Meat Slicers

[Piedad]

We’re considering buying whole pepperoni, sopressota, panchetta,etc. and slicing in-house to reduce cost…and your advice would be helpful. Maybe those of you who now slice your own cured meats could give us a review of the machine that you now use or machines that didn’t work out in the past. We will probably use a new machine to slice vegetables too. Of course cost of any new machine is always a consideration, but the efficiecy, convevience and ease of use are also paramount. We are thinking about electric versus anything manual, but maybe you know of an NSF rated food processor that slices and might fill the bill. Those giant slicers like the deli department at the grocery store uses look to be overkill for what we have in mind. Thanks for any input at all.

 

[Piper]

We slice our own salami, prosciutto and capicola. I have never found a pepperoni that would be nearly economical to slice ourselves. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever found one that would be cheaper per pound than what we buy pre-sliced for.

We use a General slicer, 12" with a gear drive. It’s pretty heavy duty.

The most important advice that I have is you need to make sure your staff knows how to properly slice the thickness you want. The difference between slicing on the 1/2 setting and the 1 setting is barely noticeable, but it will double your cost! My staff tends to slice too thick and I have to keep a constant watch over the meats. That extra half millimeter would cost me over $2,000 per year.

 

[Deacon_V]

Ditto what Piper just said. If you can’t guarantee your staff is following YOUR specifications on slicing, you will soon find you’ve spent MORE money on meats than you had pre-sliced.

We used a Hobart to slice everything from veggies to our ribeye steaks. The unit was a used one that was in the place when we purchased it. When it died and repairs in our area were plain stupid priced, we picked up another preowned unit…dumb mistake. It locked up after maybe 6 months or so.

We then picked up a smaller Berkel and I love it, other than it doesn’t open wide enough to cut our own steaks anymore, it cleans super easy which was a problem we seemed to have with the Hobarts.

Check your choices out well though, I see slicers that are specifically geared up for slicing hard cheeses, more horses maybe? So don’t purchase yourself “short”.

 

[ADpizzaguy]

Hobart makes the best slicers by far. They are easy to use, easy to clean up and maintain. As long as you keep the blade sharpened the investment you make with Hobart will last years.

 

[Piedad]

Thanks for the input. We found an old Globe that is in pristine condition (at least on the exterior), and will give it a try. The only drawback may be that it is more difficult to clean than the newest models. Thanks again, guys.

 

[eupher61]

we bought a new Globe. Yes; cleaning is a bit more difficult but not bad. well worth the price differences.