How to use a Japanese mandoline and grater safely and effectively

Two tools that belong in every Japanese kitchen go largely unappreciated in Western cooking: the oroshigane grater and the mandoline slicer. Neither is complicated. Both produce results that are impossible to replicate with a standard knife. Once you understand what each tool actually does and the specific techniques that make it safe and effective, they become among the most frequently reached-for items on the counter.

The oroshigane: producing paste, not shreds

The oroshigane is designed to produce a fine, wet paste from hard vegetables and roots - daikon, ginger, wasabi, garlic. Its teeth are sharper, more densely packed and set at a different angle from Western box graters, which shred rather than pulp. The resulting texture is completely different: daikon oroshi (grated daikon radish) made on an oroshigane is a fine, slightly fluffy mound with a clean bite; the same daikon grated on a Western grater produces watery shreds. Daikon oroshi is served alongside tempura and grilled fish in traditional Japanese cooking as a palate cleanser that also aids digestion - the enzymes in raw daikon are activated by the grating process.

Ceramic graters with circular teeth are particularly effective for ginger - they produce a very fine paste with minimal fibre. Browse our graters and zesters collection.

The mandoline: uniform slices, precise control

A Japanese mandoline produces slices of consistent thickness with less effort and more precision than a knife. For tsukemono pickles that require uniform pieces for even salting, for thinly sliced lotus root, for the papery cucumber rounds used in sunomono (vinegared salad) - these are tasks where the mandoline produces a result that knifework alone cannot. The straight blade and adjustable thickness setting are calibrated for precision rather than speed. Browse our peelers and slicers collection.

Safety: the injury that happens on the last pass

The overwhelming majority of mandoline injuries occur on the last pass, when the food piece has become too small to hold safely and the cook continues anyway. The rule is absolute: stop when the piece is too small for the guard to hold securely. The last 2cm of any vegetable is not worth a trip to the hospital. If your mandoline came without a cut-resistant glove, buy one separately - the combination of a guard and a glove provides genuine protection.

Cleaning

Clean both tools immediately after use, before food residue dries onto the teeth or blade. A tawashi brush is ideal for grater teeth - the natural fibre cleans thoroughly without leaving bristles in the food or scratching the surface. Always clean mandoline blades working from the safe end toward the blade, not across it.

Explore our full kitchen utensils collection and tempura tools for complementary accessories.