You finally have a few extra minutes to spend in the kitchen to fix a tasty supper. You open up your cookbook, find the perfect recipe, read the steps. And quickly decide to call in a pizza. With the amount of ingredients needing to be finely chopped, grated, kneaded, and sliced before you can even get the meal in the oven to cook, you have used up any additional time you may have had. However, with a food processor, you can cut your preparation time down to a minimal amount, enabling you to have even a gourmet meal right at home.
An essential and popular kitchen tool
This kitchen appliance is an essential kitchen item. Originally, it began as a machine only top chefs and cooking connoisseurs used. As time progressed though, and people began to realize just how wonderfully simple and efficient food processors were, they became popular. Production increased, prices came down, and now the average kitchen can afford to have one sitting on the cabinet.
These machines take the time out of common kitchen tasks, such as chopping, cutting, slicing, pureeing, kneading, grinding, grating, and shredding. Plus, they take strain off your fingers, wrists, and lower arms, which can be especially helpful for individuals suffering from joint problems and arthritis.
Powerful and effective
While some miniature food processors are hand operated, most run by electricity. Typically, the wattage is around 500-1,200, giving enough power to slice through the toughest foods. The motor is powerful, but it is set inside the base, making it essentially sound proof. The motor spins metal discs or blades around at high speeds.
Usually, food processors have two speed controls of low or high, with some, like the Cuisinart DLC-2014N, having the option of a pulse button. The pulse button allows you to manually control the blades while still producing a high spin rate.
Sizes
Food processors come in different sizes, depending on what your cooking needs are. There are various bowl sizes, ranging from large, medium, and small. Small, or mini, usually starts about two cups and can go up to five cups. A medium, or compact bowl, holds between five to seven, or even eleven cups. And a large, or full-sized, bowl will hold between seven to a whopping fourteen cups. Some bowls come with markings up the side of the bowls to indicate how much you have processed without having to get a measuring cup out. Some food processor brands even allow you to interchange bowl sizes on the same processor.
It is recommended to get a food processor with at least a compact bowl size, though large is the best. While it costs a little more, the advantages of not having to continually empty a bowl out, as well as being prepared for any sized cooking need you have, outweigh the price. A large bowl also allows you to mix several foods at once. Typically, a food processor with a larger bowl size also has a more powerful motor to be able to keep up. This means faster results and a longer-lasting machine. A small bowl is convenient for quick jobs, such as chopping a half-cup of onion a recipe calls for or grinding spices to add to a homemade apple pie.
