A lot of recipes I've seen recently call for items to be sliced with a
mandolin. Is it worth getting one? If so, what brand? What can a mandolin
do that a food processor doesn't do? I already have various slicing and
grating attachments for our Kenwood mixer.

In article ,
"Viviane" wrote:

A lot of recipes I've seen recently call for items to be sliced with a
mandolin. Is it worth getting one? If so, what brand? What can a mandolin
do that a food processor doesn't do? I already have various slicing and
grating attachments for our Kenwood mixer.

I picked up one at a garage sale this summer for $2. They are handheld
slicers (some, like mine, also have grater blades that can be slipped
into place). They are flat, with a track that the food being sliced
sits in. Then, using a handheld piece set atop of the food, you slide
your hand back and forth to move the food down the track to slice the
food at a even thickness.

These are very nice for people who have not developed the touch to slice
like this with a sharp knife (so I doubt we will ever see Emiril or any
of the Iron Chefs use one of these). I almost never use the slice
insert on mine, but I use the various grater inserts frequently, as I
like it better than my box grater.

For an idea of some, look at these pics on this google images page:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...i&rls=en&q=man
dolin+slicer&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

Hope this helps.

jt

On 2007-08-31, Viviane wrote:
A lot of recipes I've seen recently call for items to be sliced with a
mandolin. Is it worth getting one? If so, what brand? What can a mandolin
do that a food processor doesn't do? I already have various slicing and
grating attachments for our Kenwood mixer.

I have a "V-Slicer", which is a rather inexpensive ($35) mandoline
with a plastic body. I use it for making very thin, uniform slices of
things like tomatoes and onions. My knife skills are good, but I
can't make the slices as thin and uniform as this thing can -- or
rather, to do so by hand would take me much longer than to do it with
the tool. It can also create thin and thick julienne cuts, which I
can also do manually but it's a lot faster with this thing. It can
also dice if you use the julienne insert and rotate the food 90
degrees on every slice (which is easier than it sounds, once you get
the hang of it). The blades are very sharp, but not replaceable or
sharpenable. When they get dull (mine haven't yet, though I don't use
it a lot), it is cheap enough to replace the whole thing.

But for routine chopping and dicing, I always reach for my knife.
It's just not worth the trouble to get the thing out of the cabinet,
and then clean it afterward. If I had to chop/dice/slice a large
quantity of something, it might be worth the trouble, because once you
have it all set up, it does go very quickly. (Note that you still
have to peel manually, which is the bulk of the work with things like
onions anyway.)

More expensive versions let you do waffle cuts and other such fancy
stuff, and if you want to do that sort of thing, there is really no
other choice.

--
Randall

jt august wrote:
In article ,
"Viviane" wrote:

A lot of recipes I've seen recently call for items to be sliced with a
mandolin. Is it worth getting one? If so, what brand? What can a mandolin
do that a food processor doesn't do? I already have various slicing and
grating attachments for our Kenwood mixer.

I've never seen one as a necessity assuming good knife
skills. But for certain things they do make life easier.
Potato chips/gaufrette, gratin's, really anything that you
want sliced either/or very thin and consistant thickness.


--
Steve

"jt august" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Viviane" wrote:



These are very nice for people who have not developed the touch to slice
like this with a sharp knife (so I doubt we will ever see Emiril or any
of the Iron Chefs use one of these). I almost never use the slice
insert on mine, but I use the various grater inserts frequently, as I
like it better than my box grater.

jt

Actually, Emeril used one night before last to make potato chips. Couldn't
find the part that rests on top of the food to guide it through the blade
and used it anyway. Nicked himself, too. :-)

I had a cheapie plastic model for years that worked reasonably well. My
knife skills are OK but I could never achieve the accuracy a mandolin
provides.

Jon

In article ,
"Zeppo" wrote:

"jt august" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Viviane" wrote:



These are very nice for people who have not developed the touch to slice
like this with a sharp knife (so I doubt we will ever see Emiril or any
of the Iron Chefs use one of these).
jt

Actually, Emeril used one night before last to make potato chips. Couldn't
find the part that rests on top of the food to guide it through the blade
and used it anyway. Nicked himself, too. :-)

Wow, I guessed wrong on that count. It's just that I've seen him work
wonders with a knife, so I would never have expected him to need a
mandolin.

jt

jt august wrote:

Actually, Emeril used one night before last to make potato chips. Couldn't
find the part that rests on top of the food to guide it through the blade
and used it anyway. Nicked himself, too. :-)

Wow, I guessed wrong on that count. It's just that I've seen him work
wonders with a knife, so I would never have expected him to need a
mandolin.

jt

As I said earlier, it's not a matter of need, it's a matter
of convenience and uniformity.

--
Steve

jt august wrote:
These are very nice for people who have not developed the touch to slice
like this with a sharp knife (so I doubt we will ever see Emiril or any
of the Iron Chefs use one of these).
jt

Actually, Emeril used one night before last to make potato chips. Couldn't
find the part that rests on top of the food to guide it through the blade
and used it anyway. Nicked himself, too. :-)

Wow, I guessed wrong on that count. It's just that I've seen him work
wonders with a knife, so I would never have expected him to need a
mandolin.

