# Kitchenaid Roto Slicer w/ Shredder - do I knead one?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 17, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484 "2010-12-17T06:21:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484/1 "2010-12-17T06:21:26Z")
China Wife loves making french onion soup and we all like eating it. How well does a Roto Slicer w/ Shredder do on slicing onions for French onion soup?
Does it make sense to get this attachment instead of some form of food processor?
answer is probably buried in this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=495215&highlight=kitchenaid)but it’s two years old already…
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2010, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484/2 "2010-12-17T08:44:49Z")
It only takes a few seconds to slice an onion by hand…it might take longer to set up the attachment than to just go ahead and slice them.
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2010, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484/3 "2010-12-17T09:54:58Z")
I have a mandolin I use, actually I have 2, but for most things I use a cheap little [slicer](http://www.thekitchenstore.com/070848009008.html) I have had for _years_ [hm, since 1983 actually]
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### Author:  [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2010, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484/4 "2010-12-17T10:38:46Z")
Posting to say I love the typo in the title! 😃
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### Author:  [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2010, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484/5 "2010-12-17T11:28:23Z")
I’d imagine that would really be rough on your hands.
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### Author:  [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2010, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484/6 "2010-12-17T12:02:50Z")
I have the slicer/shredder, and I rarely use it. In fact, I don’t even remember the last time I took it out.
99% of my onion slicing is done by hand. As **needscoffee** points out, it takes more time to dig out the attachment and set it up than it does to slice a moderate number of onions.
I use a cheapo [mandolin](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000VZ57C/ref=nosim/ruhlmancom) to do slicing jobs that I need thinner than I can do by hand.
Lastly, I have a food processor that I sometimes use for slicing. But now that I think about it, I can’t remember the last time I used it for that. Hmm. As with the Kitchenaid attachment, it’s more work to pull out the machine, set it up, do my slicing, then clean the machine than it is to just do it by hand.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2010, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484/7 "2010-12-17T14:13:38Z")
We have one, and while it normally pines for the fjords, if we need a massive pile of something sliced, it’s wonderful.
If you need to slice up something like two dozen cukes, or shred ten pounds of carrots, this is the thing to have - just put a bowl at the output end and start jamming in the veggies non-stop. Cleanup is not tough.
in reality, if you’re not a caterer who needs to make salad by the bushel basket, you probably don’t need this attachment.
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### Author:  [@MilTan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MilTan)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484/8 "2010-12-17T14:30:14Z")
All right. Pet peeve time. A slicer is called a _[mandoline](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandoline)_, not a _[mandolin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandolin)_. The latter is a musical instrument, and while I suspect you could slice things with the strings (as a mandolin player, believe you me: those things can _cut_), it’d probably be pretty messy.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484/9 "2010-12-17T14:33:06Z")
Maybe you knead a bread machine more.
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchenaid-roto-slicer-w-shredder-do-i-knead-one/564484/10 "2010-12-18T02:31:27Z")
We had a slicer until one of the China Bambinas took off her bird finger nail and top layer of skin a few weeks ago. That mandoline is in a landfill somewhere.
Slicing by hand is doable but is a lot of work and not so easy to get uniform slices.