Graters and zesters can turn cheese, citrus peel, vegetables, chocolate, ginger, garlic, nutmeg, and other ingredients into textures that would be difficult or time-consuming to create with a knife. The best tool depends on the result you want. Box graters provide several grating sizes in one stable frame, rasp-style zesters create very fine shavings, handheld
You do not need a large professional mandoline to make consistent cucumber, potato, onion, carrot, zucchini, apple, or radish slices. Simple handheld slicers can provide the main advantage of a mandoline while costing less and taking up much less storage space. The best budget mandoline slicers focus on the functions you will actually use: a
Mandoline slicers are excellent at producing fast, consistent cuts, but their extremely sharp blades also mean safety should be one of the first factors you consider when choosing a model. Safety-focused mandolines reduce the need to place your fingers close to an exposed blade. Depending on the design, they may use an ingredient chute, enclosed
Julienne cuts turn vegetables into long, narrow matchsticks that cook quickly and create a consistent texture in salads, slaws, stir-fries, garnishes, spring rolls, vegetable noodles, and other dishes. Making a large quantity of uniform julienne strips with a knife takes time and careful technique. A mandoline equipped with a julienne blade can perform the same
Potatoes are one of the best reasons to own a mandoline slicer. Consistent thickness helps potato chips cook more evenly, keeps gratins and scalloped potatoes layered uniformly, and makes it easier to prepare repeated strips for fries or julienne-style recipes. The best mandoline slicer for potatoes depends on what you make most often. Thin-slice specialists
Handheld mandoline slicers provide the consistency of a traditional mandoline without the size and storage requirements of a full countertop model. They are especially useful for cucumbers, potatoes, onions, carrots, zucchini, apples, radishes, cabbage, and other produce that benefits from repeated slices of similar thickness. The simplest handheld slicers offer a few fixed thickness settings.
A mandoline slicer can turn potatoes, cucumbers, onions, carrots, zucchini, cabbage, apples, and other produce into consistent slices much faster than most cooks can manage with a knife alone. The biggest differences between mandolines are blade design, available thickness settings, julienne capability, food-holder design, countertop stability, storage requirements, and how safely the slicer keeps your
A useful cutting board does not need to be a thick premium butcher block. Affordable boards can still provide stable cutting surfaces, easy cleaning, knife-friendly materials, and practical dimensions for everyday vegetables, fruit, meat, sandwiches, and quick meal prep. The most important question is not simply which board costs the least. A budget board should
Large cutting boards give you room to prepare several ingredients at once without constantly pushing chopped food off the work surface. They are especially useful for large vegetables, whole poultry, roasts, brisket, bread dough, pizza, batch meal prep, and recipes with many components. Bigger is not automatically better, however. Oversized boards can become heavy, difficult
Cutting boards used for meat and poultry need to handle a different set of challenges from ordinary vegetable-prep boards. Raw proteins can release liquid, cooked roasts need space for carving, and large pieces of meat benefit from a stable surface that does not slide as you cut. Juice grooves, non-slip features, carving grips, generous dimensions,
