food processors

[noamnety]

I broke my cheapy one today - dropped the bowl and cracked it, replacements seem to be almost as much as I paid for the whole machine. I think it's a sign I'm ready to upgrade.

Does every food processor have something sucky about it?

I use mine a ton in the summer now that I have a real vegetable garden and a pressure canner. And I make a lot of cole slaw, I love cole slaw. I am tired of having to cut everything down to fit through the tiny shoot. I want to run beets and squash through there without having to quarter them all first.

Also, I want to be able to process my horseradish properly. Last summer was the first crop, and the small amount I made just tumbled around in my old processor, like I was tumbling stones - it couldn't dice up something that small.

After pouring over product reviews, I see there's a kitchenaid with a small bowl that fits inside a big bowl - perfect for switching from tiny horseradish sized portions to big batches of salsa. But reviewers say because of the bowl configuration you can only do maybe 1-2 inches of liquid substances or it overflows. (The center tube is too short.) That doesn't sound functional for salsa or vegetable soup. The kitchenaid without the stacking bowls has a smaller chute.

There is a cuisinart without a small bowl, that has a wide chute. That would leave me without the horseradish capability. Or there's one with a wide chute and mini bowls that fit in the big one. I love that it has pour spouts on the bowls. Unlike the kitchenaid, it has a good seal and you can seriously do liquids in it - up to 10 cups at once. Perfect! Except ... food particles slide up under the gasket and get trapped there, and reviewers say cleaning it is a huge pain. One reviewer has detailed instructions on how to use a slurpee straw to jam into the gasket to dislodge food that collects - not a good sign.

Am I missing something? I know I can get a cheap one for 30-50 dollars. If I spend 150-200, that's a huge investment for me, for that I want something that does it all - and does it well. Is there a decent quality model I overlooked that does exactly what I want, without having a fatal flaw?

[Warpy]

1. I look for capacity and ease of cleaning

I live alone so I no longer need a huge one, the smaller one is fine. I do need to be able to take it apart to wash it. I don't want half a dozen plastic parts to have to disassemble every time I use it (a real problem with the commercial job I used to have) just so stupid people won't stick their hands into the bowl with the machine running. I know better than that, thanks.

I have a small Cuisinart now, just big enough to do bread crumbs and pastry, the jobs I generally use it for. It's an indulgence since those jobs could easily be done by hand. I do slicing and grating with a mandoline.

[grasswire]

2. I have an Oster blender - processor combo

...and I love it. It may not do all of the jobs of a large food processor, but for everyday tasks, it's great. I've had it for about ten years and it runs like a top. Here's a look at the new model of this appliance.

[noamnety]

3. if I was starting out fresh I might get that.

But my husband got me a good quality blender as a gift a few years back, so I can't cheat on that. I like the dual purpose built into the one you posted, though.

At this point I want something where I can drop an entire beet down the chute or a decent sized zucchini without having to preslice it first. Some of them have the larger size chute that's like this:



I want that for volume because - well, here's my fridge:



(Disclaimer about the bottled water in there - I don't buy bottled water. It's left over from doing an experiment with students about how stupid bottled water is. There's just tap water in it.)

As I get more confidence in my canning abilities, I'll stop storing it all in the fridge. I know it's unnecessary, but this was my first year having a go at it, and I just want to make it through a year of eating it without poisoning myself before I switch to having full faith in storing it at room temps.

I do a lot of dehydrated food as well, I want something where I make full sized beet chips.

[FreeState]

4. I just got the Cuisinart Custom Prep 11 ev-119c9

I've only had it about a week and love it. It was $149 at Costco.

Here is the non-custom one (it has the same features from what I can tell - but cost $50 more)

http://www.cuisinartwebstore.com/detail/CUI+DLC%2D2011CHB



11-cup Lexan® work bowl
Touchpad dough control with PowerPrep® metal dough blade
One-piece Supreme® wide-mouth feed tube holds whole fruits and vegetables
Touchpad fingertip controls
Stainless-steel medium slicing disc (4 mm)
Stainless-steel shredding disc
Chopping/mixing blade
Metal dough blade
Detachable disc stem
Spatula
How-to DVD
Instruction/Recipe book
Full 10-year motor warranty
Limited 3-year warranty on entire unit

Cuisinart® introduces the new Prep 11 Plus™. It boasts a revolutionary motor with alternate speeds for perfect mixing, and features Cuisinart's patent-pending Dough Control technology, which adjusts the speed to automatically ensure proper dough consistency. The Prep 11 Plus™ includes a rounded housing for easier cleaning and handling, new safety features, and the Supreme™ Wide Mouth Feed Tube. Plus, it's backed by a ten-year warranty, the longest in the industry!

