Vegetable slicer

[glenn]

This is probably dumb, but here goes. I was looking online for an egg slicer and found that there are general-purpose slicers available to dice onions, celery, etc. I had no idea. Could the torture of dicing onions be over?! I mostly want one to slice eggs and dice onions. 

 

Are these multi-use devices worth it? Not that they cost that much. Which one is recommended?

[blue_dolphin]

3 minutes ago, glenn said:

Are these multi-use devices worth it?

My sense is that inexpensive multi-use devices rarely perform multiple tasks really well.  

I tend to doubt that an inexpensive vegetable chopper, handy for dicing lots of onions would also produce lovely, garnish-worthy egg slices.  But maybe you're not looking for pretty eggs.  

Personally, I'm very happy to use the same sharp knife for both tasks but I'm not slicing dozens of eggs nor dicing more than 5 lbs of onions at a time so I absolutely understand why someone might want an alternative. 

Everyone has their own needs and value perceptions, both of which change over time. 

 

 

 

 

[glenn]

2 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Personally, I'm very happy to use the same sharp knife for both tasks but I'm not slicing dozens of eggs nor dicing more than 5 lbs of onions at a time so I absolutely understand why someone might want an alternative. 

 

 

 

 

 

I gotcha. My goal is to get the job done quickly as patience is not a virtue. I mostly cook for myself so appearance is unimportant. And my knife skills are severely lacking. 

[blue_dolphin]

2 minutes ago, glenn said:

I gotcha. My goal is to get the job done quickly as patience is not a virtue. I mostly cook for myself so appearance is unimportant. And my knife skills are severely lacking. 

 

Those little wire egg slicers work quite nicely to make slices, assuming the wires are at the spacing you desire and are very easy to clean. My grandmother had one that I was always enamored of and I believe I was allowed to slice Play-Doh with it at some point. 

On the onions, I think there are a lot of chopping gadgets that might suit you, depending on how many onions you need to chop at a time, whether you need to dice only or also want to mince, chop and slice as well and how much patience you have for cleaning the thing! 

 

[heidih]

26 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

On the onions, I think there are a lot of chopping gadgets that might suit you, depending on how many onions you need to chop at a time, whether you need to dice only or also want to mince, chop and slice as well and how much patience you have for cleaning the thing! 

 

Yup - the cleaning issues and you still have to separate the skin and overly fibrous part before using a device.  

For a singleton I suggest a good sharp knife so you are not attacking the poor vegetable with a dull knife and fighting with it or mutilating it.. I almost always am cooking just for me and I have vision and hand issues. I am also gadget averse - so no judgement by me on the uniformity of my cuts AND no extra clean-up  

[Smithy]

I'm with heidih and blue_dolphin: in general I prefer to use my knife because the cleanup is easier. My husband is exactly the opposite because he hasn't cared to hone his knife skills. We have an alligator chopper that he uses for onions and potatoes, like this:

 

 

It has 2 grid sizes, for fine dice and large dice. (Incidentally, if he's going to be doing both onions and potatoes he does the onions first. The potatoes clean out the grid afterward.) It should be noted that he first has to slice the onion and/or potato into rounds so he can lay each round flat on the grid. We also have an inexpensive egg slicer such as blue_dolphin discussed. Again, it's because my husband prefers using it. That slicerr cleans pretty easily.

 

We also have a Moulinex that I bought on eBay thanks to the Cheese Shredder topic (see here). I like it for shredding cheese and slicing things, but have never tried it on eggs. I think it would be more trouble than it's worth for that usage.

[Kim Shook]

I have the one from @Smithy's post.  Different name, but same thing.  I have terrible arthritis in my knife hand and when it flares up, this device makes it possible for me to cook.  Cleaning is harder than a knife, of course, and depending on what I'm cutting, I may have to use a good bit of elbow grease, but it gets the job done.  

[glenn]

Thanks for the great responses! The Vidalia is exactly what I'm looking for.

 

Fyi, I do have an excellent Japanese chef knife that I got at Korin before I left NY. It needs sharpening though, something I'm not familiar with nor have I been able to find a service near me. Besides, someone needs to teach me how to use it! I'm really hopeless in the kitchen and cook out of necessity, not for fun! 

[Smithy]

On 4/17/2023 at 4:51 PM, glenn said:

Thanks for the great responses! The Vidalia is exactly what I'm looking for.

 

Fyi, I do have an excellent Japanese chef knife that I got at Korin before I left NY. It needs sharpening though, something I'm not familiar with nor have I been able to find a service near me. Besides, someone needs to teach me how to use it! I'm really hopeless in the kitchen and cook out of necessity, not for fun! 

 

It's good to know that the chopper is what you want!

 

If you should decide that you would like to acquire some knife skills, or improve them, then I recommend this excellent course from the eGCI (eGullet Culinary Institute) archives: Basic Knife Skills. The associated Q&A is no longer active, but you can still learn from the course. I did. Lots. 🙂

 

Edited to add: there's also a great course on Knife Maintenance and Sharpening in those archives. 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Smithy
Added link to knife maintenance and sharpening course (log)

[Annie_H]

15+ years ago I was looking for simple kitchen gadgets for my Mother with arthritis. (she hates crap gadgets). I picked up a smash type chopper from I think HomeGoods. Hilarious if something firm like an onion or anything a bit difficult, she would take it to the floor and smash it with her foot. 

They started only buying frozen mixed vegetables, spinach, peas. But local summer squash she can use the chopper easily countertop.

[gfweb]

On 4/17/2023 at 5:51 PM, glenn said:

Thanks for the great responses! The Vidalia is exactly what I'm looking for.

 

Fyi, I do have an excellent Japanese chef knife that I got at Korin before I left NY. It needs sharpening though, something I'm not familiar with nor have I been able to find a service near me. Besides, someone needs to teach me how to use it! I'm really hopeless in the kitchen and cook out of necessity, not for fun! 

Check out the knife threads here on eG. 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

On 4/17/2023 at 2:51 PM, glenn said:

Thanks for the great responses! The Vidalia is exactly what I'm looking for.

 

Fyi, I do have an excellent Japanese chef knife that I got at Korin before I left NY. It needs sharpening though, something I'm not familiar with nor have I been able to find a service near me. Besides, someone needs to teach me how to use it! I'm really hopeless in the kitchen and cook out of necessity, not for fun! 

Glenn, this is off the wall, but you might go to one of your huge food markets and find the stall that sells nopales.    At our local flea market, the nopales seller shaves the spines from the paddles with a razor sharp knife which he hones on the spot.    You probably can't get a better sharpening coach.    My guy was delighted to show me his technique.