you don't have to be a restaurant Chef
to appreciate a good mandolin mandolins
can slice and Julian fruits and
vegetables faster than a skilled chef
with a sharp knife and every slice comes
out perfect and now that's not just
important because the slices look nice
when cuts are uneven so is cooking for a
mandolin to be truly useful in the
kitchen on a daily basis it has to be
very easy to set up to use and to clean
up otherwi if you like most people you
might buy one but wind up saving it for
special occasions like when you're
making a special vegetable grattin or a
fancy shingled fruit tart now besides
being simple to use your mandelin feels
safe with these sharp blades you don't
want to mess around so ideally we wanted
a mandolin that can do multiple Cuts
quickly and conveniently and with no
fuss we picked nine models and they're
all priced less than
$50 now first a word about how a
mandolin works it's very simple you use
a handguard while holding the food you
slide the food along the platform toward
the blade to change the thickness of the
slice you adjust the distance between
the platform and the blade you can
switch the blades to get different
shapes like Julian or wavy Cuts now to
test these mandolins we cut up lots and
lots and lots of vegetables we sliced
firm potatoes and soft ripe Tomatoes we
made Julien Cuts with carrots and
potatoes making both fine match sticks
and thicker larger french fries now if a
machine claimed it could make other Cuts
Like waffle Cuts we tried that too and
we sliced zucchini lengthwise into
planks cutting them as thinly as
possible we learned that you need a very
sharp blade and a big unobstructed
platform for that to work now it wasn't
long before a lot of these mandolins
showed serious design flaws this one by
cheffen tries a different approach to
make it safer to slice you put the food
in this little round chamber and then
you slide the blade back and forth
instead of the food but problem you
can't slice anything bigger than this 3
and 1/2 inch hole so hello Stumpy french
fries and changing the blade was really
scary you have to push on the platform
and yank out the blade H yikes this one
by Ron was also flawed instead of
having you change the blades it just
sets two of them along this little
platform for thick and thin slices but
the platform is too skinny we even had
to squish down a tomato and trim a
potato and when you're slicing the food
bumps into both blades and you can't get
any real momentum going this one by
norpro tries to be everything mandolin
Shredder grater citrus juicer and it
winds up not being good at any of it
worse when it gets wet it's almost
impossible to push this little locking
mechanism at the bottom of the platform
that you need to do to change blades
that's just a bad design a lot of these
models didn't feel all that safe either
I mean look at the dinky handguards on
some of these they barely grip the food
and they barely Shield your hands from
the blades or when you change the blades
you've got to handle them on this one by
microplane you have to pck pinch and tug
at this incredibly sharp Julian blade
that's stored on the bottom it is not
good the models that felt the most safe
and efficient were ones that limited the
need to handle the blades at all this
one by Progressive International lets
you change the blades just by flipping
this switch you flip a lever on the side
and Julian spikes pop up no handling
required we like that design a lot and I
love this one by Kera the adjustable
slicer you just change the thickness of
the slice by flipping this bar on the
back our favorite model is this one by
Swiss Mar borer it's called the original
vs slicer plus mandolin it's got super
sharp blades that gave us perfect almost
diamond cut edges to every vegetable it
Glides through produce so fast you're
done before you know it it has that nice
long unobstructed platform so you can
make equally long graceful looking
zucchini planks or fulllength french
fries using it felt safe and easy it has
this nice big handguard feels good in
your hand protects your fingers changing
blades is quick and painless the vblade
always stays put you just change slice
thickness by flipping this plastic
plate when you want to do Julian you pop
in the plate you want holding it at the
opposite Edge Far From Any blades it's
really simple to clean you just rinse
and stack the parts in this caddy where
the blades can air dry and the handguard
hangs up like a hat makes it take up
only inches of space at just $31 the
swissmar borner original V slicer plus
mandolin it's worth keeping out on your
countertop because because you'll be
using it every day