A bottle brush is handy for cleaning around the feed tube, inside the food pressers, and along the sharp blades. Never submerge the base of a food processor in water; only wipe it down with a damp cloth or sponge. Soaking the parts in hot soapy water is a great way to remove any remaining residue. If you can, it’s a good idea to get into the nooks and crannies around the blade, inside the food pressers, and around the tube with a bottle brush or toothbrush. In the case of electric food processors, make sure that the device is cooled down and unplugged if you are going to wipe the base with a hot, damp cloth. As a private chef, I can say this brand’s mini food processor is worth the splurge, as I’ve owned one for over two decades.
The Cuisinart’s slicing disk isn’t adjustable like the Breville Sous Chef’s slicing disk, which has multiple settings, similar to a mandoline. But you can buy additional slicing disks through Cuisinart if you want them. The included slicing disk makes approximately 5-millimeter slices, which is fine for most tasks, but you’ll probably want the 2-millimeter slicing disk for making homemade potato chips. Most were evenly chopped, but there were a handful of nuts that remained in large pieces. Since the Cuisinart mastered every other task, we don’t think this is a dealbreaker. You can use a food processor for pureeing dips and sauces too, but it will yield coarser textures than a high-powered blender—it’s best for things like hummus and pesto.
And we didn’t notice any straining or stuttering of this model’s 240-watt motor, even when it was chopping a fibrous jumbo carrot. As long as you don’t try to use the Food Chopper for heavy tasks, such as making nut butter, we don’t think there’s much risk of burning out the motor. Beyond the main blade and one disk each for shredding cuisinart choppers and slicing, you don’t need much else. Many food processors also come with a dough blade made of plastic, but we found that a metal blade mixed dough just as well, so we don’t think the dough blade is essential. You can usually purchase everything from a juicing attachment to julienne disks separately, but such extras often go unused.
The accessories can be stored inside the chopper, and a case is included to keep everything neat and clean in storage. Handle of a variety of food prep tasks with the convenience of this Cuisinart chopper and grinder. Weight of chopper rounded to the nearest pound, includes the base, bowl, lid, and chopping blade. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).
But it’s oversized and significantly more expensive than the Cuisinart, and it comes with a bulky bundle of accessories that you may not need. By contrast, our upgrade pick, the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro, comes with a plethora of disks and accessories, requiring more storage space. At only 15 inches tall, the Cuisinart should also fit under most cupboards. We like its slightly retro, sleek design, and the base is also available in several colors (each of which has a different model number). Michael Sullivan is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter and has covered food processors since 2016.
If you’ve already done that, your item hasn’t arrived, or it’s not as described, you can report that to Etsy by opening a case. After you place your order, GiftsGrantedLLC will take 1-2 business days to cuisinart choppers prepare it for shipment. Your items are eligible for return as long as you have a receipt, items are able to be put back in original packaging, and item is in the same condition as when you bought it.
We’ve been long-term testing the Cuisinart Custom 14 since 2013, and it remains a workhorse in the kitchen. Year after year, we’ve made slaws, grated cheese, blended dips, chopped nuts, and kneaded pizza dough in it—and it continues to work well. The 14-cup bowl doesn’t leak, and the cuisinart toaster costco controls are exactly what you need. The bowl has scratched a bit (because we’ve stored the sharp blades inside it), but otherwise it looks like new. We’ve found that it’s slightly annoying to clean under the on/off buttons, but a damp sponge or paper towel makes the task easier.
Overall, it’s ideal for individuals who don’t need a large blender and families who want to make medium-sized batches of sauces. The KitchenAid chopped more evenly than the other mini processors we tested, and it did so quickly. It diced onions more consistently than the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus, and it chopped a quartered tomato evenly—we had to cut a tomato into smaller pieces to get the same results using other models. The Food Chopper also minced parsley cleanly, whereas the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus tore it, causing it to oxidize faster. One task this processor doesn’t excel at is chopping whole almonds evenly, but that’s typical of most mini choppers. Food choppers can hold anywhere from 1 to 6 cups of food (in comparison, full-size food processors can hold anywhere from 11 to 16 cups), but the most common size is a 3-cup processor.