ottawa foodies

I bought a Tefal Vitacompact food processor at Christmas, and at first I loved it, but now I have discovered the quirks.

1. There is a yucky food catcher between the food shoot and the lip of the lid. Particularity gross when grating cheese plus the cheese then snags the grater blade and throws it off centre (scary noise). Dumb design, baby grr.

2. It leaks liquids up through the chopper blade and neatly deposits them into the cute little storage drawer, I just loved the time it did it with my egg, sugar, cream and oil mix for a cake. Big mess grrrrr.

3. My chopper blade doesn't snap to the the pole tightly so if I drop a veggie in before it is spinning I can knock it off backwards, same if I stir a hummus counter clockwise. This involves taking everything out into another bowl (more dishes) and getting in there with my hands and twisting it back on then carefully pouring the hummus back in. Multiple Grrrrrrrrs.

4. And the worst crime. The Pole has started to slip inside. It has points at N S E W that are about 1/4 inch thick vertical ridges of plastic. There are matching ridges on the pole the grates and chopper snap in to. The fun part is now if hummus is thick or if I try to grate a (cut up into reasonable pieces) cheese bar it only spins the inner part and makes noises to fill your heart with terror and make the small children cry. Now I can't use it at nap time, it sounds like it is ripping my arm off. The boss has actually come running to see it I'm okay. I have pizza on the menu tomorrow morning, four cheese bars grated by hand, GRRRRRRRRRRR!

I don't recommend it at all.

So I am now in the market for a new processor, on the bosses dime, under $100. I need it to be a cheese grating powerhouse and ideally it will have a 10 cup or larger bowl for big dippy batches. Oh and work. Actually working would be good.

I love my Cuisinart FP. I often grind cheese and other things without issue, liquids never leak, all the bits fit togethor tightly. There is no 'cute little storage drawer' :-) I'm not sure they come under $100, but it's great quality.

I've got a Kitchen Aid mini-chopper that I really like except that the lid does not seal water-tight so you can sometimes get leakage. Other than that I've been extremely happen with it.

I have a Cuisinart something or other that was with blender too; it was a gift therefore I love it. It works quite well too, no leak issues here either.

Have a 10 year old KitchenAid model that is just fine. It also tends to accumulate debris (e.g., chocolate, cheese) around the rim of the top, but I find it management.

I read your post yesterday, Olivers Rock, and wasn't going to post as there is not a whole lot you'll learn from a 30 year old food processor (Cuisinart RC1) still going (except for the shredding disc), however I recalled reading a consumer mag review of "cheap" (under US$200) food processors and found the mag this morning for you.

They list 7 models in this order (best to worst):
1. Cuisinart DLC-2011BCN
2. Kitchenaid KFP715
3. Kitchenaid KFP750
4. Kitchenaid KFP740
5. Cuisinart DFP-14BCN
6. Oster 3212
7. Hamilton Beach Big Mouth 70573H

They are all very good at shredding.

1 is very good at everything - chopping, slicing, shredding, kneading, pureeing;
all the others are also very good (and a few are excellent) except:
2 is only good at kneading kneader.
3 is only good at pureeing.
4&6 are only fair at pureeing.
5 is only good at chopping, kneading and pureeing.
7 is only good at kneading and is noisy

7 may be your best bet from the models they reviewed (they also tested a number of others but didn't include them for this "value" report as they didn't meet their cost or performance criteria). 7 is the cheapest (US$80), has 14 c cap., and shreds and purees very well. Maybe you could check some online reviews on this model for yourself.

Maybe the lesson your boss needs to learn is that you buy a good one once, a cheap one more than once? =;0)

I have a crappy old one that I'm considering replacing soon. I think CA Paradis has a trade-in special on now for a new Kitchenaid one where they'll give you up to $150 off or so on a trade.

I got a kitchen aid one in September when I got married and don't know how I ever lived with out it. Its fantastic. I think the price was around $300. Very happy I got it.

cheers

I think I have a Cuisinart one at home which I got as a wedding present last year. It's amazing. It's one of those side ones where the lid clicks everything into place... I'll have to check the model when I get home.

If anyone is in the market Costco is selling Kitchen Aid processors for around $170.

