Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blender

What to blend with new immersion blender?

anthropomorphic — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:10:34 -0800

I just got a brand new immersion blender. What should I blend? I've only ever made butternut squash soup and have never made smoothies. Any tips on the use of this thing and/or recipes? Aside from soup and smoothies, am I missing anything? Could I use it to cut up the butter for, say, a pie crust? Any tips on use?

I will crush you. BTW, can you give me some tips on how best to do that?

madmethods — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:55:47 -0800

Should I buy a monstrously powerful ice-crushing carrot-liquifying nut-pulverizing fruit-vaporizing circuit-breaker-throwing uber-blender? Why? And which one? I have a decent blender (KitchenAid). I've been using it a lot lately, making smoothies and soups and such, including things with ice, veggies, greens, nuts, etc. It does an okay job. Texture and processing speed seem to leave room for improvement.

There is another tier of blenders out there, things like BlendTec and Vita-Mix, that reputedly can reduce anything to a smooth and creamy consistency in seconds. So should I upgrade? If you have one of these things, what does it deliver that my merely-decent blender doesn't? Smoother texture (no graininess from veggies and nuts)? Anything else? Convince me to switch!

If I do upgrade, which brand and model should I get? Is it just BlendTec and Vita-Mix out there, or are there others? Is one noticeably quieter than the other? Or better/worse otherwise? Particular model to get? Where to buy?

Seeking glass/metal food processor

alms — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:54:01 -0800

Where can I find a food processor with a glass or metal bowl? Is every food processor bowl in the world made from polycarbonate? I would like to find an alternative because of concerns with bpa. Our most common food processor tasks are:

1) Smoothies made from frozen fruit and yogurt. The food processor needs to be able to chop up and eventually puree the frozen fruit.

2) Shredding English muffins and then blending the crumbs with parmesan cheese for coating chicken.

3) Pureeing hot soup.

I see lots of glass blenders, but a blender won't work for (2) and may not work so well for (1). Any suggestions?

How to find the number of pages in back issues of magazines.

imjosh — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:44:36 -0800

Please help me find out how many pages are in back issues of several popular magazines. I'm doing some research into shrinking magazine size and one portion of this is to try and find the number of pages in several magazines, specifically; Blender, Esquire, WIRED, Maxim and SPIN. Ideally I'd love to know the number of pages v. ads in every issue but I think that's a reach.

Do you know where I could track this information down?

Is there a certain person on a magazine staff who I should approach to try and find this?

Do you have the last 12 issues of any of these and can help me out?

Perhaps I should hire an Amazon turker...

Any recommendations for a good blender?

SeizeTheDay — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:35:27 -0800

I'm looking for a blender. I've seen this post and this one. I know about VitaMix and Blendtec. I've used a Blendtec in a previous life, but I'm not convinced that I'll ever get my return on investment for a $400 blender. I'm trying to become more healthy, and have something for breakfast that I would actually enjoy and would likely drink on a regular basis.

Right now I wouldn't use a blender for anything else. I have a Cuisinart MiniPrep, which serves my limited purpose, so I don't need a food processor combo. I've seen the recommendations for the Braun PowerMax, but Amazon hates it. I'm guessing that it would need good ice-crushing ability, but nothing "commercial grade".

I don't really have a price range, per se, but since I'd only ever use the blender for one purpose right now (a healthy drink at most once a day and most likely only 5 times a week), I'd like to keep the costs reasonable (i.e. unless someone has an unbelievably compelling reason to buy a BlendTec, $400 is a bit much). Thanks in advance.

Best thing since sliced bacon?

racingjs — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:42:38 -0800

Thermomix, useful or just another overpriced kitchen gadget? Any Thermomix users willing to share its experience? This food processor/blender/cooker is appearing in stores around here but is supposely widely popular in europe. Does it lives up to its 1000$ price tag?

Imprinting in Blender

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:48:41 -0800

How to get an "imprint" of a model in Blender? I have an object in Blender (a "chicklet" or "tile") with rounded edges.

I would like to make another object which "fits" this tile loosely. Imagine another squeezed cube with an imprint of the chicklet, with some room to fit, about the same width.

Is there an easy method in Blender for using my first object to make an imprint in a second object?

Help my dad enjoy eating again

jethrographic — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:41:16 -0800

My father is several years on from surgery to remove a lymphoma in his neck (between his trachea and his esophagus I think). He has recovered wonderfully except for some scarring that has affected his voice (minor) and ability to eat much solid food. I want to help him find new ways to enjoy eating again. He eats lots of soup, thin oatmeal, and other foods of similar consistency and even then with some problems. It takes some time, with lots of throat clearing - I think that food randomly gets hung up in some scar tissue pocket in his esophagus. He also blends many regular meals straightaway, only adding boiling water. Perhaps nutritious, but not a satisfying experience - think thanksgiving dinner through a blender – it’s all in there, but…

He has dealt with this grace and good cheer, as he is happy to be alive and content with sacrifice generally. However, in recent months I can tell this is beginning to wear on him. I’m concerned about adequate nutrition and his enjoyment from eating. He does use nutrition shakes (ensure) while traveling and is in touch regularly with his doctors.

