Lars, I've had a WS slicer for 22 years. Originally, we purchased it for bread. Now, it's used for bread & all the uses you noted. Love it! It is NOT flimsy & is easy to clean. It does not live on the counter 'cause we go weeks w/o using it. Oh, we also use it for homemade smoked bacon. It's one of those appliances I wouldn't want to be w/o. We prepare our own lunch meats & it's terrific for things like slicing a large roast beef or ham.

/tricia

I don't think Williams-Sonoma still makes the meat slicer, but if yours works fine after 22 years, I think one of the other models should be acceptable.

Lars

DH bought one a few months ago and loves it. We use it mostly for slicing salumi..... it just tastes different when sliced thinly. Ours is a Chef's Choice.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chef's Choice model 610 slicer

We picked up a Waring Pro at Costco last year. We haven't used it much, but it seems to work well and it was the sturdiest one we saw in the price range.

Bumping this thread up because I'm interested in buying an electric slicer. Sorry if there's a newer thread, but I didn't find one.

It's not something I'd use a lot, so I'm not interested in the weight, footprint, or cost of even a cheap commercial unit like MTN.

I'm thinking about the most challenging thing I'd be looking to do is thin slices of raw top round for Rouladen. If you have a slicer, can you post a quick review and say if you think it would be up to that task?

Thanks in advance for not telling me I can slice meat with a knife! :)

"----Thanks in advance for not telling me I can slice meat with a knife! :)"

You can slice meat paper thin with a knife if you semi-freeze the meat.

:-)

I see meat slicers all the time in Goodwill stores.

dcarch

Something like this?

I bought this commercial Slicer back in 1993/4. And I bought it for the purpose of slicing a friend's homemade salami paper thin. Rick and Judy's salami was soooo gooood that it justified the cost of an expensive machine. I can't remember what I paid for it, but it was in $400 to $500.00 range.

Now it gets used basically to shave leftover prime rib for beef dip sandwiches.

Made in Italy - Food Machinery of America - Model #195.

Looks like they still make the same model. See Link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Meat Slicers

I ended up buying the Waring Pro, and the only (or main) complaint I would have about it is that it is difficult to adjust the thickness of the slices, especially for the very thin slices. It will still do very thin slices, but the adjustment is at the back instead of at the front, and the dial at the front would be much more convenient. That said, it still does everything I want and is fairly powerful at 130 watts. The more powerful the motor, the faster it will operate during difficult tasks. However, I really do not need it to be any faster, since I am not slicing mass quantities.

Most important consideration: how powerful the motor is.

Second: adjustability of slice thickness.

I opted for getting the most powerful motor, and even slicers costing 3-4 times as much were not more powerful. I bought a butcher block table from IKEA for this item, and I use it pretty much every day. It is great for slicing bread, which is what I use it for more than anything else, but I use it at least three times a week for cutting turkey breast, ham, and cheese for sandwiches. I also use it for hard salami, and that does slow it down a bit. Just do not expect it to cut through salami as if it were butter, as the butcher shop is able to.

Lars

In a perfect world... where my kitchen made Martha S JEALOUS... I'd definitely have a REAL deli slicer! I have a cheap-o slicer that I found at either a yard sale or thrift store for a few $$. I like it for slicing up turkey breast for roast beef. It does NOT come out DELI thin, but much thinner and more uniform than with my sharpest knife.

Also like to make my own bagel chips. One of the supermarkets I like to go to has discounted stuff from bakery area. "Fresh" bagels are $.65 each, but a bag of 6-8 (with a sell by date of TOMORROW) costs $1.50. My found slicer produces a much thinner result. I "doctor" slices up (LOTS of seasoning, butter and/or olive oil), then pop into oven in big roasting pan... at about 350, tossed about every 10 minutes till crispy. Much cheaper and more flavorful than box/bag bagel chips.

Just a point about slicing onions on a meat slicer- I was told by a service technician who came to fix one of those at the place where I worked, that you should not slice wet vegetables such as onions, tomatoes, lettuce etc (which the boss always did) on a meat slicer. Apparently the blade wicks up the juice into the workings and eventually the motor will short out.

I decided to upgrade my meat slicer and ordered an Avantco SL310 yesterday from webstaurantstore.com. The other one I was seriously considering was Best Choice 10", but its motor is 240 watts (1/3 HP), whereas the Avantco is 420 watts (also 1/3 HP). I am not sure how they can both be 1/3 HP and have such different wattage. While the Best Choice says it can be used for cheese and the Avantco says it is not for cheese, I am not sure whether I believe these claims. I probably won't be using it for cheese, but I think it would be okay to cut a couple of slices of cheese on the Avantco, especially if the cheese is hard, such as Provolone or Swiss, which is what I would be cutting. Soft cheese is definitely out. I tried cutting cheese on my old meat slicer, and it did a poor job. However, I have been using it for slicing pickles, and it does a great job on those, and I have not had a problem with juice wicking into the workings so far. I use my current one for bread, as it will always cut a uniform slice of bread. I will hold on to my old one and keep it in the garage as a back-up after I get my new one.

