Julienne vs. Sengiri vs. Chinese Si: Thickness and Grain Direction

What this article answers

How sengiri differs from julienne

Their thicknesses overlap at around 1 mm. Japanese cooking also names cuts by grain direction

How thick Chinese si is

Four grades from 1 to 4 mm in the Sichuan standard, each 10 cm (4 in) long

What changes when you change the thickness

Cooking time. Twice as thick takes about 4× as long, by calculation

What changes with grain direction

With the grain is crisp, across it is soft. Pungency and how flavors soak in change too

A Japanese recipe says “cut the cabbage into sengiri (千切り),” and you stop. Is that just a julienne? A Chinese recipe says “cut into si (絲).” All three seem to mean the same thing: cut into thin sticks.

Line up the sources, and thickness can’t tell the three apart. Japanese sengiri is 1 mm or less (well under 1/16 in), French julienne is 1–2 mm, and Chinese si is 1–4 mm (up to just over ⅛ in). The ranges overlap.

This article covers how the names differ, and what thickness and grain direction change in a dish. It leaves out how to move the knife and how to practice.

Fine strips start as even slabs

To cut fine strips, slice the ingredient into slabs of even thickness. Then stack the slabs and cut them at an even width into thin sticks.

The slab thickness sets the height of each stick’s cross-section. The cutting width sets its width.

Japanese culinary schools teach sengiri the same way. Students first slice daikon radish into slabs 1 mm thick or less, a step called hegu.

If the slabs aren’t even, the pieces come out uneven however carefully you cut them afterward.

Stick length runs from 4 to 10 cm (1½ to 4 in), depending on the dish and the source.

How strips differ from dice and slices

Cut the sticks crosswise at the same width, and you get dice: brunoise in French, ding in Chinese. Stop at the first slabs, and you have thin slices or sogi-giri (bias slices).

Thickness alone can’t tell the names apart

Here are the thicknesses for each name, from schools and cooking standards.

Name	Thickness (mm)	Length (cm)	Source
Sengiri (Japan)	1 or less	Not specified	Tsuji Culinary Institute
Senroppon (Japan)	2–3	Not specified	Tsuji Culinary Institute
Julienne (France)	1–2	4–5	Chef Fabien, Chef Link
Si (China; Sichuan standard)	1–4	10	Sichuan Province cooking standard for Sichuan cuisine (2011)
Sashimi ken (Japanese school competition)	Within 1	Not specified	Japan’s association of culinary schools
Julienne (Japanese school competition)	1	5	Japan’s association of culinary schools
Si (Japanese school competition)	2	6	Japan’s association of culinary schools

Sources: Tsuji Culinary Institute blog (August 2021); Chef Fabien (March 2026) and Chef Link; China News Service (October 2015) and Xiachufang; guidelines for the 42nd Cooking Skills Competition of Japan’s association of culinary schools (August 2026).

The bottom three rows are tasks from the same category of one Japanese school competition. Even there, the thickness differs from dish to dish.

Thickness varies more with the task and the dish than with the country.

Japan also names cuts by grain direction

Japanese cooking names cuts by thickness, as in sengiri and senroppon. For ken, the fine shreds served with sashimi, it also names them by the direction of the fibers.

Ken starts with katsuramuki: peeling daikon or cucumber into a long, ribbon-thin sheet. The sheet is then cut into fine strips.

Ken cut along the fibers is tate-ken (lengthwise ken). Ken cut at right angles to them is yoko-ken (crosswise ken).

Tate-ken is served in a small amount, stood up in a triangle beside the sashimi. Yoko-ken goes under the sashimi as a bed, or is piled loosely to show volume.

France and China name cuts by thickness

In French cooking, a new thickness gets a new name. A thin stick of 1–2 mm is a julienne, and a thick stick 5–6 mm square is a bâtonnet.

Schools that teach in inches set julienne thicker. Rouxbe, an online cooking school, gives julienne as ⅛ in (about 3 mm) square and 2 in (5 cm) long. Fine julienne is 1/16 in (about 1.5 mm).

Chinese cooking keeps the single name si and splits it into four grades by thickness.

Sichuan Province set a cooking standard for Sichuan cuisine in 2011. In it, tou cu si is 4 mm, er cu si 3 mm, xi si 2 mm, and yin zhen si (“silver-needle shreds”) 1 mm. All of them are 10 cm (4 in) long.

The standard is a recommendation, not a rule. For yu xiang rou si (魚香肉絲, fish-fragrant shredded pork), it gives the pork as er cu si: 3 mm square and 10 cm (4 in) long.