So, I’m hoping to find some ideas that will help us deal with this in a new way:
- Ideas for meals prepared via the blender
- Implements to use beyond a blender
- Books that might to help him with simple “blender cooking”
- Exercises to improve his ability to swallow easily
- Anecdotes from similar experiences would be most welcome

Thanks folks. I know this is wide open - hoping our diverse perspectives can really make a difference for him…

Please help me learn a few simple techniques in Blender.

austinlee — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:19:27 -0800

Please help me learn a few simple techniques in Blender. Including outputting an animation to video. I'm working on a website and wanted to put a little bit of water animation into it. I found a great tutorial online ( http://www.pekaro.de/blender/water/water_tutorial.html ). The problem is I'm not very experienced with blender. I'd like to change a few things from what the author has made to fit my needs more closely.

-What I would like to do is change the "color" of the water. I guess this would mean changing the environments color.
-I would also like to change the angle of the camera.
-I would like to output this into some sort of video file that I would ultimately put into flash.
I know these are probably answers I should be able to solve on my own but I have a deadline for the website I am creating and I don't seem to be learning fast enough on my own.
Also, the website is a commercial website. Would there be any copyright issues involved with using the authors 3d water technique?

Also, I've been interested in 3d modeling for a while but haven't dedicated enough time to learning it. I tried learning maya last year for about a month and really liked it. I stopped after I got too busy with work though.... After I am finished with this animation I'd like to spend more time learning again. In your opinion which program should I focus on? I really liked how maya worked and understood it much more quickly than blender. blender seems really promising and is free.... the maya version was the learning version i was using. if i invest the time into one of the two which do you recommend.

Hack my Cuisinart

jclovebrew — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 14:53:24 -0800

Will the BFP-7 food processor attachment work on my Cuisinart SPB-7 blender? I have the Cuisinart SPB-7 Blender. There is a very similar item from Cuisinart, the BFP-703 that also has a food processor attachement in addition to the blender. The bases seem to be almost identical, physically. The BFP-7 just has a "food processor" button instead of one of the blender speeds. My hope is that the only real difference is the label on this button.

If I can get just the food processor piece (there is one on Craigslist at the moment), would it work? I'm pretty sure that it will fit, but my concern is that none of my blender speeds would be appropriate. How fast should a food processor spin, in relation to a blender?

Just rinse it under running water, they say...

davar — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:15:00 -0800

Have I ruined my expensive blender by soaking it in washing soda? I have a Bamix hand blender. A while ago I did not clean it immediately and it was hard to clean, so I put it in a bowl with washing soda (just like I do with pots and pans that are hard to clean) and let it stand for about a day. I now know that that was not a smart thing to do.

Now the "head" (the round thing you see on this picture) is a very dark grey, instead of the shiny metal color it was before. It seems like the dark gray is a layer on top of the metal. The inside of the head, where you put the blades, has white and at some places a bit yellowish stains. I cannot wipe this away.

What happened and more importantly: can I repair this?

Fiat Lux!

RavinDave — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 15:04:34 -0800

Looking for a crash course in "lighting" as it applies to photography. I'm not interested in photography per se, but the fundamentals of "lighting" (placement, intensity, use of colored lights, indirect lighting, use of reflectors, etc.). These are emulated in several of the 3D rendering programs I use and it's about time to progress from simple McCandless theory or just slapping a bright spot in a render and hoping for the best.

No smoking?

lpctstr; — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 20:25:55 -0800

I have a blender that I've used for several months with no real problems. I tried making cookies today and found a setting called "Mix" which I set it too and the blender started mixing the ingredients into cookie dough. However, a few minutes into it, smoke came out of the bottom and it smelt like burnt electronics, although everything seemed fine otherwise. My roommate swears he's had hand mixers smell like that. What's the deal? Are mixers supposed to smoke?

What can I make in my shiny new blender?

Robot Johnny — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 18:28:23 -0800

I just bought my first blender. What can I make? Give me your favourite recipes for smoothies, cocktails, and blended whatnots!

Whats the difference between a blender and a food processor?

thebwit — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 17:51:18 -0800

Whats the difference between a blender and a food processor? Seems to me the only difference is that a blender has more speed options, but I could be wrong. Please let me know.

Almond Butter

donfactor — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 04:02:12 -0800

I love Almond Butter but here in the UK a little jar that holds about 300 grams costs around £4.00 or $7.00. I decided to try and make it myself. I bought a bunch of almonds, put them - as I was advised into a food processor, using the steel blades and turned it on - what I ended up with was finally ground almonds. I have looked everywhere from google on down and found nothing useful. What i am after is a pure almond butter, with nothing added, like the stuff that comes in the expensive jars from health food shops. Can anyone tell me how to this?