It is too late now, but I still wonder whether I made the right choice. It was very difficult to make a decision on this. One other thing that helped sway my decision is that Avantco ships with an extra belt. I also think that they will have better customer service, from the reviews that I have read.

FOAS, did you end up buying a meat slicer? Mine has gotten almost daily use since I bought it in 2011, which is why I think it is okay for me to upgrade now. I saw one for $630 from Avantco that I would really like to have, but it is too large to fit where I want to put it. I am hoping that the new one I get will satisfy my needs, but I am not expecting it to do much with cheese. I've been buying sliced cheese for my sandwiches, and I'm pretty much okay with that.

I do use my meat slicer to slice large quantities of cabbage when I make Okonomiyaki, and it does a great job on that.

I'll post a new review once I receive my new slicer.

Lars

Lars,

Sounds like one heck of a slicer. I never thought to use my slicer to slice bread. I'm going to try that when I bake loaves for the freezer.

DH gave me a slicer for X-mas last year. It's a Chef Choice Professional 662 with 8.7" blade and 1/4 hp. I use it to slice my homemade bacon, pancetta and cured hams. It slices paper thin. Does a fabulous job slicing paper thin roast beef for sandwiches. I also use it to slice eye of the round paper thin for sandwich steaks. They are DH's favorite and I believe that's why he gave me the slicer. LOL Cleans easily and doesn't take up a lot of space.

I was considering that one also for a while, but I noticed that the motor was only 120 watts, although I'm not sure what difference that makes, considering that it is 1/4 HP.

Have you tried slicing cheese with it? It is supposed to be able to do that. My old slicer will heat up if I try to cut more than three slices of medium soft cheese. I wish I could see demonstrations of these slicers before buying them. Avantco has a video of a slicer, but it is of the larger $600+ model with 1/2 HP.

I think you will be very happy slicing bread with your meat slicer as it does an excellent job and is fast. I also slice bagels with mine, and I can get at least four slices per bagel, as I prefer thin slices of bagels. There is a Brooklyn Water Bagel shop fairly close to my house, and it is in the downtown Westchester shopping center where we do a lot of our shopping. If I get there early enough, I can get some good bagels there, but I have no interest in Brooklyn water - I do not notice a difference in these bagels and ones I have gotten in Culver City or Marina Del Rey.

"------The other one I was seriously considering was Best Choice 10", but its motor is 240 watts (1/3 HP), whereas the Avantco is 420 watts (also 1/3 HP). I am not sure how they can both be 1/3 HP and have such different wattage. -----"

There is a lot of legalized lying in the rating of horse power of motors. They don't have a single standard in rating HP for electric motors.

dcarch

My new meat slicer arrived yesterday - the Avantco SL310, and it was sufficiently heavy at 32 pounds! It does fit nicely on my 23" x 19" IKEA table that I had bought for the old meat slicer. However, now pretty much nothing else will fit on top of that table, although it does have two shelves beneath, where I store my Cuisinart FP and flours.

I am thinking now that the SL309 might have been sufficient, although it was not that much cheaper and has only 280 watts instead of 420, but it weighs 29 pounds instead of 32.

One negative review I read about the 310 says, "This machine works very well. The problem is cleaning it. Meat gets stuck behind the cutting wheel in hard to reach places." I think this is the main criticism I have of this machine, but I have only used it a very short time. I sliced some turkey breast and ham paper thin for my lunch this morning, and I did notice meat getting stuck in a hard to reach place. With the right tool, it would be easy to clean, however, and I have an assortment of small brushes that do the trick. It does not seem to work quite as well on bread as my old slicer, but that just may take getting used to. The slices go into a small holding area that is not designed for bread, whereas my old slicer just let things fall behind it, and so I always had to have a small board behind it to catch what I was slicing. This was convenient, however, as it was then easy to remove the board with the slices, and this was especially good for bread and pickle slices. With the new machine, I have to turn the whole machine around to access the slices, although bread does fall behind the machine. It is just that the last corner of the bread does not want to slice completely, and so I may have to hold the bread a bit higher to avoid this problem. Fortunately, I have room to keep my old slicer and can use that for pickles and bread.

The new machine is extremely quiet (The old one is extremely loud) and very powerful. So far, I am happy with it and it makes paper think slices of salami, which my old machine would not do at all - the old one had a tendency to shred the salami, and it also would shred turkey breast if I tried to slice it too thinly. The old machine would not cut evenly thin slices of meat, but the new one makes perfect slices with very little effort.

I think my choice was a good one, but there may be equally good choices that I have not sampled.

Lars

Lars,

You may want to try to use a dental water jet to clean difficult get to places.

dcarch

The one pictured is at amazon for 37.35 looks like no free shipping. It has 3 stars. They haven't changed the design in all these years since my son gave it to me. I keep it wrapped in plastic and tucked away on a shelf. It's easy to assemble to use and I love it for large quantities of meat. I do cut ham, turkey and beef into large chunks for easier handling and such that I can slice across the grain, small roasts, etc., can be handled whole. The slices are much nicer than I could do with a knife; I can slice hot, then like to put them in juices to keep warm.

