Not every home kitchen has a mandoline, but nearly every good restaurant has some form of this handy device. For exact repetitive slicing or decorative julienne cuts there’s really no substitute. If you don’t like using a knife and cutting board, you may see the mandoline as just another problem. If you like the work involved in cooking from scratch, you’ll probably enjoy the mandoline.
Good mandolines have strong, sharp and replaceable blades. Few can be sharpened at home, and owners quickly learn that a fast flick of the wrist makes them work well enough even when that factory edge fades. Good mandolines clean up easily, with few cracks and crevices where food can lodge. Good mandolines have safety devices. Most require that a portion of the carrot, potato or other vegetable be sacrificed as a grip for the safety handle — the last chunk will not pass through the machine and don’t risk your fingertips trying. Use the safety handle. Leftover veggie bits make good snacks.
Learning the mandoline requires experimentation and patience. You learn what size of vegetable works best and what speed cuts cleanest and gradually you get dependable results and a high percentage of perfect cuts. Then you can brag about your fine mandoline.
The inexpensive Zyliss Easy Slice 2 — simple with excellent safety features and adjustable thickness settings — fits the needs of a small kitchen.
With blades for grating and slicing and julienne, the Norpro V is more than enough mandoline for the imaginative home chef.
Our choice for Best Mandoline is the Bron Original. It’s a professional grade slicer that gives consistent results with the inflexibility and long lifetime of stainless steel.
