Time For a New Food Processor!

March 5, 2023 10:21 AM

Recommend me a new food processor, please!

My trusty Braun 4176 food processor is, sadly, beginning to (finally?) show its age. I mean, we got it as a wedding gift 43 years ago, so it’s more than done its duty. So, I am looking for a replacement.

The hopper in the Braun is 3-cups to the fill line, and that capacity has worked just fine for me all these years. It has a cutting/chopping blade spindle that does the bulk of the work, and a separate spindle that has two swappable stainless blades that do grating and slicing respectively.

The cutting/chopping blade does 99% of everything I use the processor for, but the grating and slicing blades have come in handy. In fact, it was recently, when the thing simply would not spin to grate some hard cheese, that I decided it was time for a replacement. The chopping blade still works fine, and will be whipping-up some hummus later today.

So, based on how I use it, I think all I need is something simple of similar capacity. It needn’t last another 40 years (godz knows I won’t) but I’d like it to be reliable. I definitely don’t need some combo processor/blender monster, though. No automated functions. The switch on the Braun has two positions, pulse and full on. That’s fine by me.

Hope me, hive mind!

Thanks!

posted by Thorzdad to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

I'm on my second Cuisinart due to failure in the plastics - the bowl, cover and insert. I promised myself that when the plastics on this one die I'm getting something with a metal bowl. Look at Webstaurant
posted by andreap at 10:42 AM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Look for a new Braun. The one I have is about ten years old and very reliable, unfortunately it is out of production. But I think they know what they are doing.
posted by mumimor at 11:57 AM on March 5, 2023

I came here to un-recommend Cuisinart. I had a fantastic Cuisinart with all the fancy attachments that I inherited from a friend back in the 90's, and I wish I still had that model. It was the most versatile and efficient machine in my kitchen. I was a brand ambassador for years, based on that experience. Fast forward to today, when I acquired a new Cuisinart 14-cup model a couple years ago I was so excited, but it has disappointed. Mainly, the nested bowl design (a smaller inner bowl that sits inside larger outer bowl) while offering some versatility, doesn't work that well, as the blade doesn't seem to sit flush enough with the bottom of the bowl. But the real disappointment is with the cutting/chopping attachments, none of which work nearly as well as my ancient model. In fact, they perform terribly, with more veggie or cheese chunks getting caught between the grater and the lid than actually getting grated. It's like this model was never actually tested by anyone who seriously uses a food processor. Maybe there's a more basic model that would do the job better, but I really wonder if Cuisinart's quality is what it used to be.
posted by amusebuche at 1:47 PM on March 5, 2023

I'm not sure which Cuisinart you have, but one of the simpler ones is recommended by both America's Test Kitchen and Wirecutter, for whatever that's worth.
posted by box at 1:56 PM on March 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

> but I really wonder if Cuisinart's quality is what it used to be

I'm not sure of the exact story with Cuisinart, but I know a lot of brands US consumers would recognize and "trust" from years gone by have been licensed by Asian manufacturers who stamp it on stuff that is of much lower quality. Brands like Black & Decker, a lot of KitchenAid stuff, Sunbeam--the list goes on and on.

Heck, most of the microwaves sold today in the US are made by the same company.

We found evidence that most countertop microwaves sold in the US are manufactured by just one company, Midea. We confirmed with Midea that it makes and sells Toshiba, Comfee, and Black+Decker ovens. We’re also confident that GE, Whirlpool, Sharp, Breville, Insignia, Magic Chef, Hamilton Beach, and others also sell microwaves that were originally built and probably designed in large part by Midea, though all parties that we contacted declined to comment.

All of this to say, having bought and trusted a brand in years past (especially more than a few years) gives no real indication of their quality today unless you have solid evidence to the contrary. My mom replaced her decades-old Cuisinart with a like model a year or two ago and absolutely loathes it.
posted by tubedogg at 4:38 PM on March 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

I was pretty happy with my cheapie KitchenAid, and when it died a bought a Ninja that was on clearance. I'm pretty happy with it too, other than the blades are so sharp it's a bit scary to clean. And they are so sharp that to process most things takes like 3 seconds so you have to pay attention.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:10 AM on March 6, 2023

I have a ninja and it doesn't have a feed lid. So that's probably a no for you. (Currently it has no lid at all, because it turns out not to bounce when it hits the floor.)
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:04 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have a ninja and it doesn't have a feed lid.

The feed lid is the tall chimney (in the picture) that you can stuff food down while it's running? My ninja has one of those (I personally almost never use it).
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:20 AM on March 7, 2023