Are You Making This Dangerous Mistake With Your Mandoline Slicer?

Updated: May 12, 2023

We love our mandoline for getting paper-thin slices of produce like cabbage, radishes and apples. Not so much our fingers!

It’s the perfect time of year for this shaved fennel salad, featuring the melody of bright anise-flavored fennel, backed by the season-crossing harmony of sweet, crunchy honeycrisp apples, refreshing cucumbers and radishes. The ingredients are all sliced paper-thin.

The perfect tool to use is a mandoline like this one—it has super-sharp blades to make quick work of your salad prep. However, even the most graceful of mandoline “players” runs the risk of a nicked finger. We know. We’ve been there! Ouch.

Every chef needs these kitchen essentials.

The mistake we’re all making

Mandolines come with a slicing guard or food holder that’s supposed to hold food in place and protect your fingers. It’s usually bulky, doesn’t grip food well and leaves you with a pretty sizable chunk of unsliced produce. The guard also ends up mashing tomatoes (and other more delicate things) into a watery mess. It seems like the only option is to leave the guard behind and slice bare-handed.

But we have a better solution. We have got you covered with our list of the best mandoline slicers, tested by our pros.

How to keep your fingers safe

Cut Resistant GlovesAmazon / NoCry

We suggest investing in a pair of cut-resistant gloves. Amazon’s Choice for cut-resistant gloves is the delightfully named “NoCry” brand. (You can purchase ’em here.)

As powerful as your mandoline is, it’s no match for these gloves, which have a cut resistance four times stronger than leather. Yet they’re lightweight and, because they come in four sizes (S, M, L, XL), they provide a snug grip no matter how small or large your hands are. Having a good grip is essential when you’re trying to tackle a precise slicing job. Oh—the gloves are also machine washable.

Bottom line: Go forth and “play” that mandoline, but please keep your fingers safe! These kitchen safety products should be your cooking go-tos.

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