The Food Processor Topic

[Mottmott]

Ronnie, you inspired me.  I had some herbs that needed to be finished, so I thought I would make an herb mayo.  Dug out the flat top cuisinart cover.  It was like a revelation.  Especially when it came to cleaning up.  It's such a bitch to clean out the feed tube of the other cover, especially when you're using oil.  This was a snap.

Bless your soul!!

Here's a tip for people who still struggle with the cuisinart with the abominable multi-piece top. When I pour liquids in, I stick a funnel in the hole to make it easier to pour things in without having to clean out the little wings on the side of the hole. And you don't need to aim at something the size of a half dollar.

[itch22]

Call me a black sheep, but I have a Proctor-Silex that works awesome for me.

[elswinger]

I picked up a Cuisinart 7-cup food processor on sale this weekend for $80 and now I don't know what to to do with it. I was going to make pico de gallo or egg salad, but it seems like overkill.

[Al_Dente]

Hummus? Tabouleh? Baba Ghanoush?

I think the first thing I ever made with mine was basil pesto. Yeah, quite a few years ago.

[derricks]

I picked up a Cuisinart 7-cup food processor on sale this weekend for $80 and now I don't know what to to do with it.

Buy a new lid for it. This goes to my blog because there's no direct link I could find for the lid proper. Hopefully you can figure it out from that. Of course, I'm not sure if ours are the same size. Yours sounds bigger (mine's a lot older, too), but I'm horrible at estimating volume. My lid is one of the best kitchenware accessories I've ever gotten (the meat grinder on the Kitchen-Aid ranks pretty high as well).

[eunny jang]

Goodness - puree soups, make pie dough, coleslaw, anything that requires shredded or grated anything, use when you need quite a lot of grated cheese, make pesto, chimichurri, homemade pasta...

:jealous: :jealous: :jealous:

[pandorphus]

I leave mine on the counter, so using it is always convenient.

I use it for pasta dough, pastries of all types (it makes pastry SO FAST, and so well!), pestos aplenty, tapenades, hummus, it chops vegies and slices and grates and does all kinds of neat things in seconds... it grinds up nuts and meats and spreads and makes really smooth cheesecakes and... it's second only to my KA stand mixer as my favorite kitchen tool ever.

You'll find ways to use it.

[kiliki]

In addition to the above, hash browns with the shredder blade and certain types of salsa with the regular blade. I wouldn't worry about trying to think of uses for it-you'll find yourself using it for all sorts of things you are now doing by hand, like pie dough.

[sparrowgrass]

I just did about 40 half pints of salsa and 10 quarts of pureed tomatoes, using my new kitchen-aid.

It has a little bowl that sits inside the big bowl--very convenient and fast for chopping a couple cloves of garlic and/or an onion. And I can make the garlic/onions so fine they are almost invisible--for my picky, picky, picky son.

Another thing I do--take some of peaches I froze earlier this year, add some sugar and a bit of vanilla, whir them up (I let them defrost just a little), stick them back in the freezer to harden up a bit--sweet, cold peachiness you can eat with a spoon. Have to do that when the kid is not home, or I don't get any.

Mine also lives on the counter.

[pandorphus]

Oh... one more thing! Be careful when you clean the blade. That thing is SHARP! (see: recent scar on finger)

[Mottmott]

All the uses above, plus I think no one mentioned slicing onions for caramelized onions. And meat for pates when I don't feel like getting out the grinder.

Edited to add: it lives on the counter as does my KA.

Edited September 14, 2004 by Mottmott (log)

[bloviatrix]

Last night I pureed fruit for sorbet.

I can't believe no one mentioned making mayonnaise. I make mayo in mine on a weekly basis.

[tommy]

larb.

Buy a new lid for it.

←

that's probably the best idea i've read in a while.

[Anna N]

Following this thread with much interest - someone read my mind AGAIN! I was given a new food processor on Sunday and am absolutely delighted. It's the KitchenAid 11-cup with the mini-bowl. My old one was a no-namer that I barely ever used as it just didn't do anything right and was too big for mini jobs and too small for big jobs!

The Dane, who subscribes to the philosophy that if you can't do it with a power tool it's not worth doing, used it last night to shred a bit of cheese - I said nothing until he had finished but then pointed out that had he used the rasp he would have one small tool to rinse off - now he had a whole processor to disassemble and wash.

