Mandolines

[lindag]

Anna,

Do you use the accompanying pusher or a cut-proof glove with your mandoline?

I mostly use my glove as it's more maneuverable than the big pusher. 

[Smithy]

I seem to be an outlier regarding the V-slicer design.  I tried one (by OXO, I think) and found that the apex made a pinch point right at the thickest part of the vegetable in question.  Things jammed there.  I took it back.  The single angled blade makes the most sense to me. 

 

Can't comment on the Bron or Benriner, either one.  

[kayb]

I have a prototype Edgeware that never went into full production. It's a V-slicer. I love it. I use a heavy silicon oven mitt when slicing. Use it mostly during canning seasons.

 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, lindag said:

Anna,

Do you use the accompanying pusher or a cut-proof glove with your mandoline?

I mostly use my glove as it's more maneuverable than the big pusher. 

Both?

[gfweb]

I have a kevlar glove for big jobs when I might lose focus.

[EatingBen]

Benriner, I've had a few different ones over the years but this one is the one I use more then I've ever used any other mandolin. It cleans with just a spray down with water, a violent shake and all the water comes off and it hangs to dry on its home on the rack. 

 

Sure it is a basic mandolin in that is doesn't do a while bunch of different styles of cuts but it's fast to set up, use and clean. Its also apparently dishwasher safe but I'e never had to put it through the dishwasher 

[palo]

Swiss Borner here, works for me.

 

 

[MSRadell]

On ‎1‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 6:01 PM, EatingBen said:

Benriner, I've had a few different ones over the years but this one is the one I use more then I've ever used any other mandolin. It cleans with just a spray down with water, a violent shake and all the water comes off and it hangs to dry on its home on the rack. 

 

Sure it is a basic mandolin in that is doesn't do a while bunch of different styles of cuts but it's fast to set up, use and clean. Its also apparently dishwasher safe but I'e never had to put it through the dishwasher 

Which One is?

[EatingBen]

2 hours ago, MSRadell said:

Which One is?

https://www.amazon.com/Benriner-Vegetable-Slicer-with-Tray/dp/B000BI4DOA/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1485755675&sr=8-9&keywords=benriner that one

[Margaret Pilgrim]

As a flea market and garage sale junkie, I come across quite wonderful kitchen tools at give-away prices.     Professional mandolins fall into this category, as they are too complicated and limited in appeal for dealers to fool with them, and non-cooks who received them as gifts usually toss them along with that other workhorse, the food mill.     Over the years I have owned probably a half dozen really good German and French mandolins.    I lovingly bring them home, pet them, talk to them and put them away.     Once I left one out on the counter for months, thinking that would encourage me to use it.    Uh, uh.   Fortunately I have a friend who has a used kitchen item shop and she readily buys these from me at multiples of what I paid and still finds good mark up.

 

Finally I discovered the Japanese ceramic hand held mandolin.    I have collected several, one is adjustable for 4 thicknesses.    These gadgets are so, so easy to grab and use that I am sure that I use one or another several times a day.    They rinse clean in seconds, have no parts and store standing in a corner or in the country I have a high hook, above child or clumsy civilian height, where one hangs.   

 

I can't recommend more strongly.    This guy is a oaf but he does show the product well.

 

[gfweb]

I have the microplane adjustable slicer and use it weekly at least. Cleans easily. Cuts fast.

Just get a kevlar glove to be safe.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00132V18O?ie=UTF8&tag=kitchaudit-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00132V18O

 

[chileheadmike]

I hate those things. They scare the crap out of me. The only time I used one, I sliced a hunk off of my thumb. It's been 30+ years since I've cut myself with a knife and I good enough with it that I don't need one of those thumb guillotines. 

 

Edited July 12, 2019 by chileheadmike
Edit cuz I can't spel. (log)

[Smithy]

I too have the Kyocera adjustable mandoline. Works a treat.

[eugenep]

I sliced my finger the first time I used it. I got the Swimar Borne V slicer bc Cooks Illustrated recommended it. 

 

I don't like using it bc the veggie / potato gets jammed in the slicer 

 

so I have to use a super amount of force and then it pushes through but explodes all over the floor 

 

and it's super scary and unsafe besides being clunky and not convenient 

 

maybe I'll try the Japanese one instead of this 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Swissmar-Borner-V-1001-V-Slicer-Mandoline/dp/B0000632QE/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=v+slicer&qid=1562965403&s=gateway&sr=8-3

[pastrygirl]

Love my inexpensive Japanese one

 

https://www.amazon.com/Benriner-BR-11-E-Japanese-Vegetable-Slicer/dp/B000BI8EDG/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2ZIMOAB8D3AH1&keywords=benriner+mandoline+slicer&qid=1562968313&s=gateway&sprefix=benriner%2Caps%2C284&sr=8-3

 

In the summer I like to make salads with lots of thinly sliced raw vegetables - carrot, zucchini, fennel, celery, etc, this makes it super easy.

