…… food processor

[Willow]

My old one finally died and I need to replace it. To be honest, I don't know a thing about them. The one I had was a garage sale special.

I'd like one that will mix bread dough, slice, juice, etc. Ten years ago I saw no reason to have one but now that I am retired and doing lots of cooking I want something that has many functions.

Would love to hear opinions.

Willow

 

[Publius]

Try the search engine and look at the customer ratings. We have an older model and don't know the brand name, but it only gets used around here to make sliced pickle chips for bread & butter pickles.
Had to modify the cutter (bend) so it would make thicker slices and sure saves me a lot of time prepping for canning.

 

[packyderms_wife]

Kitchenaid or bosch.

If you go for a bosch unit get a bosch universal as it will hook up to their grain grinders (family living grain mill) oat grinder/press (country living grain mill) blender, mixer, meat grinder, sausage stuffer, so on and so forth, or and pasta maker.

[http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/in...xrZOIeAkA3Ey2wbEaAguU8P8HAQ#Family Grain Mill

here you go this is where we bought our family living grain mill, and someday real soon here I "WILL" have the bosch universal. All of my mormon friends have the bosch universal AND the family living grain mill and all of the gadgets that go with and they LOVE it! The good thing about the family living grain mill is you can go fully manual with it in the case of no electricity!

Pleasant Hill also sells the bosch universal.

 

[ginnie6]

Kitchenaid. It's the only appliance brand I will have now. Dh bought me a heavy duty new food processor a couple years back for Christmas and ended up giving it to me before Thanksgiving. That thing has more than paid for itself and I just love it. I een use it grind small amounts of meat instead of bringing the big one out.

 

[Willow]

Thanks everyone. I looked up both the Bosch and Kitchenaid and I'm pretty sure I'm going with the Kitchenaid. If I was ten years younger I would probably look into the Bosch because of all the other attachments available but I don't see me using most of them and the Kitchenaid looks like just enough for my purpose. I'm by no means Betty Crocker and I'm old enough that complete self sufficiency isn't my goal...unless of course there is a collapse.

I have to admit I was drooling over the Bosch but I know that it's versatility would be wasted on me.

Willow

 

[Willow]

Well, I decided on a Kitchenaid and hubby volunteered to pick one up yesterday because he had errands to run near where I thought he might find one. I am so annoyed!!! Said he couldn't find one and came home with an $80 Oster that doesn't do the things I really wanted it to do. Does the basics and that is fine but wanted the dough mixer and dicer. I am so disappointed. I told him it wasn't what I wanted and to please find the one I want for Christmas. I am feeling like a spoiled child but my time in the kitchen has increased dramatically as the garden gets bigger and we try to be more and more self sufficient. I would love the tools to make food preservation easier. I guess the Oster will do what I had before and that is better than nothing...but I am pouting!

Willow

 

[packyderms_wife]

Well, I decided on a Kitchenaid and hubby volunteered to pick one up yesterday because he had errands to run near where I thought he might find one. I am so annoyed!!! Said he couldn't find one and came home with an $80 Oster that doesn't do the things I really wanted it to do. Does the basics and that is fine but wanted the dough mixer and dicer. I am so disappointed. I told him it wasn't what I wanted and to please find the one I want for Christmas. I am feeling like a spoiled child but my time in the kitchen has increased dramatically as the garden gets bigger and we try to be more and more self sufficient. I would love the tools to make food preservation easier. I guess the Oster will do what I had before and that is better than nothing...but I am pouting!

Willow

So have him take it back and put that $80 towards one on Amazon.com! And you are not spoiled wanting the correct tools for your kitchen. FWIW I have the Oster food processor, it came with only one blade, so meh... it doesn't do what I want it to do either. I'm also working with a kitchenaid mixer that is way under powered and doesn't do what I want either, but it was free. Someday...

 

[summerthyme]

Seriously- don't blow eighty bucks on something which won't do the job you need! Take it back and order the one you want/need.