But it won't slice too thin and size can slip a little, easy to correct.

It's designed so you can't cut your fingers off if you use it right. Sometimes the carrier or pusher platform hangs up on a piece just before you start pushing, easy to free up. The meat some crumbles and you have to push it away or it will pile up.

The real downside to the thing and why I don't use it more often is I don't have room to leave it out and covered and it is a nuisance to clean right, have to take it all apart and wipe down every inch of it (some parts can be washed by hand in soapy water, wouldn't put it in a dishwasher) and be super careful washing the blade. But I have to have it spotless for next use.

I now have a Cuisinart food processor with the 2mm blade (and thicker 4mm) but again I would have to cut FIRM meat in chunks and if you want nice deli slices of cheese and pastrami, and/or paper thin, you can get a 1mm disk which still may not be quite thin enough. It would be a little easier to clean and I do leave that sitting out and covered. The slices would end up about the diameter of a large chunk of bratwurst, hard to control exact shape, I wouldn't care but probably not for a party. Buy them the way you want sliced at the deli but you can't for what you prepare yourself.

Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon.com -Electric Adjustable Compact Food Slicer with Tray and Fence

Aliska: I was shocked to see this pic of this slicer! I have the original (I'm sure) of this when it was (still avail.?) labeled as by Krups. It's about 10 years old and used maybe 5-7 times a year ... I have always loved it. (I have never sliced cheese with it, however.) I most often use it with raw rib eye or tri-tip, partially frozen, to get paper-thin slices and it's been wonderful. It's also easy to clean. And best, it's easily collapsible and fits nicely in my cabinet when done with it. If it ever broke down, I'd try and find a used one, lightly used. It's not real noisy and the blade is wonderfully sharp. I believe it was made in Germany, perhaps? The reviews on this Rival are not good at all. It looks like they bought the design from Krups and made their own version.

arlinek, I was amazed to see one exactly like mine at amazon all these years later; only difference is the control buttons on the top rear are aqua and not white. No, I've not done cheese eithe, guess I buy the common ones pre-sliced.

I couldn't remember the mfr and didn't feel like climbing back where I keep it. I'm going to guess that mine is a Rival although I don't remember exactly which Christmas my son gave it to me.

After I posted, I thought I could control it enough to get paper thin slices; it takes a little getting used to but then it's easy and fast. Last I used it was to slice a lot of yellow onions for French Onion soup.

I should have read some of the reviews, will go check out a few. Did notice the 3 stars which is not good. I would give it just one less than all stars. These small appliances take some effort to learn how to get the most out of them.

You've inspired me to use it more. You are right it's easy enough to clean, just where my sliced hot meat (should let hot roasted meats stand for 5 min before slicing anyway) gets caught inside near the slicing disk and can't put the part with the cord in dish water. It will slice bigger pieces faster than my food processor so that will be for smaller batch stuff. At least the whole thing comes apart so I can feel it's sanitized, not that I am that fussy, just like to start with clean.

That commercial one is really nice. Maybe if yours goes kaput which I hope it doesn't, you can get a better one or like you said a used one. It wouldn't be cost effective to get a commercial model and it looks just as much to clean. If I did catering or entertained a lot, it might be worth it depending on how it performs.

The Krups slicer is available used on Ebay, but it otherwise appears to be discontinued - or made by Rival instead, and the reviews for the Rival version are not good. Another thing I notice about this one is that you move the meat from right to left (the opposite of all the other meat slicers I've seen), and it looks like there is not enough room to fit a loaf of bread to the right of the blade.

I have decided to keep my Waring Pro slicer because it does such a great job on bread. Yesterday I used it to make zucchini slices, and I am able to fit the entire length of the zucchini into the tray to the left of the blade and then make even lengthwise slices of zucchini, which I cook on the grill. I get four 1/4" slices per zucchini this way, and when I try to slice it with a knife, I usually end up with three, and they are not all the same thickness. I will also continue using it for bread and pickles. The Waring only weighs 8 pounds, and I do have a place to store it conveniently, as my new slicer will have to stay out. I do not consider these two slicers to be interchangeable, partly because the old one has a serrated blade (and cannot be sharpened), and the new one has a smooth blade and an attached sharpener, which they say only needs to be used once a year. I will probably use the sharpener less than that. The serrated blade tears at the meat more than the smooth one, but with the smooth blade, bits of turkey will crumble when the slices are extremely thin - not an issue with thicker slices, but I could get thicker slices with the serrated blade. I do NOT like the thickness control on the Waring - it is a lever in the back instead of a knob, but it is easy enough to use for thicker slices - it just does not do well for fine control and its placement is awkward. I would use my new machine for bread except that the slices get bent when exiting the machine, as the motor is in the way of where they should fall. If it were not for this, I would probably store the Waring in the garage for back-up, but since I slice bread almost every day, I have decided to store it in the kitchen. The new slicer has 7-1/8" between the blade and the edge of the tray, and the Waring has 7" - all I needed for the bread is 5-1/2", however.

Here's a photo of my new slicer where it now lives. There is plenty of room on the table to move the slicer forward or backward.

Lars