 

 

[chromedome]

I have a random handful of cheapies that I use for various things (each one has a thing or two I prefer it for) but the one I use most is a handheld, adjustable "Kobra" by de Buyer. The guard is actually functional, the blade is continuously adjustable through a pretty wide range of thicknesses, and the blade is very sharp. A quick rinse, air-dry, and it's back in the box (yeah, I'm the guy who keeps the boxes).

[Katie Meadow]

22 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

Love my inexpensive Japanese one

 

https://www.amazon.com/Benriner-BR-11-E-Japanese-Vegetable-Slicer/dp/B000BI8EDG/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2ZIMOAB8D3AH1&keywords=benriner+mandoline+slicer&qid=1562968313&s=gateway&sprefix=benriner%2Caps%2C284&sr=8-3

 

In the summer I like to make salads with lots of thinly sliced raw vegetables - carrot, zucchini, fennel, celery, etc, this makes it super easy.

 

 

I have the same one. Works just fine, fits in a shallow drawer, and doesn't look like a tool of the inquisition. Admittedly I don't use it very often; my knife skills are decent and I'm very lazy. I got it after giving away my expensive deBuyer contraption (purchased on eBay) that came in what looked like a saxophone case. I used it once. I can thin-slice a cucumber by hand in half the time it took to set that sucker up. The lucky recipient of the giveaway was over the moon about it and I haven't heard whether he still has ten fingers. 

[lindag]

I have a couple mandolins; one is an expensive one from about 20 years ago that is heavy and scary to use, the other is a plastic v- slicer that I like, in fact I’m using it this evening to make potatoes au gratin.  I always use a no-cut glove with it but those things are no guarantee that you won't get hurt, I know that from experience.  I got a bone bruise and a bad cut when using it to slice up a big rutabaga that required quite a bit of force to cut through.

[dtremit]

I've also had a Benriner for years, and love it, though I don't use it every day. Apparently they've just released a new version with a much improved hand guard (to call the old one an afterthought would be undue praise) and a few improved features. Wirecutter picked it as #1 in a recent comparison test; I have to say I'm tempted by the new design.

[scubadoo97]

On 7/12/2019 at 6:49 PM, lindag said:

I have a couple mandolins; one is an expensive one from about 20 years ago that is heavy and scary to use, the other is a plastic v- slicer that I like, in fact I’m using it this evening to make potatoes au gratin.  I always use a no-cut glove with it but those things are no guarantee that you won't get hurt, I know that from experience.  I got a bone bruise and a bad cut when using it to slice up a big rutabaga that required quite a bit of force to cut through.

Nearly took the tip of my right index finger off with the Benriner. My fault.  No glove and had a drink or two before prepping dinner and was slicing cooked beets paper thin.   Still have reduced feeling in that finger tip and some phantom soreness.   I do wear a glove every time I use a mandolin these days.  Not full proof but reduces the odds when drinking full proof spirits 🤣

 

 

[weinoo]

I have a real, heavy duty French one.

 

It's somewhere buried deep in a closet.

[cdh]

I have a Bron.  It doesn't spend time out on the counter, but is readily accessible and gets used when I want to make something like a Vietnamese salad that requires julienned stuff.  So much easier to put on the kevlar glove and push a couple big carrots and a daikon through the mandoline rather than playing fussy knife skills games on unwieldy round objects.

[gfweb]

10 hours ago, scubadoo97 said:

Nearly took the tip of my right index finger off with the Benriner. My fault.  No glove and had a drink or two before prepping dinner and was slicing cooked beets paper thin.   Still have reduced feeling in that finger tip and some phantom soreness.   I do wear a glove every time I use a mandolin these days.  Not full proof but reduces the odds when drinking full proof spirits 🤣

 

 

 

Who among us has not learned both of those mandoline lessons?

 

I'd add don't use a mandoline while another person is jabbering at you

[blue_dolphin]

10 hours ago, scubadoo97 said:

I do wear a glove every time I use a mandolin these days.

 

That is my rule as well.   Mandoline out: glove on!

[joancassell]

I just gave away my Borner mandoline, I found it too complex and intimidating and always used my antique Cuisinart instead. Just bought myself one of those lovely simple Benriners that I think I'll use more frequently, with my non-cut glove. (My old Oxo worked perfectly for about 15 years but the blade loss its sharpness and they changed the design so I couldn't get a new blade, sigh....)