[noamnety]

7. I just looked at that at costco.

It looks like the chopping/slicing/dicing functions would be great.

But that center tube looks short, like even though it's an 11 cup bowl, if you tried to do more than 3 cups of liguid at once, it would slop up and down the center tube and spill into the machine guts. Have you tested that out? Is there a fill line for liquids there?

[FreeState]

9. There is a fill line

its very high up (I can take a picture if you want but its about 3/4 an inch from the top of the center tube (higher than the base bowl). I did about 3 1/2 cups of liquid the other day and had no problem. Also the base is solid - when you take the bowl off its solid metal with a single plastic revolving spear coming up - so I think its almost impossible to get any liquid into the device.

If you want to know anything else or want some pictures etc let me know and Ill try and answer.

Here are the capacities from the manual:

Chopped and pureed fruits and veggies: 11 cups
Chopped or pureed meat, poultry, fish or seafood: 1 3/4 pounds
Bread dough: 2 1/2 lbs (5 cups flour, yield 2 1 1/4 pound loaves)
Nuts for nut butters: 2 cups
Sliced or shredded fruit, cheese, or veggies: 11 cups
Cake batterL batter for four 8-inch layers
Cookie dough: dough for 75 cookies

(there is a 45 minute dvd with it that I have not watched yet - it may also have more info on liquid capacity but its not in the manual)

[Tesha]

5. here's an interesting page...

http://www.shopwiki.com/Food+Processor+-+Metal+-+14+cup+(B0000VZZJ0)

lots of comparisons there... one pro model for $1600!

[surrealAmerican]

6. You probably want to grate the horseradish rather than grind it.

I've made the same mistake myself. Grinding avoids the fumes, but doesn't leave you with the right texture.

As to the food processors: have you checked "Consumer Reports"? They usually have good comparative information on small appliances.

[noamnety]

8. This isn't going well. (kitchenaid question now)

I stopped at Lowes on the way home today to look at what they had. They didn't have much of a selection for food processors ... but they had a kitchenaid stand mixer floor display marked down to 150. The boxed ones of the same model were 300.

I never had a stand mixer, only a tiny black and decker hand held one. I went back with the husband to look at it and get his opinion. His job was to get me refocused and talk me out of it.

Needless to say, now I own a kitchenaid mixer and still no food processor. If I get the kitchenaid attachment thing that goes on their trailer hitch, will that do the same things as a food processor? Do I still need both machines? I don't know how big the shoot is on that, if I'd still want a wide mouth machine or if it can slice a zucchini in the attachment.

(This is turning out to be the most expensive plastic bowl I've ever broken.)

[Tesha]

10. The Kitchenaid slicer attachment is pretty good.

We had it out and in use last week-end as we were
shredding cheese for a fondue; it worked very well
and very fast.

Its feed throat is probably about 3" x 1-1/2" or 2" or
so so it could take pretty good-sized vegetables without
pre-cutting.

Generally, the Kitchenaid mixer accessories are good
but pricey. You'll enjoy the basic mixer a lot; ours is a
real workhorse. Kitchenaid even gives good telephone
support!

Tesha

[Tesha]

11. I checked on our slicer...

The "throat" on the slicer is trapezoidal in shape. It's 3" wide
and varies between 2-1/2" and 2-1/4" in the other dimension,
so it will take (and slice/shred) pretty big items.

Tesha

[noamnety]

12. Thanks for all your help

That comparison page you posted above was especially useful.

I ended up ordering the cuisinart elite 12 cup.


Pros:

Wide mouth feedtube
Huge liquid capacity. Most have a 2-3 cup liquid fill line because of a short center shaft and no gasket, this one can handle 8 cups of liquid.
Adjustable slicing disk (I've never seen one before where you can dial in the thickness)
Has a smaller bowl for chopping garlic or nuts

Cons:
I'll be kicking myself when I have to clean around the gasket.

KitchenU.com had the best price by far - $208 with no shipping when I googled a coupon code for it.