Meat Slicer

I am working on my charcouterie skills and have a pound of Instacure #1 on the way to start on some bacon. I have wanted to pick up a meat slicer for quite some time. I like to make smoked or roasted turkey, pork loin, ham etc and slice it for sandwiches and a slicer would make life easier.

I found one on CL this morning: a Chef's Choice Model 610. It is listed for $40 and they claim to have only used it once. I checked it out on Amazon and they are selling on there for $119. The reviews are pretty positive but I thought I'd throw it out on here to see if anyone has any experience with this model.

For the price, if it isn't gone, I'm probably going to pick it up anyway, but let me know what your feelings are on this.

So, I picked up the slicer yesterday and it is pretty sturdy for a basic home model. The only plastic is the finger guard and the food carriage (which does have a stainless steel liner where the food sits.)

I slow roasted a pork loin today and sliced it up for this week's lunches and the thing worked pretty well. I am quite pleased with it so far.

I have similar model (not even sure what it is) and I like it... but... the one problem I find with it is that it isn't wide enough to slice slab bacon or pastrami on it.

If I want to do that, I need to fold the fence down, simply hold the slab of meat and run it through the blade without the guide.

Is it the end of the world?? No, not really... just something to think about with these slicers.... unless of course I just have a crappy slicer and other slicers have much longer arms/fences that extend out enough to handle stuff I'm talking about.

I was thinking the same thing about bacon on this one. I may be able to unlock the stop on the carriage and get it to go far enough. I would just need to be vigilant to keep it from pulling all the way off.

I guess we will find out soon enough... I just got a pound of Instacure #1 in the mail and plan on picking up a belly as soon as I can get to the butcher.

I have been keeping my homemade-bacon in the bottom of my fridge, which I keep at 37 degrees so it is pretty firm. A really sharp knife and a little patience is all you need. I dont even bother with my slicer for bacon any more. Worst case scenario is you get "thick cut" bacon... And... I'm not sure that is some sort of nightmare scenario.

I also dont buy the argument that thickness affects taste that much. If the bacon doesnt taste right, its not because it was "cut too thick".

Yeah, I would say that I wouldn't cry over thick cut bacon either. I figure I will give the slicer a shot and if it doesn't work out, no big deal. I will have plenty of other uses for it.

mr_goodwrench said:

I found one on CL this morning: a Chef's Choice Model 610. It is listed for $40 and they claim to have only used it once. I checked it out on Amazon and they are selling on there for $119. The reviews are pretty positive but I thought I'd throw it out on here to see if anyone has any experience with this model.

Click to expand...

I have the same model and that is a steal for $40. I love it. Will it work as well as a globe? Hell no. But it is perfectly fine for home use.

dataz722 said:

I have the same model and that is a steal for $40. I love it. Will it work as well as a globe? Hell no. But it is perfectly fine for home use.

Click to expand...

So far, so good. I really couldn't pass it up at that price.

I am really very pleased with this slicer so far. I have used it for pork loin, roast beef and today, I finally got my bacon done and sliced it!

I tried slicing it after just chilling it in the fridge and had some trouble. It would leave a little bit at the tail end unsliced that would fall down in the gap. I put the rest of the slab in the freezer for a few hours until it was firm. Then when I sliced it, it went through with no problems!

I have the model 625. I'm not sure what the differences are with the 610 but I've had mine for a couple years now. I don't use it everyday but it gets plenty of action. We use it for cutting full loafs of home baked bread and slicing all sorts of meat. As you've found out, it's a lot easier to cut meat if it's nearly frozen or completely frozen.

This is my meat slicer:



Works great.