6 Tips With Food Processor 6 Tricks About Food Processor You Wish You Knew Before

After spending 40 hours researching food processors, interviewing experts,
And conducting nearly three years of longterm testing, we still think the
Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor is the best choice for many home
cooks. With its simple, pared-down design, it is easier to use and clean than

Solidly built than other chips at this price range. The 14-cup bowl is
Better than smaller versions for mixing wet ingredients and processing
Big batches of shredded slaws and grated cheese. It even made dough on a
Par with or better than that of models with a particular dough speed. The
Cuisinart Custom isn't the fanciest machine around, but it does everything

Conair announced that it is recalling some Cuisinart food processor blades
We've confirmed with our representative at Cuisinart
That none of our current picks are affected by the recall.

Has a model name that ends in the letter "Y," and isn't affected.) For older
Cuisinarts, check the model number and then look to see if the blade has
exposed rivets. If you have one of these recalled blades.

The best food processor


most basic models, but it consistently chops, slices, and kneads better than
$200 from Crate and Barrel
*At the time of publishing, the price was $212.

A mini option
Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus
Even Though It's too small for making bread dough or coleslaw, this three-cup
Processor is the perfect size for chopping one onion or making small batches
of mayo or vinaigrette.
If you want a processor for little batches of vinaigrette or mirepoix, we
Really enjoy the 3-cup Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus. It chopped onions more
On top of that, its

We also think this model is the
most convenient, idiot-proof tool we've found for making small batches of
Mayonnaise (as long as you're using a recipe formulated specifically for a
food processor).
to invest in a $200 machine.
Salads in it, but you could grind or chop tiny batches of herbs or nuts and
do other tasks that would be more tedious by hand.
Upgrade pick
Breville Sous Chef
This is the machine you want if you plan to use it several times a week or
Need a tough motor when cooking for large groups. But it's twice the price
Of our principal pick, and it's more powerful (and much bigger) than most
People need.
The Cuisinart Custom is a great value for the amount of performance it
Offers, but if you intend to use your food processor several times a week, need

Recipes, think about investing in the 16-cup Breville Sous Chef. Its 1,200-watt
Motor and its smart design save you time in use and cleaning; in actuality,
Despite its many accessories, it was the easiest to clean of all of the models we
tested. That said, if you use a food processor only occasionally, the
Breville's high cost probably outweighs its benefits. And given that it's
Huge--over 18 inches tall and nearly 20 pounds--you'd need a huge kitchen if
You want to keep it on the counter.
Why you should trust us
Christine Cyr Clisset, who wrote our original guide, has reviewed blenders,



and whipping up dips.

kitchen gadgets for The Sweethome. He is a graduate of The International
He previously worked
As a recipe tester for the cookbook Meat: Everything You Need to Know.
To suss out the features to look for in a Excellent food processor, we turned to


