I Hate My Food Processor

[Lindacakes]

Am I the only one?  I hate lugging it out (it's on the bottom shelf of a rolling cart) and I hate washing all the parts I didn't use but got dirty any way.  I'm not crazy about the circular slicing blades.  

 

It's a 12-cup KitchenAid with a separate small bowl.  

 

I am thinking of releasing it to the wild and replacing it with a smaller 4-cup Cuisinart "Elite Collection" chopper/grinder.  And a mandoline.  I use a knife and cutting board.  I've read the threads on mandolines.

 

What I use the processor for:  cutting in butter for pie dough and making graham cracker crumbs.  I use an immersion blender for soup.  

 

Interested if anyone else has done this and regrets it or has opinions.  Thank you.

[Anna N]

21 minutes ago, Lindacakes said:

Interested if anyone else has done this and regrets it or has opinions.  Thank you.

If you make carrot cake or enjoy carrot salads, you might regret giving it up altogether but if you replace it with a somewhat smaller one, I guess you’d be fine. I don’t know if it is any less trouble to wash a smaller one. But if you are truly only using it for those two things, perhaps you don’t need a food processor at all. 
You might try stashing it somewhere inconvenient and if you do not pull it out in six months, then you probably have proof that you can get rid of it. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I realized I was using my large Cuisinart only for occasional pasta dough.  The Cuisinart was not earning its counter space, and has since been banished to the bedroom.  I downsized to a Breville All in One: (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) and have not looked back.  The Breville makes perfectly fine pasta dough.  Unexpectedly the Breville makes remarkable mashed potatoes.

 

The disadvantage of the Breville is I have no space to store it.  Each day when I wake up I move it to my bed.  When I go to sleep I carry it back to the dinning room table where it lives overnight.

 

[liuzhou]

I got rid of mine about 30 years ago. Never regretted it.

[&roid]

I feel the same about our magimix - it’s a great solid machine but it’s such a pain to get out and the clean up after I hardly touch it. A smaller one would probably suit me better for those things that the small jars on the vitamix struggle with - salsas, curry pastes etc. 

 

if I had infinite counter space I might feel differently but it’s stuck in a cupboard and rarely sees the light of day. 

[Tropicalsenior]

And here I thought I was the only one that felt that way. Mine is on a shelf in the kitchen in easy reach or I would probably never use it. If I am going to grate a carrot or cheese I use the small box grater because it is so much easier to wash. I got it because it was easy to make small batches of bread dough but now I have a KitchenAid mixer that I use. I think the only thing that I use it for now is to make bread crumbs.

The thing that I really hate is my blender. First, the only place that I have to store it is on a bottom shelf and for me, it is like pulling teeth to get it out. Second, no matter how loosely I tighten the blade, the act of blending tightens it so much that it takes three men and a boy to get it off.

I have probably given away four or five blenders because I hated them and the only reason I have this one is because somebody gave it to me.

[ElsieD]

I have the Breville 16 cup Sous Chef Pro. I never use it.  It takes up way to much room, it sits on the lowest shelf of a kitchen cart so it's a PITA to get out, wash up, and put back.  It's way too much FP for what I need.  I wish I had never purchased it.

[blue_dolphin]

14 hours ago, Lindacakes said:

It's a 12-cup KitchenAid with a separate small bowl.  

 

I have the same or maybe a 14-cup and have also considered giving it up for a smaller one.  Like you, I use it to cut butter into flour for pastry dough.  Also for hummus and a number of chili, herb or nut pastes or sauces I want to have some texture vs super smooth from a blender. I have never used any of the slicing discs not do I intend to.  My little Mouli Juilenne takes care of cheese grating. I generally like knife work but sometimes pull out a mandolin if I have a bunch of slicing to do. 

Mine is stored right at the front of a lower cabinet so it's not too much trouble to pull out. 

 

When I learned that the dishwasher uses less water than hand washing and started putting everything in there, my food processor hatred eased up significantly. It helps that I have the drawer-style dishwasher so I run one of those small loads almost every day. 

I won't get another big processor but I'll keep this one until it breaks.  

 

[Tropicalsenior]

3 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I have never used any of the slicing discs not do I intend to.

I've used mine once in about nine years.

[palo]

25 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

When I learned that the dishwasher uses less water than hand washing

 

But a massive amount of electricity, especially during the drying cycle - where I live water is cheaper than electrical power

 

p

[blue_dolphin]

6 minutes ago, palo said:

But a massive amount of electricity, especially during the drying cycle - where I live water is cheaper than electrical power

 

p

 

My dishwasher does not use a heating element for drying.  It relies on the residual heat from the last rinse and a small fan that runs for a short period of time so I rather doubt it's using a massive amount of electricity. 

Where I live, water is not expensive but we are in a pretty severe drought so I try to be mindful.  I have solar panels on the roof that generate more electricity than I use. 

[kayb]

I use mine a fair amount. I shred potatoes for latkes, cabbage for slaw or sauerkraut, carrots for carrot salads, and one cannot chop the fruit for cranberry salad without it. Or at least I can’t.

