Meat Slicer

My advice is to get a very sharp knife and place the meat in the freezer for a while then it will slice easier without collapsing and misshaping under the pressure of the cutting. You may be able to pick a decent slicer up on ebay cheap though. Many supermarkets will also do some slicing for you. One thing I learned is if you marinate too long it is less jerky and more falling apart like. I said that because if you do have it sliced at the market, you may want to hold off on the marinating until the night before you intend on smoking.

I use a different process for making jerky that I wont go into on this post. But I will tell you that London broil works great. I will pick it up when on sale and that is when it is jerky time around my house. Lean, mean and jerking clean!

Oh, BTW that slicer on that website looks nice. if you get one let me know how it works, I may have to abandon the frozen method.

Ditto that, but I would also like one that is capable slicing thin and maybe some cheese on occassion. I would like to an expensive professional one, but I just can't justify the expenditure or the space at this time. I know they have one at Costco for about the same price and I am about to check Sam's, but will it work and hold up?

I see the same one on ebay for $82 includes shipping here is the item number 4446998448. Those reviews look promising.

Here's a repost of a review I did of the Waring unit.

Product: Waring Pro FS150 Food Slicer
Cost : Just under $100
URL : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000ALQ8...641-0858534?v=glance

Summary: It's a low end slicer with low end capability, but it
produces thin slices quickly and consistently in a way that
my knife and mandolin can't. At under $100 it easily passes
the price/performance test. I'm keeping it.

I wanted a slicer that would do very thin slices of meat
for things like lining terrines and carpaccio type preparations.
I bought this unit because it was available and within the
price range at a store I had a 100 gift certificate for.
I read some of the reviews so I was half expecting that I'd
end up returning it. I was pleasantly surprised by what it can do.

The unit looks and operates like a miniature version of a commercial
deli-style slicer. It has the same geometry and basic components.
Here's a list of what I consider to be it's good and bad points.

Good points
===========

- It works well enough, considering

The slice thickness is adjustable from 1/32 to 1/2 inch (the specs say
9/10 inch maximum but after measuring I believe that's incorrect)
With a little practice it produces slices thin enough to read a
newspaper through. This is partly due to the very solid thickness
adjustment mechanism. That part is all metal and well designed so the
feeder mechanism doesn't shift at all when slicing.

- It has a fairly small footprint

Dimension: 17-1/4 x 10-13/16 x 11-1/4
Weight: 15.15 lbs

- It's easy to clean

I've seen reviews complaining about the fact that it's hard
to clean. Whoever wrote that review has never used a commercial
meat slicer. This is much easier to clean by comparison.

- It's cheap

At under $100 it's the cheapest deli-type slicer I could find

Bad points
==========

- It's under powered

The 130 watt motor is single speed and rotates at fairly low
RPMs. Very dense product will slow the blade rotation to a crawl.
The specs recommend a maximum of 10 minutes usage at a time, but
I found that this is not a hard and fast rule. It depends on what
what you're slicing. It will slice enough meat for several
party trays at once with no problem. I've never had any overheating
of the motor, but I can easily see it happening with heavy enough
use.

- It's part plastic

The feeder assembly is almost all plastic. That doesn't present a
big problem when slicing things because it's quite sturdy, but
it does limit it's durability. Don't drop it, for instance.

- It doesn't handle large pieces

Given the fact that the blade has 6 inches of exposed surface
and the feeder assembly has 7 inches of travel, the largest
piece you can cut is around 6 inches in diameter. I get around this
by cutting the meat into smaller pieces where necessary. In other
situations this could be a real limitation, like with very large
blocks of cheese.

- It takes some getting used to

Because of it's construction and lack of power it's not as easy
and idiot proof as a commercial slicer. However, if you have any knife
skills at all you'll find yourself to producing good results
right away.

After reading all the reviews on Amazon and elsewhere the Chef Choice seems to be the best brand. But it also looks like going to a model 620, 630, or 632 in the long run might be the way to go, but so far we can only read the reviews, by non CS people. And we all know that CS people are the best, most reliable, and a whole host of other fine attributes.

Mad Angler,I have the waring pro model FS-150. it does a good job @ slicing.the only draw back to this unit that I don't like about it is,that nothing comes apart to clean it except for the blade & the food guide handle.thats the only things that are removeable. the food tray (slicing carriage)& the blade faceplate are not removeable. this was a gift,but if I was to buy another one,I would do some more shopping around first & check other models or brands.just my 2 cents worth.

Richard

Mad Angler, I also bought the Waring Pro F150 from Lowes for $100 bucks. I've used it for brisket and it makes nice deli thin slces. I also used it last weekend slicing up a smoked Tri-tip and had smoked roast beef sandwiches all week. Even open face with gravy!!!

This weekend I'm smoking a Corned beef brisket and slicing it for Pastrami!!! So far the Waring had a 5 year warranty and works fine, the Chef's slicer had a one year warranty.

I wanted a Hobart, but can't justify the cost?

I also thought the motor would be a little quieter, but it does the job. I learned if I brush the back with olive oil along with the blade it works much much better. Cleanup does take some time, but I don't use it everyday.

dan

Not to segway the thread, but whenever I make jerkey from store-bought meat I ask the butcher to slice it for me (I explicitely tell him to slice it with the grain and how thick). It's a free service any supermarket offers during normal hours.

I checked both Sam's and Costco, right now in this area they are only available online. The Sam's is low level Chef's Choice for like $90. The Costco is a Demi that they sell for $100, that sells elsewhere for about $150.

Many years ago I had a something. The problem I had with it was not the height of the meat you could cut, but the length, like six inches or so. Therefore, a lot of stuff had to be cut to size to slice which to some degree defeats the slicing purpose. Therefore, before I by anything I will want to get some idea about the depth that the slicer table will let you cut.

quote:

Originally posted by RendezvousQ:
[qb] Many years ago I had a something. The problem I had with it was not the height of the meat you could cut, but the length, like six inches or so. Therefore, a lot of stuff had to be cut to size to slice which to some degree defeats the slicing purpose. Therefore, before I by anything I will want to get some idea about the depth that the slicer table will let you cut. [/qb]

Exactly. The inability to slice large items is one of the main limitations of these mini-slicers.

After running into the problem for some time I went out and got a used Hobart for $500. It's a full sized commercial slicer. I still use the mini regularly for small jobs though. It's a faster cleanup than the Hobart.

One of the reasons why I wouldn't consider some of the higher end mini slicers, say in the $250 range, is that for not too much more money, and if you're don't mind buying used, you can get a full featured commercial slicer.

Mad Angler, Here's my two cents. I have owned several commercial and home type slicers over the years. Presently using a Chef's choice model 610. I am really happy with it in all respects. Easy to clean, dependable, light weight and powerful enough to do all my slicing on a daily basis. You can still bet the 610 model through Ace Hardware for $97. Keep smokin.