Blake Royer bought a plastic mandoline with a ceramic blade made by Kyocera for just $25 and found it just as good as more expensive steel models.
Never mind that a cell phone company makes it; this thing works. And it makes me look like a fast, skilled cook, especially with winter salad recipes like this one. Making the dressing, which involves dumping everything into a jar and shaking like mad, is the labor-intensive part. Otherwise, I just lazily slide my vegetables over the mandoline’s ceramic blade, resulting in beautiful, paper-thin, uniform slices. I toss, serve, and accept the compliments.
Dinner Tonight: Fennel, Arugula and Green Apple Salad [Serious Eats]
Sometimes we Westerners can so sound so provincial. Kyocera is a ceramics company (Kyoto Ceramic Co. Ltd.) that was formed in 1959. It branched out into electronics later. They’re pretty famous for their ceramic knives.
I have a mandoline in my kitchen that I love and fear in equal amounts. My wife used it on a whim two weeks ago and sheared the end of her thumb off. She got eight stitches and made me throw it away. I hid it in a cabinet instead. (Unless you’re reading this, Erin. I that case I really did toss it out.)
-JP
Just a tip from someone who has a couple of these. Buy one of those Kevlar-ish cut-resistant gloves. I once did a number on a fingertip with these. Those ceramic blades are shaaaaaaaaaaaaaarp.
Another surprising ceramics manufacturer is Coors (yes, as in beer). The ceramic crucibles I used in chem classes back in the day were made by them.
http://www.coorstek.com/history.asp
ceramic blade == cool, but I prefer mine which cost like $10 at the local Japanese store (or was it at a Korean store, I forget) and has replaceable steel blades, some of which have slots for making julienned veggies. Only problem is I’d like to make thicker slices for pickles…
And the Engrish instructions are some of the best!
Here are two safety options for those of us who either lose or don’t like to use the pusher with our mandolines:
1: safety gloves aka “fillet” gloves – seriously, these are awesome. I also use them for boning meat. They allow good dexterity and actually improve your grip on many slippery items. They used to be steel mesh or chain, but the new ones of the last few years are worlds better. I like my Lindys: http://www.google.com/products?q=lindy+fish+gloves
2: sushi chefs will use one of the ubiquitous cotton towels when using mandolines (never on fish, of course, but for vegetables when paper-thin cuts are needed on something like ginger). Just fold it into a rectangle big enough to cover the item being cut and lay it on top of the piece and use the center of your palm to push the item over the blade. Generally, as long as the towel is loose enough, it will be pushed by the blade rather than get cut. If it does, consider the alternative and smile.
I have this exact model. It works well for relatively small and soft stuff (like small potatoes), but sucks in huge way for tougher stuff like butternut squash. Not a fault of the blade really, but the plastic frame just bends and warps resulting in completely uneven slices and jamming.
I have a giant steel model that’s a pain to set up, but is wonderful in it’s consistency.
Well I did use a mandolin to slice off a chunk of my thumb a couple of years ago and actually it isn’t that bad because as I type this I can’t really remember which thumb it was because it’s grown back so well.
The new Cooks Illustrated has reviews of several mandoline slicers and the Kyocera comes in second but rates a best buy. The only downside is that it doesn’t have interchangeable blades.
Anonymous – try a different picking technique with you mandolin, or try the banjo.
wearing a simple rubber glove is an effective way to prevent accidents when using any mandolin. Rubber gloves not only adds a layer between your fingers and the blade, they also give you a better grip on the items to be shredded. I see horror stories on various posts about fingers being sliced off. This may be a result of dull blades which require you to push harder. If your blades are sharp, you will not be required to push as hard.