I go to the deli counter of my favorite grocery and ask the girl to cut a 3/8” slice off the big Thumann’s Braunschweiger loaf for me. She presents it on a sheet of tissue paper for my inspection. Always neatly cut, but its thickness ranges from 1/4” to 1/2”.

The slicer looks like a very expensive machine – I’d expect it to have a gauge to set the slice thickness. But either it doesn’t, or she doesn’t use it. Which of these alternatives do you think is correct?

They do, although they aren't necessarily the most accurate. A quarter inch on one meat could come out a little thicker or thinner on another, and the machines I've used don't have a positive detent at each thickness so they could be a little over or under to begin with. Depending on the machine, I can see it easily taking a slice or two to get dialed in, so if you're only wanting one slice I can see it being a little off.

The ones I've seen aren't in inches. They have a series of marks that match a display the customer chooses from. The customer looks at the display, says they want it sliced to match #3 (for example), the worker sets the slicer to #3 (hopefully), and that's it.

Thickness on a slicer is a knob scale of 1-10. Not in inches

I’d find the number that corresponds with what you like and order that way. Please cut a lbs at #4 type stuff

It is also worth considering the average intelligence of grocery store workers.

The slicers don't measure in inches or millimeters, but have a fixed 1 to 10 scale. The store workers probably have little ability to convert 1/4" to whatever setting that is. Or can accurately eyeball 1/4".

When I used the slicer at the submarine sandwich shop I worked at while going to school, we went by weight. Three slices of Provolone had to weigh 1 and 1/3 ounces.

At 3/8" thick, the deli person is using the old MKI I-Ball. Some of them are better calibrated than others. I swear my dad's uncle, who owned a machine shop, could tell if a part was a 1/64" off.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
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The slicers don't measure in inches or millimeters, but have a fixed 1 to 10 scale. <snip>

Can they be set to intermediate values? If I find that #2 is too thin, and #3 is too thick, can I ask for #2-1/2?

Maybe also worth considering the ability of females to judge distance.

Slicers cutting dials and sizes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Hobart's are different from Berkel's and everyone else's too.

It also depends on how old it it as well as how much you push it into the blade, who is slicing, how sharp the blade is and more

Wish it was uniform across makers but alas it is not.

Same problem here when requesting a thick cut of bologna, the slicers are not marked in increments of inches

Could bring a ruler and show her how thick 3/8 of an inch is, so she can set the cut to your specifications, have her give you the marking number on the dial and then you can use that in the future.

My Google fu presents the following...


Deli Slicer PDF Chart

How many times have you gone to the deli to get meat or cheese sliced, they ask how thick you want it, and it still takes three or four tries to get it right? Or if you own or work in a deli, how frustrating can it be to be on the other side of the same conversation? There have been many times I’ve actually given up and taken whatever thickness they’ve cut, regardless of whether or not it’s suitable for the purpose, and had to make do.

This may not seem like an issue to many people, but there are differences in how meats and cheeses should be sliced for a given dish. Roast beef is a relatively thin slice for sandwiches, but raw ribeye for Steak & Onion or Philly Cheesesteak should first be frozen and then sliced as thinly as possible. Bologna for Fried Bologna Sandwiches should be around 1/4″ thick, but for cold sandwiches the meat isn’t more than half that thickness. Similarly, cheese for sndwiches might be 1/8″ thick, but to roll up cheddar for an appetizer it’ll need to be 1/16″ or less.

To assist in this area, here’s a handy-dandy Deli Slicer Size Chart I’ve put together for you, dear reader, to download (the link is under the viewer window), print, fold, and laminate, either to show those deli folks what you want, or for the deli folks to use to ask customers exactly what they want.

There are a few caveats, which are repeated on the PDF:

The rectangles are the indicated thickness in inches, so when printing this card don’t resize or scale it.
Honestly, after all the time meat slicers have been used in the industry you’d think there’d be some kind of standard. But there isn’t. In other words, I can’t promise this will be accurate 100% of the time. I’m not sure, but worldwide that may drop to 45% … I just don’t know. So take your slicing accuracy with a grain of salt. Or not, if you can’t have much salt …
And another thing: The metric measurements are slightly off by about 1.5%, but variations will also occur due to product temperature, ambient temperature and humidity, and blade sharpness. Due to this, all settings are only suggestions. Really, there are so many variables, this whole subject can get a little nuts.
For best results, only shave frozen product. Of that, we can be sure


Link

My slicer is infinitely adjustable, does not detent on a particular hash mark. You have to eyeball the thickness. The thickness also changes with the material being cut, as the blade pulls a different quantity of meat/cheese through the gap depending on the softness.

In order to get truly thin meat slices, I have to put the meat in the freezer for a bit to get the meat semi-frozen, and I have to eyeball each slice as the thickness will change as I progress through the block of meat and encounter various degrees of frozen-ness. But, that's for cutting very thin 1/16" slices or so for Korean BBQ and Chinese Hotpot.

Try telling her to make it .375" next time and see if that helps.

As usual, I asked for 3/8” slice yesterday. It was about 1/4” thick. I told the girl that I wanted it about 50% thicker. That worked – it was indeed 3/8” thick. Thanks to the replies in this thread, I was savvy enough to ask what thickness setting she used. “15,” she said. So now I know what to ask for. Thanks all!