I've gone back to knives after trying almost everything. The new vegetable cleaver that I have will cut through carrots like butter, and so it makes quick work of slicing and chopping. It does require knife skills, however, which I'm sure you have. Knives are so much easier to clean and store, and I think I've got the sharpening down to my satisfaction. I chop a lot of vegetables, which I why I decided to get the best knives I could. I especially wanted something that would make quick work of chilies, as I use a lot of those.

I think its good to have both German and Japanese knives, as they cut differently. I find that food sticks to Japanese knives more than to German knives, but I have limited experience. I have a mandoline that will make julienne slices, but now I prefer my vegetable cleaver for that.

However, I seldom chop eight onions at once - usually not more than one at a time, unless I'm making onion soup, and then slices will do instead of dices.

Lars

Lots of chopping--Chinese cleaver. In fact, I use my $4 carbon steel Chinese cleaver for about 95% of the cutting tasks in the kitchen. ($4 because I bought it at a rummage sale.)

I can never find a knife that I like the weight of. Where do you shop for your chef knives?

Zackey, there are specialty cutlery shops, both local and online,, high end cooking shops like Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma, department stores with better housewares, like Bloomingdale's, discount stores like Bed Bath & Beyond (and probably Costco)--especially in the gift giving times (Christmas and Bridal)--and funky neighborhood holes in the wall.

People give me very good knives, so I can't remember when I last bought one. Real knives that is. I bought a paring knife at the grocery store so I could make kosher margaritas. :) I have that and the little cutting board put away for future kosher use. :)

The thing is, a cheap knife will cut well until it loses its edge. They often won't take a new edge after that, and the edge can actually curl on a steel when you're trying to straighten it (most embarrassing--it happened to me at a friend's house). Some people don't want to take care of their knives so every so often they buy a whole new $100 set, instead of one $100 (or much more) knife. There are also finds like Ci_lantro's rummage sale knife.

Everything is done now and it's all in the pot. I think I'll be glad as we get into December that I have lovely beans in the freezer but my back hurts from the chopping and slinging of pots. It's good for me of course. I figure that if the muscles hurt they needed using! But I was tired when I started.

Lars and Ci, you've convinced me that I just need to keep working. :) My knife is good, though perhaps not the best, and, yes, it could stand a date with the stone, but that wasn't the issue. It was just that it was about five quarts raw and not compacted! I was dreaming of the old Popeil Vegematic, but that wouldn't actually have done the job, and would have just meant more biceps and triceps and less delts (or something like that).

Next time, I should use the mandoline to julienne the onions. It would be fine. They really don't need any more cutting for beans. It's just that at the beginning it doesn't seem worth getting dirty, and by the time it does seem worth it to do the whole batch, there are only three left and it's not worth it. Cleaning the peppers was more of a deal (lots of loose seeds) than cutting. The tomatoes were a nothing. But the onions!

Lars, I've been following your cleaver love with interest. I don't know if I want to get used to a new knife, but it does sound sexy!

'Course, if someone were to show up with a Robot Coupe Dice, wrapped up with a bow, I wouldn't kick it out. :)

I have an inexpensive Moulinex tool that shreds, slices and dices. Great for macedoine etc.

I thought you were going to talk about styles of chopping. I've noticed that some chefs on tv, such as Lydia Bastianich, chop ax style, without having their other hand near the chopping board. Most, of course, have their non-knife hand curled so that their knuckles guide the knife. I'm not good at that method, but I figure it's supposed to be the best way. I'm not sure I get the ax chopping method. I'd have veggie pieces all over the place if I did it that way.

I find a knife is the best tool. I bought a mandolin at an estate sale, but I have yet to use it.

Sally

When we have a salsa fest and make huge pots and can many dozens of jars of Annie's Salsa, we use our alligator choppers - makes quick work of chopping everything.

Actually, we use it all the time, even for small chopping jobs, since it chops quickly and consistently. Mine has two chopping blades, small and smaller.

Mine (Vidalia Chop Wizard?!) was about $20 at Target some years ago, but I see, online, that it's still that price at local stores. I got it after our first Salsa fest, all of us chopping, and chopping and chopping and chopping ..... well, you get the idea. Just a few big cuts to get the width I want and then chop.

