The Mandoline and the Knife

My sister and I recently attended one of those home parties for kitchen gadgets at a friend's house.

And it was really FUN!

We got to see all these wonderful gadgets being used to prepare a scrumptious meal.

I fully enjoyed it...met some great new people, enjoyed wonderful food, and learned about all kinds of tools and utensils and doohickeys for the kitchen.

And I'm a big believer in having the right tool for the job. It makes the task easier, more enjoyable, and more effective.

However, I'm no longer a believer in having every possible tool for every possible job. I have learned that's a sure-fire way to have a cluttered house full of stuff you rarely, if ever, use.

Take the act of slicing an apple.

There are many ways to do it: use a knife, an apple slicer, a peeler-slicer-corer combination, or a mandoline, to name a few.

So I decided to do a little experiment.

I had been considering getting a mandoline (a cooking utensil used for slicing and cutting juliennes) since I eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, and my sister offered me hers...the one she loved but that sat in a cupboard, mainly unused.

Here's what I did: I took two washed apples, ready to go.

Then I did my experiment, starting with the knife: I got out the knife and cutting board, cut the apple into fourths, cut out the core and seeds, and then sliced the rest into 20 slightly-less-than-uniform slices of apple, and then washed the knife and cutting board. Total time = 2:04 minutes (Seriously. I timed it from start to finish.)

Next came the mandoline. I got out the knife and cutting board to cut the apple into small enough pieces to use in the mandoline and to remove the core. Then I got out the mandoline, chose the correct blade for "fruit," took two tries to get the right rhythm, came up with 20 perfect uniform slices, a few not-so-perfect slices, and a few end pieces. Then I washed the knife, cutting board, mandoline base, blade, and food holder. Total time = 4:44 minutes.

End result?

Both tools do the job just fine. :)

And I do realize that if I often made, say, scalloped potatoes for a family of 6, or regularly invited guests over for pretty hors d'oeuvres (neither of which I do), a mandoline would come in handy for the sheer volume. If you need a lot of potatoes sliced, the mandoline is your work horse. It's worth the extra set-up time and cleaning effort.

However, when I even think about having one of my favorite snacks (a sliced Granny Smith apple with Trader Joe's Almond Butter), which am I more likely to pull out, the mandoline or the knife?

The knife, every single time.

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