Today I made pizza dough with it and it was simple to do and the dough was pretty good.

I'd like to develop some spreads for bread/toast that I can use the processor for but that subject probably deserves its own thread. So.... I think I will start one!

[EllenC]

I think I want a food processor. It's probably the one piece of kitchen equipment I've always wanted but never owned. So what do egulleteers think? I don't have unlimited funds, but I am willing to save my pennies to get something that will last. Please discuss.

Ellen

[Gifted Gourmet]

First of all, please look over the Consumer Reports article here ..

I bought my first Cuisinart many years ago and it is still one of my very favorite kitchen "tools"! There are bigger and better ones, more brands, more attachments, more and better, blah, blah, blah ... but I still love my old one!

Cuisinart was the first food processor to the market in 1973, invented by retired physicist and tinkerer Carl Sontheimer. As reported in Kiplinger Personal Finance, legendary chef Julia Child is still using her original Cuisinart.

this is not up to date info obviously, but I once heard Julia explain in wonderment when the first food processors came out for sale! She was ecstatic that a machine did what took a cook so long to do, and so uniformly ...

[Suzanne F]

Think about why you want one, and what you expect to do with it -- that is, what do you cook often that you could use help with?

Do you want to make the smoothest possible pureed soups? Don't get one; use your blender. A fp cannot make smooth purees of solid PLUS liquids.

Do you want an easy way to make mashed potatoes? Don't get one; use a food mill. A fp will break the cell walls and turn your potatoes to glue.

Do you want to make doughs? The mixing you could do in the fp is easy enough to do by hand or in a mixer with a paddle (the kneading is fun and therapeutic to to by hand, too).

Do you want to chop onions? Don't get one; once you learn the professional way, it is actually faster to do it by hand (and you'll have chopped onions that sautee better).

Do you want to chop your own fresh meat? Maybe get one, maybe not. You can do it well, but you have to watch carefully. Hand-cranked grinders are a lot cheaper, but the parts can't go in the dishwasher as those of the fp can.

Do you want to chop dry ingredients (nuts, for example)? Get one. It does a great job.

Do you want to make your own bread crumbs? Get one. Again, great job.

Do you make a lot of hummus and/or baba ganough and/or gazpacho and/or other dishes that need chunky, not-quite-purees? Get one.

I have a Cuisinart DLC-7, a size that hasn't been made in I don't know how long. In fact, it took me so long to decide to get it (20+ years ago) that by the time I finally did get it, it was on its way out. But in all these years, nothing has broken. But I've also used KitchenAid fps, and they seem fine.

Again, consider what you want to do with it before you get it. The last thing one needs is to spend money on something that just takes up counter space.

[Marlene]

I have two food processors. I've never used either one.

[JAZ]

I've had a food processor for years. Much of that time, I dragged it out when I was cooking for a crowd and needed to make coleslaw for 20 or that sort of thing. The rest of the time, it sat in the cupboard. Because I didn't have the space to keep it out, it usually seemed not worth the effort to get it out and assembled, and then put it all away when I was done.

Now, however, I have enough space to keep it set up and plugged in, and I find I'm using it more and more. For example, when I need to grate a carrot or two, it's there and ready to grate. Now I use it for coleslaw for one or two.

Suzanne's list of questions is a good one to ask. Also think about the time and effort it will take to to set it up, if you can't leave it set up.

[snowangel]

Wise words, oh Notorious Stickler.

Sadly, my DLC-7 gave up the ghost about a year ago. Just quit. I disassembled, and that was that. (as a side note, sometime after I got mine, I got some notice about some lawsuit and replied and got a 2-quart Cuisinart saucepan with a wood handle and a lid with a wood knob -- my most well used kitchen item!).

Somewhere along the line, someone gave me a Cuisinart mini processor -- the one with actual buttons, not a touch pad.

So, when my DLC-7 gave it it's all, I did without, except for the mini. I missed the maxi.

So, when Kohl's clearanced the Kitchenaides that came with the mini-bowl inserts, I bit.

I gave away the mini-processor. I love my new unit. But, then again, I do a lot of the stuff that the Notorious Stickler ( ) said it's best for.

