As I saute a lovely pan full of julienned yellow squash, onions, and dill, it occurs to me that julienning vegetables is such a pain in the but largely because I am trying to do it with a banged-up crappy plastic mandoline slicer I bought for $5 at TJ Maxx seveal years ago. As much as I love to cook (see borsch recipe in my thread on beets; making that one for a crowd takes bloody forever to chop all the veggies!), I’m a grownup now, and it’s time for some decent equipment.
I like the mandoline concept, being non-electric and all, but the execution of mine kind of sucks. I’ve priced more solid, metal construction ones, and they are expensive. Food processors, however (at least the decent ones) are even more expensive and take up a lot more space (a serious consideration in my apartment, especially with all the kitchen stuff I’ve accumulated), but seem more versatile, especially the ones that come with various discs and the opportunity to add acessories later.
So please help me balance additional pros and cons here. Any favorite brands/models?
I have both mandolines and a KichenAid food processor. For small amounts, I use the mandoline (a plastic one), for large amounts the other. The advantage to the processor is as you state–more functions. Chopping is a breeze, and juicing is fast and easy. I have two of the metal mandolines and they sit in their boxes whimpering. I’ll mail you one, if you like. I like the KitchenAid in general, but I think most of them are pretty similar. You might try epinions.com to see what the public thinks.
I’ve had a Black and Decker processor with all the fancy discs and such for many years. It does make quick work of slicing and grating and stuff but you know what? I never use it for those things anymore. Unless I’m using just the blade, it quietly looks on while I use the mandolin, knives or basic box grater. Those all clean up a lot easier. The time I save in the actual work is lost during cleanup. Don’t get me wrong. I love my processor, when it comes to the “blender” type operations. For everything else though, I prefer the more manual methods. I’m not sure which drawer my other discs are even in anymore.
Eva, I’ve seen a cheap mandoline whip through 30 pounds of carrots at the music festival I cooked for. Consider getting yourself a slightly sturdier replacement. While the $120.[sup]00[/sup] all metal models are splendid, there’s no need to break the bank. I found a useful interchangeable three blade plastic model at Marshall’s for all of $8.[sup]00[/sup].
I’ve always been opposed to electrical kitchen gadgets. I don’t even own a microwave yet, although I designed in a nook for one in my new kitchen. One of the few small appliances I’ve ever sworn by is the stick or hand blender. They do a phenomenal job, don’t cost much and take up very little room. I recently purchased a Cuisinart Mini-Prep[sup]®[/sup] and am very pleased with its performance. It’s reversible blade can chop or grind and the machine has a 6"² footprint. All of this makes it ideal for the small kitchen. Yes, it has a limited capacity, but its ~$20.[sup]00[/sup] price and space saving size makes up for it.
If you don’t own a stick blender, check through your local thrift shops. I find the good Braun models all the time for only $10.[sup]00[/sup]. I can puree sauces or salsas with a stick blender and push them through a sieve in about the same time as setting up and cleaning a food processor. Look into these items out sometime, they make for a compact and effecient kitchen.
Love the stick blender. Hate the microwave, which is why I have one that set me back a whole $80. Most of my chopping, shredding, grating, etc. is done with knives and a nice set of graters of varying blade sizes. The only time I really use the food processor is if I’m making a large meal for lots of people. My spouse uses it every week for making OJ. Can’t be beat for making a huge amount of say, scalloped potatoes, or shredding a huge block of cheddar.
Chefguy, I could not agree with you more. One of my cooking idols, Jaques Pepin, mentioned how during his training years it was a simple fact that a competent chef had to be able to quickly perform most common kitchen food preparation with a good knife and little else.
I’m glad to hear that you like the stick blender too. I find it to be one of the most useful electrical kitchen gadgets of them all. It is also an ideal wedding gift. I rate its utility right up there with the classic Kitchen Aid mixer.
Eva, if you really have an itch to spend a big chunk of change, I’d say invest in a high quality mandoline. All the other stuff is basically decorative.
Well, he’s got 2 mandolines currently doing nothing, right? (And Chefguy, how did you end up with 2 if you don’t even use the first one? Wedding gifts or something?)
Hmmmm, I’m seriously thinking about that swap. What could I I send you in return? I’m in Chicago, so I have access to pretty much anything. I live within a mile or two of grocery stores representing about a dozen different ethnic groups, so I can buy, say, large quantities of any spice or condiment used in Indian or Southeast Asian cooking for practically nothing (and much fresher than the supermarket stuff, too). I’ve also got (somewhere, anyway) a few jard left of homemade mango daiquiri jam, and somewhere a quart jar of homemade cranberry conserve. Name your rpice!
I’m not much for electrical gadgets, either. I do have a hand electric mixer, which works for pretty much all the same things as a stick blender (plus does a better job on cookie or muffin batter), which I got for $1 at a garage sale, and a microwave which I bought from a friend of my sister’s for $10 in a moving sale. I’ve got a combo blender/small food processor (3 cup capacity) thingie, which works OK for things like hummus and salsa and pesto, but I can only puree stuff with it; it doesn’t slice or julienne or that kind of thing. And a toaster oven.
But I like multi-purpose hand gadgets, especially ones that work properly. Whaddaya say? I hate to hear an appliance whimper.
I am well and truly pissed at this point. I tore the garage apart looking for my mandolines and no dice. I finally asked my spouse if she knew where they were and she tells me that since I never used them, she gave them to the friggin’ Sallies. The one was a piece of crap, but the other was a friggin’ Bron for chrissakes, that I bought in Paris, and paid a shitload of money for. It had the blades that could julienne in three sizes, etc. Shit, shit, shit. Man, I was really looking forward to the mango preserves… Well…it’s just stuff, I guess. Sorry to get your hopes up.
Chefguy, sorry to get your hopes up! Oh well…maybe I’ll check Ebay or Amazon. No hurry in any case. Sorry you went to all that trouble of digging through your garage! I hope you at least found something else you’d been looking for, as long as you were there.
If it’s any help, the mango jam is my own recipe, but it’s pretty simple. Basically I just took a basic low-sugar peach jam recipe from the ones that come in the pectin box (I like my jam to taste like fruit, not sugar), but substituted mangos for peaches, lime juice for lemon juice, and threw in a couple spoonfuls of rum per pint. Can, and enjoy!
's ok. I was wondering how effective using a mandolin in cooking would be myself. I suppose it could work, the strings working like the wire cheese cutters do, but what would you do with the food that fell inside?
Chefdude, like, you are so killing me. Given away to the Starvation Army, your French mandoline? Is there a super secret spare backup one that we can both slit our wrists with?
