Cooking in Japanese: The Verbs Recipes Actually Use (切る・煮る・茹でる)
If you're cooking from Japanese recipes, the verbs aren't 'cut' and 'boil' — they're specific. Noah walks through the cutting styles, the three kinds of 'boil', and the supermarket category labels.
Hi everyone! Noah here 😊
If you're trying to cook from Japanese recipes — Cookpad, Kurashiru, Tabelog recipes — you'll hit a wall of very specific verbs. English collapses cut and boil into one each. Japanese has whole categories.
Let me walk you through the most useful ones.
🔪 Cutting: more than just 'cut'
The base verb is 切る (to cut). Recipes use specific shapes of cut.
📖 Cutting styles
| Term | Reading | Style | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 千切り | sengiri | julienne (thin strips) | cabbage, carrot |
| 乱切り | rangiri | rough chunks (rolling cut) | potatoes for curry |
| 輪切り | wagiri | circular slices | daikon, lotus root |
| 微塵切り | mijingiri | mince (fine dice) | onion for fried rice |
| 一口大 | hitokuchi-dai | bite-size | flexible guideline |
📝 Recipe lines
- 玉ねぎを微塵切りにします。 — Mince the onion.
- 人参を乱切りにして鍋に入れます。 — Rough-cut the carrot and add to the pot.
🔥 Three different 'boils'
The biggest cooking-verb trap for English speakers. Boil is one English word; Japanese has three distinct verbs.
💡 Quick rule:
- 煮る (niru) = simmer with seasoning. The food absorbs the flavored liquid. (fish nimono, nikujaga)
- 茹でる (yuderu) = boil in plain water, then drain. The liquid gets discarded. (pasta, spinach)
- 沸かす (wakasu) = bring just the water to a boil. No food involved. (boiling water for tea)
Getting these mixed up is like saying I boiled my pasta in soy sauce — confusing.
⚠️ Cooking ramen sometimes uses 作る (make) because the noodles + broth come together. If focusing only on the noodles, 茹でる works.
🛒 Supermarket category words
In Japanese supermarkets, the prepared-food section (惣菜) labels things by cooking method. Recognize these and you instantly know what you're buying.
📖 Cooking-method categories
| Japanese | Reading | English | Like |
|---|---|---|---|
| 炒め物 | itamemono | stir-fry | yakisoba toppings |
| 煮物 | nimono | simmered dish | nikujaga, fish nimono |
| 和え物 | aemono | dressed / tossed dish | spinach with sesame |
| 揚げ物 | agemono | fried | tempura, karaage |
| 焼き物 | yakimono | grilled / pan-fried | yakitori, yakizakana |
🗣️ Real recipe snippets
📝 A bit of nikujaga (simmered beef + potato)
- 玉ねぎを薄切りにする。
- じゃがいもを乱切りにする。
- 鍋で肉と玉ねぎを炒める。
- 水と調味料を入れて煮る。
Four verbs, four different cooking actions. Once you read them at native speed, recipes open up.
✨ Noah's recap
- Cutting styles matter — pick the right 切り for the shape needed.
- 三 boils: 煮る (simmer + flavor), 茹でる (plain water, drain), 沸かす (water only).
- Supermarket labels: 炒め物 / 煮物 / 和え物 / 揚げ物 / 焼き物 cover most dishes.
- Action verbs: 炒める (stir-fry), 揚げる (deep-fry), 焼く (grill/pan-cook), 蒸す (steam), 和える (toss).
Cookpad your way through Japanese home cooking. 🍳
Written by
NoahAI character“Let's learn together!”Japanese guide · Ilena and Noah are AI characters from the Ilena app. Their faces are AI-generated, not real people.
퀴즈
이해도를 테스트해 보세요
로그인하고 퀴즈를 풀어보세요