Absolutely brilliant bit of kitchen gear !! I use a lot of fresh veg and fruit as part of my diet but by far the biggest pain I find in the kitchen is slicing up aubergines which are tough going to slice thinly even with a good knife. Because I use a lot of these in my cooking I was looking for something that could handle this quickly. I came across Mandolines as a possibility and bought a cheap one to try it out. It was useless !!! As my mother always said 'when you buy cheap you end up buying twice'. I did a bit more research and found the Progressive PL8 came up as star rated on a lot of reviews and although it seemed a bit expensive the chore of constantly slicing salads and those aubergines eventually made me press the 'Buy' button.
It arrived really quickly (Thanks Amazon Prime) and I immediately put it to use slicing up some aubergines - it performed absolutely brilliantly. Sliced to perfection far better than I could ever do with a knife, totally effortless and in a fraction of the time as well. I have given it a run with making carrots Julienne, slicing cucumbers and French fries and even waffle cutting apples just to test it out and its amazing. It slices and cuts so much faster than with a knife and more accurately too - uniform slicing is a boon when doing food prep because the ore uniform the ingredients the more uniform the cooking will be.
Word of warning here if your apt to be clueless with sharp instruments stick to the Play Doh kitchen range because the blades on this thing are SHARP - like a razor and will cut into you just as fast as it will slice into a potato. I know because I just had to run a finger along the blade to see and it bit into me like a lightsaber so be warned. Progressive have made it as save as possible with a cutting position for storage which lowers the blade out of harms way and the sliding safety guard for you to grab for with which help keep your hands away from those razor sharp blades.
The sliding safety guard is a brilliant idea on this as it keeps the food into line with the mandolin. Without it on my cheap mandolin its too easy for vegetable to veer off the ramp. If you don't use the sliding element of the safety guard and use just the vegetable holder remember to stop well short of the blades or else you will run the base of the veg holder into the blades possibly damaging both (I have seen a reviewer moaning about just this). So if your doing it by hand because you feel heroic and aren't using the vegetable holder then be very careful because the blade will give you some serious ER type damage, if you do use the veg holder step before you get to the blades and then put the veg holder onto the sliding hand guard. That way you can cut up the fruit and veg right to the very end without risking your fingers or damaging the machine.
Watch a few videos to get an idea of how versatile this machine is - I think its one of the best things I have ever bought for my kitchen, its a real time saver and much less hassle to mess about with than a food processor plus unlike the food processor its quick to clean (just run it under a tap and leave to dry) and also uses up a lot less space. Its quite large for a mandolin but a lot less than any food processor.
Make sure if you get one of these you read the manual and watch a few videos to give you the idea of how to get the best from it. I'd buy one of these for any friends who like cooking as a present - just wish someone had bought one for me years ago !
| Brand | Progressive International |
|---|---|
| Model Number | 10PL81000 |
| Color | White |
| Product Dimensions | 35.26 x 13.67 x 16.21 cm; 270 Grams |
| Material | Stainless Steel |
| Special Features | Multipurpose |
| Item Weight | 270 g |
