Tricks to making carpaccio
However you slice it, homemade carpaccio isn’t easy. This simplest of preparations — super-thinly-sliced something, dressed — isn’t simple when you pick up your knife and get to cutting.
So put down the knife and just pick up some tricks.
You’ll read how to partially freeze chunks of beef or fish before slicing them see-through thin, the cold making it easier. No need, really, when you can take a slice merely as thin as you comfortably can get it and pound it thin between two layers of waxed paper or plastic wrap (the best: a large, zippered bag). This works very well for both beef and many sorts of fish.
Safe, pound-worthy implements include a meat mallet, should you have one, the flat of a heavy-bottomed pan or merely the bottom of a thick-walled ale glass.
To slice both vegetables and fruits very thinly, for years I’ve used a Japanese-made mandoline from Benriner. The company makes various slicers, each between $30 and $40. Any of them slices vegetables as thin as you may wish to adjust the mandoline, even close to paper-thin. Among my kitchen gadgets, my Benriner is a favorite, and useful in so many other recipes. (For instance, for slicing several onions for a stew or an onion soup, or for constructing a potato gratin or frying homemade potato chips. A straightforward attachment also allows me to julienne vegetables.)
Finally, Asian markets, especially those that cater to Vietnamese cooks preparing pho, sell super-thin slices of various cuts of raw beef (eye of round, sirloin, flank). There you have it: instant classic Venetian carpaccio, with someone else doing the dangerous and difficult work for you. (I shop H Mart, in either Aurora or Westminster.)
Recipes here include carpac