I want to start making home cured meats, but one of the things I was wondering about would be how to slice it like store bought deli meat, so that I could get the right texture and thickness that I wanted. This post sent to me comparing knives vs meat slicers offers me what to think about, and I hope you'll find it informative as well.
As humans, we love eating meat. Well, most people do. Our ancestors used to fight on the best parts of any animal that they catch. Cooking didn’t come until it fire was discovered, thus became the origin of the said activity. Even though there are a lot of other people who are trying to discourage others from eating meat, more humans around the world cannot live without it. We are known omnivores as we can eat almost anything that doesn’t have a poison. Some cultures even found ways of extracting poison and toxins from their food so that they can eat it safely. There’re still a lot of environmental and dietary implications of eating it according to this link, but for now people can’t have enough.
One of the best ways of enjoying meat is slicing through it first. Nothing can stop you from eating a hunk of meat and using your teeth to cut it. However, we are now living in a very different and more civilized era. You want to make sure that your meat is properly cut so you can eat it more politely.
The act of cutting the meat with utensils also helps the chunk fit in our mouths. There are a lot of cases where a person choked because they ate a big piece. It traveled straight to their esophagus, blocking the air and choking the person. Read about one of the best ways to deal with choking here: https://www.healthline.com/health/heimlich-maneuver.
On the other hand, there are a lot of ways that you can slice it as well. Some enjoy their hunk of beer pork to be quite thin. This would really depend on the recipe or the person. However, the thinner the flesh is, the easier it is to eat. For beef, this would also make it quite tender and easy to chew.
Even though cutting it thinly can also overcook it (if sliced before cooking), but this would yield into the most tender pieces you’ll ever have. It could even melt in your mouth and that makes all the difference in the experience. This can be difficult to achieve using just knives. This is why there is always a need for a really good home meat slicer in any pantry or household.
Need Thinner Cuts?
What is a personal meat cutter? If you have ever been in a butcher shop, there is a chance that you have seen one of those machines. It looks like a chainsaw that is downsized but also rather thin. It runs vertically, and when you pass anything through it, the machine will slice it perfectly. You can be as uniform as possible with the cuts, as long as you know how to control the width of the thing that you are slicing. It looks really scary as well, and one wrong move could lead into a Final Destination-esque scenario. However, it is an efficient way of breaking a big chunk of practically anything.
A personal meat cutter is just a smaller version of that machine. Some of them can fit right into the palm of your hand while others look like a sewing machine. It can be quite convenient to have one at home so that you can enjoy thinly sliced cuts of pork, beef or chicken. However, how is this so much better than a knife? Here are some of the advantages of having one of these in your home.
The Truth Between The Two
1. Easy Slicing
As mentioned before, the best cutting machines don’t need a lot of effort to use. You just simply need to turn it on, and then you can slice away. You can also slice as thin or thick as you want, depending on how much patience you have. Whether it is frozen or fresh, you can cu through easily using one of these. However, it is recommended that the meat is frozen so that you would have even slices. Fresh cuts tend to be a bit unruly on the board. Before cutting one, you can pop it in the fridge first and then you can use it afterwards.
2. Knives Need More Skill
If you watch a lot of cooking shows on TV and the internet, you can see that most of these personalities have impeccable knife skills. They can cut a lot of ingredients in just a short amount of time without any effort at all. Chefs like Gordon Ramsay have also demonstrated that they can use knives even while blindfolded, a feat that can turn into a disaster for an amateur. For most of us, we don;t have that kind of training, skill, or even knives. With a home cutter though, you can breeze through some of these things as well.
3. Also, Knives Need a Lot of Attention
One thing that we should note about the best knives is they need a lot of care. Even though they are usually made of the finest stainless steel, there are a lot of ways that you can use it the wrong way. This would result in the blade being too dull to use and most experts would say that these are much more dangerous than sharp blades. You need to have a whetstone or a honing steel to maintain most of the knives. With the machine, all you need to do is clean the blade after use and don’t let any kind of moisture stay on its surface. Learn how to properly sharpen your knife here.
Even though knives have their versatility, most of us don’t have the skills to use them to their full potential. With these home slicers, you can just easily use it with just a button. You can now do the thinnest slices that you can get without sharpening any kind of knife. It can be quite dangerous, but with proper care and attention you can always go along with it.
