website.

Basics of creating fruit slices for the table

First, let’s clarify which fruits are usually included in the list for making this dessert dish. This:

• apples
• oranges
• pears
• tangerines
• bananas
• grape
• a pineapple
• lemon
• berries

It’s great if you have a special device that knows how to cut fruit beautifully, quickly and accurately cuts everything into perfectly even slices. But if you don’t have a slicer in your household, you will have to arm yourself with an ordinary, but very sharp knife.

But even the easiest cutting of fruit with a simple knife can look great if the finished slices are then effectively arranged.

This is the main topic of our article today, in which you can see photos of options for decorating a fruit plate with a description.

Methods for cutting fruit for the holiday table

Oranges are cut into circles or semi-circles; you can cut the circle halfway and place it on a plate like a lemon wedge for fish. Alternatively, in segments. Or maybe you would like to make an orange rose in the center of the fruit plate?

Kiwis are cut into thin slices without peeling. Simple decorations can be kiwi flowers, cut out in a zigzag with the tip of a knife; the skin does not need to be peeled, you can bend it back like petals.

We do the same with tangerine skins, and now they look completely different.

Another simple technique on how to cut fruit beautifully is used in the step-by-step creation of a swan from an apple. If you wish, you can place it on the dish if you have extra time.

And look how cute and simple the dolphin figurines are made from banana pieces.

The pineapple is cut into cubes, which are placed in a row and moved from the center in different directions.

You can lay out ready-made pieces and slices in a circle, semicircle, segments, separating them with other fruits or leaving them as is.

Don’t forget about the game of contrasts; you shouldn’t put a green apple next to a kiwi, just like tangerines and oranges. Bright strawberries, cherries, raspberries and blackberries will complement the color scheme favorably.

The decoration of fruit slices for the buffet table can be done in the form of “kebabs”, placing the pieces on skewers in the form of an assortment of different types. This is very convenient than just taking slices from a common dish with your hands or picking them up yourself with skewers.

And on a wedding table or Valentine's Day, a beautiful cut of fruit can be placed in the shape of a heart if desired.

For children it is possible, the kids will like the idea.

When placing any fruit on the table, you can sprinkle it with powdered sugar through a strainer. Looks very romantic.

And a small bonus. Very often, a fruit platter is combined with a cheese plate, which all the French go crazy for. What cheese goes with fruit slices? These are edam, gouda, mozzarella, camembert, brie, maasdam, emmental, parmesan, gruyere, pecorino, dor blue. There are no strict rules, but still...

Soft and blue cheeses go best with grapes, orange loves soft cheeses with a moldy rind, crisp apples like tender brie, pears can be accompanied by both soft cheese and aged hard cheese, kiwis, cherries and pineapples like to see hard cheeses next to them. varieties.

The art of cutting fruit is accessible to absolutely everyone, and if your own imagination sometimes lets you down, you can use ready-made solutions from the Internet. Bon appetit!