I even found a tiny one for garlic

I have an inexpensive Sharper Image 5-in-1 Chopper/Slicer (I got it at Aldi for less than $20 on the clearance shelves). Works great for quickly chopping large quantities of veggies. I especially give it a workout when I need copious amounts of chopped onion when preparing traditional Irish dishes for a St. Patrick's Day Hooley (party).

-Grainlady (the gadget lover)

Here is a link that might be useful: Sharper Image 5-in-1 Chopper/Slicer

For a job like that, I use an ancient french fry cutter that DH brought home in a box lot from an estate sale about 30 years ago. It's similar to the one in the link below but all metal with a wooden handle.

I pump the onions through it one at a time onto a cutting board and then make crosswise cuts with a cleaver.

Here is a link that might be useful: French Fry Cutter

I use my knives. Always refrig my onions if I'm going to do a mass chopping job; avoids the whole teary-eyed agony!

I keep my onions in the fridge too, and turn on the hood. Even though it's five feet away, it helps a lot with the fumes. :)

Thanks for the suggestions. I do appreciate them, but I have so many questions!

I've seen the kind that Momj47 and Grainlady posted, but how sharp are they? If they need brute force, I'd think my knife would be easier on my back. Also, don't you have to cut up the produce to fit in it? Then, again, since my four quart bowl was heaped up to five quarts, isn't having to open and clean out the container after every half an onion a lot of bother?

Ruthanna, if someone should come in with a french fry cutter, I'll definitely give it a try on the onions. :) What I was looking at is similar in notion, but less biceps oriented:

Sally, I have my own method for cutting veg, that I can't really advocate but works best for me. The fingetips tucked under method is for preserving your fingers. I have small hands don't feel I have enough control over this way, however, and will nick my knuckles. I can't be bothered with cut proof gloves for simple prep, so I do my way instead.

I use my fingers as a vice that holds the veg in question all together with pressure, and carefully slice through, though will hold one end for the first or last cuts to have my fingers farther from the knife. I did once get a real cut (i.e., stitches) doing this, when my hostesses not sharp enough knife hit a hard spot in a soft onion and slid to the side. That's why I hold differently near the ends now and am careful to note the sharpness or dullness of the knife at the start, whether my own or more importantly someone else's. :)

I think I chop similarly to you, Plllog. I've tried the curled fingers method, and it feels awkward to me.

How do you keep that chopper slicer sharp? It looks like it would take a lot of pressure to use. It must work better than it looks, though, or you wouldn't recommend it.

Sally

I've seen the kind that Momj47 and Grainlady posted, but how sharp are they? If they need brute force, I'd think my knife would be easier on my back. Also, don't you have to cut up the produce to fit in it? Then, again, since my four quart bowl was heaped up to five quarts, isn't having to open and clean out the container after every half an onion a lot of bother?

Mine has stayed sharp for 8 or so years - the "blades" don't come in contact with anything but the food, so there's nothing to dull them. It's a metal grid in a frame. It doesn't take much force to slice through an onion or tomato. I find it much less tiring to use than a knife if I need to chop a lot of veggies.

And it holds a lot - multiple onions, or potatoes, or tomatoes, or peppers, etc. I empty the veggies into a pot or bowl when it's full, but I only "clean it out" when I'm done. Since all the veggies are going in the same pot, there's no reason to do it any sooner. I only need to clean it after half an onion if I'm only using half an onion.

I really like that it contains the mess - especially tomatoes. Yes, you do have to do some basic slicing, but the real work, for me, is the dicing part, and this little critter makes light work of that.

Oh! So you slice first and then put it in the alligator? That makes sense. That would take less pressure to push through, too, even if they're stacked--I can't imagine you do a single slice at a time. I was trying to figure that out, since with the stand version you put it through one way and then another.

Thanks so much for the answers! I guess it's bigger than it looks. :) It's definitely worth a try for the price! And it's small and light enough to stash in the small appliance drawer with the Cuisinart.