Is using a mandolin cheating?

Hi folks

I'm going to be cooking boulangere potatoes for the first time this weekend and the recipe recommended using a mandolin to slice them very finely.

I felt a little conflicted when I went to buy a mandolin as it kind of feels like an admission that my knife skills are not up to the challenge. I'm just a home cook but I think that my knife skills have developed a fair bit over the last few years with my interest and use of high quality kitchen knives. But I just don't think I'd be able to slice potatoes 1-2mms thick as consistently and evenly as a mandolin can.

Interested in hearing peoples' views on whether mandolins fill a definite void left by japanese knives or whether I'm just being lazy...

It's just another tool in the kit. I'm not afraid to admit I use a kevlar glove while on the mandolin. Lost a fingernail or two in the past so....

ThEoRy said:

It's just another tool in the kit. I'm not afraid to admit I use a kevlar glove while on the mandolin. Lost a fingernail or two in the past so....

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lus1:

Speed, consistency in cuts which aids in consistent cooking, plus once you start using it, the ideas you come up with to use it for are fun!

Just put your knives away so there's no hard feelings They're great for potato chips.

+1 on the Kevlar glove. Most painful cut I ever had in the kitchen was on a mandolin. Made a nice even slice of finger tip though.

Mandoline (with the 'e', mandolin refers to the small guitar) accidents are scary. I had also bought a kevlar glove as a precautionary measure, but a couple months ago I bought the Shun Pro mandoline off Craigslist in good shape, and it actually has a food holder that works, if you can believe it. Really love that I can sharpen the main blade too. I recently touched it up on my new'ish Arashiyama 6000 to give it a nice polished but slightly aggressive edge.

I don't use it often, but when I want things super consistent, like potato chips, a gratin or say for dehydrating, it can't be beat. Also great for turning a whole head of cabbage into coleslaw in like 2 minutes (and much of the time is actually transferring the mount of coleslaw to make room for more coleslaw).

I sometimes see chefs on TV use a Benriner for shaving fine slices of truffle, but I think I'd probably rather use one of my thinner gyutos, say like a Takamura R2 or even just my Misono 440 210 mm to do that. Can anyone convince me why I would instead want to use a mandoline here?

Mangelwurzel said:

Interested in hearing peoples' views on whether mandolins fill a definite void left by japanese knives or whether I'm just being lazy...

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Get a Japanese mandolin (I recently got the regular and jumbo Benriner) to have the best of both worlds.

When doing lots of mundane repetitive work requiring consistency it can't be beat. I used to do cabbage for sauerkraut with a knife by hand, but used a regular mandolin last time which has since been gifted to my brother now that I have the jumbo Benriner.

I have a glove but haven't used it since I'm at home and can take the time to be cautious, the last bit will get the knife treatment or else to the compost bin. No shame in using the glove, especially in a fast paced pro environment where your hands are your money-makers

He'll no. A mandolin is an amazing tool in any pro kitchen and a huge help for many things. Not cheating at all.

If it's cheating, I've been cheating awhile. No glove, just respect and fear. Mandolins are thirsty.

People, it's mandoline. We're not discussing the musical instrument here! :knife:

The title says Mandolin. Can't you read???:groucho:

I find that for some recipes it is simply impossible to get what you need even with a super sharp knife and great skills.

For example, there is a great way to make healthy potato chops by brining the potatoes, slicing them uber thin and zapping them in a microwave. I don't care how good your knife skills, nobody in their right mind wants to cut a potato into 30 or 40 paper thin slices by hand!

gic said:

I don't care how good your knife skills, nobody in their right mind wants to cut a potato into 30 or 40 paper thin slices by hand!

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??? :scratchhead:



Oh, wait maybe you meant to say 60-70 slices? :laugh:

well the slices need to be like 3 or 4 mm at most and need to be uniform for the microwave zapping to work

Can you give the full recipe for this?

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-crispy-potato-chips-in-the-microwave-166718

I brine the slices so they are salty and having them slightly wet seems to improve the microwave process. Also take the time measurements with a grain of salt, it's really very microwave dependent

The result is oil less and really tasty chips I think.

(I actually use the mastrad gadget but it is hardly necessary

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z762VA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 )

I use a giant one labeled "KrautKutter" with a patent date of 1909 when I make sauerkraut -- usually using a dozen or so cabbages and ending up with 8 gallons or so.

30 min and a huge pile of evenly cut cabbage vs the whole day slicing away, no it's not cheating, it's how you get work done.