Twice as thick takes about 4× as long

Heat travels from the surface to the center. The time it takes grows with roughly the square of that distance.

By that calculation alone, a 2 mm stick takes about 4 times as long as a 1 mm stick. A 3 mm stick takes about 9 times as long, and a 4 mm stick about 16 times.

In real cooking, heat also needs time to cross from the water or oil into the surface. So the actual differences are smaller than the calculation.

In measurements of thick meat cooked in a water bath, doubling the thickness took 2.5–4 times as long. No measurements for fine strips by thickness turned up, but the direction holds: thicker takes longer.

Salt wilts the strips on the same curve. The time for salt to reach the center also grows with roughly the square of the distance.

Salt both for the same time, and fine sengiri should wilt to the core while thick sticks wilt only on the outside.

Grain direction changes texture, pungency, and flavor

Vegetables have long fibers running along the root or stem: the grain. Cut with the grain or across it, and the texture changes even at the same thickness.

Long fibers or short ones

Cut along the fibers, and long fibers run through each stick from end to end. You feel your teeth cut through them as you bite, and the sticks hold their shape and stand up easily.

Cut across the fibers, and each fiber is only as long as the stick is thick. The sticks come apart as soon as you bite.

Left, tate-ken (cut along the fibers); right, yoko-ken (cut across them). Tate-ken stands beside the sashimi, and yoko-ken is laid loosely underneath.

Daikon, cabbage, carrot, and onion compared

Vegetable	Cut along the fibers	Cut across the fibers
Daikon (ken for sashimi)	Stands up. Stood in a triangle beside the sashimi	Gives loose volume. Laid underneath
Cabbage (raw)	Crisp bite	Soft in the mouth, even cut thicker
Carrot (dressed salads)	Keeps some bite	Softens faster and takes on flavor
Onion (raw)	Less pungency and bitterness	Strong pungency and bitterness

Sources: daikon from Tsuji Culinary Institute, “Basic terms of Japanese cuisine”; cabbage, carrot, and onion from Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences, School of Nutritional Sciences, “Does the way you cut vegetables change the taste?”

Some people find carrot cut across the fibers sweeter. The same source says the cut itself does not raise or lower the sweetness.

The Japanese school competition scores yoko-ken on whether “the fibers are not crushed and it is light and fluffy.” Cutting without crushing the fibers is part of what makes it fluffy.

Match thickness and grain to the dish

Thickness and grain combine differently for each thing you make. These are the combinations confirmed in the sources.

What you are making	Thickness	Fiber direction
Ken stood up beside sashimi	Within 1 mm	Along (tate-ken)
Ken laid under sashimi	Within 1 mm	Across (yoko-ken)
Light, fluffy raw cabbage	Not specified	Across
Garnish for French salads and soups	1–2 mm, 5 cm long	Not specified
Pork for yu xiang rou si	3 mm, 10 cm long	Not specified

Sources: ken from Tsuji Culinary Institute, “Basic terms of Japanese cuisine,” and Japan’s association of culinary schools (August 2026); cabbage from Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences; julienne from Chef Fabien (March 2026); yu xiang rou si from China News Service (October 2015).

Julienne simmered in broth is 1–2 mm. The pork for yu xiang rou si, stir-fried over high heat, is 3 mm.

So cooking or not doesn’t decide the thickness by itself. Each dish has its own set value.

Within one dish, cut every ingredient to the same thickness.

When thickness or grain goes wrong

Fine strips most often go wrong in three places: slab thickness, cutting direction, and a thickness that doesn’t suit the dish.

What was off	What happens
The slabs were uneven	The thin sticks wilt first, and the thick ones keep a raw core
In a stir-fry, meat and vegetables were cut to different thicknesses	The thinner pieces overcook, or the thicker ones stay raw
Ken meant to stand up was cut across the fibers	It won’t stand and lies flat and fluffy
Cabbage meant to be fluffy was cut along the fibers	It has a strong bite and isn’t fluffy
Raw onion was cut across the fibers	Pungency and bitterness come through strongly

Sources: cooking through is inferred from “the time to reach the center grows with the square of the thickness.” Ken is from Tsuji Culinary Institute, and cabbage and onion are the explanations from Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences, read from the side of getting it wrong.

To check that the thickness is even, lay a few sticks against a ruler. The school competition scores ken on whether “the whole is within 1 mm and even,” and si on whether it is “2 mm and even throughout.”