How to use a mandoline — and keep your fingers

A little departure today fromour usual discussion of cooking methods and techniques. Instead, we’ll talk about a piece of equipment that is underutilized in most kitchens: the mandoline.

Why you need to learn this

Mandolines make quick work of many tasks that normally are performed with a chef’s knife, including french fries, veggie chips, potato casseroles and all sorts of other goodies. Using one gives youwonderfully consistent pieces of whatever you’re cutting quicker than you can shout, “Watch your fingers!!!”

The steps you take

First of all, some of you may not have heard of the mandoline, or you’re confusing it with the similarly named musical instrument, the mandolin. Note that our device includes an extra letter “e” at the end, like those creepy cats that Hemingway had with the extra toes.

Though mandolines come in several designs, they share their main feature: a flat surface at the end of which sits a stationary blade. By running a potato (for example) across that flat surface into the blade, it produces evenly sized slices.

Now, before I go on, I want to remind you of something I tellmy students all the time: Mandolines are very, very, very, very, very, very sharp. (Note: However many “very”smy editor left in that last sentence, you can be sure therewere about 37 more that he took out. Those things are all-caps SHARP!)

Full disclosure: OK, I admit it. I cutmyself onmy mandoline just this past Christmas. Iwas rushing (of course) to get 5 pounds of potatoes sliced in 5 minutes. Unfortunately, Iwas moving too fast to notice the slices piling up under the mandoline until they up and blocked the blade, stoppingmy potato in its tracks. The forward momentum sentmy thumb careening off the potato and into thewaiting blade like awayward dove into the windowof a gleaming glass skyscraper.

Fortunately, thoughmy poor thumbwas no match for the accursed contraption, the jammed potato stopped its forward trajectory so that the blade did not remove completely a thumby slice. Instead, it created a flap that Iwas able to slam closed and seal with a bandage.

Here’s the takeaway: Sure, I cutmyself. But, I’ve cutmyself a dozen times with a regular knife. It’s part ofworkingwith knives.

The good news is, your mandoline probably comes with a safety guard that comes between the food and your tender digits. Personally and ironically, I don’t use it because I feel that that extra layer of protection reduces, somewhat, the control I feel over the whole process. On the other hand, eschewing that extra layer of protection comes with the price of possibly removing a portion of yourself. That’s your call.

Another protective device you could getwould be a glove made out of chain mail, like something Lancelot might haveworn if he’dworked in a deli. Once again, I’d rather just practice slowly until I get to where I canwork quickly and safely.

James P. DeWan is a culinary instructor atKendall College in Chicago.