Tärnade

Tärnade is a Swedish culinary term used to describe ingredients that have been cut into small, uniform cubes, or dice. The form is the past participle of the verb tärna (to dice) and functions as an adjective; it agrees with the noun, for example tärnade tomater, tärnade potatisar. Related noun tärning means dice.

In recipes, tärnade is commonly encountered to indicate a specific preparation of ingredients, intended to ensure even cooking and texture. Typical applications include onions, carrots, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and meat used in stews, soups, sautés, or fillings. The phrase often appears with qualifiers such as fin tärning (fine dice), medelstora tärningar (medium cubes), or grova tärningar (large cubes), which describe the approximate size of the cubes. The exact size can vary by recipe and culinary tradition, as smaller dice cook faster and blend more thoroughly into sauces, while larger dice hold shape longer.

Linguistically, tärnade is the attributive form used before plural nouns and functions as a descriptive modifier in Swedish. Related cooking terms include hackad (chopped) and skivad (sliced). While primarily a culinary term, it appears almost exclusively in cooking contexts and food writing, where it helps convey the intended texture and cooking behavior of the ingredients.