Slice like a pro.

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* Sure, your homemade roast beef may be just as delicious as the one behind the counter in the supermarket or delicatessen. Nevertheless, no matter how deft you might be with a carving knife, you just can't seem to cut off perfect slices the way they do. While this is not that much of a problem when you're serving a main dish, it is discouraging when it's sandwich time for the leftovers. Well, it's not lack of skill, but of a proper slicing machine, that makes your sandwiches lumpy and ungainly.

Unfortunately for those seeking sandwich perfection, most home slicers are too lightweight to do the task properly, while supermarket models are huge and seemingly weigh a ton, making them unsuitable for countertop use. To the rescue comes cooking.com, Santa Monica, Calif., the online/catalogue company that maintains, "If it's not in your kitchen, it's in ours." Its Silver Professional Meat Slicer does everything the one behind the deli counter does, whether you're cutting through meat, cheese, or even vegetables, producing slices that can be paper-thin or robust slabs, each uniform in size.

The slicer, a rugged combination of aluminum and stainless steel, has all-metal gears, a powerful 130-watt motor, and a surgical-steel blade that zips through whatever you wish. You can even slice your own loaf of bread, whether homemade or from the...