If you are still a bit skeptical, there are many guides online that can get you through some of these products. There are also tutorials on how to use them and keeping them safely away from children. As these do have sharp blades, make sure that the only thing that you are cutting is the meat or anything else aside from your fingers.
As humans, we love eating meat. Well, most people do. Our ancestors used to fight on the best parts of any animal that they catch. Cooking didn’t come until it fire was discovered, thus became the origin of the said activity. Even though there are a lot of other people who are trying to discourage others from eating meat, more humans around the world cannot live without it. We are known omnivores as we can eat almost anything that doesn’t have a poison. Some cultures even found ways of extracting poison and toxins from their food so that they can eat it safely. There’re still a lot of environmental and dietary implications of eating it according to this link, but for now people can’t have enough.
One of the best ways of enjoying meat is slicing through it first. Nothing can stop you from eating a hunk of meat and using your teeth to cut it. However, we are now living in a very different and more civilized era. You want to make sure that your meat is properly cut so you can eat it more politely.
The act of cutting the meat with utensils also helps the chunk fit in our mouths. There are a lot of cases where a person choked because they ate a big piece. It traveled straight to their esophagus, blocking the air and choking the person. Read about one of the best ways to deal with choking here: https://www.healthline.com/health/heimlich-maneuver.
On the other hand, there are a lot of ways that you can slice it as well. Some enjoy their hunk of beer pork to be quite thin. This would really depend on the recipe or the person. However, the thinner the flesh is, the easier it is to eat. For beef, this would also make it quite tender and easy to chew.
Even though cutting it thinly can also overcook it (if sliced before cooking), but this would yield into the most tender pieces you’ll ever have. It could even melt in your mouth and that makes all the difference in the experience. This can be difficult to achieve using just knives. This is why there is always a need for a really good home meat slicer in any pantry or household.
Need Thinner Cuts?
What is a personal meat cutter? If you have ever been in a butcher shop, there is a chance that you have seen one of those machines. It looks like a chainsaw that is downsized but also rather thin. It runs vertically, and when you pass anything through it, the machine will slice it perfectly. You can be as uniform as possible with the cuts, as long as you know how to control the width of the thing that you are slicing. It looks really scary as well, and one wrong move could lead into a Final Destination-esque scenario. However, it is an efficient way of breaking a big chunk of practically anything.
A personal meat cutter is just a smaller version of that machine. Some of them can fit right into the palm of your hand while others look like a sewing machine. It can be quite convenient to have one at home so that you can enjoy thinly sliced cuts of pork, beef or chicken. However, how is this so much better than a knife? Here are some of the advantages of having one of these in your home.
The Truth Between The Two
1. Easy Slicing
As mentioned before, the best cutting machines don’t need a lot of effort to use. You just simply need to turn it on, and then you can slice away. You can also slice as thin or thick as you want, depending on how much patience you have. Whether it is frozen or fresh, you can cu through easily using one of these. However, it is recommended that the meat is frozen so that you would have even slices. Fresh cuts tend to be a bit unruly on the board. Before cutting one, you can pop it in the fridge first and then you can use it afterwards.
2. Knives Need More Skill
If you watch a lot of cooking shows on TV and the internet, you can see that most of these personalities have impeccable knife skills. They can cut a lot of ingredients in just a short amount of time without any effort at all. Chefs like Gordon Ramsay have also demonstrated that they can use knives even while blindfolded, a feat that can turn into a disaster for an amateur. For most of us, we don;t have that kind of training, skill, or even knives. With a home cutter though, you can breeze through some of these things as well.
3. Also, Knives Need a Lot of Attention
One thing that we should note about the best knives is they need a lot of care. Even though they are usually made of the finest stainless steel, there are a lot of ways that you can use it the wrong way. This would result in the blade being too dull to use and most experts would say that these are much more dangerous than sharp blades. You need to have a whetstone or a honing steel to maintain most of the knives. With the machine, all you need to do is clean the blade after use and don’t let any kind of moisture stay on its surface. Learn how to properly sharpen your knife here.
Even though knives have their versatility, most of us don’t have the skills to use them to their full potential. With these home slicers, you can just easily use it with just a button. You can now do the thinnest slices that you can get without sharpening any kind of knife. It can be quite dangerous, but with proper care and attention you can always go along with it.
If you are still a bit skeptical, there are many guides online that can get you through some of these products. There are also tutorials on how to use them and keeping them safely away from children. As these do have sharp blades, make sure that the only thing that you are cutting is the meat or anything else aside from your fingers.