Review: Cabela's Commercial-Grade Meat Slicer

[Inor]

Mrs Inor and I have been wanting a meat slicer for a couple of years. We have looked at bunches of them, from the cheap plastic crappy "home use" models for $80 to the full commercial grade deli slicers for $2000. This year for Christmas, we decided to take the plunge on the 10 inch Commercial-Grade Meat Slicer from Cabela's. We went over and bought it today because they were having a good sale and it was about $50 off the normal price.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabel...RI%3BIK-541003

My initial impression is that it is a really well made machine. It is heavy with the 10 inch model weighing about 35 pounds. Also, the entire machine is made of cast aluminum or steel, except for a small plastic guard. The feet are made of rubber, so it does not slide around on the counter when in use. Overall, it just feels like a very solidly built machine. It even included a nice canvas cover for it.

Running it, the motor starts a little slower than most kitchen appliances and it takes a second or so to come up to speed. I assume that is because it is wound to deliver torque rather than speed. Once it is up to speed, it runs pretty quietly. The slide table for the meat glides back and forth nicely and is obviously riding on bearings rather than just a slide track like some of the cheap models.

Clean up is really easy. The slide table is just held on with a single nut as is the blade guard. The blade itself is held on with three phillips screws. We were able to clean it well without removing the blade which is a good thing because the blade is insanely sharp.

We tested it by shaving up some prime rib that was left over from Christmas supper into very thin slices for sandwiches. It worked great and had no issues at all.

The thickness of the cut can easily be adjusted with a knob on the side and goes from 0 all the way out to just over an inch thick. That will be an added benefit we did not plan on as we like to buy high quality roasts and slice them into steaks ourselves to save money. (With standing rib roast going for $12 a pound and ribeye steaks going for $17 a pound, we just saved ourselves $5 per steak right there!)

The one negative so far is that the "push handle" to feed the meat into the slicer does not get close enough to the blade in my arrogant opinion. That means after the last slice, you are still left with about 1/2 or 3/4 inch of meat that cannot be sliced. I tried even putting another chunk of meat on top of the chunk I was trying to slice. But all that did was make the piece I was trying to slice fall down between the slide table and the blade. It was more of a minor annoyance than a drop dead issue though.

Finally, the instruction manual was also very well written. It was all in English and had good tips on how to use the slicer for meats, cheeses and breads too. So overall, we are very pleased with it. Now it is just a matter of trying to figure out where to keep it.