An apple corer is a hand-operated tool designed to facilitate removing the cores from apples. The utility of a corer becomes evident when you are processing large quantities of apples for canning, drying, etc.
An apple slicer is a device designed to both core and slices apples. There are simple hand ones that work through brute force, and machines that work through hand cranking.
Bean slicers are tools designed to French-slice green and runner beans. They allow fast, efficient transformation of beans into thin, uniformly-cut pieces. There are many different kinds and models. Some are completely manual. They are simply a block with an open area with wires strung through it at the other end. You press and pull…
A butter pat slicer (aka butter slicer) is a long rectangle frame, open in the middle, with thin wires running crosswise (as opposed to lengthwise) through it. It is designed to cut a stick of butter into even pats of butter. It will be about 20 cm (8 inches) long, and make about 16 to…
Cucumber slicers allow a cook to create very thin, uniform slices of cucumber to be used for sandwiches, salads or garnish. There are two different types of cucumber slicers. One is a round device turned by crank. You clamp it to a table and press the cucumber through with a pusher. Original ones were made…
A doughnut cutter is a special hand-held and operated cutting tool for making doughnuts. In rolled out dough, it cuts out a circle, and then a small circle at the centre of that circle. Using a doughnut cutter To use, you roll out the doughnut dough first, then press the cutter into the dough, and…
An egg slicer is a two-part device for slicing a peeled, boiled egg into thin, uniform slices of egg. The bottom has a hollow in it in the shape of an egg. The top is connected to the bottom via a hinge. The top consists of a frame with fine wires running through it. You…
A girolle is a special tool to help you turn your Tête de Moine cheese shavings into roses. The base is made of wood, typically ash or beech (you can also get marble or plastic now.) There’s a post that you impale the cheese on, then a blade at the top that you rotate around…
A mandoline is a food slicer. Instead of moving a blade over the food, as you do with a knife, you move the food over a blade. It is a manual device, with no electricity required.
A melon baller is a tool designed to scoop melon flesh out in small, perfectly shaped balls, which you then serve in bowls or incorporate into a fruit salad.
An olive pitter is a tool to remove the pit (aka stone) from an olive. You put an olive in the pitter. One side of the pitter has a small cup with a large hole in it. The other side has a punch in it. You press down and the punch passes through the olive…
A pineapple slicer turns like a big corkscrew that works its way downwards. Some models come with differently-sized cutters that you attach to the handle, to accommodate different sizes of pineapple, or to leave more flesh on the inside wall of the shell if you’re planning to use it as a fruit bowl. Some have…
A V-slicer, like a mandoline, is a mounted slicing tool. But instead of its sharp metal blade being a straight, diagonal line, it is V-shaped. There are different brands, but almost all come with plastic bodies, are less expensive than mandolines, and have interchangeable blades. They come with different inserts for julienne slicing, thick slicking,…