[Anna N]

38 minutes ago, palo said:

But a massive amount of electricity, especially during the drying cycle - where I live water is cheaper than electrical power

 

p

It is not difficult to turn off the dry cycle, open the door at the end of the wash cycle, and the dishes will air dry. Used to do that all the time with my old dishwasher.

[palo]

But how many do?

 

p

[gfweb]

I use the Miniprep, a 2-3 cup chopper. Just the right size.  You see it a lot on Beat Bobby Flay and Jacques Pepin's videos

[Darienne]

I appear to be in a minority of one.  I love, love, love my food processor.  It sits out...while other appliances don't...and is used constantly for a wide variety of foods.  It's so old that the on/off switch went some years ago and Mr. Ed, who can take 5 pieces of trash and build an electric motor which functions while he doesn't really understand why, fixed the switch with a broken popsicle switch.  I put a large sticker on the housing warning all and sundry that the safety guard no longer function.   

 

I use mine constantly.  I began to do so when my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome was at its worst.  I have two extra blades.  One shreds in medium and fine.  The other has about 8 slicing levels.  I don't think any food processor has this multi-level slicer.  I also have a small bowl with two basic blades which are also used regularly.  

 

I could not get along easily without this appliance.  

[KennethT]

I used to have a large-ish Cuisinart and like many here never used it.  I've now brought it into the factory at work - every once in a while we need to clean baked varnish off of our industrial walk-in oven's floor.  I get pellets of dry ice and turn them into snow in the Cuisinart and spread on the varnish. Freezes in no time and cleans up much easier.

 

BUT, I've been getting more and more into making Indonesian food (as well as other SE Asian foods) which would make lots of use of what @gfweb is talking about.  Look at any YouTube video of people in SE Asia making SE Asian curries and all you see are things that look like the Bullet type blender or very small chopper.  Currently I'm either doing it by hand with a mortar/pestle to make me feel like a SE Asian grandmother or I make a big enough batch to use my normal sized blender - but then I have to either add water or some oil to get it to blend properly.

[Tropicalsenior]

15 minutes ago, Darienne said:

It sits out...while other appliances don't

I think that's probably one of the key points to whether you use it all the time. I only have one outlet that I can use for my appliances so I have to constantly rotate them in and out of that area of my counter.

 

15 minutes ago, Darienne said:

I have two extra blades.  One shreds in medium and fine.  The other has about 8 slicing levels

That's another point. The blades and shredder on mine are next to useless.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[lindag]

I use mine mostly for shredding cheeses.  I need to expand my horizons. 

That's the problem when you cook mostly for one.

Often it takes more effort and time to clean  the clean the damn thing that nit does to just use a knife.

[gfweb]

https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-DLC-2ABC-Processor-Brushed-Chrome/dp/B0000645YM/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2MK0IQE44RAWM&keywords=cuisinart+mini+prep+food+processor&qid=1671568587&sprefix=miniprep%2Caps%2C376&sr=8-2

 

 

 

[Tropicalsenior]

Great suggestion but... this is why I don't get anything through Amazon.

 

39.99

$80.75 Shipping & Import Fees Deposit to Costa Rica Details

[heidih]

I have a KA like the one originally mentioned with the smaller inside bowl option. I used it often for pizza dough, salsas (constantly) and misc grind ups that blensder smooth out too much and as @KennethT noted needs liquid to get moving - plus a pain to clesn for reason previously noted by others. . I had plenty of storage so not a hassle. I don't understznd the cleaning gripe. Its just the bowl, blade, and cover and unless oily - easy light rinse. BUT the bowls got misplaced in one of my many  moves. I did one Christmas bake season on the concrete outside pounding the nuts. Interesting but. A friend gave me his seldom used Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus. And it has handled the tasks just as well and my quantity needs are smaller now. Of course not the dough. But I've gone no-knead- long slow rise so all good. Still want to unearth the bowls! For the shredded veg I go manual.  

[TdeV]

I have a Cuisinart Custom 11 (bought 1990 or so) which is plugged in, but sits on a shelf above my kitchen work space. When I want to use it, I bring it off the shelf. I have 5 or 6 disc blades, but mostly use a shredder or slicer or the regular stainless steel blade. An arrangement which has worked well for many years (and many kitchens).

 

I have gone through 2+ workbowls (because I put cheese that is too hard in the bowl). Sadly, Cuisinart has stopped selling work bowls for my model machine.

 

Last time I had to replace the work bowl, I had to buy a new top cover, and pusher, and sleeve assembly ($130) because the part which I bought (from China via Amazon) did not fit my perfectly-working, other components. This last time the work bowl lasted a very short time because the plastic is very soft.  ☹️ Where the work bowl feet connect to the machine has become deformed, and I can no longer disconnect the bowl from the machine (DH has to do it).

 

This is depressing because the rest of the machine/parts work fine. I don't know how to replace it; I don't want to spend the money for the accessories; I don't want to throw it away; I don't know how to give the machine away.

 

Grump. ☹️

[ElsieD]

Why do you suppose we ever bought the damn things?

[blue_dolphin]

6 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Why do you suppose we ever bought the damn things?

 

I've long suffered from dough-bia (fear of dough.)  In my case it was particularly pie crust dough and I'd read that food processors are great for cutting the butter into the flour.  It is indeed good for that, and a few other things, too.