Think about whether you would actually use it -- and whether you would use a mini or a maxi or both If you use both, get the kitchenaide. If not, get one or the other.. Mine is used a lot. Hummus and such is a regular (more than once a week) event in our house.

Edited September 18, 2004 by snowangel (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

I am the proud owner and frequent user of a DLC 8E Cuisinart. This machine would date to 1983 as I got it for a wedding gift and that's when I got married (I can always come up with the year and the month, but have trouble with the date-this has caused me not a little anziety in the middle of August a few times ). That thing still runs like a champ and I, the one who abuses all power tools, have put this thing through some serious paces over the years (so has my wife, she cut three of her fingers off with the thing-they got reattached-somewhere on here i told that sorry tale of inebriated cuisinart operation and gumbo cooking, but for the life of me at the moment I can't find it). I love it. I have purchased all of the attachments several times as they wore out but that motor just keeps going. It only has on "on" and a "pulse" switch (someone joked that my wife must have thought you were supposed to put your fingers in it and check your pulse when you pushed that button-she does not think that this is very funny) and a very simple safety catch thing associated with the bowl. I love it.

That is not to say that I use it for everthing or all the time. I rarely chop veg in it as I am quick with a knife, although when making giant pots of stuff I will use it for vegetable chopping. I like to grate big amounts of cheese in it, it is great for chopping tons of nuts during the holidays, and for various candy relaed activities like whacking up frozen hunks of chocolate.

So. in short, I am with Suzanne on this one, if you want one for these things have at it, but otherwise you may be better off buying something you can really use.

[Mayhaw Man]

DLC 7

Ebay might be a money saving option for a fine vintage machine. You could get a quality unit for what a replacement blade cost if you have any luck.

[fiftydollars]

I recommend that you take a look at the Kitchenaid food processors. I recently bought one, an 11 cup model, and I am extremely happy with it. It is a very sturdy machine; whisper quiet, and incredibly powerful. I really can't say enough good things about it.

I also have an old cuisinart, which has a motor that runs perfectly, but the work bowl is falling apart. The work bowls on the two brands have different safety mechanisms, but the plastic construction is very similar. The plastic work bowls are the weakest part of these machines. Don't expect the work bowl to last forever, regardless of what brand you buy. However, the blade and attachments from my old cuisinart are still fully functional. I like the cuisinarts, but I think that the kitchenaid is better for my money. The two brands are very comparably priced.

I would resist any urge to buy a cheap food processor. The difference in price can be very tempting since a kitchenaid or cuisinart could run over $200 and a Black and Decker model only $29. I have some experience with the cheap brands (B&D in particular) and I have to say they completely suck. They lack power and are extremely loud. I can't emphasize enough how loud they are... about twice as loud as your average cheap blender chopping ice. To make matters worse, the model I tried wasn't even powerful enough to make pie dough, which is a task well-suited to a good food processor.

Edited September 18, 2004 by fiftydollars (log)

[andiesenji]

I have three Cuisinarts. The 11 cup, the 14 cup and the 20 cup. I use them all, depending on the size of the batch but use the 14 cup more than the others by a factor of 10. I bought it at Costco and it came with all the discs and a thing to keep them in. The only extras I have purchased for it is a flat lid and a domed "dough kneading" lid (which is no longer available).

The flat lid is really handy for working with just the blade, easy on and off and the central cap comes off to allow addition of liquids.

I have used other food processors when working in the kitchens of other people, my clients when I worked as a personal chef, and my friends when I cook at their homes. None have been as satisfactory as the Cuisinart.

I have not used any of the new "streamlined" rounded models, all of my are the old boxy type, utilitarian, not stylish, but real work horses.

My very first food processor was a Robot Coupe which a friend sent me from England and which I had to have rewired completely with a new rheostat so it would work with our electrical system.

[EllenC]

These are all great suggestions. Thanks.

Suzanne, Thank you for your questions. Mainly what I am intending to use it for are dry ingredients, especially nuts. Baklava is a regular thing - both because my son likes it and because it makes a cool gift people don't often get. I also use nuts for the Holidays and other applications. Also bread crumbs and graham crackers.

I am thinking that the occasional pie crust will be well suited also.

The thing I was wondering about that no one has mentioned is pesto. Do you use yours for that? Is it a good application?

Thanks.

Ellen