The high-power blender topic

[therippa]

This calls for an experiment.

Anyone want to stick a thermometer in their (safely unplugged) hotrod blender before and after blending a few things up?

I have a vita-mix 5200, and one of the first things we did was put about 2 cups of water in it and let it run on high, monitoring it with an infrared thermometer. It quickly climbed to about 180 (in a matter of minutes), then took another couple minutes to get around the boiling point.

[Chris Hennes]

Yesterday my wife decided she wanted a smoothy for lunch. I do not have a high-powered blender, so the result a) was not very smooth and b) nearly destroyed the old blender. The upshot is that she agreed to pitch in for a new blender, so I've got the base BlendTec model on order, as suggested by Fat Guy. Has anyone used theirs for Mexican sauces with dried chiles in them? I'm interested to know how smooth the result will be. What about nut-heavy purees like a mole?

[Richard Kilgore]

That should not be a problem, Chris. You can make creamy smooth peanut butter with either the Blend-tec or the Vita-Prep (and I assume the Vita-Mix), not to mention a great concrete block smoothie.

[mgaretz]

Yesterday my wife decided she wanted a smoothy for lunch. I do not have a high-powered blender, so the result a) was not very smooth and b) nearly destroyed the old blender. The upshot is that she agreed to pitch in for a new blender, so I've got the base BlendTec model on order, as suggested by Fat Guy. Has anyone used theirs for Mexican sauces with dried chiles in them? I'm interested to know how smooth the result will be. What about nut-heavy purees like a mole?

I haven't made a mole in my BlendTec but we routinely make a version of the tortilla soup - whole tomato (skin seeds and all), celery, carrot, onion, chicken bullion (paste), water and seasoning. Comes out super smooth, so I imagine a mole would be just as smooth. I would be sure to remove the seeds from the chiles though.

[Chris Hennes]

OK, I admit to some skepticism going in here: I was sort of looking forward to mocking Fat Guy about how this blender was pretty good, but way overhyped, and overpriced to boot, and really, not that much better than the Cuisinart it replaced. Allowing me to give him crap for the rest of his life about how he convinced me to buy this über-blender and it was only so-so.

Damnit, Fat Guy! I totally get it: a high-end blender is a whole different animal than those sub $100 models. It's not even really the same appliance. The first thing I made was a piña colada, because it seemed like ability to destroy ice and frozen pineapple efficiently is a good test. It's something my old blender could manage, with multiple stops and starts to stir, with carefully balanced ingredient ratios, etc. And those were still pretty grainy/icy drinks. The one made with the Blend Tec and the "Ice-Crush" button (no stopping, no stirring, etc.) was the strangest piña colada I have ever had: it was the texture of pudding. I mean, so completely smooth it was bizarre. I'm not sure I'll use the "destroy and pulverize everything" mode next time, but it's a hell of a convincing demonstration.

[Fat Guy]

I recently passed the 100-cycles mark on the Blendtec. I'm confident now that I prefer it to the Vita-Mix, and probably to any tamper-dependent machine made by that company.

Once you get the hang of the Blendtec -- and I should emphasize that there is a learning curve with all these machines -- you can do most any task without the need to tamp, stir, stop, knock, anything. That to me is such a significant difference that it ends my decision-making process. (That being said, Blendtec should offer a tamper anyway because there are situations in which it makes sense to use one, such as with an herb puree.)

I also prefer the Blendtec's size. When you consider that the Blendtec and Vita-Mix containers hold the same amount, and that the Blendtec's motor is more powerful, it's pretty nice that the Blendtec fits under standard-height wall cabinets.

And I like the container material that Blendtec uses. The Vita-Mix container just feels cheap.

On the other points of differentiation, I have no strong feelings. There are advantages and disadvantages to electronic controls. The program cycles are nice but my life would go on just fine without them, and the lack of analog controls on the Blendtec creates minor annoyance when you just want to blend on 10. Both units are very loud. I don't know which is louder -- a lot of people say Blendtec is louder but I'm not sure -- but since I wear earplugs when I use the thing I don't really care about a slight difference in noise level. The Vita-Mix has at least a superficially better build quality but I don't know how that works out over time or if there's really anything to it.

A side note: I just got an email notice from Vita-Mix that the 5200 is now available in a stainless finish.

[Fat Guy]

Faced with an abundance of cheese I decided to make fondue for lunch today. As was assembling my ingredients, my son asked if I was going to make it in the Blendtec. I guess he had been paying more attention during the Costco demo than I, because right there on the machine it says "fondue" on one of the buttons. There's also a whole fondues chapter in the cookbook that comes with the unit.

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle if the Blendtec doesn't produce the smoothest, creamiest fondue ever. No need to use the stove, stir or anything. If you're going to serve it the regular way you'll need a fondue pot, but we just ate it out of the Blendtec pitcher and when it started getting lukewarm gave it another 45 seconds on the machine.

[Chris Hennes]

I saw those recipes in the little recipe book that came with the blender, but was skeptical: many of the recipes in that book seem very, very lame. Did you just wing it with the fondue, or did you actually follow a recipe from someplace?

[Fat Guy]

The Blendtec recipe book is so bad it's alarming. If it reflects American tastes, I never want to let anybody from another country see it. I'd be too embarrassed.

The only thing I use the book for is to get an idea of general ratios. For example I could see in the traditional cheese fondue recipe that they used a certain amount of liquid and a certain amount of cheese. So I started from there, because it does seem they test their recipes and the ratios of solids to liquids seem to be the key to good results in the Blendtec.

I also find that with soups and other hot items you need 2 or 3 cycles to get it to a decent temperature.