I have a small Cuisinart blender/ food processor combination, and a BIG (14 cup) Cuisinart food processor (a Christmas gift from the kids). I use the small one about 90% of the time (and I've done enough cooking that I do a lot of small jobs by hand... dicing a couple onions, or slicing up a couple of carrots into "coins", for example)

But the big one shines at holidays and during the summer canning season. Chopping up all the veggies for my Manhattan clam chowder takes a few minutes, rather than well over an hour with the smaller one (or by hand- eek!) Chopping up several loaves of bread at Thanksgiving for stuffing takes about 1/10th the time as it did when I had to do it three slices at a time in the small one.

That said, my youngest son and his wife have one I donated to them, after it was donated to me by my mom... it's sort of a weird harvest gold color, and is from AT LEAST 1976. I offered to buy them a new one for Christmas a couple years ago, but they said they love the one they have! Of course, they have a Kitchenaid mixer, to do the larger/heavier jobs, but for just plain chopping or slicing, any decent FP will work.

Summerthyme

 

[Willow]

I used the new Oster yesterday so can't take it back. But now I am on a mission to get the one I want for Christmas. If that happens I have some close family friends that really need a food processor and they would think the Oster was a gift from heaven. While I would love to have the $80, sending it to this family would kind of be 'paying it forward.'

Thanks for telling me I am not acting like a spoiled child. I needed that !!!!! Now to get that Kitchenaid for Christmas. I am a woman on a mission.

Willow

 

[packyderms_wife]

I used the new Oster yesterday so can't take it back.
Willow

Sure you can, clean it up put it back in the packaging and take it back.

 

[mudlogger]

Here's another vote for Kitchenaid. 12 years ago I paid 180 for it after my new 40 dollar fp quit after an afternoon of making salsa. It was insane for me to pay that at that time, but I don't regret it. It just keeps going.

 

[Emilys]

I don't know if this point is moot, but do NOT buy the Cuisineart food processor. I had to replace my old one and the new version's "safety" features render it nearly impossible to use any of the special attachments. I can't even shred cabbage in it. Well, I could but I have to process VERY little cabbage at a time that it is honestly easier to cut by hand. What a waste of space.

 

[summerthyme]

Hmmm... which Cuisinart do you have? I just shredded up 6 BIG heads of cabbage (probably 60# worth) today in maybe a half hour. While I admit the safety features are a bit of a PITA, and the feeder chute could be bigger, I just make sure I cut the cabbage in pieces which will fit, and leave the food processor turned to "on". The minute I put the pusher part in far enough, the safety switch disengages, the processor starts running, and it shreds everything in the feeder chute in about 3 seconds. I then pull the pusher back out, rather than turning the processor off by hand, and repeat.

I can see that if you turned it on and off manually every time, trying to be sure you had the pusher in far enough to disengage the safety switch, it would be a PITA.

If I could find a way to sharpen the OLD (circa 1960, probably) tin shredder attachment for my Kitchenaid Mixer, I'd still be using it for major shredding jobs. You could do a TON of stuff through that in one heck of a hurry (of course, you also had bits of cabbage or carrots or whatever spattered around in about a 10 foot arc, unless you managed to hold the bowl the shreds were falling into VERY close (and then the mixer part that goes around when you've got a beater on would clip the bowl and knock it out of your hand! LOL!), but it sure was a workhorse.

Summerthyme

 

[packyderms_wife]

Hmmm... which Cuisinart do you have? I just shredded up 6 BIG heads of cabbage (probably 60# worth) today in maybe a half hour. While I admit the safety features are a bit of a PITA, and the feeder chute could be bigger, I just make sure I cut the cabbage in pieces which will fit, and leave the food processor turned to "on". The minute I put the pusher part in far enough, the safety switch disengages, the processor starts running, and it shreds everything in the feeder chute in about 3 seconds. I then pull the pusher back out, rather than turning the processor off by hand, and repeat.

I can see that if you turned it on and off manually every time, trying to be sure you had the pusher in far enough to disengage the safety switch, it would be a PITA.

