Electric Food Slicers - Best Meat Slicers For Cutting Ham, Beef, Bread and Vegetables

You have probably seen a meat slicing machine in operation at your local deli, butcher's shop, meat counter at a grocery store and perhaps at a local cafe or restaurant if you've peeked into the kitchen area. These versatile food slicers make short work of taking a large ham, turkey breast, salami stick etc. and slicing it down to a uniform thickness you specify from up to an inch in some cases to the kind of paper thin sandwich meat every loves.

Commercial meat slicers are expensive, usually priced at several thousands of dollars but the demand for home meat slicers for the kitchen connoisseur has put some very good quality machines within the price range of the rest of us. In fact, some excellent, very well reviewed and affordable meat slicers for the home consumer can be bought for around $100 which is within many budgets especially when you consider the monetary savings and other benefits this kitchen accessory can bring to your family.

Food slicers are not just for machines for slicing meat thinly like at the deli counter or in pre-packaged meat trays, but are meant for use for cutting other food products like cheese, bread etc. to a uniform thickness. They are regularly used for things like making jerky, to save money by buying food in bulk and then slicing it to more manageable proportions, for cutting roasts more evenly and easily,and general food cutting work. There are several different brands to choose between but ultimately, some are vastly better in overall quality than others.

This lens highlights some of the best rated food slicers for the home so you can find the best electric meat slicer without the guesswork.

Shopping For A Food Slicer On A Budget?

If you are on a tight budget but still want to buy a food slicing machine for use at home then the Rival food slicer has you covered.

There are several accessories you might want to consider when you do buy an electric powered food slicer which may range from meat slicer accessories like a smooth or serrated blade to general usage accessories which can make your life easier or safer when using this and other kitchen appliances.

One thing I always recommend with any kind of cutting implement is to protect yourself first and foremost with a good pair of slash resistant gloves. You can buy cut proof and puncture proof gloves for the kitchen from good kitchen equipment retailers or from the online links below. These slash proof gloves vary from those which are a few times tougher than leather which offer good but not perfect protection, to those which are full chainmail gloves for some really hardcore protection. Slash proof gloves for an electric food slicer are most useful during the cleaning stage when you need to handle the blade as any good food slicing machine should put a guard and safety features between you and the blade anyway so your hand never comes anywhere near the blade if you are using it correctly.

A food slicer blade sharpener will eventually be something you are either going to choose to own or you'll be looking towards buying replacement food slicer blades for your model as they will eventually start to get dull with use which will ultimately affect the cutting performance of your machine. Replacement meat slicer blades are not cheap especially when you consider a good food slicer blade sharpener can cost just a few dollars more, sometimes even less than buying a replacement!

One of the great things about a food slicer is the cost of purchasing the machinery can be quickly offset by the savings it can bring to you and you family. You can shave money off of every shopping bill by choosing to slice you own meat rather than buying it prepacked, processed and pre-sliced.

Consider the price of buying something like a packet of pre-sliced wafer thin sandwich meat like sliced turkey breast or sliced honey roasted ham. You get a packet of very thinly sliced meat which, without a food slicing machine, would be nigh impossible for you to replicate, or at least require a level of skill and time which most of us do not have. That 7oz packet of thinly sliced ham costs you anywhere between $3 to $5 depending on where you shop which is over $6 - $10 per pound. Now consider the cost of buying a ham and slicing it yourself. The cost wouldn't come anywhere close to $10 per pound, more like $2 a pound making slicing your own sandwich meat at least 3 times cheaper. Use what you need and freeze the rest for later pocketing the savings.

Buying your food pre sliced is a convenience which may not only be hurting your bank balance but also you personal health. A study into processed meats like packages of sliced deli and luncheon meat, and those who consume them, found that those who ate such things on a regular basis were at a 42% higher risk of heart disease and a 19% higher risk of developing diabetes. It's not the meats themselves which are the problem but the extra garbage food companies throw into them during the processing process in particular the added salt and preservative they throw into the mix, not to mention coloring and other random ingredients like high fructose corn syrup which seem to creep into everything we eat these days.

A kitchen meat slicer gives you the chance to take this particular form of junk out of your diet and opt instead for just pure meat with no harmful additives or salt which can be really excessive in processed meat.

How To Choose A Food Slicer To Suit Your Needs

When choosing an automatic meat slicer there are a number of things to consider if you want to ensure you are going to be happy with your purchase.

Firstly, not all electric meat slicers are made the same or made for the same purposes and expecting otherwise is liable to lead to disappointment. If you specifically require something for cutting large cuts of meat, you will want a machine with a larger blade as one of those 7 inch cutters isn't going to do it for you. For general home use however, that's all you are going to need and most home users are more than happy with this size blade.

Do You Need Both?

Most automatic meat slicers come with one blade but give you the option to buy others for more specialized tasks.

Serrated blades for food slicers are a more general purpose type of blade suitable for slicing bread, vegetables and meat but are better at thicker slices and will create more crumbs...or more waste if you'd prefer to look at it that way

Non-serrated smooth meat slicer blades make less waste and are essential if you intend to cut wafer thin meat slices like those seen in the average deli. If you want to cut shaved ham, wafer thin turkey etc. then you'll need a non-serrated meat slicer blade.

New and replacement smooth and saw-toothed blades for food slicers are generally easily available for all the major brands of meat slicing machines. A new machine will often come with just one type giving you the option to buy the other separately if you find you need it as many home users may find that's not something they will ever need.

It is absolutely essential you clean your food slicer after each use or you can run the risk of food poisoning through the growth of some really unpleasant bacteria. All food slicers are made differently, so how you clean yours is going to be different from how I clean mine. Some are however, much easier to clean than others and some are a real nightmare to keep clean. Finding an easy to clean food slicer is something of a must-have feature if you are going to enjoy using it compared to dreading putting it to use because the cleaning is a pain.

Pretty much all meat slicer blades can be removed for cleaning but again, how easy this is depends on the machine. Many meat slicers with removable blades need a screwdriver to remove them, which might sound like a nuisance but at least ensures the blade is firmly secured. Other snap on or slide off in one way or another.

When handling the blade, which is very sharp, it is always a good idea to invest in a good pair of slash resistant or cut-proof gloves in order to prevent injury and you might want to consider a pair of these for using this meat slicing tool anyway for your own protection.

If possible you want your food slier to be a sealed unit especially around the blade cutting area so that fuit and meat juices do not drip down inside the machine. If they do then you may have to disassemble it each time to clean it up properly. On the best meat slicers you will only have to wipe the main body down with a cloth to clean it up, on the worst, you'll be poking around in hard to reach places cursing all the time.