It depends on how fine I want it. For things like sauerkraut and cole slaw, I use a mandolin (or just a knife). Otherwise I use a food processor with the grater instead of the blade. Mom all about the food processor!

The Salad Shooter does it for me. Just recently I made a fancy (to me) cole slaw for 50 and the Salad Shooter saved the day.

I don't like graters, always seem to grate my knuckles. I use a very good chopping knife.

Same here - a very sharp butcher knife. Prefer the more coarse texture as it holds up better to the fermentation. And much easier to do I think. Tried the food processor once and various graters but the texture was way too small and fine.

Dave

I use the slicing blade on my food processor for cabbage for kraut, my carpal tunnel keeps me from slicing up 50 or so pounds of cabbage by hand with a knife or mandolin.

I do have one of those old fashioned kraut cutters hanging around here somewhere, but it'll take fingertips if you aren't a lot more careful than I am. Other than the food processor, I'm fastest with a knife and it gives me the option of cutting it as thinly or thickly as I like.

I do have an old Salad Shooter and use it for smaller batches of things like cole slaw and for grating the cucumbers and other vegetables to can Grandma's Sweet Relish. Nothing else seems to give me the right texture, so I hope it never dies, the relish will never be the same!

Annie

Thanks to you all for the different options! A Salad Shooter -- had never heard of it, and it sounds like maybe just the thing. Sounds simpler than a food processor for small batches, which is what I need. I'm no good with very sharp knives (we have one, and only my husband uses it -- it's just safer that way!)

Sounds like I should still consider a food processor. I only have a small one for pesto. Do the bigger food processors do what a salad shooter does, just a bigger clean up job?

Elisa, don't know if the Salad Shooters are still on the market or not. You can Google them to find out. My mother gave my sister and I each one for one Christmas years and years ago, then, right before she died (1998) she gave me her big professional one. I had misplaced the cord to the original one and got a brand new one on ebay. I think you can still get the Shooters on there. I use one or the other all the time and they hold up well. They are so handy and I usually grab for one of them before I pull out my food processor. And all the pieces except for the main part with the motor are dishwasher safe.

a mandolin works real good

I did see the Salad Shooters available online. Thanks for confirming that it is easier to clean up than a food processor.

Hmmm. . . just saw a tutorial on using a mondolin that recommends a stainless steel glove for hand protection! But I appreciate being able to look at all options. :)

I purchased a mandolin a few years back just for this purpose and rarely use it for anything else. Very tightly-leaved cabbages work very well on the mandolin but the looser types end up breaking and ripping up and you end up chopping those pieces with a knife. My DH made me order those "diamond" gloves to wear as I ran the cabbage over the mandolin since he has no faith that I won't lop off a piece of finger or knuckle. I'm sure he has no basis for this opinion;) Lori

At some flea market long long ago I got an attachment for my Kitchen Aid that is much like a salad shooter called a Rotor Slicer / Shredder with about 10 different sized cups with various wavy and straight "blades". I think they still sell them but probably for much more than the 5 dollars I paid for the whole thing. I use one of the cup attachments for tons of cabbage but after a couple-three heads it gets clogged and dislodging the uncut caught between the blade part and the holder means taking the whole thing off the KA, a few minutes but still much, much faster than my slower but excellent knife skills, so for small quantities I just use a knife. My DH sharpens knives as a side business so I always have several "honed to surgical steel edge" knives ready. LOL

I do use a Kevlar glove on my left hand because once you get a rhythm going you forget that knives cut hands too. The gloves I like are sold by companies like Cabela's (cut glove) and on Amazon (Kevlar), but Ebay has them too (Cut-Resistant gloves), I bought mine at restaurant supply store and they are named No-Cry (duh!) but Spectra brand is good, but please check for food-safe materials. I use the gloves for lots of things including scaling and filleting fish, deboning poultry, and cutting the wily watermelon/butternut that always wants to escape.

I don't like my Cuisinart food processor for cabbage because it makes mushy edges that tend to brown very quickly and fills the bowl much too fast, needing dumping, so I run out of patience.

I use a good sharp chefs knife. It is pretty easy, effective, and simple. I like easy and simple.

SwissMar Mandoline. Love it! Comes with a couple of different options so you can slice thick or thin, and do thick or thin matchsticks. I use it for kraut, pickled carrots (thick matchsticks), pickled daikon/carrots or Do Chua for Banh Mi Vietnamese sandwich (thin matchsticks), and lots of other veggies.