If I could find a way to sharpen the OLD (circa 1960, probably) tin shredder attachment for my Kitchenaid Mixer, I'd still be using it for major shredding jobs. You could do a TON of stuff through that in one heck of a hurry (of course, you also had bits of cabbage or carrots or whatever spattered around in about a 10 foot arc, unless you managed to hold the bowl the shreds were falling into VERY close (and then the mixer part that goes around when you've got a beater on would clip the bowl and knock it out of your hand! LOL!), but it sure was a workhorse.

Summerthyme

contact bolten and hay in Des Moines they can hook you up with a new shredding attachment for your kitchenaide, they sell every commercial kitchenaide attachment known to man kind and can probably hook you up with the place in des moines that refurbishes older kitchenaides, and the attachements.

 

[Babs]

I got a Kitchenaid processor for Mother's day, last year, after using and hating a cheap one for years. I love it!

 

[Emilys]

Hmmm... which Cuisinart do you have? I just shredded up 6 BIG heads of cabbage (probably 60# worth) today in maybe a half hour. While I admit the safety features are a bit of a PITA, and the feeder chute could be bigger, I just make sure I cut the cabbage in pieces which will fit, and leave the food processor turned to "on". The minute I put the pusher part in far enough, the safety switch disengages, the processor starts running, and it shreds everything in the feeder chute in about 3 seconds. I then pull the pusher back out, rather than turning the processor off by hand, and repeat.

I can see that if you turned it on and off manually every time, trying to be sure you had the pusher in far enough to disengage the safety switch, it would be a PITA.

If I could find a way to sharpen the OLD (circa 1960, probably) tin shredder attachment for my Kitchenaid Mixer, I'd still be using it for major shredding jobs. You could do a TON of stuff through that in one heck of a hurry (of course, you also had bits of cabbage or carrots or whatever spattered around in about a 10 foot arc, unless you managed to hold the bowl the shreds were falling into VERY close (and then the mixer part that goes around when you've got a beater on would clip the bowl and knock it out of your hand! LOL!), but it sure was a workhorse.

Summerthyme

I have the Cuisineart "Original Food Processor - 7-Cup Series. The large food tube is nearly impossible to separate. Now, I'm going to go downstairs and play with it, maybe I'm missing something.

edited to add: I'm not missing anything - the large feeder tube is really hard to disengage - slows down the process too much. Maybe I just got a bad one.

 

[summerthyme]

Ah... mine is the really big one, the 14 cup? Was a gift from my kids one Christmas. I've got a little one, too- 4 cup, that came with a blender as well. I love it, especially for everyday use, but it's totally impractical for big jobs. I usually only pull the big one out for canning and holidays...

Summerthyme

 

[Emilys]

Ah... mine is the really big one, the 14 cup? Was a gift from my kids one Christmas. I've got a little one, too- 4 cup, that came with a blender as well. I love it, especially for everyday use, but it's totally impractical for big jobs. I usually only pull the big one out for canning and holidays...

Summerthyme

I know the 14-cup version of which you speak. THAT is a nice one - assuming they didn't put new safety features on it.

 

[Willow]

I'm still hoping for a new one for Christmas so any comments are still appreciated. I'm still considering either the Cuisineart or the Kitchenaid.

One thing I discovered is the cheaper one that hubby got won't puree. I wanted that option to make orphan kitten and sick cat food. That would be a real money saver in the long run since my only option now is meat baby food at at least a dollar a tiny jar.

Getting a little one for every day use along with the big one sounds like 'my perfect world!'

Willow

 

[spinner]

I have had a Cuisinart since the early 1980's and it has never failed me. I have replaced the bowl because the original cracked and the cover latch was damaged - both my fault. The old Cuisinarts are workhorses. I don't know about the newer ones, it seems that nothing is as good or well made as it used to be, but my old reliable still works perfectly. I have used it hard at times and it just does what I need.

I don't know if it would work for you, but you could look on ebay for an older model Cuisinart. I also have an old Kitchenaid mixer, no attachments, just the mixer, dough hook, whisk and paddle. It was old when I got it and it is still a great tool that kneads bread for me at least twice a week. I have heard from multiple sources that the new Kitchenaids are junk unless you get the top of the line commercial model.