A Review Of The Cuisinart Custom 14
You can also whisk, whip, and stir; it takes just 30 seconds to make a fresh batch of whipped cream. Like the 3.5-cup model, it features a convenient drizzle basin for making dressings and sauces. Hamilton Beach currently makes more than 20 food processors ranging from 8 to 14 cups, none of which are particularly pricey (the most expensive at the time of this writing is $129.99 MSRP). The least expensive, however, is an 8-cup processor with two speeds and a pulse setting. It comes with two blades for chopping/mixing and reversible slicing/shredding, a 300-watt motor, and easy-to-read measurement marks for pouring liquids through the chute. All removable parts are dishwasher safe, and when it’s time to put everything away, in-bowl storage makes cleanup easier than ever.
That’s because its lid has a small indent to hold oil and a small hole that allows the oil to pour directly onto the blades so you have a consistent, measured stream. With this method, the mayonnaise comes together without your having to control the flow of oil. Beyond the main blade and one disk each for shredding 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.
As long as I can store the shredded cheese, this is one of the easiest ways to save a few dollars on groceries every week. Of course, you don’t need to make sauces, soups, and salads with the food processor to be truly taking advantage of it. With the Cuisinart Custom, I can quickly throw an onion in and, less than three seconds later, I have a perfectly minced onion, free of tears and chopped fingers. Rather than whipping out a knife and cutting board, a quick trip through the food processor saves bundles of time.
We store the Cuisinart Custom 14’s extra blades and disks inside the processor’s work bowl, but be advised that this can scratch the bowl. 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 cuisinart pots and pans set 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 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.
The ON mode will keep the motor running continuously until stopped with the OFF paddle, or until the lid or the large pusher is removed, which is a safety feature. The detachable stem fits both discs, making storage easy in limited space. Michael cuisinart griddler elite Sullivan has been a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter since 2016. Previously, he was an editor at the International Culinary Center in New York. He has worked in various facets of the food and restaurant industry for over a decade.
It has a 3.5-cup processor bowl with a locking blade that won’t fall out of the bowl when you empty it. It will lock in when the food chute is at the back of the food processor bowl, opposite the handle. As a safety feature, the machine won’t run until everything — bowl, blade and lid — is fully locked into place. The 12-cup bowl is large enough for families and with 15 speeds you’ll have plenty of control over your processing. The ability to fine-tune the speed came in extra handy when I grated a hard block of parmesan. Hummus is a good indicator of how powerful the food processor’s motor is and thus how well the appliance can blend ingredients together into one smooth dish.
The attachments are perfect for slicing vegetables, kneading dough, shredding, whipping, juicing and mixing. You can even make emulsions, soups and baby food right in the working bowl with the help of a quality food processor in your kitchen. As with anything, there are stark differences in motor performance, the overall durability and the cost of the machine. The Cuisinart Prep 9 excelled at everything in our tests, even tricky jobs like slicing tomatoes and shredding carrots. It’s a classic food processor with very basic, easy-to-use controls — just three buttons are included — which makes this the ideal model for those who are new to food processing.