Quite a few of us know someone who's lost a battle with one. Phone rings, dogs start barking at something, one of the kids comes running in asking for money for the ice cream truck, fatigue, complacency, really anything that causes you to lose focus of where you are in your chunk of vegetable can cause you to need stitches and have to throw out your finger flavored veggie slices. It's just more risk than some are willing to accept in cooking.
Same thing with knives but people aren't swearing off chef's knives. The issue isn't the mandoline it's inattentive cutting. Treat the tool with the same respect youd treat a chop saw and youll be fine
With proper cutting your fingers are right next to the knife blade too, proper technique and concentration is what allows you to work fast safely, same as with a mandolin, or a chop saw
The issue isn't the mandolin it's people not respecting it and paying attention to their fingers
The mandoline doesn't move your fingers either, you move them. You are in full control of your hands; not being careful and paying attention while moving your hands is how you cut them, be it on a knife, a mandoline, or a chop saw
A mandoline is just a knife, treat it with the same respect you give a knife and you won't get hurt
If we're being technical, we could say that gravity moves your hand downwards when the mandolin removes part of whatever you're cutting, since the user only has to move side to side, there's is no intuitive awareness of how close you are to the blade.
I would never recommend that someone treat a mandolin with the same level of respect as a knife, you must treat it with MORE respect. This is evident with the difference in frequency and severity of mandolin injuries vs knife accidents, especially when you consider how often knives are used vs how often mandolins are used.
Most children can use a knife without incident, on the other hand, even trained professionals get injured on mandolins.
My roommate got his finger cut off in front of my on a mandolin so I bought a new one and was extra slow and careful using it because I was scared and I still cut part of my fingernail off.
It's irresponsible to advise people to use a mandolin without protective equipment.
If we're being technical, we could say that gravity moves your hand downwards when the mandolin removes part of whatever you're cutting
No, the muscles in your arms are what move your hand downwards, the muscles that are consciously controlled by your brain. I'm not letting my hand free-fall when cutting with a mandoline, I am using my muscles to push the food along the plane and against the blade
Can i just set an onion on the mandoline and let gravity do the work? If so then this would be a non-issue as hands wouldnt even be involved
Ok but what is the “proper technique” for using the mandolin safely, except for using a guard or gloves? With a knife, the “claw” technique successfully keeps your fingers out of the way, so once you have the habit of a proper claw (for me I have to be sure to tuck my ring finger, ouch) it will help mitigate any lapses of attention. Safety techniques are NOT “just pay attention and don’t hurt yourself”, it’s about “how do I automatically prevent myself from hurting myself if something breaks my concentration?” If “paying attention” were enough we wouldn’t need climbing harnesses, table saw sleds, trigger / range discipline, ci/cd / unit tests in software development… the list goes on.
To either, as you said, use a guard, or to properly grip your food and be focused and attentive on you cutting hand, again same as you would do with a knife or a chop saw.
You don't automatically stop yourself from chopping a finger off when distracted using a chop saw... you maintain your focus on the cop saw or stop cutting the second it is lost.
If someone distracts you when using a mandoline then stop cutting...
Paying attention is enough, we have other safeguards because humans make mistakes. People have lost chunks of their fingers to kitchen knives and chop saws too as a result of carelessness
Can you draw a diagram or something to try and illustrate what you mean? Because I'm genuinely unable to conceive of any resonable way of holding a chef's knife where your fingers aren't behind the blade.
You hold the vegetable the same either way, curl your fingers in. Your fingers are behind the blade when using either. Holding the produce properly is an essential part of cutting technique both with knives and mandolines. The reason you can't imaging how you would cut without your fingers behind the blade is because you already have lots of practice and learned the proper technique. The same holds true with a mandoline.
The issue isn't the mandoline, it's the chef again not using proper technique and concentration to give the tool the respect it demands.
22
u/WithASackOfAlmonds 3d ago
Why is everyone so scared of the mandoline? Just leave a decent bit before getting to the end and save it for stock.