On Wed, 22 Apr 2015 05:33:37 +0000 (UTC), "Danny D."
> wrote:

>At a deli, they use a special meat slicer, but, is there something
>affordable we can use at home to slice luncheon meat thinly?
> https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8816/1...bf58106a_c.jpg
>
>I have my sister and her kids staying with me for a few months (don't
>ask), and we pack them a lunch every school day, so I picked up big hunks
>of Costco ham, turkey, and cheese, figuring I'd slice it up for the kids
>to make sandwiches.
> https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7700/1...64c263f4_c.jpg
>
>But I can't manually knife the stuff as thinly as they do with the
>professional rotating blade meat slicers at the supermarket.
>
>Is there a shop tool that's common that we can use to slice this meat up
>thinly? Or do I have to buy an expensive meat slicer (which is probably
>too expensive to be worthwhile)?
>
>Anyone slice their own luncheon meat thinly at home?
>What tool do you use?

Even the market slicers don't work as well (cut as thin) as the
industrial equipment they use to produce the pre-sliced - well,
shredded - packaged lunch meats.

But you will notice those do not comprise perfect, uniform slices,
either, they are shreds.

And you can do roughly the same shredding work with a sharp,
high-quality kitchen knife (and a cutting board underneath so you
don't dull it in the first five seconds), just learn how to use it,
and understand what the end product is supposed to look like.

And watch your thumb.

And a ninety-nine cents cheese slicer will do as well as a fancy
machine, as far as the cheese goes.

If you want perfect slices for a sandwich, well, good technique with a
sharp knife *should* do about as well as the market slicer, just a lot
more slowly, and maybe a 50% error rate, so be ready to eat the
failures.

J.