I have a second hand Cuisinart that I got for FREE. It's awesome for making quick bread dough & pastry flours, as well as pretty much anything else you can throw at it. I'd say it's almost 10 years old and has taken a serious beating, so I can attest to Cuisinart's build quality.

Cute sidenote - I love calling it my Kitchen Robot (Robot de Cuisine in French).

kitchenaid all the way
in the resto I wish I had a robot coupe, which is a professional machine valued close to a thousand but well worth

having worked with a cuisinart dlc-x pro for the last two years, I am thinking whataloadofcrappyshyte

the blade breaks everytime I try to make breadcrumbs
70$

stopped making breadcrumbs
then it would the blade would make when I made pesto
pesto, now by hand

it last broke while I was pureeing COOKED sweet potatoes for soup,
hmmm

Garbage say I!!

Are some people confusing mixers with food processors? I didn't know you (or thought you could) make break in a food processor. I have a KitchenAid (not sure which one, but probably one in the $300 range) and am happy with it, but have to admit I only get it out occassionaly. I would probably use a stand mixer more often (anyone want to trade ? ;-) )

I was supposed to look last night, but I think I actually have a Braun CombiMax K600 which I find very very good.

Apparently people do make bread in food processors Pete; I can't recall ever doing so but may have long ago. I have made pasta dough in a processor and often make scones in one but dips are my big use for it (made 2 yesterday - a midnight hummus and hipfunkyfun's feta dip (yum, thanks hff!), realizing after they were made and tasted what a complementary pair they were and beauts with the black/white colours).

It's true! I've made pizza dough in my food processor many a time. It works quite well: you can tell that you've incorporated things properly when it starts balling up and kicking away from the bottom of the container.

Pete - I will post the technique for doughmaking in the foodpro on the wiki when I get some time to do so, in fact, the bread in my pic is from a batch of food-pro-dough. Using a mixer with a dough hook is good for developing gluten-ous maximus (ie, more rustic loaves). Also, the processor is good for short crusts for tarts/pies.

My Cuisinart came with a bread dough recipe

Works well for pasta dough too. Pasta dough is not hard to make by hand, but it's sure is easier to clean up when using the FP.

We have a Proctor Silex that is still going strong after 16 years. It is used fairly frequently for pizza dough (recipe from Fine Cooking March 2002), pie crust (amazingly easy) and a variety of other foods. It doesn't leak, but just recently has developed a fine crack down the side, which I'm pretty sure came from being dropped on the floor - oops! Peter, I'll have to try pasta dough. Thanks for the suggestion.

I picked up a Black and Decker at Crappy Tire. $100 regular on for $60 this week.

The first one I got had an enormous crack in the lid so I had to return it.

It only holds 10 cups, but it does have the most powerful motor I've ever seen.

I grated cheese 4 cheese bars and it did okay. It has that same catch to it around the feed tube. I'll freeze the cheese longer next time and and try more Pam.

I tried the Fine Cooking Recipe for Pizza Dough in the machine ( it comes with a dough blade!) and it did well. Can't fit more than a 2 cup flour recipe in a go, but it is powerful.

The one really dumb thing is the piece that fits over the feed tube. For one it has to be attached (to make the locking mechanism work) and it's kind of a wonky three piece mess so even it you aren't using it you have to wash it.

It looks like it isn't going to leak batter, there is a stop gap plastic bit in the base.

I'll decide if I'll be getting one for myself after further tests.

The thing is powerful but the lid is a completely bad design.

I keep pinching my fingers in the sliding feed tube cover.

And yesterday I managed to get the lid on wrong so that only one of the locks at the side caught (and I am always careful with stuff, but particularly careful with the bosses new processor. well once it got caught at that slight angle it wedged stuck like that and would NOT come off.

I left it alone and came back calmer and fought with it gently for 15 minutes. I HAD to break it. It will still work but I'll have to be careful that dough balls don't knock it loose now.

We always say that stuff like that was designed by a man who never uses it.

I have been a student living in dinky little apartments for some years now. I get by with a little mini chopper, immersion blender(inherited) and a multi speed blender.

When I cook at my parents, I have access to a Cuisinart which has been very good and dependable.