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A mandoline can make food prep easier, more beautiful, and very stylish. But, there’s no way to put this delicately: It’s easy to lose a fingertip while using one. After we ran a review of the best mandolines, many of our readers responded with horror stories about slicing off part of their fingers while hurriedly swiping a vegetable across the tool’s sharp wide blade. A quick google search on the topic led me down a gory path of bloody, mangled fingers and more terrifying tales of innocent cooking projects that ended in trips to the emergency room.
Although mandoline-slicer technology has improved since the tool first made its way into home kitchens, the safety features are still lacking. Mandolines almost always come with handguards, but they can be cumbersome, clunky, and difficult to attach to the food, thereby tempting cooks to go without them and risk safety. My dad is the latest known mandoline victim in my circle; he recently took off a good chunk of his thumb slicing butternut squash and had to wear a bandage for weeks. The day after the accident, his friend dropped a cutting glove on the front stoop—now he doesn’t use his mandoline without it. And neither should you.
Often used in food service, cut-resistant gloves are usually made from Spectra fiber—a material used in bulletproof vests—so you know it’s legit. (In fact, while reviewing a few of the options available, Cook’s Illustrated stuffed the glove fingers with hot dogs and ran a knife over them—the hot dogs emerged unscathed.)
And if you’re worried you’ll only get a single use out of these, there’s no reason you couldn’t also wear cut-resistant gloves when you’re using knives—particularly for more intricate knife work or when cutting something like a knobby piece of ginger—or when cleaning food out of the blade of your food processor or immersion blender. I personally wear a cutting glove every time I use my mandoline and my Microplane, (I’m prone to grating my knuckles along with my garlic) and sometimes when I’m feeling cautious using a knife. The gloves may feel like an over-the-top precaution—and yes, they are a little scratchy and uncomfortable. But according to a study in the Journal of Emergency Medicine, an estimated 8,250,914 knife-related injuries were treated in the U.S. from 1990 to 2008 (that averages out to 434,259 a year and 1,190 per day). Sorry for the scare tactics, but clearly it’s better to be safe than sorry. Even the most expensive cutting gloves are a whole lot cheaper than a trip to the emergency room to fix mandoline-mangled fingers.
The one side effect of this otherwise healthy habit? I can report a feeling of invincibility that sometimes comes over you when you’re using a cutting glove. But don’t be fooled—cut-resistant gloves are not heatproof. Don’t think you can just grab your skillet freely with these on. They are not oven mitts.
Our favorite cut-resistant gloves
When buying a good cut-resistant glove, look for one with a tight weave. You want something woven tightly enough that the fibers won’t loosen and fall apart, but with enough stretch that you can easily move your fingers enough to switch out your mandoline blades and grip the food you’re slicing. The DEX FIT Level 5 Cut Resistant Gloves are a good option that fits all of this criteria.
They fit snug on the hands, so you won’t feel any less nimble or dexterous while slicing and dicing in the kitchen. Unlike other cut-resistant gloves on the market, these gloves also have a nitrile coating on the palms and fingers, which makes them slip resistant even when they’re wet. The DEX FIT gloves are also touchscreen compatible, which is ideal for anybody who makes a habit of following recipes on their phone.
