Best bean slicer ?

[gentlegreen]

I find myself growing runner beans again for the first time in decades and given the summer so far, I'm anticipating a steady supply of "Lady Di".

I have one of these that has never been used in anger :-



But I grew up with one of these :-



And I have seen these advertised which allegedly do the slicing and de-stringing in one operation :-

 

[BlueSquareThing]

My granny used to use a razor blade which seemed to do the job just fine. I've never been a massive fan of runner beans so have never needed the cut them up - do those tools actually work at all?

 

[killer b]

why wouldn't you just use a knife?

 

[gentlegreen]

My granny used to use a razor blade

 

[gentlegreen]

why wouldn't you just use a knife?

Then I would have to make an aesthetic decision and they would vary in size and shape - and I would be bound to cut myself eventually.

 

[malatesta32]

i have never seen or heard of anything like these contraptions. do people eat so many beans they require specialist equipment?

 

[strung out]

My mum's got a bean slicer like the one in the second picture

 

[gentlegreen]

i have never seen or heard of anything like these contraptions. do people eat so many beans they require specialist equipment?

I have 8 healthy plants in a sunny spot.
I suspect that I will soon be eating beans instead of pasta / rice.

 

[Shirl]

This is the most middle class thread title I've ever seen on urban

 

[gentlegreen]

Yebbut these are good old-fashioned runner beans, not those poncy French ones.

 

[StoneRoad]

my side of the family always used a very sharp knife (with plenty of practice at thin slices without de-stringing - young home-grown beans) but my MIL used kitchen scissors after de-stringing, her efforts were more chunky.

 

[gentlegreen]

I've never seen "Goodfellas" - definitely not my sort of thing, but I've seen this sequence before :-

Spoiler: Youtube Video

It reminds me that at work I now rub shoulders with microscopists ...

 

[malatesta32]

thank you for introducing me to a new part of the world, i am truly amazed!

 

[moose]

I have the bottom one and it is pretty good, apart from the fact it won't deal with very wide pods. Sometimes with very twisty pods, it's a bit tricky to force them through. But generally useful.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I've always just used a sharp paring knife:
Top and tail, using the cuts to de-string the beans, then once they've all been topped and tailed/de-strung, cut them into shorter pieces.

I really don't see the point of splitting the beans lengthwise, though, unless they're so massive/thick that the outers are like wood.

 

[gentlegreen]

I watched a programme once about stir-frying and they favoured oblique cuts for aesthetics and optimal cooking.
(and no doubt "mouth feel" too. )

 

[BlueSquareThing]

I've never seen "Goodfellas" - definitely not my sort of thing, but I've seen this sequence before :-

View attachment 57137

Spoiler: Youtube Video

It reminds me that at work I now rub shoulders with microscopists ...

That's pretty much what my granny used to do - only much, much quicker than that. It does make exceedingly thin beans which is probably a good thing - none of that destringing nonsense (that would have been throwing food away)

 

[AnnaKarpik]

i have never seen or heard of anything like these contraptions. do people eat so many beans they require specialist equipment?

I've picked 2 kilos of runners in one go; it gets very tedious cutting them up with a knife.

 

[Mogden]

Of all the bean slicers I sell in the shop it all seems to be down to personal preference over functionality so I assume they all work reasonably well. The only one I would steer clear of is this one:

which has no cover and is just an open wheel of razor blades but even that one seems to be snapped up by the right customer.
So yeah, no help at all here then

 

[wtfftw]

I have the bottom one and it is pretty good, apart from the fact it won't deal with very wide pods. Sometimes with very twisty pods, it's a bit tricky to force them through. But generally useful.

It's possibly (and probably unjustifiably) one of my favourite things.