[Fat Guy]

Speaking of ratios, I dramatically improved my frozen desserts recently by using the ratios in the Blendtec recipe book. Measuring by volume: 2:1:3/4 frozen fruit:liquid:ice. So for peach ice cream it's 2 cups of frozen peaches, 1 cup of milk, 3/4 cup of ice cubes (plus a dash of vanilla and however much sweetener of whatever kind you like). If you do it that way it really comes out like at the demo at Costco.

[Dakki]

The Blendtec recipe book is so bad it's alarming. If it reflects American tastes, I never want to let anybody from another country see it. I'd be too embarrassed.

As a representative of the non-US eGullet membership, I demand you post a sample.

[Chris Hennes]

Their ice cream recipes are awesome: for example, the ingredients in the hazelnut ice cream are hazelnut-flavored non-dairy creamer and ice. You can't be serious, BlendTec. Can you?

[Fat Guy]

There must be a lactose-intolerant person in a position of power at Blendtec because they use a lot of non-dairy creamer throughout the book and in their live demos. Likewise, many recipes seem fine as you're reading along until you come to some crap ingredient like Tang, taco-seasoning mix, or instant vanilla pudding powder. What you have to be able to do is back it all out to the underlying liquid-solid ratios and then use your own ingredients to get something acceptable.

[Dakki]

That's... pretty bad.

I assume the target demographic is something like "juicing freaks and foodies" so why are they publishing that sort of recipe alongside the product?

[Fat Guy]

They must figure those people are going to buy fancy blenders anyway, so the extra audience at the margin is the Middle American semi-homemade-type cook. Or it may just be that nobody at the company, which is based in Utah, knows squat about cuisine. You can see a hint of this in their choice of chefs for their demo videos (which used to be online but are now only on the DVD that comes with the unit): I wouldn't want these guys to cook anything for me.

[weinoo]

There must be a lactose-intolerant person in a position of power at Blendtec because they use a lot of non-dairy creamer throughout the book and in their live demos.

Maybe it's because those products work better when using them in these recipes made in a Blendtec? Cream, milk and all sorts of of lactose goodies may not blend-tec as well.

[Fat Guy]

In my limited experience they behave exactly the same.

[Chris Hennes]

Milk and yogurt certainly "BlendTec" well (at least, when combined with frozen fruit).

[JAZ]

Do either the various Vita-Mixes or the BlendTec do small amounts well? By "small" I mean, say, half a cup of pureed tomatoes or vinaigrette.

[Chris Hennes]

The BlendTec does not seem to like quantities below a cup, in my experience, though that will depend on the consistency of the puree. I imagine more liquid things would do better in small quantities.

[mgaretz]

There must be a lactose-intolerant person in a position of power at Blendtec because they use a lot of non-dairy creamer throughout the book and in their live demos. Likewise, many recipes seem fine as you're reading along until you come to some crap ingredient like Tang, taco-seasoning mix, or instant vanilla pudding powder. What you have to be able to do is back it all out to the underlying liquid-solid ratios and then use your own ingredients to get something acceptable.

Works for me (since I'm lactose intolerant!).

With the BlendTec I have found that a ratio of 2 parts frozen to 1 part of liquid (by volume) works for frozen desserts and 1 to 1 for smoothies. And you need to add some kind of emulsifying/smoothing agent. In the BlendTec demos they use banana. I don't want to use banana since it's high in carbs. Instead I use xanthan gum. For a 2 cup total smoothie (1 cup frozen fruit, 1 cup liquid) I use 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum. For frozen dessert I use 1/2 tsp.

[scubadoo97]

Do either the various Vita-Mixes or the BlendTec do small amounts well? By "small" I mean, say, half a cup of pureed tomatoes or vinaigrette.

I am looking at the Blendtec HP3A with the new 3 qt jar which has the larger blades. I too have concerns about smaller quantities although I can't foresee doing anything as little as a 1/2 a cup in the blender. Anyone had experience with the new container? In some of the videos at the RawFoodWorld the 3 oz jar Blendtec seemed to work the best at quickly blending all the contents. Also for an additional $60 you can get both the 2 qt jar and the 3 qt jar. Would there be much need for two jars?

Edited August 17, 2010 by scubadoo97 (log)

[JimS]

The BlendTec does not seem to like quantities below a cup, in my experience, though that will depend on the consistency of the puree. I imagine more liquid things would do better in small quantities.

Unfortunately, the same also applies to the Vitamix. I seem to remember reading somewhere that 4oz was the bare minimum for it. In my experience, even a cup may cause problems.

[paulraphael]

]I don't want to use banana since it's high in carbs. Instead I use xanthan gum. For a 2 cup total smoothie (1 cup frozen fruit, 1 cup liquid)...

All fruit is high in carbs. Exceptions are the ones we don't think of as fruits ... like cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.

[jsmeeker]

Yesterday my wife decided she wanted a smoothy for lunch. I do not have a high-powered blender, so the result a) was not very smooth and b) nearly destroyed the old blender. The upshot is that she agreed to pitch in for a new blender, so I've got the base BlendTec model on order, as suggested by Fat Guy. Has anyone used theirs for Mexican sauces with dried chiles in them? I'm interested to know how smooth the result will be. What about nut-heavy purees like a mole?

Chirs

How is the Blendtec working for chile sauces using dried chiles? I love to make a sauce for enchiladas and am wondering how much a of a difference a high end blender makes. I know Rick Bayless uses a Vita-Mix on his show ( I make the sauce using his recipe) and figured if it works for him it will work for me. But now you and Steven have me thinking about a Blendtec.