author of The New Food Processor Bible. Both women were early adopters,
purchasing their first Cuisinarts shortly after the company introduced the
appliances in the 1970s. Combined, they've logged thousands of hours on
many machines.
We also scoured reviews by America's Test Kitchen, Consumer Reports, and
Considerable Eats, and we examined user reviews on Amazon, Macy's, and other
Sites in our efforts to figure out which models to test.
Should you upgrade?
If your current machine's motor base is so lightweight that the appliance
Stutters throughout the counter when in use, you'll appreciate a model with a
heavier build.
Food processor design hasn't changed all that much since Carl Sontheimer,
an MIT-trained engineer, introduced the first Cuisinart model to American
cooks in 1973 (poaching the idea from the original French Magimix
processor). For those who have an older machine that still works well, stick with it.
But we can think of a couple of good reasons to upgrade.
If your current machine's motor base is so lightweight that the appliance
Stutters throughout the counter when in use, you'll appreciate a model with a
heavier build. And if your processor is 11 cups or smaller but you cook for
more than two, you might prefer a model with a larger bowl for blending
wet ingredients or making bigger batches of shredded veggies or grated
cheese. Some newer machines also offer specific dough speeds, which can
come in handy if you often make bread and pizza doughs and pie crust (our
favorite processor, however, doesn't have this speed yet aces such recipes).
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Food processors will blend wet ingredients (tomatoes for pasta sauce, for
Instance), but if you are looking to puree velvety to crush ice for
Smoothies, you'll need a blender. "A blender acts like a centrifuge;
Everything gets sucked into the center and makes a puree more silky,"
Norene Gilletz told us. "A food processor has a tendency to fling food
outward." (If you want more details on the differences between blenders,
processors, and mixers, we've covered the subject in some depth.)
If you often create things like homemade mayonnaise, vinaigrette, or small
Batches of bread crumbs, you may want to get a mini food processor--
Even in case you have a full-size version. A mini model will process smaller
Quantities more efficiently, and its diminutive size means it's easier to move
around a counter, store, and clean.
How we picked and tested
food processor group
Our food processor picks remain the same for another year in a row (from
left to right): the Cuisinart 3-Cup Mini-Prep Plus, the Cuisinart Custom 14-
Cup Food Processor, and the Breville Sous Chef.
At its most basic, a food processor consists of a work bowl that sits on a
motorized drive shaft. The bowl's lid has a feed tube for inserting food to be
chopped, diced, sliced, ground, or even kneaded (in the case of dough).
Most food processors come with S-shaped blades and various disks for
Grating and slicing, but a host of other attachments--such as julienne disks
And citrus juicers--are also offered.
The best models should chop vegetables and herbs evenly (without
Pulverizing them ), grate veggies and cheese , slice cleanly, and
Finely grind bread crumbs, nuts, and other dry ingredients.
Anderson and Gilletz agreed that an 11-to-14-cup processor is most useful
for most cooks. "It's always better to go a little bigger than a little smaller,"
Gilletz said. "It's one investment that's going to last you lots of years. You'll
regret getting one that isn't big enough." We informally polled friends who
Cook, and lots of them seemed happy with their seven- or nine-cup
Machines, but a lot of them cook for only a couple of people. If you cook for
A family, or if you just cook a lot, a bigger machine makes more sense.
Mini food processors--also called mini choppers--have bowls ranging in
size from around 11/2 cups to six cups, but the highest-rated ones hover
around three cups. These machines are most useful for small jobs, such as
Chopping up one onion, building a curry paste, preparing salad dressing, or
a doing small batch of pesto. They are much smaller and lighter than a fullsize
food processor, so they're easier to tuck into a cupboard and bring out
When needed. Both Anderson and Gilletz keep mini processors, and Gilletz
swears by her Cuisinart Mini-Prep (not to be confused with our mini
processor pick, the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus).
food processor mini choppers
For 2016, we tested three mini choppers (from left to right): the Farberware
3-Cup Mini Chopper, the Cuisinart 3-Cup Mini-Prep Plus, and the VonShef
Food Processor.
The best models should chop vegetables and herbs evenly (without
pulverizing them), grate veggies and cheese uniformly, slice cleanly, and
Finely grind bread crumbs, nuts, and other dry ingredients. That means the
Blades and grating disks need to be sharp out of the box and have to remain
sharp over years of use. The better-quality machines with heavier bases will
also grind meat--such as for these mouthwatering ground-sirloin-andbutter-
burgers from America's Test Kitchen (subscription required).
High-quality food processors have strong motors and heavy bases that
Anchor them to the counter so they can mix sturdy yeast doughs. Lowquality
machines, which also happen to be lighter, will often skid across the
counter when processing dough, or the motor might even seize up.
Some processors include a particular dough speed. We asked Norene
Gilletz if investing in one of these is worth the cost. "If you're making a lot
of bread, maybe. But if you don't have that speed, just do a little dough and
pulse, and you won't need the dough speed," she said. Gilletz said it's more
important that the machine have a pulse speed, which gives more control
than just on and off buttons. The appliances usually come with a dough
Blade that's often made of plastic.
Most companies have redesigned feed tubes, widening them to
accommodate blocks of cheese, potatoes, and other hunks of food. Models
Usually come with two food pressers: a larger one that fits in the broad feed
tube, and a smaller one nested inside that will keep carrots and other thin
objects upright during slicing.
Various models come with nesting bowls, so you can attach a smaller bowl
That essentially functions as a mini chopper. (Both cookbook authors we spoke
with for this guide use mini food processors in their kitchens.) A few
Machines, such as the ones in the Cuisinart Elite series, come with a gasket on
the lid of the mixing bowl to prevent leaks. Other models have adjustable
Disks so that you can control the thickness of slices; most of these you adjust
manually on the disk.
Beyond the Primary blade and disks for shredding and slicing, you don't need
much else. Although you can purchase everything from a juicing
attachment to an egg-white-beating attachment, such extras often go
unused. Both cookbook authors we spoke with essentially said these addons
were a waste of money.
Going by reviews and expert recommendations, we ended up with five fullsize
food processors in our original testing. For this update, we didn't find
any new full-size processors that looked capable of competing with our
original picks. Instead, we opted to test mini food processors, which offer a
Wonderful option for processing small batches and represent an affordable
Option if you want to make mirepoix, bread crumbs, or mayonnaise but
Don't want to spend $200.
For our original guide, we tested the large processors 10 times each,
chopping vegetables and parsley, slicing tomatoes and potatoes, grating soft
mozzarella, grinding bread crumbs, pureeing a particularly delicious
hummus, and mixing double batches of pizza dough. We also cleaned the
bowls, lids, and food pressers of each model 10 times--a test that proved
more revealing than we'd expected.
food processor almonds
None of the mini choppers we tested this year excelled at chopping
almonds. (Clockwise from top: the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus, the
Farberware Mini Chopper, and the VonShef Food Processor.)
Last year, we tested mini choppers by making a blended salsa, a Thai curry
paste, mayonnaise, and ground almonds. For our 2016 update, we chopped
One onion in each mini food processor to gauge evenness of texture. We
also chopped whole almonds, made mayonnaise, and shredded soft
mozzarella cheese if the chopper came with a disk for shredding.