Electric (Meat) Slicers

[Anna N]

Another hole in the head is a possibility but I'd be more concerned about my fingers.

I'm with you. I have 10 (not so) tiny fingers and ten (not so) tiny toes and no electric meat slicer. I have always thought there was a very close relationship between the two facts of my life. I do have a manual meat slicer but find little reason to use it. The amount of meat I choose to slice can be done fine with a sharp knife.

[palo]

^^Safer than a mandoline.

 

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[JoNorvelleWalker]

^^Safer than a mandoline.

 

p

 

That's not saying much.

[Deryn]

I have definitely sliced more fruits and vegetables than meat with my slicer (though I have done meat and it works well for that too). I often use it for anything that needs to be utterly consistent in thickness and/or is a large quantity and/or needs to be cut up quickly. It works great for prepping a lot of veg/fruit for dehydration (or freeze-drying) in particular or when I need a pile of onions for confit or a lot of oranges for marmalade, or disposing of a mountain of zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes or cucumbers, etc.

 

I use the guard as much as possible - I like my fingers too! So far, so good .. no blood (which is more than I can say for when I am wielding a knife or grater) and all 10 intact. It is one of the lighter 'appliances' that I own and fairly compact (though much larger, of course, than a mandoline). It is relatively easy to both store and take out when I need it so I find myself using it far more than I ever thought I would.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Deryn (log)

[Marlene]

I'm in the market for a meat slicer.  Its mostly going to be for slicing homemade bacon because doing that by hand is a pain.. though I'm reasonably sure I can find other things do with it.  Thinly sliced roast beef after making a roast would be lovely for example.  Hobart is probably more machine than I need I think and without selling my firstborn child whom I'm rather partial to, more expensive than I need too.    I have a Cabela's vacuum sealer and love it.  So maybe cabelas?  

Smooth over serrated blade is preferable and needs to have enough draw to hand a pork belly in one go.  I had a waring pro slicer for a while and I pretty much had to cut the pork belly in half lengthwise before I could slice it.  On this page, I'm thinking the 10 or 12 inch  commercial grade slicer which (I think has a smooth blade.  Id' love the pro cut one but again probably more machine than I really need.  I can't tell if the pusher is metal or not but that would be a plus.

 

cabela slicers

 

Thoughts anyone? 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

34 minutes ago, Marlene said:

I'm in the market for a meat slicer.  Its mostly going to be for slicing homemade bacon because doing that by hand is a pain.. though I'm reasonably sure I can find other things do with it.  Thinly sliced roast beef after making a roast would be lovely for example.  Hobart is probably more machine than I need I think and without selling my firstborn child whom I'm rather partial to, more expensive than I need too.    I have a Cabela's vacuum sealer and love it.  So maybe cabelas?  

Smooth over serrated blade is preferable and needs to have enough draw to hand a pork belly in one go.  I had a waring pro slicer for a while and I pretty much had to cut the pork belly in half lengthwise before I could slice it.  On this page, I'm thinking the 10 or 12 inch  commercial grade slicer which (I think has a smooth blade.  Id' love the pro cut one but again probably more machine than I really need.  I can't tell if the pusher is metal or not but that would be a plus.

 

cabela slicers

 

Thoughts anyone? 

 

When I was in business we sold components to Formax for use in their commercial bacon slicers.  Great quality but probably more than you want in your living room.

 

[Marlene]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

When I was in business we sold components to Formax for use in their commercial bacon slicers.  Great quality but probably more than you want in your living room.

 

Oh sure I could put one of those right beside the commercial deep fryer system I've always wanted. Sitting in the living room is over rated anyway lol.   Sure is pretty but yeah I think way more slicer than I would need or have room for. 

[Okanagancook]

I have had a Chefs Choice slicer for years.  Used to slice bacon and meat as you mention.  I have to cut the bacon strips in half to slice otherwise it does not fit.  That is not a big deal for me.  It has always done a good job and has a relatively small foot print.  Not sure what the price is nowadays.  Had it for about 30 years!  You can get two kinds of blades.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, Marlene said:

Oh sure I could put one of those right beside the commercial deep fryer system I've always wanted. Sitting in the living room is over rated anyway lol.   Sure is pretty but yeah I think way more slicer than I would need or have room for. 

 

Well and good if you are merely trying to feed your family.  If you are selling a pound of bacon commercially and the package comes up short you are in deep doodoo.  Formax uses 3D scanning, originally with our cameras, to insure your customer receives all the porcine goodness for which they paid and not one micron more.

 

[dscheidt]

3 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

I have had a Chefs Choice slicer for years.  Used to slice bacon and meat as you mention.  I have to cut the bacon strips in half to slice otherwise it does not fit.  That is not a big deal for me.  It has always done a good job and has a relatively small foot print.  Not sure what the price is nowadays.  Had it for about 30 years!  You can get two kinds of blades.

I had a chef choice 609 or 610 for several years.  It worked fine.  For what it cost, it was good.  It had a number of annoyances, one being the small blad (7"/180 mm, something like that), which limits what you can cut up.  It's also a bit annoying noisy, with a whiney high-rpm motor.  The tray to catch cuttings sucks.  (this appears to have changed in the newest model, which is more expensive than the old, by a lot.  I don't know if they've fixed other issues I had with it.)  It's under powered, cutting cheese is a chore, and blew a couple fuses trying to do too much at one go.  My biggest gripe was the minimum thickness was too thick for italian beef.  (A chicago thing, thin sliced roast beef for a sandwhich)  And the thickness setting wanders away from the thinnest setting, so it has to be held in place, which complicates slicing.  (this isn't an issue at thicker settings.  It drifts, but pretty slowly, and you can just check it visually ever few slices.)  the optional blade (serrated, I think) improves performance a lot. 

 

I bought a 12" Berkel from a thrift store, spent a lot of time cleaning it, and repairing it.  It's vastly superior, but for some reason, my wife won't let me keep it in the kitchen, so I don't use it too often. 

[Okanagancook]

The Chefs Choice isn’t perfect for sure.  But for the number of times we use it and the cost I am happy with it.  It is small but stores well.