Ditto for cutting up cucumbers for bread-and-butter pickles. Cutting up three or four gallons of sliced cucumbers by hand isn't a chore I would want, when I can do the job in minutes with the kraut cutter.

My aunt remembered it from when she was a child, so it's probably 100 years old. I had to repair the sliding box the cabbage goes in, and I sharpened the blades this year, probably for the first time.

Peter

psfred said:

I use a giant one labeled "KrautKutter" with a patent date of 1909 when I make sauerkraut -- usually using a dozen or so cabbages and ending up with 8 gallons or so.

30 min and a huge pile of evenly cut cabbage vs the whole day slicing away, no it's not cheating, it's how you get work done.

Ditto for cutting up cucumbers for bread-and-butter pickles. Cutting up three or four gallons of sliced cucumbers by hand isn't a chore I would want, when I can do the job in minutes with the kraut cutter.

My aunt remembered it from when she was a child, so it's probably 100 years old. I had to repair the sliding box the cabbage goes in, and I sharpened the blades this year, probably for the first time.

Peter

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pics! :viking:

psfred said:

I use a giant one labeled "KrautKutter" with a patent date of 1909 when I make sauerkraut -- usually using a dozen or so cabbages and ending up with 8 gallons or so.

30 min and a huge pile of evenly cut cabbage vs the whole day slicing away, no it's not cheating, it's how you get work done.

Ditto for cutting up cucumbers for bread-and-butter pickles. Cutting up three or four gallons of sliced cucumbers by hand isn't a chore I would want, when I can do the job in minutes with the kraut cutter.

My aunt remembered it from when she was a child, so it's probably 100 years old. I had to repair the sliding box the cabbage goes in, and I sharpened the blades this year, probably for the first time.

Peter

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I remember, when I was a kid and it was kraut season, an old man (who's name I forgot) went around in the village from household to household with a huge 'mandoline' to slice the cabbage for sauerkraut. He helped with the shredding, you fed him dinner, gave him a bag of apples or whatever worked best, and he went on to the next house. Grandma always had sauerkraut in the old natural stone cellar.

Other than that, Benriners are the way to go IMHO.

Stefan

gic said:

I don't care how good your knife skills, nobody in their right mind wants to cut a potato into 30 or 40 paper thin slices by hand!

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did you really come on a forum where people pay willingly 1K+ for a kitchen knife and really say that lol? :rofl2:

Not only is using a mandoline not cheating, neither is using a food processor!

Use a food processor seems like cheating when making pie dough because it makes the process so incredibly easy. I love (and actually regularly use) my food processor. I've also found it indispensable for grating large amounts of cheese. Not only is it less effort, but you don't have to worry about the awkward part when you scrap your knuckles against the box grater (or worse, badly cut yourself on a microplane) when the last bit of cheese gets smaller and smaller as you grate it. I haven't tried using an FP for slicing since I have a good mandoline though. While I can't say enough praises about my FP, I'm going to start getting into using a serious granite mortar-and-pestle (3+ cup) as I understand it processes the food differently (crushing) and you get more manual control.

When you're banging out 10 gallons of sliced cukes for bread and butter pickles every two days(among MANY other tasks), all that macho knife skills BS goes straight out the window, trust me...

In all seriousness though, there's a lot of fun things that are far easier to pull of with a mandoline/benriner. Hell, TK features them in The French Laundry cookbook. If that's not a good enough endorsement...

BTW anyone seen a wavy blade for the benriner? Like to make wavy pickle chips? I don't want to get a whole other mandoline just for this.

No, we looked for them at the restaurant, definitely not available

I'd like to find something commissioned for the jumbo Benriner. When I ordered it with the regular Benriner I couldn't get any replacement blades for the jumbo one. At lest they can be sharpened so the one blade should last awhile.

I'm actually going to be taking the jumbo on its maiden voyage this weekend for sauerkraut.

Don't think it is cheating, whatever works.

I enjoy and cut and shred everything pretty much like this video. Starting at 01:11

[video=youtube;XG8XxiINpaI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG8XxiINpaI&t=01m11s[/video]

Old school Hobart before they put all the safety crap on it.

I used to do cabbage by hand, but after a number of times the fun wears away of turning this:


into this (18" x 26" x 9" for reference):

I fear them so badly that it almost makes you more masculine, in my mind. I use a knife, but only because I'm terrified of mandolins. I've seen a few too many nasty accidents, thanks.