Meat slicer?

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Chef's Choice 610 Premium Electric Food Slicer was on the Food Network the other day on Gotta Have It. I would like to get it they said it retailed for 79.00 so hopefully I will find it somewhere for that.
 
mackeeg said:
Chef's Choice 610 Premium Electric Food Slicer was on the Food Network the other day on Gotta Have It. I would like to get it they said it retailed for 79.00 so hopefully I will find it somewhere for that.
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To bad you don't have to so you could tell me how good it is :). The villiware unit also seems to be a very good unit. I think the chef's choice is part plastic part metal. The villiware is all metal i believe. Also the villiware comes with two blades.
 
I was going to say beware of which parts are metal and which are plastic. The Villaware didn't have a front view - that would be key. If it was plastic too I would search for one that had a metal holder that slides the meat across the blade and can take the pushing.
 
I absolutely, positively agree with kitchenelf. If the part that is doing the pushing (guard/holder?) of the meat into the blade is plastic, and it seems as it is in the ChefChoice, you will not have even results since it will give/bend against the pressure. I would opt for one which has metal parts.

EDIT: After looking at the pics again, it looks like the whole apparatus (both) is plastic other than the blade. I wouldnt be too keen in recommending it - see if Cooks Illustrated has done any reviews on these things... now im thinking that if they arent built too sturdy, what happens when a part snaps? I would almost guarantee that you cannot replace the part, leading to purchase a new one. In this case, I guess you get what you pay for - a slicer under $100 is exactly that.
 
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A plastic "pusher" should not be your concern. They are built with enough plastic in the right places so that they do not bend, but if dropped on the floor from counter hieght, they WILL break! :blush:

What you need to watch for is the mechanism that regulates the thickness of the slices. If these gears strip, which is what happened to my Toastmaster slicer, then it renders the slicer practically useless.:angry: :w00t2: :furious:
 
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I have a Cook's Choice and love it. It does a beautiful job. In retrospect, if I had it to do all over again I do think I would look for one a little higher up the ladder - one that has more of a slant so that gravity helps keep the item you are slicing against the blade. But I do love the one I have.:)
 
well i think.....

Well guys its pretty close to the big buying decision. Im starting to sway towards the villiware. Please anyone slap me around and call me crazy and tell me im making the wrong decision if i am. Where here is the list of the reasons i am swaying towards the villiware:

1) Bigger motor (150w vs 100w). Of course this doesn't tell the whole story but this gives me a clue. The villiware ought to be able to to cut through meat with less stress and therefor less heat. This is VERY important for a meat slicer

2) It comes with both a serrated blade and a smooth blade. You have to pay for this with the chef's choice.

3) From what i heard villiware makes pretty good products overall. Seems like most of there products are pretty good.

4) comes with a nice tray to catch whatever your slicing
the only review i could find of the villiware seems to be glowing (on amazon):
had the Rival 1050C before but this slicer blows it away!I only paid $94.00 here on Amazon with free shipping.
Things I liked about this slicer:
1. comes with 2 blades-smooth & serrated.
2. 150 watts
3. Variable speed
4. Pulse mode and regular-in the pulse mode you have to hold the switch on all the time you're slicing in the regular mode just turn on the switch and the unit stays on until you shut it off.
5. Large knob to adjust thickness
6. solid, slices evenly
7. cantilevered design to place tray under to catch slices.
8. Quiet!
There is nothing I disliked about this!

Ok now on to the things i don't like about it:
1) go to www.villiware.com.......you won't be able to find it. Well at least i didn't. Is this something villiware only sells to oem. Are the discontinuing this item? What gives?

2) Its hard to find this slicer at a reputable store....sure amazon.com sells it but its from a 3rd party...its not from them. Cooking.com does sell it but they want WAY WAY to much for it. Almost $50 more.

So let me know what you guys think about my decision.
 
Let's see.........I can slap you around (I'll run away REAL fast) and I can call you silly (on the run).... I just can't help you with your decision. The agony you are going through is probably why I haven't bought one yet. Go with a good rule of thumb - buy the best you can afford.
 
kitchenelf said:
Let's see.........I can slap you around (I'll run away REAL fast) and I can call you silly (on the run).... I just can't help you with your decision. The agony you are going through is probably why I haven't bought one yet. Go with a good rule of thumb - buy the best you can afford.
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Well you better be able to run really fast because thats one of my main hobbies :).