Similarly, I *know* I've seen at least two of the "Iron Chef America"
Iron Chefs, and one of the Sous Chefs, use mandolines.

Donald

In article ,
says...
A lot of recipes I've seen recently call for items to be sliced with a
mandolin. Is it worth getting one? If so, what brand? What can a mandolin
do that a food processor doesn't do? I already have various slicing and
grating attachments for our Kenwood mixer.


I've used a couple of very expensive models of mandolines and owned a
couple of lesser-reputed ones, and imho none of them have ever been
useful enough to justify the effort needed to use and clean them or the
space needed to store them.

If you frequently need to do quantities of *uniformly perfect* thinly-
sliced, waffle-cut veggies, fingertips or other stuff, there may not be
an alternative. No slicing/dicing attachment for any mixer, blender or
food processor that I've ever used could duplicate the results that
*can* be produced by a careful, experienced mandoline user using a
capable model. Do you want to devote the time and effort to develop
that expertise?

But where are you seeing these recipes? Would they happen to be in a
recipe book that came with a mandoline, or perhaps a manufacturer's web
site? What kind of recipe "calls for" ingredients to be sliced by a
certain device?

Bob

yetanotherBob wrote:


But where are you seeing these recipes? Would they happen to be in a
recipe book that came with a mandoline, or perhaps a manufacturer's web
site? What kind of recipe "calls for" ingredients to be sliced by a
certain device?

Bob
I give up

--
Steve

I've seen a few in the cooking magazines in Australia. It must be the
latest fad.

I bought a Zyliss mandolin this week and it's fantastic. Right now we're
eating everything thinly sliced! I don't have particularly good knife
skills and the mandolin is a quicker way of slicing lots of things.

Thanks to all who gave input.

"yetanotherBob" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
A lot of recipes I've seen recently call for items to be sliced with a
mandolin. Is it worth getting one? If so, what brand? What can a
mandolin
do that a food processor doesn't do? I already have various slicing and
grating attachments for our Kenwood mixer.


I've used a couple of very expensive models of mandolines and owned a
couple of lesser-reputed ones, and imho none of them have ever been
useful enough to justify the effort needed to use and clean them or the
space needed to store them.

If you frequently need to do quantities of *uniformly perfect* thinly-
sliced, waffle-cut veggies, fingertips or other stuff, there may not be
an alternative. No slicing/dicing attachment for any mixer, blender or
food processor that I've ever used could duplicate the results that
*can* be produced by a careful, experienced mandoline user using a
capable model. Do you want to devote the time and effort to develop
that expertise?

But where are you seeing these recipes? Would they happen to be in a
recipe book that came with a mandoline, or perhaps a manufacturer's web
site? What kind of recipe "calls for" ingredients to be sliced by a
certain device?

Bob

On Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:22:31 +1000, "Viviane"
wrote:

I bought a Zyliss mandolin this week and it's fantastic.

Howdy,

What you bought was a mandoline.
^

A mandolin is an eight-string musical instrument. It
probably would work well for slicing soft foods only g.

All the best,
--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

Thanks! For some reason I had always thought the spelling was the other way
around (e for the instrument). This is not a spelling mistake I will make
again. Anyway, this one works well on hard foods too and washes more
easily!

"Kenneth" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:22:31 +1000, "Viviane"
wrote:

I bought a Zyliss mandolin this week and it's fantastic.

Howdy,

What you bought was a mandoline.
^

A mandolin is an eight-string musical instrument. It
probably would work well for slicing soft foods only g.

All the best,
--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

I'm no great shakes of a cook, and a mandolin suits me just fine.
Let's face it, if I haven't developed finely tuned knife skills after
53 years of cooking, I ain't gonna.

A chef once told me the fine chops or slices expose more flavor from
the dicee (?) So that's a nice goal.

Advantage over a food processor? Only one item dirty which goes into
the dishwasher. Slices instead of bits, but if you turn your back on
that food processor, it's mush. Slices look better in finished
product. They'll never know how they got there Knife or magic
machine.

I take the whole bunch of celery, rinsed, grab it with both hands,
hold the mandolin steady with my gut and whale away at it. About 4
swipes - done.

My present mandolin is a $5. cheapie from a deep discount store.

Joan

"Viviane" wrote in message
...
Thanks! For some reason I had always thought the spelling was the other
way around (e for the instrument). This is not a spelling mistake I will
make again. Anyway, this one works well on hard foods too and washes more
easily!

And plays tunes so that you can whistle while you work.
Who cares how you spelled it, we all knew.

A real mandolin can be used for slicing fresh pasta. Yeah, everyone, I
know, it's an Italian guitar.

I'm glad you found it.
Happy Cooking,
Dee Dee



"Kenneth" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:22:31 +1000, "Viviane"
wrote:

I bought a Zyliss mandolin this week and it's fantastic.

Howdy,

What you bought was a mandoline.
^

A mandolin is an eight-string musical instrument. It
probably would work well for slicing soft foods only g.

All the best,
--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."