Mandolin Slicer

One of the advantages of a mandolin slicer is that you get nice even slices.  When dehydrating foods, keeping your pieces of food at an even thickness and size insures even drying. 

There are many brands of mandolins on the market. Some have single blades, others have multiple blades. These machines can get quite expensive, so be sure to check with your local thrift store before purchasing. Keep an eye out at yard sales and flea markets, too! 

Most are designed either with grooves to place on a container to catch the sliced pieces or with a tilting rack of some sort to let the pieces drop onto a cutting board. 

Some have adjustable blade widths for varying thicknesses of food.  My machine has interchangeable blades for slicing, grating, or julienne strips.

Assorted Interchangable Blades

Notice the notches on the bottom of my mandolin. They are on both edges of the machine and are designed to hang onto either side of the bowl or container.  In this case, I'm preparing to slice directly into a veggie keeper to store in the fridge until I'm ready to rack 'em.

This day I filled three containers with zucchini and yellow squash.  We were having sauteed squash for supper. I didn't know how much I would be using, so this way, whatever is left over can go can be eassily stored until I'm ready to pop them into the dehydrator.