How good is your blender?

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by steiconi

.......I used to have a food grinder--the metal kind you clamp to the pull-out breadboard or kitchen table and manually crank. That was great, but my last couple of houses have no place to clamp it.

Looking around, and what-do-you-know, I don't have any place to clamp any sort of devise that needs to be clamped. I'd never thought of that. My mother used one of those hand cranked food grinders, mostly to make the cranberry relish at Thanksgiving.


I've got a real grinder, but I will grind 200 pounds of meat in one go, which would be a real pain to do with a hand grinder.


My French fry cutter needs to be clamped down, but I've got it installed on a long board because the easiest way to use it is to put one end of the board on the ground and push the lever downward instead of using the cutter on the flat. I know I've got something else that needs to b be clamped and I can't remember what it is, which would indicate I don't really use it.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Looking around, and what-do-you-know, I don't have any place to clamp any sort of devise that needs to be clamped. I'd never thought of that. My mother used one of those hand cranked food grinders, mostly to make the cranberry relish at Thanksgiving.


I've got a real grinder, but I will grind 200 pounds of meat in one go, which would be a real pain to do with a hand grinder.


My French fry cutter needs to be clamped down, but I've got it installed on a long board because the easiest way to use it is to put one end of the board on the ground and push the lever downward instead of using the cutter on the flat. I know I've got something else that needs to b be clamped and I can't remember what it is, which would indicate I don't really use it.

Ah, a kitchen MacGyver! We also have an old hand grinder but it's resting in a box in the pantry, because we have a grinder attachment for the Kitchen Aid Mixer. We do have a hand crank pasta machine, and that has to be clamped. Fortunately we can use our family room table right off of the kitchen for that.

[StealthRabbit]

Ultimate workhorse..

Been using our 1970's Bosch Universal (um3) daily for 50+ yrs. Bought it used from a commercial cake and bread bakery.

It handles all needs from bread kneading, meat grinding, to heavy duty blender duty. The 'opposed' bowl whips can't be beat. (8qts)

We do a lot of food preservation, breads, community cooking, and frozen fruit smoothies (daily). Chops Ice and shreds carrots and hard veggies, no problem.

[Arkay66]

My 30-year-old Vitamix still goes great guns. I grind nuts (used to grind grain, but diabetes put an end to grains), make smoothies, malts, soups, sherbets, puree all kinds of stuff, make frozen margaritas -- name it, I'll try it in the Vitamix.

Between the Vitamix and my equally as old Cuisinart food processor, what can't I do? Not much.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

I doubt that I have used my regular blender at all in the last couple of years. Between my food processor and stick blender, I have no need for it. Are there particular things you use yours for that make it worthwhile?

When my blender kicked I bought a stick. After years of neglect, I've started to use my food processor more often. I wonder if the frozen banana dessert could be made in that. Probably. Maybe.

I'd have to add a bit of heavy cream to the recipe to call it ice cream.