Well all kidding aside. I ordered the villaware unit tonight. Since there isn't a lot of information on this until i will definitly write a through review on either here or amazon. If i write the review on amazon then i will link you guys to it.
 
Let us know how you like it and a review would be GREAT - also, if you can post some pictures I'd like to see what the different parts are made of...thanks!
 
well i found something out.

Just to keep everyone updated. I wandered what was going on with the villaware slicer and why i could not find it very many places. I also wandered why it was not on villaware's web site. I was just afraid that it was being discontinued or something like that. well i called villaware this morning to inquire about it. The very nice lady told me that the slicer is in fact a "new" product. She said it just came out. SHe told me that they are in the process of moving from CA --> MO and once they did that they would be adding the slicer to their web site. Well least the eliminated that fear.

ncage
 
That's good to know. Thanks for doing the research.

A generall question for those who have slicers. What kinds of things do you use them for? Do you slice whole cold cuts and cheese? Do you slice cooked roasts? How about bread?

Just wondering what kind of things you use it on and how often you use it.
 
Andy M. said:
Just wondering what kind of things you use it on and how often you use it.
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I used mine strictly for slicing cooked roasts, hams, turkey breasts, pastrami, salami, etc. into lunch meat for sandwiches for three of us. I would buy them in bulk at a local restaurant supply store, somewhere between 7 and 15 pounds, depending on what type of meat, slice it up, package it into 2 pound packages, and then freeze all but one package.

I tried cheese a couple of times, but it was too sticky and messy, and the cost savings over pre-sliced cheeses wasn't worth the clean-up time.

Now that there is just me, none of it is worth the effort any more. Easier to just buy it pre-slced, in 2 pound packages, from the same restaurant supply store.
 
Andy M. said:
That's good to know. Thanks for doing the research.

A generall question for those who have slicers. What kinds of things do you use them for? Do you slice whole cold cuts and cheese? Do you slice cooked roasts? How about bread?

Just wondering what kind of things you use it on and how often you use it.
Click to expand...

Well i can tell you what i plan to use it. I do a lot of true BBQ (not grilling). I end up grilling a 13 pound brisket and i have a TON left or a pork butt. This would be great to be able to slice it and freeze it in 1 pound increments. I also eat cheese steak sandwiches quite a bit. Trying to freeze the steak and slice it ultra thin is a pain in the butt. Hopefully this will make it easier. I also want to try out cheese. I have no plans to do bread at all.Oh yes i almost forgot. I do french dip/italian beef sandwiches too.
 
ncage1974 said:
Well i can tell you what i plan to use it. I do a lot of true BBQ (not grilling). I end up grilling a 13 pound brisket and i have a TON left or a pork butt. This would be great to be able to slice it and freeze it in 1 pound increments. I also eat cheese steak sandwiches quite a bit. Trying to freeze the steak and slice it ultra thin is a pain in the butt. Hopefully this will make it easier. I also want to try out cheese. I have no plans to do bread at all.Oh yes i almost forgot. I do french dip/italian beef sandwiches too.
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Here's that ol' BBQ thing again! lol Cook your brisket to an internal temp of about 200 degrees F. It will FALL apart and be extremely juicy and much better than sliceable. IMHO of course!

I also used one to slice apples and fresh fennel for a "salad" to serve with grilled salmon - When you have 10 of each to slice a slicer is MUCH better!!!!
 
got it......

Well guys i got it today. Its late so i'm not going to write up a long winded review but i'm overall pretty happy with it. The housing is all metal and the machine is pretty hefty. Unfortunatly there is one area that has plastic that id rather be metal but oh well. The gears that drive the blade are plastic. You know the magic chef might be the same way. Ok the motor does seem to be pretty powerful and i took out a frozen ribeye to make cheese steak tonight and i didn't even wait till it thawed. The slicer didn't seem to have any problems. I mean it did slow down a tiny amount but not much considerably speaking. One thing that is awesome about the slicer that your able to control the slice thickness very precisely. I was slicing the steak paper thin with no problem at all. This is SOOOOO much easier than trying to hand slice a steak. Some things i would change about it would be
1) All metal parts
2) titled slightly
3) Even a little bit more motor power (never can have to much)

It did come with two blades and a tray to catch whatever your slicing which is great.

Ok a question. It came with a serrated blade and a non-serrated blade. When slicing when would i use which? Tonght i used the serrated blade because thats what came attached.

ncage.
 
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