This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
Timely cooking is treasured especially when people have had an exhaustive day. One way to speed up meal preparation is by using a food slicer. Food slicers, particularly the electric ones can chop your food into tiny desirable shapes and sizes in a few seconds.
When the stomachs are rumbling, using a knife to slice your food can appear to take forever; besides, who’s got that energy to swing the blade around on an empty stomach?
Keeping a meat slicer in your kitchen will save you the trouble of struggling to cut meat, cheese, and other items into super thin slices. All you have to do is put the food onto the carriage tray, adjust the thickness using the thickness dial and push the “on” button and collect the shredded food from the other end.
Many people think that a meat slicer can only be used to slice meat only. That’s not right. There are many meat slicer recipes that you can prepare out of this tool. Basically, the slicer is there to help you as a quick chopping tool.
It cuts the ingredients into smaller bits that will make the food come out with great taste. The following are some of the recipes you can prepare with the help of a meat slicer:
Table of Contents
1. Beef tenderloin
If you want to make a sauce from beef tenderloin, you need the help of a food cutter to slice the beef into smaller pieces for cooking. It’s the perfect tool that can provide you with impeccably thin slices you are looking for.
2. Roast beef sandwiches
When you are making a sandwich, especially the open-faced ones, you need the slices to be equally thin- the kind of precision that is hard to attain with a knife. If one slice is bigger or smaller than the other, your audience may not enjoy the sandwich.
Generally, the sandwich slices are supposed to be super thin such that you don’t need to use a steak knife to get through it.
3. Cabbage roll recipe
Cabbage rolls are made from either beef or pork. Their processing requires the meat slices to be consistently thin. If you can’t attain that level of thinness, you will find it hard to stash the cabbage in those slices. If you use a knife, you are likely to shave the meat instead of cutting it into thin slices.
4. Chicken Florentine
Chicken Florentine is made from a combination of chicken breast, spinach, and cheese where the former and latter are stuffed into the chicken breasts. For this recipe to come out well, the chicken breast needs to be cut into thinner slices and then wrapped around spinach and cheese. If the slicing is done in a shoddy manner, the breast’s contents will come out.
5. Smoked Turkey
When you are preparing smoked turkey recipe, you need its meat to be chopped into smaller uniform sections. To achieve that, you need an electric meat slicer.
There are countless recipes you can make with the help of a food cutter as long as there is something that needs to be chopped into uniform slices. Other recipes that you can prepare with this tool include:
- Eggplant Rollatini
- Red cabbage salad
- Spanish pork chops
- Taco Ring
- Beef loaded caraway and vegetables
- Hunter’s stew and many more.
Pointers to observe when using a food slicer
Many of us have the tendency to overwork our food slicers without considering some of the pointers that are meant to improve their efficiency. In order to enjoy a long-term service, the pointers below will help you use your meat slicer effectively.
1. Slice bone-free meat
Giving your slicer bone-filled meat to slice will adversely affect the blades sharpness. The bone crushing process will result in the slicers close-soldering to weaken from the violent shakes. The same thing will happen if you slice fruits with hard seed in them.
2. Slice partially frozen foods
Fully frozen and thawed foodstuff are extremely had to slice into desired thickness. Therefore, if your aim is to serve a delicacy that is in good shape, slice foods that are partially frozen.
3. Fine edge or serrated edge blades?
Some slicers come equipped with serrated blades, but many sport fine edged cutting surfaces. If you want to cut hard foods that have crusts, a slicer with serrated teeth will come in handy. For paper thin foodstuff like ham, use fine edge blades.
4. Cut foods into sizable bits first
Some food items like leg of lamb or roast can spread over your slicer make it difficult to slice them into smaller portions. To fit them in the carriage tray, you first need to chop them into sizable bits then put each at a time on the slicer.
5. Proper washing
Every tool needs proper maintenance to last long. Washing is a part of slicer maintenance, but before you run water over it, unplug from the power first. Secondly, different brands are washed differently. Therefore, you need to go over the manual to understand the best way to wash it.
There are two things to observe when washing the meat slicer; first, never clean it inside a dish washer and second, steer clear of hard detergents. Use a soft rag to clean the tool with warm soapy water. Ensure all the particles have been eliminated.
So, if you find your slicer lacking in cutting ultra-thin slices, ask yourself the following questions; what blade does my slicer have? Was the food fully frozen? The nature of the blade and your food can greatly affect your outcome.
Wrap up
There are many meat slicer recipes you can prepare with the help of a food slicer. This tool automates your chopping work saving you many minutes that you can use to prepare something else. It’s a great investment that your cooking station can utilize.
However, you need to know that the meat slicer doesn’t replace the knife completely; some smaller chopping tasks could be left for the knife.