Mandoline Food Slicer

A mandoline food slicer is one of those kitchen utensils I can’t do without. It’s not that I use it all the time, but it comes in handy for lots of slicing or tricky cutting.

I guess the utensil is named after the musical instrument because of the strumming or back and forth motion used for running the food over the blades. It’s a French word so it must have culinary clout! :o)

Rather than try and describe it to you, here’s a picture of my mandoline slicer. It's stainless steel constructed and has rubber grips to keep it from slipping while I'm sliding my veggies up and down the surface. It's about 16-inches in length and stands 10-inches high. It folds down flat for easy storage.

Note the plastic guard on the main blade. It’s there for a reason. The blades of a mandoline are razor sharp. You’ve got to handle this utensil with great care or else you could cut yourself very badly.

These are some of the other blades that come with the mandoline. As you can see, they too are very sharp and they're really pointy.

These are the blades that do the fancy and tricky cuts. Great for making sweet potato fries!!!

This is the hand guard.

The rounded cup fits in the palm of your hand.

The top pushes up to allow, say a turnip, to fit inside the cup.

As you slide the food up and down the surface, your fingers are safely guarded. Note the arrows. Use these to help position and guide the plastic guard along the blades.

In the image below, you can see how the prongs hold the food securely in place.

So as you slide back and forth, the pressure from your palm pushes the turnip forward and it gets smaller and smaller until the whole turnip has been sliced.

I use the mandoline food slicer when I want very fine, even slices of a food item. Or if I need a julienne cut, a waffle cut or even a crinkle cut. It’s a really versatile kitchen tool!

The slicer comes with an instruction manual showing you how to use it and what blades do what.

I have only ever used 2 mandolines; a plastic one that promised a lot but did not hold up to regular use. And the one I now own and have used for many years. It is considerably more expensive but well worth the money.

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