Peeling Onions the Easy Way

[ferret]

I hardly dare to post on this thread. It's like walking on eggshells.
I bought a Nicer Dicer out of curiosity, and it works: it does a dice of about 5mm, but if you put it through again to get a smaller dice, you get puree (French for mush).
I have owned two mandolins. One is a stringed instrument which I would use when desperate to rescue a recording that was going down the tubes (it's now an ornamental object in my parents' house). The other is a fiendish device that performs the same basic function as a potato peeler, but faster, and has the added ability to maim.
I nearly wrote, "Once you've caught your hand on a mandolin you'll never do it again," but actually this is not true because most people keep going for at least another stroke before the reflexes kick in and stop them from maiming themselves for a third time. So be warned - a potato peeler takes only slightly longer, and you'll still be able to play the other kind of Mandolin again.
[I somehow negotiated that without a single reference to spring-loaded choppers.....oops! MATRON!!!!]

[bettyboo]

why on earth would you wan't to walk on eggshells (the wee sharp bits stick into your skin and make your feet bleed, silly silly) as for the Nicer Dicer the onion got stuck on the blades and i couldn't force it through ,or get it out again,next thing iv'e got a handful of blades that i couldn't get back in again and i still had to use the dreaded mandolin again

bb

[Channa Doll]

My Nicer Dicer came with 3 blades. From what I've seen, the small-dice blade is completely useless. It gets clogged by cheese, green pepper, or onions. And being an optimist (dummy?), even knowing it didn't cut onions, a few weeks later I tried that a second time. So there I was, again, punching a chopstick through every little hole to remove bits of onion.

The middle-size blade works well on onions. I'd prefer them cut smaller, but it is what it is. It's important to wet the blade, as the instructions suggest. And, as Mick said elsewhere, to remove that odd layer that's sometimes on the outside of onions, and to cut large onions in fourths.

I've never used the largest blade, and can't think of a good use for it.

Channa

[Stevie]

A tip on the dicer.... Make sure you cut a section off the onion, so's the top is slightly flat.
It really does work much better. Also a sharp banging motion is better than a slow pushing one. (No innuendo please !!! Matron is watching.)
I've got the knack of the thing now and it really does save time and yer eyes. In saying that, I love using a really sharp knife, just because I can.

[Luckperson]

thanks for your useful tips. I will try it.
Cooks service in Spamland