Mandolin

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taxlady

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Do I want a mandolin and if so, what am I looking for? If I decide to get one, I want a good quality one, not something like this useless thing a friend gave me:

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I almost never use my food processor. It's usually easier to chop or slice it by hand, and then it's much less clean up. E.g., I recently made a batch of rødkål (Danish red cabbage) and I couldn't be bothered to pull out a machine to shred the whole cabbage. It went quickly with a chef's knife.

But the thread about "instant onion soup" and all of those sliced onions has me thinking mandolin. I can slice quickly, but my thin slices aren't very uniform.
 
I have two mandolins. One is a spirolli (Japanese mandolin--for making zucchini "spaghetti"). The other is a traditional mandolin. Mine won't let me use it without the guard. The other one isn't made the same way, so a guard isn't needed.

Very important--use the guard. Never use a mandolin without the guard. A friend keeps her mandolin in the basement--it "attacked" her (stitches, etc.) and she hasn't used it since. Mine both live in the basement as well. I use the traditional one for getting onions and cucumbers sliced super thin or if I have a lot to do. I use my julienne "peeler" to julienne. It lives upstairs in a drawer and less fuss than the mandolin.
 
I was thinking mandolin when I saw the onion puck thread, too. Perfect excuse to get one... but what I really need is someone to peel the onions. I hate peeling onions.
 
i got one & it's mainly decor, now. while it's very sturdy, i find it much simpler to slice foods thinly w/ a knife. haven't used my mandolin for quite awhile, now. have used plastic ones at school/work. they're great for quantity cooking. for here, i much prefer knives.
 

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I have a wonderfully made Mandolin that's all stainless steel. Like you Taxie, I had one like that and it was flimsy and useless. Steve bought my new one as a gift and he loves being my Sous Chef with it, so that's the real gift! Like most things, you get what you pay for, and for big jobs like a crock pot full of sliced onions or a ton of cole slaw it's priceless!

Always use the guard!
 
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I was thinking mandolin when I saw the onion puck thread, too. Perfect excuse to get one... but what I really need is someone to peel the onions. I hate peeling onions.
Peeling onions shouldn't be a nuisance. Here's what I do:
1) smack the onion with the flat of a chef's knife, all over. Some of the peel will fly off.
2) Cut off the top tip of the onion
3) slice onion in half from top to bottom
4) peel
5) smack it some more, if needed.

I also usually "shave" off the roots, so it is flush with the surface of the onion. Helps keep any dirt on the roots off the rest of the onion. Don't cut off too much at the root end or the onion won't hold together while you are cutting it.
 
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I have an OXO that I like quite a bit. I only use mine probably 3 or 4 times a year, and while that sounds like the perfect description for a dust collector, I do find there are times when I can't do without it. For example, earlier this year I made Potatoes Dauphinoise for a dinner party. Without the mandoline, it would've taken hours to thin slice that many potatoes. I also use it for sauerkraut. Again, because it slices thinner and faster than I could by hand.

So not an everyday tool, but still a useful one to own.
 
We have a very nice ss one that has several attachments. Karen uses it. I always get bit.:rolleyes: Seriously, we do use it often. We prefer it over the vegi slicing blade of the food processor. The waffle fry attachment is pretty cool too.
 
I bought this one Vidalia Slice Wizard: Amazon.com: Kitchen & Dining and it sits in the cupboard. I rarely use it. I just go for the knife first. I think at times I'd like a different one but can't justify the expense.

What would you want to be different? Does it make nice, uniform, whole slices?

I also have one of these 3 Cone King Kutter Slicer w/ Suction Base, Each and use it all the time to grate cheese and veggies. It comes with a slicer and I'm more apt to use it than the other.
I have a salad shooter-like attachment for my meat grinder. I use it if I have to grate a lot of cheese. Stirling uses it a lot.

But for slicing, I find a bunch of weirdly shaped slices, partial slices, and slices stuck between the cone and the casing. I also have to cut the food into pieces that will fit through the feed shoot. By the time I have cut the food to fit, pushed it all through, cleaned up the stuff that fell off/didn't hit the plate, and washed the parts, I often wished I had done it by hand.
 
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I have a salad shooter-like attachment for my meat grinder. I use it if I have to grate a lot of cheese. Stirling uses it a lot.

But for slicing, I find a bunch of weirdly shaped slices, partial slices, and slices stuck between the cone and the casing. I also have to cut the food into pieces that will fit through the feed shoot. By the time I have cut the food to fit, pushed it all through, cleaned up the stuff that fell off/didn't hit the plate, and washed the parts, I often wished I had done it by hand.
That's not actually true. With vegis I usually get so frustrated that I stop and switch to doing it by hand and curse the extra cleanup. Same problems with the FP and even more extra cleanup.
 
