Conference turris::cooks

    Maybe you need that new salad gun (I can't remember what its called)
    that has been advertised lately.  It's on sale at all the stores
    now.  It's basicly like a little gun; you put whole veggies (i wonder
    how it works on other foods?) in one end and they come out chopped
    on the other.  Just hold it over the salad bowl and chopped veggies
    fly right into the bowl!!!  Well, something like that...  Anyway,
    I thought it looked interesting!
    
    Check it out!  May be just what you were looking for!
    
    Lesa

>    So, basically, what is a good small (compact) food processor
>    that can handle cheese grating, vegetable dicing, chopping and 
>    slicing, pepperoni or other small meat slicing jobs, nut chopping,
>    bread crumb making, and so on?

One of the problems with small and medium sized food processors is that the 
feed tubes limit what you can put in.  You and up doing a lot of preparatory 
chopping.  So, as far as slicing goes, you end up with nice slices of small 
things, like 1/4 pepperoni, etc.  For dicing, NO machine does it without 
intervention.  You have to slice or julienne then stand up the slices and 
slice again.  A real chore.  The small machines can do a pretty good job of 
grating, mincing, and chopping, though.

In addition to my big machine, I use:

	A box grater for small amounts of cheese, etc.
	A GOOD knife for small amounts of slicing, julienning, dicing and 
		chopping
	
One clever gadget that makes mincing small amounts easy, is a spring loaded 
chopping blade.  This device is sold at most kitchen gadget stores.  It has an 
open bottomed tube that you put over the victim, and a knob on top.  You press 
down repeatedly on the knob, and very sharp blades come down and do the 
cutting.  This is great for nuts, and things that tend to jump around the 
counter when they are cut up.

						     
							- JP

    
    
    Unfortunately, he small processers are not made for things like
    slicing peperoni or grating hard cheeses.  They aren't powerful
    enough.  I have a Kitchen aid processer, it was about half the cost
    of Cusinart for the same capacity. I find it cleans very easily
    and quickly.  I just spent 5 days baking and I did every thing from
    chopping nuts to actually mixing and blending. It was used at least
    3 to 5 times a day, sometimes twice on one recipe for different
    processees.

    The B&D described at the end of note 892.6 might be a reasonable choice
    for a single person.  I use it for small jobs like grating hard Cheddar
    for two omelets or chopping the ingredients for stuffed mushrooms.  I
    bought it originally for [frequent] chopping of onions and jalapenos.
    It is not a work horse like my processor, a Cuisinart DLC-7 S.P.  The
    Cuisinart is a giant in comparison.  The B&D is wimpy.  And the
    B&D has no attachments such as slicing disks; it can only chop;
    it has no provision for feeding in material while it is running.
    
    However, you mentioned slicing pepperoni.  That is a mean task ---
    akin to slicing oak logs.  The DLC-7 sounds like it will self destruct
    when I slice pepperoni for pizza.  I won't even try the B&D.

    I'm also looking for a food processor.  I borrowed a small one from
    a friend and found that I had to do several batches of things because
    the capacity was so limited.  I considered this to be a major negative,
    and have since changed my focus to large food processors. 
    
    I've looked at the Cuisinart DLC10, but it is $129 at Lechmere,
    and then the package of the cutting blades (and I would need a few
    of those) was another $90.  Seems excessive to me.  I also looked
    at the Braun which is only $90 and comes with several slicing blades
    and the whisk attachment.  My question is why is the Cuisinart so
    expensive?  The blades did look like they were more heavy-duty,
    but I'm not sure that justifies the additional cost.  Does anyone
    have the one made by Braun? Any other input on food processors and
    what I should look for besides capacity, ease of cleaning, and extra
    slicing blades that I might need?         
    
    Thanks,
    Cathy

    
    My Kitchen aid cost me $89. at Lechmere and comes with one slicing
    blade, one shreading blade, a steel knife blade and a plastic knife
    blade. I find that these will do just about any task called for.

Why is Cuisinart so expensive?

Because it's Cuisinart!  

But seriously, look at the fine details, like feed tube size, horsepower, 
blade varieties, capacity, and so on.  At the time I bought my Cuisinart, I 
had 2 musts: a large feed tube, and a detachable stem on the blade.  Cuisinart 
was the ONLY one that satisfied these conditions at that time.  Then, about 5 
years later, my machine was hit by lightning and something fused.  They paid 
for shipping, repaired it for free, and tossed in an ECO to the shaft to 
prevent the blades from riding up, and gave me new steel and plastic knives to 
boot!

						     
							- JP

    I owned and used extensively a Hamilton Beech econo food processor, 
    but I finally convinced myself that I get enough use out of a food
    processor that it was okay to blow the bucks and upgrade to a 
    Cuisinart.  What a difference!  The Cuisinart handles things my
    Hamilton Beach never would have managed.  It produces beautiful
    whole slices of things that just wouldn't go down the feed tube
    before.  And it has lots of small, thoughtful details -- for instance,
    the small feedtube pusher has a small hole in the bottom.  You use
    it make mayonaise and salad dressing.  You simply pour the oil into
    the pusher and IT does the painstaking dribble for you.  Perfectly.
    
    I love my Cuisinart.  And if you use a food processor as much as
    I do, you will never regret the extra $$$$'s up front.
    
    Susan

I have a G.E. heavy duty food processor and it came with blades to do anything
I want - chop, shred, mix, etc.  I have absolutely no complaints and it
cost me approx. 95.00.

When it comes to mixers, I opt for kitchen aide, but G.E. makes a fine
food processor.