A mandoline is a cooking utensil used for slicing and for cutting juliennes

Julienning

Julienne is a culinary knife cut in which the food item is cut into long thin strips, not unlike matchsticks. Sometimes called 'shoe string', e.g. 'shoestring fries'...

; with suitable attachments, it can make crinkle-cut

Crinkle-cut

Crinkle-cutting means cutting so the result is corrugated . One can do this with specialized knives or mandoline. It is frequently used for potato chips, and is also referred to as ruffled, by analogy with the ruffle, a strip of fabric often gathered, creating regular folds. It is also commonly...

s. It consists of two parallel working surfaces, one of which can be adjusted in height. A food item is slid along the adjustable surface until it reaches a blade mounted on the fixed surface, slicing it and letting it fall. The tool has been popularized among non-professional and casual cooks, in the form of a plastic version, without many of the attachments found on professional models.

Other blades perpendicular to the main blade are often mounted so that the slice is cut into strips. The mandoline juliennes in several widths and thicknesses. It also makes slices, waffle cuts crinkle cuts, and dice with firm vegetables and fruits.

Advantages

With a mandoline, slices are uniform in thickness, which is important with foods that are deep-fried or baked (e.g. potato chips), as well as for presentation. Slices can be very thin, and be made very quickly, with significantly less skill and effort than would be required if cutting with a knife

Knife

A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...

 or other blade.

Operation

A mandoline is used by running a piece of food (with some protection for fingers) along an adjustable inclined plane into one or more blades. On some models vertical blades cut to produce julienne, or a wavy blade is used that produces crinkle cuts. In these models a quarter turn to the food between passes produces dice and waffle cuts.

Safety

The item being sliced is normally held in a carrier to protect the cook's fingers. However, these can be hard to use, hard to clean, ineffective, and sometimes dangerous in their own right, so a protective glove (often made of kevlar

Kevlar

Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...

) can be substituted.

See also

• Grater
  Grater
  A grater is a kitchen utensil used to grate foods into fine pieces. It was invented by François Boullier in the 1540s.-Uses:...
  
   an older kitchen implement, sometimes also used for slicing
• Food processor
  Food processor
  A food processor is a kitchen appliance used to facilitate various repetitive tasks in the process of preparation of food. Today, the term almost always refers to an electric-motor-driven appliance, although there are some manual devices also referred to as "food processors".Food processors are...
  
  the electric kitchen appliance, that sometimes uses mandoline-like blades

External links

• Mandoline Parts Overview