Peeling onions shouldn't be a nuisance. Here's what I do:
1) smack the onion with the flat of a chef's knife, all over. Some of the peel will fly off.
2) Cut off the top tip of the onion
3) slice onion in half from top to bottom
4) peel
5) smack it some more, if needed.

I also usually "shave" off the roots, so it is flush with the surface of the onion. Helps keep any dirt on the roots off the rest of the onion. Don't cut off too much at the root end or the onion won't hold together while you are cutting it.

That's pretty much how I process an onion.
I hate doing #4.
If there is a trick to peeling the outer layer off, not take too much onion with it and not have that membrane left to deal with I'd love to hear it. Oh, and not getting bits of onion under my thumbnail, too ;)
 
That's pretty much how I process an onion.
I hate doing #4.
If there is a trick to peeling the outer layer off, not take too much onion with it and not have that membrane left to deal with I'd love to hear it. Oh, and not getting bits of onion under my thumbnail, too ;)
I don't worry about taking too much onion. Everything except the root, yucky bits, and the outermost layer of peel, gets used for cooking goes or goes into my vegi "stock" jar in the freezer.
 
I also wanted to mention that we use mine very often for paper thin hot house cucumber and onion salad. Perfect paper thin slices are next to impossible with a knife even for a professional chef. That's why they use them too.
 
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What would you want to be different? Does it make nice, uniform, whole slices?

I have a salad shooter-like attachment for my meat grinder. I use it if I have to grate a lot of cheese. Stirling uses it a lot.

But for slicing, I find a bunch of weirdly shaped slices, partial slices, and slices stuck between the cone and the casing. I also have to cut the food into pieces that will fit through the feed shoot. By the time I have cut the food to fit, pushed it all through, cleaned up the stuff that fell off/didn't hit the plate, and washed the parts, I often wished I had done it by hand.

I don't like the removable pieces of the Slice Wizard. Sometimes the food sticks and the removable part moves. The cover is difficult to use and leaves a lot of the item unsliced. Storage is also a problem since there are so many pieces.

The King Kutter has an open shoot. You do get some weirdly shaped slices at times but when I'm making scalloped potatoes it works well enough. If I wanted something really eye appealing I wouldn't use it. But for most of my needs, it does things okay. I've never been a fussy person about presentation at home and any more rarely cook for people other than family.
 
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I also wanted to mention that we use mine very often for paper thin hot house cucumber and onion salad. Perfect paper thin slices are next to impossible with a knife even for a professional chef. That's why they use them too.
Yeah, that's what I want to be able to do.
 
Do I want a mandolin and if so, what am I looking for? If I decide to get one, I want a good quality one, not something like this useless thing a friend gave me:

33814-albums291-picture5190.jpg


I almost never use my food processor. It's usually easier to chop or slice it by hand, and then it's much less clean up. E.g., I recently made a batch of rødkål (Danish red cabbage) and I couldn't be bothered to pull out a machine to shred the whole cabbage. It went quickly with a chef's knife.

But the thread about "instant onion soup" and all of those sliced onions has me thinking mandolin. I can slice quickly, but my thin slices aren't very uniform.

I have a good-quality plastic mandolin that I really like. It was about $50 at a local kitchen shop. The food never catches or sticks and it has a little hook, sort of, at the bottom so you can use it over a bowl. :pause: I just checked and the one I have is the same one LP recommended. Good to know it's so durable :)

The blades slice one way, making :duh: slices, of three different thicknesses, and another blade slices two ways at once, to make julienne and fine julienne, so it's good for sushi, spring rolls or other dishes where you want julienned veg. You could also use it to slice tomatoes for pizza Margherita.

I used it a lot this past summer for pickling - I wrote on my recipes which blade and thickness to use for slicing cucumbers. I will definitely be using it for the onions.

I think (could be wrong) the only difference between a V-slicer and a mandolin is that a mandolin is adjustable with a wheel or screw to exactly the thickness you want. The V-slicer comes with removable blades. So I don't know why they call it a V-slicer/mandolin :huh:
 
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Mine's a v-shape. I don't think I've seen any that aren't v-shaped.

Lee Valley sells a really nice one:

Classic French Mandoline - Lee Valley Tools

Mine is not that fancy...I couldn't quite justify that amount for slicing cucumbers (for Swedish cucumber salad), onions, and potatoes (Jansson's Temptation). Otherwise, I don't use it very often. I use my FP for big batches of coleslaw.
 
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